Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Let me talk about talk. There we go, he said,
you live in life as a ringo, where you question
where you fit in every time you mingle, they say
you do this would not Yes, Hello and welcome to
another episode of Life as a Gringo. I am Dramos,
of course, and special show today because I'm incredibly excited.
(00:31):
I feel like I've been teasing this for a minute, right,
the Just Be Social Club, And I'm sorry for anybody
who's sick about hearing or sick of hearing about it,
I should say, but we're opening it up right and
and I'm privately just opening it up. It's not something
I'm publicly posting the link just yet. But if you
want to join, just dm me literally just DM. You
(00:51):
could say Just Be Social Club, you could say whatever
you want at DJ Dramas. I'm gonna send you the link.
It's via Patreon, which is a free app you can download.
We can go to the website on your computer whatever
is easier for you. And literally the Just Be Social
Club we're opening up for free for now and just
building a community and having different resources for the community
(01:12):
by the community. And one of those things that we're
going to have is I'm actually bringing my other podcast,
The Street Stoic exclusively to the Just Be Social Club Patreon.
So anybody who was a fan of that show, I
appreciate you. Season three, we are kicking it off. We
kicked it off actually this week. I dropped it so
every Monday, but dropped a new episode on the Patreon
(01:34):
exclusively there. You can't find that podcast on Apple Podcasts
or Spotify anywhere as far as new episodes go. Exclusively
as a part of the Just Be Social Club, something
I want to bring to the community and keep between
us and for us. And again, this is like the precursor.
I want to be able to do this for other
people's creative projects, other people's podcasts, and whatever it might be.
(01:54):
So this is the precursor to that. And in despair
to that, it'd be great to kind of, for this
time only share that new episode of season three. The
first episode here on the Life is a g to
go feed, so you can get a feel for it
if you are not familiar or if you have checked
it out, you can get kind of back in the
(02:16):
groove of what we've been doing. It's going to be
a weekly podcast instead of daily, but the same kind
of vibe, you know, just sort of using music and
specifically hip hop lyrics and quotes to connect some really
ancient philosophy from the Stoics on ways of really living
life to its fullest and living healthy, happy lives. Right,
(02:36):
So today's episode is going to center around the stoke
principle of focusing on what you can control. And I
hope you enjoy it. Again DM me at DJ Dramos.
We don't have to make it weird, So you can
put you can put link question mark in the comment
that you put and I will send you the link
to join the private Patreon group that again is free,
(02:58):
and it's just a resource for us to all connect,
a resource for me to share the philosophy that is
kind of guiding my life, the the you know, four
pillars of conscious living, and just providing you with resources
for inspiration, creativity, connection, networking. That's it's kind of the
whole basis for all of this, and it starts with
all of us. Right, It's not a community if it's
just me, If it's just me speaking, just me, you know,
(03:20):
utilizing the platform. So this begins with all of us.
If you are searching for your people, you're searching for
your tribe. I really feel like this is it right,
this is for all of us, so one by one
we all build it. We all join together and create
you know, the thing that I think we've all been
searching for, especially if you have been a fan of
life is going to go you know for a minute now.
It's more of us coming together, those of us who
(03:42):
felt like we didn't have a home, place to call
our own. That's what this community is and I'm really
excited to bring it to you. So again DM me
at DJ Dramos. I will send you the link to
join as we are building it, and I'm always open
to feedback and whatever else you want to see. But yeah,
street Stope podcast after this, you know, little drop I'm
doing here will exclusively be available on the Patreon just
(04:02):
be Social club channel or page however whatever they call it.
They're still getting use of the app, but again easy
to download called Patreon super just cool platform for you
know subscription based stuff. Ours is free right now, So
get in there early, help us build the foundation for
this community that will hopefully, you know, change, They'll change
(04:24):
more people's lives, you know who look like you and
I I think We've been doing that with the Masterminds,
and this is a continuation of that. We'll be doing
a monthly livestream mastermind Group that is exclusively on Patreon.
So bringing a lot of those elements we've already been
doing now just hopefully to a bigger audience. And it
starts with every single one of you hopefully joining it
and helping us build that community. So please don't be shy.
