The Mindset Shifts That Change Everything (S4) S37:E1

Welcome to Inspirations for Your Life with me, John C. Morley — Serial Entrepreneur, Engineer, Marketing Specialist, Video Producer, Podcast Host, and Podcast Coach. I’m passionate about guiding you to unlock your true potential, elevate your leadership, and embrace a more meaningful, sustainable way of living. Today, we’re diving into a life-changing truth: accepting human limits isn’t weakness — it’s wisdom.Let’s explore together:1️⃣ You can’t do it all.No matter how ambitious, talented, or disciplined you are, you simply cannot carry everything. Trying to do it all is the fastest path to frustration and burnout. True success comes not from juggling every ball, but from knowing which ones actually matter.2️⃣ Rest is part of progress.In our productivity-driven world, rest is often dismissed. But real growth requires recovery. Athletes train hard, but they also rest hard. The same applies to life and business — every pause you take gives your mind and body the chance to recharge and come back stronger.3️⃣ Limits protect, not punish.Boundaries exist for a reason. Just like guardrails on a mountain road, limits keep us safe, focused, and on track. They aren’t punishments; they’re protections — keeping us from veering off into chaos.4️⃣ Burnout ≠ success.Too often, we confuse exhaustion with achievement. But pushing yourself to the breaking point isn’t a badge of honor — it’s a warning sign. True success should energize you, not deplete you.5️⃣ Saying “no” is power.Every “yes” is also a “no” to something else. By learning to say “no” with confidence, you reclaim your time, energy, and focus. Saying “no” doesn’t make you selfish — it makes you wise.6️⃣ Your body sets boundaries.Ignore your body’s signals long enough, and it will force you to stop. From fatigue to stress to illness, your body has its own way of setting limits. Listen early, and you won’t have to face the harder lessons later.7️⃣ Slowing down speeds you up.Counterintuitive, right? But when you take time to pause, reflect, and reset, you actually move forward with more clarity and energy. Slowing down helps you avoid mistakes and gain momentum where it counts.8️⃣ Limits reveal priorities.When you can’t do everything, you learn what really matters. Limits cut through the noise and reveal what deserves your time, attention, and energy most.9️⃣ Sleep is non-negotiable.We live in a culture that glorifies all-nighters and hustle. But sleep isn’t optional — it’s foundational. Every hour of lost sleep chips away at your focus, creativity, and health. Treat sleep like oxygen — because it is.🔟 Control less, live more.The need to control everything is exhausting and impossible. When you release the illusion of control, you open space for peace, creativity, and flow. Life isn’t about micromanaging; it’s about living.1️⃣1️⃣ Perfection is impossible.Chasing perfection is like chasing the horizon — you’ll never catch it. Instead, embrace progress. Progress builds confidence, while perfection builds paralysis.1️⃣2️⃣ Rest ≠ weakness.Taking a break doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means you’re human. Rest is strength disguised as stillness.1️⃣3️⃣ Focus beats force.You can grind endlessly, or you can channel your energy with precision. Focus turns effort into results. Force just drains you.1️⃣4️⃣ Energy is finite — spend wisely.Think of your energy as currency. Every decision, every interaction, every task is a withdrawal. Spend it where it matters most, and stop wasting it on things that don’t move your life forward.1️⃣5️⃣ Progress needs pauses.Like music, life’s rhythm requires pauses. Without them, it’s just noise. Pauses give meaning to motion, reflection to action, and clarity to chaos.1️⃣6️⃣ You are not a machine.Even machines need downtime and maintenance. You are far more complex and valuable than any machine. Stop expecting yourself to run endlessly — you’re designed for balance.1️⃣7️⃣ Limits create balance.Without boundaries, everything spills into everything else — work, family, health. Limits allow balance to exist. They make room for joy, connection, and fulfillment.1️⃣8️⃣ Healing takes time.Whether physical, emotional, or mental, healing doesn’t happen overnight. Rushing the process only prolongs it. Time and patience are medicine.1️⃣9️⃣ Sustainable beats extreme.Quick fixes and extremes rarely last. The real power is in building habits you can sustain — the kind of practices that become part of who you are, not just what you do.2️⃣0️⃣ Peace > pressure.In the end, peace always outweighs pressure. A calm, centered life allows for deeper fulfillment than any amount of hustle ever will.✨ I’m your host, John C. Morley, and these are the principles I live by and share with you here on the Inspirations for Your Life Podcast. Together, let’s build a life rooted in balance, meaning, and sustainable success.

