ATG 26: ls it ever too late to chase a dream?

What's the best age to take a risk?

Fear will always tell you that you're never on time for your dream. It will try to convince you that you're too old or too young; that you don't have enough experience or that you're too experienced to take a chance on something new. But if there's one thing I know to be true, it's that some of life's greatest lessons come from the most unexpected circumstances. For me, one of those great life lessons involves a story about a finger, a power drill, and bravery, and it all directly applies to that dream you've been putting off. Listen to the story that changed the way I thought about dreams and fear forever because I think it will change your view too!

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Jon Acuff: 0:00

Hey everyone and welcome to the All it takes is a goal podcast the best place in the entire world including, and this is important all of Canada to learn how to build new thoughts, new actions and new results. I'm your host, Jon Acuff and today, I'm going to tell you a lesson I learned about fingers. And a power drill, and bravery that directly applies to that dream that you've been putting off that that last sentence came out weird, but I promise, these two words that a surgeon told me are going to hit home. But first, today's episode is sponsored by Medicare. Have you guys ever had buyer's remorse? You know that feeling of intense regret because the thing you thought you just had to have was only something used once or twice? For me it was the time I bought a really expensive road bike because I thought I was going to get into cycling. I proceeded to hang it on the wall in my garage and feel ashamed for six months. Well, I know some of you are experiencing buyer's remorse right now for something much more frustrating. You know what I'm talking about. It's the healthcare you rushed to get during open enrollment last December. Well, I have some good news for you. You've probably heard me talking about our main sponsor for this podcast, Medi-Share. And these guys have the answer to healthcare buyer's remorse. Check this out, members of Medi-Share save up to 50% or more per month on their health care costs. They say the typical family saves up to $500 per month. And here's the best part, you can become a member at any time. So that means it isn't too late to ditch your buyer's remorse and switch to a more affordable health care that will save you money and help you sleep better at night. If this is your first time you're hearing about Medi-Share, it is the best alternative to health insurance that allows you to share the burden of medical bills, offers access to 900,000 plus health care providers, and has a proven 25 year track record. Plus in addition to saving hundreds per month, as a member of Medi-Share, you will also have access to free telehealth and free telecounseling. You won't find that with any traditional health insurance provider. Guys, it only takes two minutes to see how much you could save. Go investigate that for yourself and your family at Medi-Share.com/Jon. That's Medi-Share.com/Jon. Remember Jon doesn't have an H in it. So it's a M-E-D-I, that's Medi, share, S-H-A-R-E dot com slash J-O-N. Okay. Now, I want to tell you a story. And it's a story about my wife, Jenny. I've been married for 20 years at this point. We just celebrated our 20th anniversary in April. And we celebrated by not going to Italy a second year in a row. We had a trip that we planned for years to go to Italy for our anniversary, and it got canceled and then we push the back a year like "Oh, we'll definitely be able to go in a year." We were not able to go a year from now. But this is a story about my wife, Jenny. And it's a story I've thought about for years. It's one of those stories that really stuck with me. It's not super long. But I think it is an interesting story. And I think it's one that will ultimately help and encourage you. I call this story, the Finger and the Power Drill. Which, now that I think about it, sounds like a very dark children's story."From the people that brought you the movie Saw comes The Finger and the Power Drill!" I promise though, it's not dark. It's really not. And I'm willing to admit that's not the best title, The Finger and the Power Drill, but I'm still workshopping it. I could always say, you know, something like"the finger and the lesson about a dream" or something more romantic and candle-y. But right now, we're going with The Finger and the Power Drill. So let me start this story with a question. Did you know that finger therapy costs $600 an hour? Yeah, let me repeat that because you probably think I misspoke. Finger therapy costs$600 an hour. I don't mean emotional therapy. I mean, physical therapy. I don't even know if they offer emotional therapy for your finger. I mean, I bet the most