Just DM me at DJ dramas you wanna be a
(04:46):
part of it. And without further ado, I bring you
episode one, Season three of the Street Stoke Podcasts, which
again will now be exclusively on the Just Be Social
Club Patreon. Hope you enjoy. Yes, Yes, I am Dramos
(05:15):
and this is the Street Stoic Podcast, bringing new your
weekly dose of time to Stoke Philosophy remix for the
hip hop generation. We are combining the ancient philosophy with
lyrics and quotes from some of the greatest to ever
grace a microphone and man, I would just look at prefaces.
We are in season three of this podcast and it
(05:36):
is a beautiful, beautiful thing. To bring this to you
exclusively on the Just Be Social Club Patreon. This is
the only place you're going to be able to find
this podcast. It's completely independent now and I'm just really
excited to be doing this show again and to be
able to have it just kind of be something for
(05:58):
our community that I can get you directly to sort
of be a little add on to all that we
are already doing currently. So I'm really excited about it.
It's going to be a weekly podcast. I know it
used to be a daily one for anybody who was
a fan, but we're gonna be doing it every week.
I'll drop into episode every single Monday, and yeah, man,
we're out here. This is one of the exclusive things
(06:18):
that you get for being a member of our Patreon,
a member of our community, and this is an open
invite to anybody who has ideas, creative ones wants to
have a platform to be showcased. That's what this community
is for. So they might start with myself and my
projects or Brenda's coach brands, but the idea is that
(06:40):
this is going to be a platform that our entire
community can showcase their work and all that they do.
So if you have an idea project, feel free to
leave a comment reach out. We'd love to check it out.
And see if it's a good fit for the community. Now,
with that said, let's get things started, man, with your
weekly shot of in inspiration. All right, So today we're
(07:06):
focusing all around the stoic idea of focusing on what
you can control. Man. This is this is like straight
up something that I've been working on and this whole
episode really I think it's like just coming to you
on the other side of lived experience for myself personally.
So definitely, you know, these aren't empty words. This isn't
(07:28):
some bullshit inspiration spewed at you know. This is really
sort of where I'm at and what has been working
for me. And again it's mindset being everything right. And
the record that I pulled from today lyrically that I
think kind of represents this whole idea of your mindset
and and you know, realizing the control that you have
over it is a record by the artist Russ. It's
(07:51):
called Adventure, and this whole album from him. It's an
album he based off of the book The Alchemist, and yeah,
it's a it's a very just super introspective album, very raw,
very honest, and I think a lot of it resonated
for me, particularly the song Adventure, and and in it
(08:14):
he says, I'm not lost, I'm on an adventure. I'm
just on a quest for my treasure. Think about how
far you've come. Just remember you're not lost, You're on
an adventure. And I just found that to be so
powerful of like a perspective, you know, switch right. It's
(08:36):
just like you can either be panicking basically right that
you're like lost at sea essentially, right, that's like the
analogy here, or you could be excited by the fact
that you're on an adventure, right, And both things are true,
depending on what you want to make your own reality.
But again, it all starts in your head. And then
(08:57):
he in in the song and one of the verses
this sort of like really resonated with me. And we'll
kind of get into that a little bit, you know,
in a few minutes. But he says, thinking that I
got a broken version of success until I realize that
this is the version I'm supposed to get. I see
the way the roads connect if you just keep on driving.
(09:19):
And again, it's all about perspective. You can either be
down on yourself, down on life, hating everything, regretting things
and feeling like, you know, God never wants you to
be happy, or the universe never wants you to be happy,
or insert whatever you know you believe in or think about,
(09:40):
or you can approach it from the perspective that he's
talking about, saying, No, I didn't get a broken version
of things. I'm not like somebody who's prone to bad luck.
This is where I'm supposed to be because there's a
lesson here, right, there's something I'm supposed to be getting
out of this moment. I'm supposed to be taking something away.