Episode Transcript

(00:25):
Well, hello there everyone.
It is John C.
Morley here, serial entrepreneur.
It is so great to be with you
on Inspirations for Your Life.
It is Saturday and if you guys are
wondering, yes, we have a brand new master
topic just for you guys.
So thanks so much for tuning in whether
this is your first time or you're coming

(00:45):
back.
Many times really grateful for you to watch
the show.
Every Saturday we kick off with a brand
new master topic and we go from Saturday
to Friday.
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for?
Go check that out after the show.
It's available 24 hours a day.

(01:05):
You can get short form content, long form
content, and you can even get my article.
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those things out.
If you're thirsty, feel free to go get
some RO or some water from your kitchen.
I love my RO water.
It's filtered seven times.
Really delicious.
And maybe you want a snack or a

(01:26):
fruit cup or a piece of fruit, whatever
it is, go help yourself to that and
come on back to the show.
All right.
So let's get this show started.
All right.
So welcome everyone to Inspirations for Your Life
with me, John C.
Morley, serial entrepreneur, engineer, marketing specialist, video producer,

(01:48):
podcast host, and podcast coach.
I am very passionate about guiding you to
unlock your true potential, elevate your leadership, and
embrace a more meaningful, sustainable way of living.
So tonight I'm diving into a life changing

(02:10):
truth.
Accepting human limits isn't weakness, it's wisdom.
Let's explore this together.
All right.
You can't do it all.
All right.
And today's master topic, in case you didn't
catch it for the week, is the mindset
shifts that change everything, series four, show 37,

(02:32):
episode number one.
You can't do it all.
All right.
That's number one.
No matter how ambitious, talented, or disciplined you
are, you simply cannot carry everything.
Trying to do it all, well, is the
fastest path to frustration.
Sometimes you need to do some things, right,
so you can get some help.

(02:52):
It's also the quickest way to burn out.
True success comes not from juggling every ball
in the air, but knowing which balls to
keep juggling and which ones matter and which
ones you should give up to someone else
to keep the circle juggle.
So number two, rest is part of progress.
Rest is part of progress.

(03:15):
Did you know that, guys?
Yes, it is.
Rest is part of progress.
All right.
So now that we know that, in our
productivity driven world, rest is often dismissed, but
real growth requires, well, recovery.
Athletes train hard, but they also rest hard.

(03:38):
The same applies to life and even business.
Every pause you take gives your mind and
body the chance to recharge and come back
even stronger, guys.
Number three, limits protect.
They're not here to punish us.

(04:00):
So boundaries exist for a reason, just like
guardrails on a mountain road.
Limits keep us safe.
Did you know that?
Yes, they keep us safe, they keep us
focused, and of course, guys, they keep us
on track.
They aren't punishments.
They're protections keeping us from veering off into

(04:22):
chaos, like taking our car off the road,
right?
Number four, burnout does not equal success.
Burnout does not equal success.
Burnout does not equal success.
Too often, we confuse exhaustion with achievement, but

(04:43):
here's the secret.
Pushing yourself to the breaking point isn't a
badge of honor.
It's a warning sign.
True success should energize you, not deplete you.
Number five, guys, saying no is power.
Every yes is also a no to something
else.

(05:03):
By learning to say no with confidence, you
reclaim your time, energy, and focus.
Saying no doesn't make you selfish, it makes
you wise.
I'm going to tell you a quick story.
So I have a neighbor, and this neighbor,
let's say maybe seven, eight years ago, up
until that point, he was always asking me
for things.
So he knows I do podcasts and stuff,

(05:25):
and it didn't matter.
He would always ask me, like, you know,
if you're doing something, well, what are you
doing?
I said, well, I'm getting ready to do
a show.
Oh, so you're really not busy.
Like, no respect for my time.
But he's an older person, so I said,
okay, I said, you know, I'll help him.
I went down to help him next door
and did what I need to do to
help him, and it never is five minutes
or 10 minutes.
It turns out, like, if I go down
there at, let's say it's eight o'clock,

(05:47):
I'm there until like 10 or 11.
And that's really not fair.
So I started realizing this, and his way
of paying me back was not with money.
His way of paying me back was to
give me a sandwich or to take me
out to lunch.
I don't need lunch.
I don't need a sandwich.
If I give you a bill, I need
to get paid.