expensive part would probably be that tiny little couch your finger lies on while discussing its thoughts."It's just hard to be the pinky. You know, every other finger has a purpose. I'm a clown. I'm the only finger who sounds like a character from My Little Pony. Shout out Rainbow Dash. Think about it. The pointer finger, it's about decision. Look over there, do this. Middle finger, ooo, anger, power. The ring finger, true love Pinky, nothing. I got nothing. Occasionally I get to wear a ring but it's a pinky ring. So whatever." I suppose the finger therapist that my wife went to, the doctor, the expert, if you will, has heard all those terrible dad jokes that I just gave you. But Jenny wasn't there for advice. When we were talking to the therapist and we were talking to the surgeon. She was there for mobility. You see when we moved to Nashville, it was our first summer here. It was July of 2010. And we haven't even really met our neighbors yet at this point. I had worked for Dave Ramsey for maybe two or three months. And so one afternoon, Jenny was attempting to fix a $10 rake, or if you're playing along at home, a rake that was worth 1/60th of the cost of one hour of hand therapy. So she's trying to fix it and she hurt herself with a corded drill. She was trying to drill the metal part of the rake back onto the wooden part. And it had fallen off while she was raking. The screw burst. And she was like, "You know what? I've got a screw. I've got a power drill. I've got a rake handle. I've got a metal part of a rake." What do they call the metal part, are those tines? Now that's what they call, that's what they call them on a fork. Great. I'm pretty, I'm pretty sure I just described our rake as a yard fork. I'm very handy, obviously. Jenny actually went to Georgia Tech and got a master's in construction management. So whenever people come over to our house to do like construction or renovation, they always talk to me because I'm so burly, and right out of the gate they're like, "This guy gets it." But I don't know anything and my eyes will glaze over. And Jenny will be like,"Whoa, let me talk to these guys. Why don't you go write some adjectives in the kitchen with your tiny, callous-free writer fingers." And I'm like,"That's not emasculating at all. I'll be in here, I'm gonna put this on Yelp, what?" So she tries to fix the yard fork, and says, "You know what, I can just drill this back on. I'll drill the metal part back onto the wooden part." So she goes to do that. And if you're squeamish, don't, don't worry, I won't get gory. There won't be many details. So the drill bit caught the tip of her rubber glove. She's wearing rubber gloves, and it's spun her finger inside the glove. She had to get stitches. Her finger was dislocated. And she was home alone, so she had to run next door to our neighbor Donna, who is just the sweetest lady ever, just a amazing grandma. And we'd barely met her. And she had to run over there and bang on the door and be like, "Hi, I'm screaming and covered in blood, can you It's nice to meet you. Can you take me to the hospital?" She called me at work. I met her at the hospital. It was super traumatic. It was a bigger injury than I'm letting it sound because again, I'm trying to be protective of people that right now are like, "Hey, don't make me get squeamish in the car or the treadmill, Acuff. I have friends that if they even think about blood will just pass out. So hopefully right now you're not passing out, you're like,"This is a great podcast episode already. I really want to review this one. At the end of this, five star, definitely five star." So this is where it gets a little bit interesting to me. So we get stitches, she gets it set, there's all this pain. And then she enters into this rehab, this physical therapy. And the doctor said at the start of it,"If you don't do the exercises, if you don't do the work, your finger will become functionally amputated over time." Those are the two words that just caught me off guard. Functionally amputated. So she wouldn't lose her finger. I mean, it wasn't going to fall off one day at the mall, while trying on sweaters. That would be awkward. It would still be on her hand. But functionally, it would be amputated. It would be frozen in place. Is that the craziest thing you've ever heard? The finger, unless she used it, unless she trained it, unless she engaged with it, could forget how to function. The finger could forget how to be a finger. It could lose sight of its purpose so completely, that it would become unusable. Now what's interesting to me about that story, the reason it stuck with me for all these years, is that in addition to it being traumatic, and it was, the reason it stuck with me is that I think sometimes we're afraid that same thing is going to happen with our dreams and our gifts. We're afraid that because we haven't used them, maybe