November 3, 2024 • 27 mins
Have you ever found yourself in the wrong place with the wrong crowd, feeling like a square peg in a round hole? Join us as we unravel the essence of being where you truly belong with people who uplift you. Drawing from personal stories and nuggets of wisdom passed down by my mom and dad, we explore how being in the right environment can transform your life. We'll reflect on the age-old adage "birds of a feather flock together" and how recognizing our ignorance can be the gateway to learning. Inspired by the resilience of Mumbles from "Happy Feet," we'll discuss how early rejection shapes our journey and the power of embracing our unique paths.
As we navigate the meandering paths of individuality and passion, this episode challenges you to listen to your inner voice and pursue what sets your soul on fire, even if it means stepping out of the norm. By examining the themes of self-discovery and inner happiness, you'll be encouraged to recognize the hidden greatness within you, igniting personal growth and a profound shift in how you connect with others. Let this invigorating conversation inspire you to pursue your passions relentlessly, fostering a community where personal development thrives, all while grooving to the spirit of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On!"
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Maceo Z. Keeling (00:01):
Hello and welcome to Wisdom of the Black
Pearl.
I invite you to celebrate thisday with joy and gladness,
because this is a day that wascreated for you to enjoy good
health, wealth and abundance.
Hello, my people, welcome toWisdom of the Black Pearl.
(00:32):
You know, it's kind of cool tobe in here doing this for the
first time.
I'm looking forward to sharingsome good stuff with you.
So thank you for subscribingand thank you for showing up.
My commitment to you is to showup in the way that you showed
up for me.
You know, I just want to saythat it's kind of exciting to be
doing this and I'm eager to getstarted.
(00:53):
So buckle your seatbelts andlet's take a journey, a
vicarious trip.
It's going to be a great rideon wisdom of the black pearl.
Have you ever found yourselfwondering if you were in the
right place at the right time,doing the right thing with the
right people?
(01:13):
Well, today's podcast is goingto share with you some
opportunities to better evaluatethose questions that may be
roaming through your mind.
Whether it be parenting orhanging out with friends, you
need to have sort of a sense ofa governor, an idea of what
makes sense for you, and theinteresting thing is it can only
(01:37):
come from you if it's for you.
Now, oftentimes you'll hearpeople say that it's up to you
to make the difference in yourlife.
But one thing that I've learnedis that no one does it by
themselves.
It takes a teambble to hit arock and a rock to hit a boulder
(02:11):
to cause an avalanche ofthoughts that make you think in
ways that you never could thinkalone.
So I invite you to listen to,hopefully learn from, certainly
participate in this podcast, theWisdom of the Black Pearl.
(02:36):
Have you ever wondered why oldpeople say the stuff that they
say?
You know, birds of a featherflock together.
You know a tree by the fruit itbears Lay down with dogs, you
wake up with fleas.
Well, I think that if weexplore some of those old
(02:56):
sayings and kind of evaluatewhere they may have come from,
there may be some pearls ofwisdom that we can extract from
those oysters that seem to havebeen closed off from us for so
long.
You know, when we look at thenotion of birds of a feather,
(03:18):
what exactly does that mean?
Well, maybe they're talkingabout who you hang with, the
quality of people you hang with.
How do you determine who youhang with.
Have you given it any thought?
You know, I had an experiencewhen I was in Brazil hanging
with my buddies and they gave mea very big piece of wisdom.
(03:42):
They said no matter what you do, don't let the situation choose
you.
You choose the situation, andyou know that follows right in
line with what my mom used totell me.
She would say if you don'tstand on something, you'll go
(04:04):
for anything.
Now these, I guess, ideas orlectures came from a place of
knowing, a place fromunderstanding and a place from
wisdom.
And see, there is a differencebetween all of them.
But one thing you need beforeyou get any of them is ignorance
(04:29):
.
Now it's interesting that Imight say you need ignorance.
The reason I say that isbecause oftentimes we think we
know and we don't know, andthere's no way to know what we
don't know.
So we often speak out of turn,speak from a place of not
(04:53):
knowing and not really realizingthat we don't know.