(06:07):
And so I realized that this person was
taking advantage of me.
I also realized that his family was taking
advantage of me, right?
They needed things done at times.
And you know what?
I was always there to get these things
done for them.
Every single time, I was there to get
these things done.

(06:29):
And, you know, the thing is, I also
oftentimes got criticized because, you know, they'd make
fun, you know, all these things.
But I was the one helping.
I was the one making sure that their
stuff always got fixed.
So I said, I'm not going to say
yes anymore to him.
I'm going to say no.
And I'm going to say yes to myself.

(06:51):
I mean, a lot of times we're raised
to be good people, and we want to
help others.
Nothing wrong with that.
But there's a point when you keep giving
and giving and giving, and it depletes you.
It basically drains your cup.
If your cup is not full, how can
you help yourself?
If you can't help yourself, how can you

(07:13):
even help somebody else?
I mean, I don't think people realize that
they get selfish, right?
And to give you an example, one time
he had a razor.
And being an engineer, he figured he would
utilize me to fix the razor.
So the razor had a bad battery.

(07:34):
Okay.
So he goes and gets a new battery.
And this is one of those razors that
you can't really change the battery on.
In most razors, you can't.
So he decides that he's going to get
a battery, but the battery is soldered in.
So I have a commercial wireless soldering iron.
Doesn't need electric.
It just gets charged, and then you can
use it.
And I was spending so much time trying

(07:55):
to desolder this and then resold it.
And I'm like, you know, just buy a
new shaver for an extra 50 or 60
bucks, 100 bucks.
Like, it makes sense.
He had this for like 100 years.
So I realized that he was just doing
things to be for himself.
And now to this day, our hellos and

(08:18):
goodbyes are just that.
They're not very long.
In fact, they're not even a full hello.
They're more like ignoring me because he knows
that he has been unfair to me.
And again, I'm cordial, but I'm never going
to help him again or his family.
One time I did work for his family

(08:40):
and gave him a discount and all that.
And then I had to wait.
Not that day did I get paid, not
the next week.
The lady, when we called her after I
think it was 45 or 60 days, she
told me to go back to my neighbor
because he would take care of it.
And I was like, I didn't sign up

(09:01):
for this.
So that's when I realized I was getting,
ladies and gentlemen, I was getting abused.
I mean, left and right.
So that's what you have to realize.
Don't say yes to everybody because when you
do, it's going to burn you.
All right.
You may not notice it right away.
Like I didn't notice it right away, but
it does drain your energy, right?
Number six, your body sets boundaries.

(09:25):
Ignore your body signals long enough.
And guess what?
It will force you to stop and you're
not going to like the way it makes
you stop.
From fatigue to stress to illness, your body
has its own way of setting limits.
Listen early and you won't have to face
the harder lessons later.

(09:46):
Number seven, slowing down speeds you up.
That's a pretty cool one, so counterintuitive, right?
But when you take time to pause, to
reflect, to reset, you actually move forward with
more clarity and energy.
I know that sounds hard, but it's the

(10:09):
truth, guys.
It is the truth.
So slowing down helps you avoid mistakes and
gain momentum where it counts.
Number eight, limits reveal priorities.
When you can't do everything, you learn what

(10:29):
really matters.
Limits cut through the noise and reveal what
deserves your time, your attention, and your energy.
Most, that is.
Number nine, sleep.
A lot of you only know like put
sleep as something that's not a high priority.