And like he said, if you just keep on driving,
(10:02):
you'll see, oh, this is where the road connects. Right
that that like you're getting nervous and you're panicking or
you're like trying to abandon ship because you don't see
where the rest of the road is. Right, You ever
drive in like in the fog and you can only
see like, you know, ten ft in front of you
(10:23):
or something like that, But you trust the fact that,
like the highway doesn't just end after that point that
you can see, right, And yeah, maybe you're driving cautiously,
maybe you're not, like you know, you have to turn
the music down so you can see better type of thing, right,
But like you have this trust that the road is
not just going to end. And I think that's sort
(10:44):
of what we're missing in life, right. It's the idea
that like, just because you can't see where you're going
or what this moment is meant to teach you, or
why you're experiencing what you're experiencing, doesn't mean that this
is the end. Doesn't mean that the lesson or happier
days aren't on the other side of that. Right. You
(11:06):
just have to keep going. You have to keep on
driving so that you can get to the clearance in
the road. Right. And I wrote down something that has
been very like, I don't know, just a good mindset,
very very sort of healthy for me to remind myself.
But like it's you verse you out there, and I
(11:29):
really do believe that. And I get that there's a
lot of external circumstances attached to our goals or inevitable
moments in life, right, life, death and dealing with other
people them disappointing you, all these different things, right, But
all of those things are moments in your life. And yes,
(11:50):
some are heavy, some are important, some are you know,
more influential than others. But you get to determine the
affe fact that they are going to have on you.
And I don't say this with ease. I know that
this is, you know, difficult when you're really going through it,
(12:12):
But it doesn't change the fact that you are in
the driver's seat as far as how you're going to
view this particular situation right, And honestly, oftentimes the relief
that you're looking for is found simply through having a
(12:33):
little paradigm shift right or looking at your situation from
the other side of the street right. Like a lot
of times, the things we are panicking about, or are
stressed about, or depressed or whatever it might be, they
are far less detrimental to our existence than we realize.
(12:59):
And if we just walked across the street and looked
at them from that side of the street, we would
see them completely differently. Because the truth is, yes, the
outside world is for the most part beyond our control. Right.
I can't control what my boss is going to do,
(13:21):
I can't control what my partner is going to do.
I can't control that the president is going to basically
just fold like a cheap table during the first presidential
debate and make you question everything that you believe. It
I can't control that, right, But what I can control
is my mind and the way that I decide to
(13:43):
see things. All of that is completely within my control,
within your control, right. And this leads perfectly to a
quote from one of the Stoics, Marcus Aurelius, where he says,
the happiness of your life depends on the quality of
your thoughts. The happiness of your life depends on the
(14:03):
equality of your thoughts. And for me, something I had
written in my notes recently was happiness isn't a destination.
It's a way of being. Right. Happiness isn't on the
other side of that raise, of that goal, of that relationship.
(14:24):
It's simply just a way of being. It all starts
with your mindset, right, You in this moment right now,
as crazy as it might sound depending on what you're
going through, but the truth is, you, in this moment,
right now, have the ability to find happiness, have the
ability to find relief, have the ability to see the
(14:51):
positive in a situation. And again, I know it's difficult.
I mean, if you lose somebody you love, it's really
hard to find the positive within that, right. And I
was actually I was driving I was thinking about this
and I was like, how does that apply when you
lose somebody you love? Right? I've been pursuing over these
same concepts, and I would never want to like take
(15:12):
away the pain from losing somebody you love, Like I
never want to cheapen that, I should say, or make
you feel like you shouldn't be feeling that or it's
unhealthy to feel that, because I think it is. But
there's also I think something about how certain cultures they
view like the funeral or the wake, I should say,
(15:34):
or after the black when people get together like at
a house, they viewed as a way of celebrating the
life of that person. Right. And I guess the one
silver lining in a terrible situation there is you get
to be surrounded by people you love and care about
that loved and care about that person that you lost,
and you all get together and just celebrate them. You
(15:56):
tell happy stories, right, you tell funny memories, right, You
really look at their life as a whole and celebrate
them and the impact that they've had on you. Right.
And that's sort of being able to look at a
terrible situation from a more positive perspective. Right. And again,
in a situation like that, there's but so much positive
you can bring out of it. But in our normal,
(16:18):
everyday lives, the row is an opportunity there if we
just allow ourselves to slow down and think about it. Right,
And I relate to this on such a deep, deep level.