I call that unconsciousincompetence.
Unconscious meaning you're notaware of what you're saying, and
incompetence meaning that youjust don't have the capacity to
(05:16):
know right now.
The beautiful thing about thatis unconscious incompetence
lends itself to a hugeopportunity to learn all kinds
of new things.
You've got to be open for it,you've got to be receptive to it
, but, most importantly, youhave to pull down the walls of
(05:37):
arrogance, self-righteousnessand being a know-it-all to
receive the possible pearl ofwisdom that you may not know.
And to me that sounds likevulnerability, not something
I've been comfortable with for alot of my life, and now it's
(05:58):
something that I realize I couldnot have come this far without
it.
At some point you have to laydown your guards, make yourself
available for something big andbetter and more beautiful than
you could have imagined on yourown, and by doing this I think
(06:18):
it's pretty clear that the worldwill do the same for you.
Now I told you I was going totalk to you about Happy Feet the
movie.
One of the things that I foundthat struck me right from the
onset was when the daddy let theegg kind of get away from him
(06:42):
just for a second, and he feltthat he needed to keep that to
himself.
It was just more than he couldbear for anyone to know that he
wasn't perfect in helping thegestation of the egg while mom
was gone.
What's particularly interestingabout that scene is that when
(07:04):
it looked like the baby was notgoing to come forth for a moment
, he stood there and peoplearound him immediately started
casting doubt on the fact thathe was going to have a child.
He says you know, sometimesthings just happen.
But the most poignant momentfor me in the beginning of the
(07:27):
movie is when the baby was born.
First thing out of the egg washis feet and he starts shuffling
, he starts dancing oh, he wasdoing his thing.
And his daddy said hey, what'swrong with you, boy?
How many of y'all have heardthat?
Oh, he was doing his thing.
And his daddy said hey, what'swrong with you, boy?
How many of y'all have heardthat?
(07:51):
You know that's akin tooutright rejection, alienation
From a person that loved you,from a person that cared about
you but just didn't have thetools or the understanding to
move forward in a way ofexploration and curiosity with
(08:13):
you, as opposed to jumping to aconclusion that was anchored in
their own mind.
And that's evidenced by thefact that he said you know what?
That just ain't painful.
Well, as we move a little laterin the story, the baby, whose
(08:37):
name, ironically, is MumblesMumbles, goes to school and the
teacher said I'm going to tellyou the most important thing
you'll ever need in this life,and she asked the class what
were they?
And a couple of the littlepenguins came up with answers
(09:04):
and the teacher said no, no.
Momo said don't eat yellow snow, which makes a lot of sense for
a penguin, okay, but finally,in that scene, she said the most
important thing in your life isyour heart song, and if you
(09:27):
don't have a heart song, youcan't survive as a penguin.
Now, part of that was right.
You've got to have a song inyour heart that moves you to a
place that you're willing tolose time, lose sleep, lose
energy to pursue it.
(09:48):
But it was taken a little tooliterally.
They thought it meant that youhad to have a specific talent,
moreover, a specific talent thatwas a part of the existing
community, and then anydeviation from that meant that
(10:13):
you would certainly fail in lifeand in that community.
Now, that posed a particularproblem for Mumbles, because he
couldn't sing.
What he could do, however, wasdance, and no one understood it.
(10:36):
So it doesn't make youparticularly evil or wrong or
bad, because your gift isdifferent from someone else's.
As a matter of fact, we allhave different gifts, and to be
able to be born.
Knowing exactly what feelsright to you is truly special.
(11:06):
Even when his dad asked himwhat's wrong with you boy, he
said I'm happy.
He said well, what's wrong withyour feet?
My feet are happy too.
So you know, I just wanted tomake the point in this
(11:27):
particular video that there'salways going to be something
that nags at you, something thattugs at your heart string, and
I'll call it your heart song.
But it may not be exactly whateveryone else understands fully.
You know, I have a question foryou today.
(11:50):
Have you ever stopped andwondered why you have your own
fingerprint, your own voiceprint, your own retinal scan?
