The Gray Stuff Is Delicious

Hey. Hi, everybody. Happy Sunday. My name is JC and I'm excited to share some time with you this morning. If we've never shared time together before, thanks for allowing me the opportunity to do so, to be in conversation with you, to offer thought, to have you offer thought. To me, it's a beautiful thing when people who may not know each other yet spend some time together. So the gray stuff is delicious. If you've ever seen Disney's beauty and the beast, Lumiere shouts out, or someone does within be our guest shouts out, try the grey stuff.

It's delicious. I think maybe it's misses Potts. I need to fix that in the description. We're going to talk about the gray area, the gray perspective in a wellness culture that often tells us it's all or nothing. It's black or white, it's this side or this side. What? I mean, often there are people who are moved into one category of like, let's look at fitness. It's fast, hard, heavy, or it's soft, nuanced, graceful. It's high intensity training or it's yoga. It's boxing or it's meditation. Why?

Because most of the time, people shout the praises of the things that they find excitement or joy or clarity in, and then all of a sudden they go, you need to do this thing, because this is the thing. But humans are incredibly complex and beautiful and capable of finding joy and sustainment in so, so many different ways. I'll offer this as our thought today. We'll stay in the fitness world today. Consider you are on a treadmill and you may go, nope, don't like it. That's the point, right? That's why we're here.

There are going to be people who are like, nope, I'll never find myself there. And I think we'd never find ourself on a treadmill because we've been taught that certain people are. It's like a personality test, right? It's like, oh, take the test. It's like you are someone who's going to find joy on a treadmill, aside from the point. So let's say you are running at your top speed on that treadmill, 5 miles an hour, and everyone's saying, hold on, hold on, hold on. You can do it, you can do it. You can do it.

Yes, you can. Yes, you can. And the second that you can't go at 5 miles an hour anymore, what does the human do? What does the human in 2023 do? Think about that for a moment. Joe Pajoy. Good morning, my friend speak wonder. Hey. Hey. Erie, Pennsylvania. Nice to see you. Here's what happens to that person on the treadmill when they can't go at 5 miles an hour anymore. They turn the thing off, or they go down to 1 mile an hour. And if you go, excuse me, person on the treadmill, can you explain to me why you stopped running?

And they'll go, because I couldn't go at 5 miles an hour anymore. What if we trained ourselves? 9 miles an hour? 7 miles an hour and you go, oh, you know, I can stay here. I can do this right here for a long stretch of time, long again, relatively. 9. Not that faster is better, but what would we gain in our holistic life and us living the life that we live? Because, of course, we're not talking about fitness. We're not talking about nutrition. We're talking about your overall mental health and well being, your operating system, being able to operate as fully and beautifully as possible.

8 type of mentality? Rather than the give everything and once I can't give everything, I give nothing? I think we would see a different perspective of the journey. I think all of a sudden that 5 miles an hour becomes a little less important, a little less powerful. I think that point one, like give up, I can't do anymore, becomes a little less shameful. And all of a sudden, the number on the screen is not an indicator of how good or how bad you are as a human being, but as a representative. That number represents what you are currently giving to the world because it is what you have.

What if what you have was enough? That's a reality in the gray. What if all of a sudden speak wonder you giving 67% of your 100% capacity? Because right now you have 67% capacity to give. What if that becomes the front page Sports Illustrated news? Why? I don't know. If I'm trying to sell magazines, I know probably more people who are going to benefit from going, wow, I need to learn how to give 67% rather than the person winning their 10th championship, rather than the person breaking the world record.

I don't know about you but I'm normally not super, super jazz or inspired by the next person who does that next great physical thing. And here's the reason why. I know the construct, I know the reality and the support that they have in order to get to that place. Now, again, yes, there's the highs and the lows of that journey. But when they get close to winning the professional championship or running the world record marathon, y'all, the amount of support they have and the team that they have helping them accomplish that goal and the amount of hours they have in their day to work on that one thing is not what your life looks like.

What if on that treadmill, you are able to calibrate what you have in giving that. Speak, wonder. Says, I feel like my best looks different every day. Speak, wonder. I'm going to challenge you. I don't think that's a feeling statement. I think that's a statement of truth. I think you could take feel. I think you could take the first three words of that sentence off. My best looks different every day. So it's not be better every day, because that doesn't make sense. It's not show up and grind no matter what.

Cause that doesn't sound healthy. It is. Today, when I show up, my best is going to be this. Today, I walk in the door and I go, here's what I have, and here's what I am choosing to give. I think that's the way to live the most optimal life within that gray space. Because you are a lot more than all the things that you give. And when you have nothing to give, you are all of this wonder, wonderful gray stuff in the middle. I hope this perspective invites you to go, huh? Because who's going to do the work every time you show up at Cadre?

You are. We'll offer a pause or a perspective, but you'll be the one who does the thing, and we'll be here right with you, to support you, to see the thing that you're doing that maybe culturally isn't seen meaning, hey, way to find that. 7 miles an hour today. Not like, hey, it's okay to slow down. No, if it's okay to slow down, it'd also be okay to speed up meaningfully. We pander to the taking the pause, and we praise the pushing forward. I know a lot of people's success mechanism is taking the pause, and I know a lot of people stumbling block is the pushing forward.

Jopa, joy, speak wonder. All y'all who are here present with heart and head and not voice. I see you, too. Ah, I feel you two. I don't see you. And for those of you who watch, later on today or sometime in the future, connect. Ask questions. Be within that space of courage and curiosity to connect. Right here. It's the grace space. And the grace space we'll leave today. Let's speak wonders. Words. Right there. Have a good one.