(10:50):
It is a high priority.
Sleep is non-negotiable.
We live in a culture that glorifies all
-nighters and hustle, but you don't realize the
toll that it's taking on your body.
Again, but sleep isn't optional and I want
you to know that.
It is foundational for your success.
Every hour of lost sleep chips away at

(11:12):
your focus, your creativity, and your health.
That's right.
Like oxygen, because it is.
So when we start to realize that we
need X hours of sleep, some people need
seven hours, eight hours, whatever it is.
If you miss an hour or one day
you're off, it's not a big deal.

(11:33):
Your body adjusts.
But if you do this every day, it's
like you have this energy crisis and you
can't get up.
You're going to find your natural clock, right?
Your natural human clock will wake you up
at the right time.
I have my alarm set just to be
safe, but I always get up about 10
or 15 minutes before the alarm goes off

(11:53):
and I usually have plenty of energy.
Number 10 guys, control less, live more.
The need to control everything is exhausting and
it's impossible.
When you choose to release the illusion of
control, that's what it is.
You open space for peace, for creativity, and

(12:16):
for things to flow.
Life isn't about micromanaging.
It's about living.
So let's start doing that.
Number 11, perfection is impossible.
Chasing perfection is like chasing the horizon.
You'll never catch it.
Instead, embrace progress.

(12:37):
Progress builds confidence while perfection builds paralysis.
So you do something not to get perfect
at it, but to get better at it.
Number 12, rest does not equal weakness.
I talked about sleep.
Now I'm talking about rest.
You need to make sure you rest.

(12:58):
Rest doesn't mean you're weak.
We all need to rest.
Taking a break doesn't mean you're failing.
It means you're human.
Rest is strength disguised as stillness.
I'll give an example.
So studying for my last class, which I
got a 98.3 in A and I

(13:20):
took some rests.
I went back and I studied, but I
took some rests and that recharged me so
I could retain the information that I was
studying after that a lot easier.
Number 13, guys, focus beats the force.
I'm thinking about the force, Darth Vader and
stuff, but focus beats force.

(13:42):
You can grind endlessly or you can choose
to channel your energy with precision.
If you were aiming a water gun, if
you ever go to the boardwalk and you
aim that water gun at the clown's mouth
and you have to hold the water gun
in the clown's mouth, if you don't get

(14:03):
it exactly in the center of the mouth,
what happens?
You don't get as much water into the
clown's reservoir to get the balloon to pop.
So precision is everything.
Focus, guys, turns effort into results.
Focusing that water gun always got me to
win.

(14:23):
Force just drains you.
People think that force is a necessary part
of life.
It doesn't have to be a necessary part
of life.
People make it a necessary part of life,
but it doesn't need to be.
Number 14, energy is finite.
Spend wisely.
Think of your energy as, well, currency.

(14:46):
Every decision, every interaction, every task is a,
let's say, a withdrawal from a certain kind
of bank account.
Spend it where it matters most and stop
wasting on things that don't move your life
forward.
Like my neighbor, right?
I was spending my hard-earned time wasting

(15:09):
it, not even appreciated for it.
When I stopped doing that, I realized that
I can't just stop it here.
I need to stop at other places.
People want me to volunteer.
I need to be mindful of what I
volunteer for.
Not saying I don't want to volunteer, but
I've got to be mindful.
Oh, I'm sure you can help us.

(15:29):
I know you can help us.
Don't let people put words in your mouth.
It happens too often.
This can happen in the religious world.
I know going to a Roman Catholic grammar
school in high school.
In the grammar school, we had the Sisters

(15:51):
of St. Joseph.
They were always very good, not just the
Sisters of St. Joseph, but a lot of
sisters.
They were always very good at guilting.
Like, oh, I don't know, Sister.
I'm a little busy.
Oh, okay.
Well, your judgment time will be remembered when
you see God.
And they always put this in your mind.
Well, it's okay.
You don't have to.

(16:11):
I'm sure God will look favorably on you,
even though you didn't help us today.
And then what do you do?
You help her, right?
So you can't allow that to preclude your
own sanity.
Number 15, guys, progress needs pauses.
Any good invention, any good drawing, any good

(16:32):
piece that I write, you can't just write
the whole thing in one sitting.
You've got to take a break.
Go away.
Come back.
I do that several times.
And it's like I get a whole different
wind about what I'm writing.
Maybe things I didn't see before.