I mean the biometrics that makeyou uniquely you?
What was the reason that somuch energy and effort was put
(12:12):
into making you who you are andwe so quickly look at other
people to try to emulate whothey are?
It's kind of.
It's kind of ironic that we'rea specialty, custom-made entity
(12:34):
but we really don't welcome ourown identity.
We often look outside ofourselves for validation for
things that were validatedbefore we were born.
What I'm talking about is welook at other people and we see
(12:55):
that they have a skill or atalent that may be, on its face,
more significant than ours thatthey have a superior
characteristic they might bereally smart at math or a really
great singer or a really fastrunner and we ask ourselves,
well, man, I need a little moreof that.
And when we ask those questions, what we're really doing is
(13:19):
looking at something that'soutside of us, and when we do
that, it's very possible thatlooking at that particular
specific thing is something thatwe don't have, and, instead of
(13:41):
acknowledging the beauty that itis and the talent that it is,
we will look inside ourselvesand say, oh, I don't have that.
We concentrate on what we lackinstead of what we have.
That's pretty commoninformation.
We hold ourselves as betterthan other people, and that's
(14:03):
because we see that they don'thave certain things that we do
have, and we fail to look forthe things that they have that
could lift us up.
I'm talking about the differencebetween an inferiority complex
(14:24):
and a superiority complex.
Perhaps no one's ever told you,and you may not even agree with
me, but I think that both ofthose complexes are just
imposters of the other.
What I mean is, if you feelsuperior in a thing, you may be
(14:52):
more adept at it, betterequipped to do it and it may be
a part of your core fundamentalblessings or gifts or talents.
On the other hand, if you lookoutside of yourself and you find
(15:13):
that you're not as good assomeone else doing their thing
their way, then you are feelinginferior.
And the reason why I saythey're both impostors is
because they have one majorthing in common.
The first thing they have incommon is you.
The second thing they have incommon is that you looked
(15:36):
outside of yourself forsomething that you hold up as a
litmus or a standard by whichyou should judge yourself.
When you do that, you will lose100% of the time, because what
(15:58):
you're looking at is the gapbetween where you are and where
they are in both instances, asopposed to the game, which is
everything that you already have.
So how do we govern ourselves?
How do we find out what's rightfor us, what's good for us,
(16:21):
what's our thing?
And the answer is somethingthat's rarely ever spoken of in
these terms.
We talk about identity.
Great guy that I've beenlistening to quite a bit.
Myron Golden says you have anidentity, a lie-dentity and a
(16:44):
my-dentity, and these areconcepts that he's acquired from
his travels and they really arevery valuable, and I encourage
you to take a listen to him.
I choose to couch it in terms ofan inferiority complex, a
(17:12):
superiority complex, but weshould find ourselves, spend
ourselves, exhaust ourselves inour interiority.
Complex Interiority means theinner self, the person that you
(17:33):
are, the structure, architecture, character, personality that
was gifted to you, that you havebeen endowed with, and there
are some very specific ways todo it.
(17:54):
They're not the only ways byany stretch, but I'm offering up
some suggestions, some advicethat my dad actually gave me.
He said you go to your privateplace, I don't care if it's a
(18:16):
bathroom or a lake, but gosomewhere where you can see your
reflection and look into yourown eyes and ask yourself the
question what do you want?
What do you want?
What moves you?
(18:43):
You know, when I think about themovie, happy Feet reminds me of
me and my dad in a lot of ways,because in the movie Mumbles,
who's the dancer?
Mumbles?
He's a late bloomer.
I was a late bloomer and thefirst thing out the shell was
his feet.
So he came out the worldbackwards let's just leave it at
(19:04):
that.
And when he gets, the firstthing that hits the ground is
his feet and he starts shufflingand dancing and the daddy says
that hits the ground is his feet.
He starts shuffling and dancingand daddy said what's wrong
with you?
He said nothing.
He said well, what you doing?
He said I'm dancing, he said hesaid because I'm happy.
(19:29):
He said, well, what's wrongwith your feet?