because we've ignored them, maybe because we've used them improperly, like maybe we're really charismatic and we've used that to manipulate people instead of serve them or share ideas. I don't know, we just we worry that we've had this gift. And we haven't used it well, we haven't used it at all. And this thing is going to become functionally amputated. And we worry, "Okay, I'm no longer going to be able to use it." And I'm talking about that small voice that you hear inside that says, "Hey, what if, what if we tried this thing? What if we did this thing?" And maybe it's been years since you've heard that voice. Maybe it's been shouting really loud this entire year. I don't know. Maybe you've got a brand new soundtrack that's refusing to keep quiet right now. It's encouraging you to write a book, to lose weight, to ask the person out, to reclaim your garage from the clutter, to learn Italian, it could be telling you anything right now. But I also know that there's another broken soundtrack telling you just the opposite. Anytime you dream, there's a broken soundtrack that tells you just the opposite. It's telling you, it's too late. It's telling you that you haven't used your dream in so long, you haven't pursued your goal in so long, that it's functionally amputated. It's there, but it's not for you. It's too late. What do you think is the best age to be brave? Have you ever thought about that before, that question? What's the best age to be brave? What do you think is the best age to use a gift? Is it 18? When you've got your whole life ahead of you, is the best age to be brave and use your gift 23 years old? Maybe you graduated from college and the world is your oyster. Is it 27 years old? You're old enough to have some experience, but you're still young enough to have youthful confidence. What's the best age to be brave and use a gift? That's the funny thing about fear. It will never tell you that you're the right age to be brave. When you're young. Fear will tell you that you're too inexperienced. "You're only in your 20s, you don't know what you're talking about. You have to live longer, acquire some experience. No one will listen to you, you're only 22, 23, 24." And then you gain some years. You stack some time on top of each other. Time goes by. And then when you're older, and you dare to try, fear will change what it says. It'll say, "Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa! You've already missed your shot. You missed it. You're too old. That thing you're trying to do, it's a young man's game. It's a young woman's game. It's for people who are young and have different lives than you." I think about this, this dilemma, whenever I see things like top 20, under 20. They'll do these lists, I'm sure you've seen them. Entrepreneur magazines will do these, where they'll go "Okay, these are the top 30 under 30, or the best entrepreneurs under the age of 30." I'm 45 years old right now. Do you know what doesn't exist? A top 50 under 50. When you're in your 40s, people just expect you to be doing stuff by now. No one says,"Wow! Look at what you've accomplished, and you're only 45 years old. That's amazing! You were able to do that, even though you've only been on the planet for four and a half decades? Wow. Can we put you in our magazine?" Do you know what the best age to use your gift is? If fear is going to tell you when you're young. It's too soon and fear is going to tell you when you're old is too late, do you know what the best age to use your gift is? the best age to try, the best age to be brave? I think the best age to be brave is today. Yeah, the best age to be brave is today. Here's why. Here's why I personally know that to be true. I wrote my first book at 34 years old. I was 34 years old. I knew in the third grade that I wanted to write a book. I had a teacher, Mrs. Harris at Doyon Elementary School in Ipswich, Massachusetts. By the way, our mascot was clams. That was our school mascot, which if you want to pick a terrifying mascot, you want to go with a mollusk. Because if a clam is coming at you, like if a clam is enraged, you have at best two, maybe three weeks to get out of the way. But Mrs. Harris at Doyon Elementary School in Ipswich, Massachusetts, laminated a collection of poems that I wrote. And that was amazing to me. I mean, I just wrote a bunch of poems, she laminated it, and they weren't amazing poems. I mean, I think I rhymed fall with tall, an awful lot. That was a go to. I lived in New England at the time, and a lot of my memories are fall related. So I wrote down a ton of bombs about fall, and leaves and she laminated it and she told me I was a good writer. And it felt like in that moment, I could write a book. That was in the third grade. I didn't write a book until I was 34 years old. I didn't start my first business until I was 40. You'll often hear these entrepreneurs