But first I'm going to pop in and we'll take
a quick break, and then we'll be right back. We
(16:40):
are back. Now, how this affected my life or how
I've been applying this principle, this is the whole first
half of my year, of my twenty twenty four to
be honest with you, right, I don't know if you
call it a midlife crisis, a dark knight of the soul,
whatever it might be. But for me, I came into
twenty twenty four riding high off of like a really
active end of twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four
(17:02):
for me in my mind, but also I think in
certain deals that I have in place, twenty twenty four
was a proving place like it was supposed to be
a year of proof of concept for me. Right, I've
been doing a ton of stuff over the last few years,
and twenty twenty four for me, coming into it was
(17:25):
the time where either it's all going to finally really
come together or it's all going to fall apart. In
my head, that's how I built it up, right, And
I was like constantly thinking to myself, what's next, What's next?
I'm constantly getting asked by people, what's next? What's next?
I hate that question. And what started happening was I
(17:46):
was like hitting my head against the wall. I'm hitting
a ceiling. It felt like everything I tried was like
falling apart, or I was being met with obstacles every
which way I turned. Right. That's what it felt like
for the first half of this year. And then I
read this book. I've been reading this book that I
think Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, right, legendary book,
(18:10):
and it talks about the idea of paradigm shifts, right,
and it's essentially saying to yourself, what am I not seeing?
How can I see this from a different perspective? Right?
And with that, I have tried to make it a
habit of asking myself what am I not seeing? And
(18:30):
what's been happening for me recently is in those moments
where I get stressed out, where I'm overthinking whatever it
might be, I asked myself that question and all of
a sudden, I'm like, Oh, here's an opportunity, here's an idea,
here's a solution that I didn't realize before. Here's a
(18:51):
positive that I couldn't see before. And then I'm like relieved,
and I'm back to sort of being just happy and
in the moment, and all of that was in my mind, right,
I was in control of that, And what I recognized
like this year, just to be more specific, like I
(19:13):
think I started this year and like I just wasn't
as busy, especially, I wasn't as busy as the way
I ended twenty twenty three, and I sort of expected
that momentum to keep on rolling, right, Like end of
twenty twenty three, I was getting a lot of last
minute bookings for like speaking and doing all these different things, right,
and I sort of was like, Oh, we're gonna keep
riding this wave, right, And what I realized was I'm
(19:37):
so used to being like stretched thin, right, Like that's
my normal way of life of not having enough time
for myself. That's my norm, right, And that's sort of
how I judge if I am successful or not is
by basically how little free time I have to myself
and for whatever reason, this year started off a bit slow, right,
(20:01):
and I began to get concerned. I began to get worried.
I had some projects fall through, and all of the
sort of panic and insecurity and stress. Oh my god,
everything I planned is not happening. My life is over.
Blah blah blah. What am I going to do? That
was the thing that was living as my main thought
(20:23):
process for the better part of twenty twenty four thus far.
Then I began to reframe it. What am I not seeing?
And then I began to realize, wait, hold on a second,
while you're not exactly where you want to be, and
you're capable of much more, and you will achieve much more.
(20:46):
You've achieved a level of success doing something you love. Right.
I get to wake up every day and do things
that I enjoy on my own schedule. That is success.
But I haven't been a allowing myself to enjoy that,
to reap the benefits, because I'm always so concerned about
what is next. So what the paradigm shift was the
(21:08):
viewer from across the street. The different perspective was that
maybe now is a time for you to take your
foot off the gas a little bit. And just enjoy
all that you have built. Enjoy the life that you
have created for yourself, that you have worked so hard
since you were seventeen years old to create. Is it
(21:32):
so wrong to not have a day that is packed
from the moment you wake up to the time you
go to bed? Is it wrong to be able to
go play hooky and go to the beach in the
middle of the day during the summer, or go ride bikes,
or go thrifting or take a nap. I've earned that,
And rather than beating myself up about the fact that
(21:54):
I'm not doing enough, I'm now celebrating the idea that
I get to enjoy the lifestyle that I've built with
the knowledge that inevitably I will be incredibly busy again.