Nothing.
He said well, my feet are happytoo.
And it moved me because he saidBobo, you need to straighten
that out, because that justain't penguin.
How many of y'all can relate tome on that?
(19:49):
Someone that we love, someonethat loves us, in whom have been
given the responsibility, theperson who has been given the
responsibility to ensure mygreatness?
(20:13):
One of the first commentaries onwho I was or who Mumbles was
was what's wrong with you, boy,as opposed to what's right with
you, son.
You got all your fingers andtoes, you got sight, you got
your hearing, you're able-bodied, you're strong.
(20:38):
These are the things that havevalue, but things we need to
explore and take a good hardlook at and ask ourselves where
are we looking?
Most people would say that theworld is full of despair,
(20:59):
frustration, stress, anxiety,fear, and that these are
desperate times, and I guessthat's all very accurate.
If that's what you're focusedon.
You know, later in that scene,mobile's father asked him, said
(21:25):
boy, what are you doing?
This is after he wasn't able tosing at school.
He said well, what are youdoing?
This is after he wasn't able tosing at school.
He said well, what are youdoing?
He said I'm being spontaneous.
You ever wonder what comes outof you when you're being
spontaneous.
You know, I can tell you that Ithink the truth comes out when
you're being spontaneous.
(21:46):
And the truth has signals andaffirmations and confirmations,
and we have to pay attention tothose signals that tell us
what's real for us and what'simportant to us.
And there are ways that we canfigure that out, like how much
time we can spend doing a thingand not get tired.
(22:08):
Again, saved wisdom from my dad,to whom I'm eternally grateful.
He said boy, if you do what youlove, you'll never work a day
in your life.
You know, doing what you lovemay or may not pay the bills,
(22:32):
but you got to ask yourselfwhat's your priority?
Do you want to just muddlethrough and exist, or do you
want to live?
And what does living look likefor you?
What does it feel like for you?
What's important to you?
What's important to you.
(22:52):
I know people that willsacrifice and work day in and
day out tirelessly for the thingthat's important to them, and I
always stand in awe when I seegreatness.
And more and more as I develop,I'm seeing more and more and
more.
As I develop, I'm seeing moreand more greatness in each
(23:13):
individual I meet, because Istop looking for it and I find
it.
It's there, it's in you, it'sin me, and because it's in you,
no one can take it from you.
(23:34):
So the suggestion that I'mmaking today I'm gonna pass on
from my dad he go to yourprivate place where you can see
(23:56):
the reflection of your own faceand look deeply into your eyes
and ask yourself a veryconsequential and important
question, and that is what do Iwant?
(24:21):
What do I desire more thananything?
What am I willing to lose sleepover?
What am I willing to lose sleepover?
What am I willing to strugglefor?
What am I willing to sacrificefor?
What am I willing to trampledown underfoot that gets in my
(24:44):
way?
Who am I willing to leavebehind if they don't share my
journey?
Let me tell you something Ifyou have to leave somebody
behind to pursue that which isimportant to you, like mumbles
did and happy feet, guess what?
Just start walking and you don'thave to turn around.
(25:06):
Start walking and you don'thave to turn around.
That's what stops you from yourgoal, from your blessing, from
your gift, from your talent.
It disinherits you from thatwhich is rightfully yours, that
(25:30):
you are heir to.
When you stop and turn and lookback over your shoulder, that
is not the direction of March.
So the thing that is your thing,you pursue relentlessly and you
can tell what it is, becauseit'll make you want to get up
early and stay up late.
It's the kind of thing that'llmake you put everything else
(25:53):
down, because when you do athing you got to give up a thing
.
You'll know what it is.
No one will have to tell youbecause you'll find yourself
doing it all the time.
And here's the beautiful partwhen you're doing your thing,
(26:15):
you kind of glow.
You're a little different, yourlight shines a little brighter.
People notice you a little more.
They want to know how come he'sso happy, how come he seems so
cool.
What's he got that I don't have?
And the response really, really, really, you know ironic thing
(26:37):
about it is they have it too,they just haven't found it.