(16:53):
So progress needs pauses.
Like music, guys, life's rhythm requires pauses, right?
We know there's different types of beats for
those of you that study music.
I'm a pianist.
I love playing piano.
So you have music like 4-4-Time.
You have the F clef in the bottom.
You have the G clef for the right

(17:14):
hand and the F clef for the left
hand.
And so the pauses, we have those little
rest symbols, right, to rest.
We know that when a dotted half note,
which is the half note with the little
hole in it, the dot, it gets three
beats, right?
A regular note, solid note, gets one beat.
A half note gets two beats, okay?

(17:39):
The note with the line through gets four
beats, right?
So it's important to understand that without a
pause, without rhythm, music would, well, music would
just be nothing.
So everything in our life has a rhythm,
has a flow.
Relationships have a rhythm and a flow.

(18:01):
Our money has a rhythm and a flow.
Some people will disagree with me on that,
but I'm not going to get into that
in this show.
Everything in life is a rhythm, okay?
And when you can tune into that frequency
of that rhythm and understand it, you'll find
that things come into your life a lot
easier.
So guys, without these rhythms in the music,

(18:25):
it's just noise.
Pause gives meaning to motion, gives meaning to
music, right?
Reflection and action and clarity to chaos.
People get so overwhelmed by looking at something
like, maybe you're cleaning out, out of your
closet, like, oh, I can't do this, right?
So what do you do?
You start off with the top shelf or

(18:47):
maybe the bottom.
Maybe you start with the bottom shelf.
You take everything out and you go through
it.
Or maybe you take everything out of the
closet and you just go back one by
one, whatever you want to do.
Some people, like, if they clean a drawer,
they'll do one drawer at a time because
they know that everything in that drawer is
for that purpose, right?
Pretty important to understand.
But sometimes people look at that, oh, I

(19:09):
can't clean my desk.
There's like six drawers, or I can't clean
my closet.
There's like six shelves, okay?
So do a shelf a day.
It's not going to take you that long.
It might take you 20 minutes, if it
takes you that long.
Our perception creates our reality, and that's not
true, that perception.
But we make it that, so it becomes

(19:31):
that.
Number 16, guys, you are not a machine.
You're not a robot, okay?
Even machines need downtime and maintenance.
You know, a lot of machines need oil,
right?
You are far more complex and valuable than

(19:54):
any machine or robot.
Stop expecting yourself to run endlessly.
You're pushing yourself too much.
You're designed for balance, right?
Do a little work, do a little play,
right?
Don't do all work.

(20:16):
Give yourself enjoyment.
Allow yourself to get the rewards out of
life.
You do a little studying, like with myself,
going back to college.
You know, when I was in college several,
many years ago, getting my engineering degree, I
have to tell you, I didn't enjoy it
as much as I do now.

(20:37):
When I went there, well, of course, I
was taking a lot more classes, but it
just felt like I was going through the
motions.
I was doing it, but it was a
lot.
And of course, you know, growing up as
an adult back then, it was different.
Now that I'm going back to school, I
am not just taking my class or classes.

(20:59):
I'm getting involved with the social world of
college, the different activities they have.
And when I was in college as an
undergrad, I went to a couple activities, but
I didn't do a lot.
I was always thinking about studying.
But now that I go to these activities,
they're like rewards for me.
And I'm actually studying better than I did

(21:20):
when I was in college.
I mean, when we go to college as
undergrads, we're just trying to understand life.
We're trying to figure out how do we
fit in.
We're trying to figure out, like, what are
we supposed to do or what are we
supposed to do in this world?
Right?
So it's the first time we're living away
from home.
Maybe we're having to manage our money.