But now is a moment to rest right. The quiet
is actually a good thing. It actually allows me. Then,
(22:16):
now that I have some more time and space to myself,
I can actually begin to take account for my life
and see what's working, see what's not right. I can
get clearer on what I actually want at this point
in my life. Right, Because when you're moving one hundred
miles an hour, you're just caught in the routine of
being busy, and sometimes you're busy doing things that no
(22:40):
longer serve you, but it's just your norm. So now
life has blessed me with the opportunity, right, And this
is the paradigm shift. This is a perspective switch. Life
has blessed me with the opportunity to have a moment
of calm where I can then create space to figure
out what I want now, what's actually working for me?
(23:01):
What does this version of dramas want? And I can
create space and mental clarity to receive the next creative
download from God or the universe. Right. And that's sort
of what happened. And there's still you know, sort of
loose ends I'm tying up. But when I began to
look at it from that perspective, all of a sudden,
the creativity and motivation that was sort of not there
(23:23):
for the first half of this year, it started flooding back.
I got the idea for a book, a new book, right.
So it's been a dream by to me an author,
and I sort of re awoke that part of myself.
I mean, I know I've done other smaller books, but
like you know, I still have this bigger dream of
a of a big long form book, and I began
writing again and getting excited every morning writing. I've been
(23:46):
doing some new designs for the Just Be Merched, and
it's been like invigorating for me. But I couldn't really
get on that a couple months ago because I was
feeling my head with of everything external that was going wrong,
rather than the other side of the street saying, yeah,
(24:07):
maybe those things aren't happening right now that you were
planning on, but now you have this clean slate of
a more relaxed schedule to do other things that you've
been wanting to do. But again, I had to have
that perspective switch, flip it around, see it from the
other side of the street, and recognize that this is
(24:31):
actually an opportunity. The part of me that thought that
I was lacking opportunities was actually wrong. And now that
I looked at it from across the street, I could
see that, oh, this moment that I thought was bad
or scary or stressful is actually a beautiful opportunity for me.
And again that's my mind. I'm in control of that.
(24:54):
I'm in control of trying to see the opportunity in
every situation. And it's been a blame. I feel energized
and excited once again. Whereas before, when all I was
doing was stressing about everything that wasn't happening from projects
with other people, I was burnt out, uninspired and unmotivated.
(25:17):
But again I took control of what was happening in
my mind and I made that switch. So now you
have heard some lyrics from us, we have heard from
one of the Stokes Marketsurrelius. I've given you some insight
into how this is something that I completely relate to
and how I apply it to my own life. This
idea of focusing on what you can control, specifically your mindset.
Now let's talk about how you can make it your
(25:39):
mantra for today. But first we'll take a quick break
and then we'll be right back. And I think, as
I touched on today, you know, it starts with never
accepting the difficult moments as just bad, right, never accepting
(26:02):
any moment as just being one thing, because your mind
has the ability to make it into whatever it is
that you see fit. Sometimes that's a little bit of
dangerous thing. In this perspective, it's a good thing, right.
Don't allow yourself to sort of just recoil into defeat
or retreat and just say, oh, there's nothing I can
(26:23):
do about this. It is what it is. No, it's
what you make it. Your mind has the opportunity, or
I should say your mind has the ability to find
the opportunity or find the silver lining in absolutely everything,
if you allow it to, if you decide to look
(26:45):
for it, right, if you decide to stop in the
moment and say, I know this looks shitty, but what
am I not seeing? Where is the opportunity here? Let
me look for it. Let me stop looking and dwelling
on what's negative, what's bad, and now let me try
to find what's good or what I can make good.
Like you ever had like an event, you know, something
(27:05):
like you were looking forward to, right, maybe it was
like a date, or you and your friends were gonna
go to some cool place, and you're really excited about it,
whatever it might be, right, and then of a sudden
it gets canceled last minute, and you're kind of bummed
out about it because you're looking forward to it all week, right,
But then it kind of hits you and you're like, wait,
now I have a free night to myself. I don't
have to get dressed up if I don't want to.