But the greatest thing is that,for the people who are supposed
to be there when you arrive,you won't have to turn around
and look for them.
They'll still be right there,standing right next to you.
(27:02):
I hope you got a message and aword from today that you're able
to apply in your life.
This is the beginning of ajourney between us that I think
is going to really be beneficialfor me and you and you.
(27:28):
So, in the words of the greatartist, philosopher, creator,
marvin Gaye, let's get it on.
My name is Macy O'Keefe, I amyour host for the show and thank
you for subscribing.
Thank you for listening.
Hello and welcome to Wisdom of the Black
Pearl.
I invite you to celebrate thisday with joy and gladness,
because this is a day that wascreated for you to enjoy good
health, wealth and abundance.
Hello, my people, welcome toWisdom of the Black Pearl.
(00:32):
You know, it's kind of cool tobe in here doing this for the
first time.
I'm looking forward to sharingsome good stuff with you.
So thank you for subscribingand thank you for showing up.
My commitment to you is to showup in the way that you showed
up for me.
You know, I just want to saythat it's kind of exciting to be
doing this and I'm eager to getstarted.
(00:53):
So buckle your seatbelts andlet's take a journey, a
vicarious trip.
It's going to be a great rideon wisdom of the black pearl.
Have you ever found yourselfwondering if you were in the
right place at the right time,doing the right thing with the
right people?
(01:13):
Well, today's podcast is goingto share with you some
opportunities to better evaluatethose questions that may be
roaming through your mind.
Whether it be parenting orhanging out with friends, you
need to have sort of a sense ofa governor, an idea of what
makes sense for you, and theinteresting thing is it can only
(01:37):
come from you if it's for you.
Now, oftentimes you'll hearpeople say that it's up to you
to make the difference in yourlife.
But one thing that I've learnedis that no one does it by
themselves.
It takes a teambble to hit arock and a rock to hit a boulder
(02:11):
to cause an avalanche ofthoughts that make you think in
ways that you never could thinkalone.
So I invite you to listen to,hopefully learn from, certainly
participate in this podcast, theWisdom of the Black Pearl.
(02:36):
Have you ever wondered why oldpeople say the stuff that they
say?
You know, birds of a featherflock together.
You know a tree by the fruit itbears Lay down with dogs, you
wake up with fleas.
Well, I think that if weexplore some of those old
(02:56):
sayings and kind of evaluatewhere they may have come from,
there may be some pearls ofwisdom that we can extract from
those oysters that seem to havebeen closed off from us for so
long.
You know, when we look at thenotion of birds of a feather,
(03:18):
what exactly does that mean?
Well, maybe they're talkingabout who you hang with, the
quality of people you hang with.
How do you determine who youhang with.
Have you given it any thought?
You know, I had an experiencewhen I was in Brazil hanging
with my buddies and they gave mea very big piece of wisdom.
(03:42):
They said no matter what you do, don't let the situation choose
you.
You choose the situation, andyou know that follows right in
line with what my mom used totell me.
She would say if you don'tstand on something, you'll go
(04:04):
for anything.
Now these, I guess, ideas orlectures came from a place of
knowing, a place fromunderstanding and a place from
wisdom.
And see, there is a differencebetween all of them.
But one thing you need beforeyou get any of them is ignorance
(04:29):
.
Now it's interesting that Imight say you need ignorance.
The reason I say that isbecause oftentimes we think we
know and we don't know, andthere's no way to know what we
don't know.
So we often speak out of turn,speak from a place of not
(04:53):
knowing and not really realizingthat we don't know.
I call that unconsciousincompetence.
Unconscious meaning you're notaware of what you're saying, and
incompetence meaning that youjust don't have the capacity to
(05:16):
know right now.
The beautiful thing about thatis unconscious incompetence
lends itself to a hugeopportunity to learn all kinds
of new things.
You've got to be open for it,you've got to be receptive to it
, but, most importantly, youhave to pull down the walls of
(05:37):
arrogance, self-righteousnessand being a know-it-all to
receive the possible pearl ofwisdom that you may not know.