(21:40):
Maybe we're having to manage laundry.
You know, maybe we're having to manage how
we do our work because nobody's honest to
do homework, right?
When you're in college, I don't know about
you, but when I was in grammar school,
even in high school, and I was like,
did you do your homework?
I'm like, yes, I did it.
So, you know, I was getting that habit

(22:01):
developed in me early.
And I didn't like it in the beginning,
but I realized that by getting that habit
and going to college, it taught me that
I want to get my work done.
So I'm very happy to my parents for
instilling that into me early.
Number 17, guys, limits create balance.
So without boundaries, everything just spills into everything

(22:23):
else.
Work, family, health, limits allow balance to exist,
or what I like to say, coexist with
everything else.
They make room for the joy, the connection,
and fulfillment of life.
If you're just doing life, right?
You go into your job, you're coming home,

(22:44):
but you're not enjoying life.
You're missing something.
You're robbing yourself of the joy of life.
And if you really don't like your job,
you shouldn't be doing it.
If your job is not making you happy,
don't do it.
That's the wrong profession for you.
Number 18, healing takes time.

(23:07):
Whether we're talking about physical, emotional, or mental
healing, it doesn't happen overnight, folks.
Rushing the process only prolongs it and frustrates
us.
Time and patience are the true medicine.
Number 19, guys, sustainable beats.

(23:30):
Extreme.
Quick fixes and extremes rarely last.
The real power is in building habits you
can sustain, the kind of practices that become
part of who you are, not just what
you do.
I remember being in college as an undergrad.

(23:55):
I remember getting up early on a Saturday
morning, because I really didn't go to parties.
I would get up early on a Saturday
morning, and I'd go over to the gym.
And the reason I go to the gym
is because there was no place to get
any orange juice.
And I wanted orange juice when I got
up in the morning.
I wanted to study.
I wanted to have orange juice.
Nothing was open till like 11.
I'm like, ah.
And I'm up early, like 6 or 7.

(24:16):
So the gym opens at 6 in the
morning.
So I go over there, and I go
to the machine.
I get juice out of the machine.
Later on, I get a fridge, and I
have my own juice.
But little practices like that, taking a walk
around campus, enjoying the beauty of life.

(24:38):
Today, I took a hike, which I do
every weekend, a four-hour hike.
An amazing hike.
Had a great time.
At the end, got caught in a downpour,
but still had a great time.
I know coming home, actually, I didn't come
right home.
Actually, I went to church after that.
And I was still kind of soaked.

(24:59):
You know, I sat in the car with
a towel.
I came home, I was half-soaked, and
came home, changed, and just put a towel
around me, made dinner.
And tonight, I made some homemade noodles with
some great sauce.
Then I took a hot shower.
And I really enjoyed that whole bed.

(25:19):
People say, well, gee, you're nuts to go
on a hike.
No, I love the hike.
The hike actually gave my body nourishment.
You're like, are you crazy?
No.
I felt good after the hike.
And the more I do the hike, I
feel less tired.
That was really cool, guys.
Number 20, peace, pressure.

(25:43):
In the end, guys, peace always outweighs pressure.
A calm, centered life allows for deeper fulfillment,
more than any amount of hustle ever will.
Even though you might think it will, it
won't.
And if you're following people or modeling people

(26:05):
and they're doing that, well, you're probably going
to find out that they're going to burn
out.
And you're going to burn out right after
them.
So realize that you need to balance things
in your life.
Exercise, education, if you like education, time to

(26:26):
eat, snack, time to meditate.
These are all important things.
But so many of us are caught up
with the, well, if I stop, I'm going
to be behind.
Trust me, you have time to stop and

(26:48):
rest.
If you do stop and rest, you'll actually
be further ahead of those people.
How many of you remember those people on
the highway?
They have the road rage and you let
them pass you and they pass you and
then strange things happen.
You happen to be ahead of them.
You're not even trying to get ahead of
them.
But later on, because of some lane they

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get into, you're ahead of them.
You didn't want to get ahead of them,
but somehow you did.
Then those people get aggravated at you, which
just becomes ridiculous.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I am John C.
Morley.
And these are the principles that I live
by.
And it's my privilege and honor tonight to
share them with you here on Inspirations for

(27:32):
Your Life podcast.
Together, let's build a life root in balance,
meaning and sustainable success.
I know a lot of you're saying, I
can't do this.
You don't know what my life's like.
All I want to tell you is give
this a try.
You'll be so surprised at how much time
you have in your life and how much

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better your life becomes by choosing to adapt
these as a daily practice in your life.
I hope you guys have a fantastic evening
or day and I'll catch you guys real
soon.
Be well, everyone.