(27:25):
I don't have to go spend a bunch of money
if I don't want to. And I have had a
free night and god knows how long where you know,
my weekend wasn't accounted for. Now I get to just
do whatever the fuck I want. Right, So you've you
just went from being bummed that this event got canceled
to now being relieved or excited. Right, And that was
(27:46):
all worked out within your head. You chose to not
dwell on the negative and instead sought out the opportunity
that was gained from that event being canceled. Right. You
accept the fact that, yeah, I was looking forward to this,
and it sucks that it's no longer happening. But now
I have an opportunity to have a night to myself
(28:08):
or a knight, to really just do whatever the hell
I feel like doing. I don't have to be anywhere
at a specific time. Now I don't have to get
dressed up if I don't want to, whatever it might be.
I now get to go and sit on the couch
and watch Netflix all day. I've done that in forever.
I get to order takeout, have a glass of wine,
and show and that's sort of the way we need
(28:29):
to be looking at our everyday lives, right, because I'm
sure anybody can relate to that story in some sort
of way. But that proves you the power of your mind,
of you being in control of you, focusing on the
aspects of that that you're in control of. I can't
control the event got canceled for whatever reason. What I
can control is what I do next, how I view it, right,
(28:52):
And that's something we can apply to almost every single
aspect of our lives. Again, sort of recapping all we
talked about today, Russ flipping the idea from being lost
to now instead he's exciting because he's on an adventure. Right,
An adventure is exciting. Being lost a scary adventure exciting.
(29:14):
So instead of saying, oh my god, I'm lost, No,
now I'm on an adventure and I'm excited about what's
going to happen next. Right, that's a beautiful sort of
mindset shift to have again, you versus you at the
end of the day, Marcus Aureli is talking about the
happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts. Again,
happiness is not a destination to way of being, and
that way of being all starts with your mindset, right,
(29:38):
And even for me, I thought, because my life wasn't
busy and chaotic as it normally is, that there was
something wrong with me, my life, my value, all of
the above right, and that there was no value in
this moment because I wasn't overbooked basically, And then again
(30:01):
when I flipped that and recognize the value and having
more time for myself for the time being, the ability
to get clear right, me being able to see, Oh,
now that I have more time, this would be a
great moment to slow down and figure out if all
the goals I'm trying to chase still line up with
where I want to be in my life, right, because
(30:21):
I'm constantly changing and evolving, And what I recognized was, oh,
this actually doesn't serve anymore. So I'm actually happy that
slowed down because the next evolution of me needed more
time to focus on this. Right. The cancelation of certain
products I was looking forward to gave me the opportunity
to start other products that I've been wanting to do,
like writing, right, have more time to focus on just
(30:44):
be and building out this social club, this community, right,
and everything comes along with it. There was an opportunity
in the quiet that I was experiencing that I initially
perceived as like stress and something bad. But I had
to stop and ask myself, where is the opportunity here?
What am I not seeing? And again recognizing that every
(31:09):
difficult moment has an opportunity to be seen, you have
to find it. You're in control of that. You can't
control external things, external people. But the way that you
see the things happening around you, which then leads to
the way that you feel, is completely in your control
(31:33):
as long as you take charge in your mind and
choose to see things from the other side of the street.
And I hope that was helpful. I gotta say, damn,
it feels really good to be back with this podcast.
It's just like a different vibe, different speed than my
other podcast, Life is Going to Go. And I'm so
happy of bringing it to you here on on Patreon
and like the just the just b community. It's just
(31:54):
like it feels be good, like I'm sharing it amongst families,
so it's amazing, So thank y'all so much. With that said,
thank you so much for checking out the Street Stoke podcast.
Do your best to apply these concepts that we discussed
into your everyday life and I will catch you next
week on Monday for a brand new episode. But that said,
season three, we back, baby, and welcome to the Just
the Social Club community. It's so good to have you
(32:17):
here and again, any suggestions, any comments, any things you
want to bring to the community, Please feel free to
reach out to myself or leave a comment. We would
love to hear from you and hear all the ideas.
I'll catch you next week. Life as a Grego is
a production of The Micro through That Podcast Network and iHeartRadio.