And to me that sounds likevulnerability, not something
I've been comfortable with for alot of my life, and now it's
(05:58):
something that I realize I couldnot have come this far without
it.
At some point you have to laydown your guards, make yourself
available for something big andbetter and more beautiful than
you could have imagined on yourown, and by doing this I think
(06:18):
it's pretty clear that the worldwill do the same for you.
Now I told you I was going totalk to you about Happy Feet the
movie.
One of the things that I foundthat struck me right from the
onset was when the daddy let theegg kind of get away from him
(06:42):
just for a second, and he feltthat he needed to keep that to
himself.
It was just more than he couldbear for anyone to know that he
wasn't perfect in helping thegestation of the egg while mom
was gone.
What's particularly interestingabout that scene is that when
(07:04):
it looked like the baby was notgoing to come forth for a moment
, he stood there and peoplearound him immediately started
casting doubt on the fact thathe was going to have a child.
He says you know, sometimesthings just happen.
But the most poignant momentfor me in the beginning of the
(07:27):
movie is when the baby was born.
First thing out of the egg washis feet and he starts shuffling
, he starts dancing oh, he wasdoing his thing.
And his daddy said hey, what'swrong with you, boy?
How many of y'all have heardthat?
Oh, he was doing his thing.
And his daddy said hey, what'swrong with you, boy?
How many of y'all have heardthat?
(07:51):
You know that's akin tooutright rejection, alienation
From a person that loved you,from a person that cared about
you but just didn't have thetools or the understanding to
move forward in a way ofexploration and curiosity with
(08:13):
you, as opposed to jumping to aconclusion that was anchored in
their own mind.
And that's evidenced by thefact that he said you know what?
That just ain't painful.
Well, as we move a little laterin the story, the baby, whose
(08:37):
name, ironically, is MumblesMumbles, goes to school and the
teacher said I'm going to tellyou the most important thing
you'll ever need in this life,and she asked the class what
were they?
And a couple of the littlepenguins came up with answers
(09:04):
and the teacher said no, no.
Momo said don't eat yellow snow, which makes a lot of sense for
a penguin, okay, but finally,in that scene, she said the most
important thing in your life isyour heart song, and if you
(09:27):
don't have a heart song, youcan't survive as a penguin.
Now, part of that was right.
You've got to have a song inyour heart that moves you to a
place that you're willing tolose time, lose sleep, lose
energy to pursue it.
(09:48):
But it was taken a little tooliterally.
They thought it meant that youhad to have a specific talent,
moreover, a specific talent thatwas a part of the existing
community, and then anydeviation from that meant that
(10:13):
you would certainly fail in lifeand in that community.
Now, that posed a particularproblem for Mumbles, because he
couldn't sing.
What he could do, however, wasdance, and no one understood it.
(10:36):
So it doesn't make youparticularly evil or wrong or
bad, because your gift isdifferent from someone else's.
As a matter of fact, we allhave different gifts, and to be
able to be born.
Knowing exactly what feelsright to you is truly special.
(11:06):
Even when his dad asked himwhat's wrong with you boy, he
said I'm happy.
He said well, what's wrong withyour feet?
My feet are happy too.
So you know, I just wanted tomake the point in this
(11:27):
particular video that there'salways going to be something
that nags at you, something thattugs at your heart string, and
I'll call it your heart song.
But it may not be exactly whateveryone else understands fully.
You know, I have a question foryou today.
(11:50):
Have you ever stopped andwondered why you have your own
fingerprint, your own voiceprint, your own retinal scan?
I mean the biometrics that makeyou uniquely you?
What was the reason that somuch energy and effort was put
(12:12):
into making you who you are andwe so quickly look at other
people to try to emulate whothey are?
It's kind of.
It's kind of ironic that we'rea specialty, custom-made entity
(12:34):
but we really don't welcome ourown identity.
We often look outside ofourselves for validation for
things that were validatedbefore we were born.