stories about people who started their first business when they were like four. They were four years old. Warren Buffett had a paper route when he was in the womb. He started his first business in Nebraska when he was zygote. That's how advanced he was. He started his first business as a zygote and you feel like "Oh my gosh, it's too, it's too late for me. It's too late." But that wasn't my experience. I mean, I was 40 years old when I started my first business. I was 45 when I launched this podcast. A friend said to me, "Do you feel like it might be too late to start a podcast now? I mean, there's so many podcasts. Like, don't you feel like we maybe have enough podcasts?" Fear always tells you that you can only take risks in your 20s. Fear will tell you that your dream is functionally amputated. Fear tells you that it's too late. And I think that's garbage. I really do. I want to give you a new soundtrack for that exact moment today. Remember, I wrote a book called Soundtracks and a "soundtrack" is just my phrase for a repetitive thought, a thought you hear over and over and over again. Fear will ask you to listen to broken soundtracks, but you can choose to create your own soundtracks, to write thoughts, new thoughts, fresh thoughts, good thoughts that lead to good actions that end with good results. So I'm going to give you a new soundtrack today. Here's the new soundtrack. The best day to start something new is always today, because it's the only day you've got. Let me say that again. Because it was a little long. The best day to start something new is always today, because it's the only day you've got. Or let's go even shorter, so it's easier to remember. Today is the best day to start. That's it. It is! Today is the best day to start. Gifts never go away, they just wait. There's another soundtrack. Write that down. Gifts never go away, they just wait. And they've been waiting for you. Maybe they've waited a long time. Maybe it's a short time. But they're waiting for you. It's not too late. And I don't mean that in a kind of a fake motivational way when people say like "You can be anything you want." I don't think that's true. I really don't. I don't think it's helpful. Because the minute somebody tells you, you can be anything you want your brain, if it's smart at all goes, "I probably couldn't be in the NBA." Like I can't, I can't be in the NBA. There was never a moment in my life where I could have made the NBA. And how do I know? Because I looked up the heights of NBA players. In the history of the entire NBA, there have been seven people my height. Hundreds and hundreds, maybe 1000s of players over the years, seven people. I don't think that's discouraging. I think that's honest. I don't think you can be anything you want. I think you can be the best you and that's very, very different. And you've got some gifts in there waiting for you. So when you think about that finger story, remember, you still got time, it's not too late. Your dream isn't functionally amputated. It's not. Dreams never go away, they just wait. And by the way, as I start to conclude this podcast, Jenny did all her finger therapy. She was a champ. She was like Rocky, she put a tiny little gray hoodie on her finger and was like climbing stairs in Philadelphia. That's terrible. There's a lot of dad jokes in this podcast episode. But she did. She did all our therapy. She put it together. She hustled. And her finger is fine. I mean, in case you're like,"Woah, woah, woah. We need a conclusion to this story." Because maybe you're thinking " saw that video of Jenny once yo guys did a Q&A once and did she not move a finger? Was there one finger that was like just at a eird angle?" No, no, no, no. She's fine. All 10 digits. Fantastic. We get compliments on her hands all the time. People are like "You have amazing hands She should be a hand model." Don't worry, it worked out. But remember, gifts never go a ay, they just wait. And the best day to start is today. The best day to start something new is al ays today because it's the only day that you've got. Thanks for listening today. Please ake sure you subscribe to the podcast. And if you've go 60 seconds to spare, I would lo e a review. With new podcasts ike mine, your feedback in the reviews is critical. So t ank you so much to everyone w o's done that. I'll see you ext week. And remember, all it t kes is a g This episode of the podcast was brought to you by Medi-Share. Text JON, J-O-N to 474747 for more information. Huge thank you to Medi-Share for sponsoring it. J-O-N to 474747.

Producer: 18:18

Thanks for listening. To learn more about the All It Takes Is A Goal podcast and to get access to today's show notes, transcript, and exclusive content from Jon Acuff, visit Acuff.me/podcast. Thanks again for joining us. Be sure to tune in next week for another episode of the All It Takes Is A Goal podcast.