What I'm talking about is welook at other people and we see
(12:55):
that they have a skill or atalent that may be, on its face,
more significant than ours thatthey have a superior
characteristic they might bereally smart at math or a really
great singer or a really fastrunner and we ask ourselves,
well, man, I need a little moreof that.
And when we ask those questions, what we're really doing is
(13:19):
looking at something that'soutside of us, and when we do
that, it's very possible thatlooking at that particular
specific thing is something thatwe don't have, and, instead of
(13:41):
acknowledging the beauty that itis and the talent that it is,
we will look inside ourselvesand say, oh, I don't have that.
We concentrate on what we lackinstead of what we have.
That's pretty commoninformation.
We hold ourselves as betterthan other people, and that's
(14:03):
because we see that they don'thave certain things that we do
have, and we fail to look forthe things that they have that
could lift us up.
I'm talking about the differencebetween an inferiority complex
(14:24):
and a superiority complex.
Perhaps no one's ever told you,and you may not even agree with
me, but I think that both ofthose complexes are just
imposters of the other.
What I mean is, if you feelsuperior in a thing, you may be
(14:52):
more adept at it, betterequipped to do it and it may be
a part of your core fundamentalblessings or gifts or talents.
On the other hand, if you lookoutside of yourself and you find
(15:13):
that you're not as good assomeone else doing their thing
their way, then you are feelinginferior.
And the reason why I saythey're both impostors is
because they have one majorthing in common.
The first thing they have incommon is you.
The second thing they have incommon is that you looked
(15:36):
outside of yourself forsomething that you hold up as a
litmus or a standard by whichyou should judge yourself.
When you do that, you will lose100% of the time, because what
(15:58):
you're looking at is the gapbetween where you are and where
they are in both instances, asopposed to the game, which is
everything that you already have.
So how do we govern ourselves?
How do we find out what's rightfor us, what's good for us,
(16:21):
what's our thing?
And the answer is somethingthat's rarely ever spoken of in
these terms.
We talk about identity.
Great guy that I've beenlistening to quite a bit.
Myron Golden says you have anidentity, a lie-dentity and a
(16:44):
my-dentity, and these areconcepts that he's acquired from
his travels and they really arevery valuable, and I encourage
you to take a listen to him.
I choose to couch it in terms ofan inferiority complex, a
(17:12):
superiority complex, but weshould find ourselves, spend
ourselves, exhaust ourselves inour interiority.
Complex Interiority means theinner self, the person that you
(17:33):
are, the structure, architecture, character, personality that
was gifted to you, that you havebeen endowed with, and there
are some very specific ways todo it.
(17:54):
They're not the only ways byany stretch, but I'm offering up
some suggestions, some advicethat my dad actually gave me.
He said you go to your privateplace, I don't care if it's a
(18:16):
bathroom or a lake, but gosomewhere where you can see your
reflection and look into yourown eyes and ask yourself the
question what do you want?
What do you want?
What moves you?
(18:43):
You know, when I think about themovie, happy Feet reminds me of
me and my dad in a lot of ways,because in the movie Mumbles,
who's the dancer?
Mumbles?
He's a late bloomer.
I was a late bloomer and thefirst thing out the shell was
his feet.
So he came out the worldbackwards let's just leave it at
(19:04):
that.
And when he gets, the firstthing that hits the ground is
his feet and he starts shufflingand dancing and the daddy says
that hits the ground is his feet.
He starts shuffling and dancingand daddy said what's wrong
with you?
He said nothing.
He said well, what you doing?
He said I'm dancing, he said hesaid because I'm happy.
(19:29):
He said, well, what's wrongwith your feet?
Nothing.
He said well, my feet are happytoo.
And it moved me because he saidBobo, you need to straighten
that out, because that justain't penguin.
How many of y'all can relate tome on that?
(19:49):
Someone that we love, someonethat loves us, in whom have been
given the responsibility, theperson who has been given the
responsibility to ensure mygreatness?
(20:13):
One of the first commentaries onwho I was or who Mumbles was
was what's wrong with you, boy,as opposed to what's right with
you, son.
You got all your fingers andtoes, you got sight, you got
your hearing, you're able-bodied, you're strong.
(20:38):
These are the things that havevalue, but things we need to
explore and take a good hardlook at and ask ourselves where
are we looking?
Most people would say that theworld is full of despair,
(20:59):
frustration, stress, anxiety,fear, and that these are
desperate times, and I guessthat's all very accurate.
If that's what you're focusedon.
You know, later in that scene,mobile's father asked him, said
(21:25):
boy, what are you doing?
This is after he wasn't able tosing at school.
He said well, what are youdoing?
This is after he wasn't able tosing at school.
He said well, what are youdoing?
He said I'm being spontaneous.
You ever wonder what comes outof you when you're being
spontaneous.
You know, I can tell you that Ithink the truth comes out when
you're being spontaneous.
(21:46):
And the truth has signals andaffirmations and confirmations,
and we have to pay attention tothose signals that tell us
what's real for us and what'simportant to us.
And there are ways that we canfigure that out, like how much
time we can spend doing a thingand not get tired.
(22:08):
Again, saved wisdom from my dad,to whom I'm eternally grateful.
He said boy, if you do what youlove, you'll never work a day
in your life.
You know, doing what you lovemay or may not pay the bills,
(22:32):
but you got to ask yourselfwhat's your priority?
Do you want to just muddlethrough and exist, or do you
want to live?
And what does living look likefor you?
What does it feel like for you?
What's important to you?
What's important to you.
(22:52):
I know people that willsacrifice and work day in and
day out tirelessly for the thingthat's important to them, and I
always stand in awe when I seegreatness.
And more and more as I develop,I'm seeing more and more and
more.
As I develop, I'm seeing moreand more greatness in each
(23:13):
individual I meet, because Istop looking for it and I find
it.
It's there, it's in you, it'sin me, and because it's in you,
no one can take it from you.
(23:34):
So the suggestion that I'mmaking today I'm gonna pass on
from my dad he go to yourprivate place where you can see
(23:56):
the reflection of your own faceand look deeply into your eyes
and ask yourself a veryconsequential and important
question, and that is what do Iwant?
(24:21):
What do I desire more thananything?
What am I willing to lose sleepover?
What am I willing to lose sleepover?
What am I willing to strugglefor?
What am I willing to sacrificefor?
What am I willing to trampledown underfoot that gets in my
(24:44):
way?
Who am I willing to leavebehind if they don't share my
journey?
Let me tell you something Ifyou have to leave somebody
behind to pursue that which isimportant to you, like mumbles
did and happy feet, guess what?
Just start walking and you don'thave to turn around.
(25:06):
Start walking and you don'thave to turn around.
That's what stops you from yourgoal, from your blessing, from
your gift, from your talent.
It disinherits you from thatwhich is rightfully yours, that
(25:30):
you are heir to.
When you stop and turn and lookback over your shoulder, that
is not the direction of March.
So the thing that is your thing,you pursue relentlessly and you
can tell what it is, becauseit'll make you want to get up
early and stay up late.
It's the kind of thing that'llmake you put everything else
(25:53):
down, because when you do athing you got to give up a thing
.
You'll know what it is.
No one will have to tell youbecause you'll find yourself
doing it all the time.
And here's the beautiful partwhen you're doing your thing,
(26:15):
you kind of glow.
You're a little different, yourlight shines a little brighter.
People notice you a little more.
They want to know how come he'sso happy, how come he seems so
cool.
What's he got that I don't have?
And the response really, really, really, you know ironic thing
(26:37):
about it is they have it too,they just haven't found it.
But the greatest thing is that,for the people who are supposed
to be there when you arrive,you won't have to turn around
and look for them.
They'll still be right there,standing right next to you.
(27:02):
I hope you got a message and aword from today that you're able
to apply in your life.
This is the beginning of ajourney between us that I think
is going to really be beneficialfor me and you and you.
(27:28):
So, in the words of the greatartist, philosopher, creator,
marvin Gaye, let's get it on.
My name is Macy O'Keefe, I amyour host for the show and thank
you for subscribing.
Thank you for listening.
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