Episode 978: YOLO

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 978 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:07] Gina Johnson: I'm Gina Johnson from synergy mindset coaching. I encourage you to find your own journey from surviving to thriving. And one way to be inspired to do that is by listening to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott.

[00:00:23] Scott Maderer: that's not a problem with Yolo. That's a problem with how we've identified our values and priorities. And by the way, if you haven't done the hard work of identifying your values and your priorities that having a yellow philosophy leads you to just jump from thing to thing with no pattern and no.

[00:00:43] And no real direction. Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your [00:01:00] treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that.

[00:01:10] Can impact the world.

[00:01:13] In today's episode about investing in yourself by stewarding your time. I talk with you about the, you only live once our Yolo idea, I share some of the benefits of Yolo, and I also share some of the downsides of the Yolo philosophy as we talk about stewarding your time. Wouldn't it be great. If you could support this podcast and do it.

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[00:01:58] Yolo [00:02:00] are you only live once is one of those catch phrases that kind of went around and became this big sensation. And I don't necessarily hear it quite as much now. Especially after COVID and everything, but I still hear people talking about it. And I think COVID actually highlights some of the reason why this idea, the you only leave once idea.

[00:02:26] The idea of Carpe diem seize the day becomes so important for us to understand the truth is understanding and recognizing that it is true. You only do live one. That is the true situation that you find yourself in. The thing of it is we often think of our life as a dress rehearsal. Like we're going to get another attempt at it, but the truth is the life that you're living today is the only [00:03:00] life you have.

[00:03:01] You truly do only live once. But the truth is understanding too, that having that mentality can lead to both good choices and bad choices when it comes to how we manage our time, how we manage our money. And even more importantly, how we manage ourselves, if you recognize that the truth is. See yourself as having a limited amount of time, you'll actually focus more and get more done.

[00:03:35] Have you ever had a day where you have nothing on your calendar and you think to yourself, oh, I'm going to get so much done today. And then you get to the end of the day and you've accomplished less than on those days where you had several events and several other things planned and you were just grabbing time in between other things to get stuff done.

[00:03:53] And you ended up getting more done when you had less time. The truth is that there's [00:04:00] some psychology behind that also plays out with the Yolo philosophy. They've actually studied people that are diagnosed with a terminal illness, though. They have some sort of near fatal experience and we look at how they are affected.

[00:04:16] And usually there's a period of initial shock, but many people after. Experience a profound shift in how they spend their time, how they appreciate life and their general sense of happiness. Because a lot of folks then will very quickly start cutting stuff out of their life that used to stress them out, things that they used to pretend to care about, but really didn't and focus.

[00:04:43] Instead on those things that they really feel called to do the things they most enjoy, the things that really give them. Benefit and joy in their life. This happens too. When you study people, as they age, as we age, [00:05:00] we tend to devote more time to activities and relationships that are positive in our life and spend less time on things that breathing negativity, this bias.

[00:05:13] This idea is a parent at all levels. Older people when looking at a scene tend to focus on their pleasant aspects are when you look at a college student and you remind them of death in an experiment, they then spend more time looking at positive words and less time looking at negative words and word selection.

[00:05:38] In other words, when we become aware that our life is scarce, our time is limited. We tend to focus more on positive things and less on negative things. And that happens with our time. This is a benefit of recognizing Yolo it's its sort of scarcity played out. Have you ever had it where you're out shopping and you [00:06:00] find the last of something on the shelf, the last box of cereal, the last shirt in that size, the last shirt of that color and all of a sudden you feel compelled to buy.

[00:06:12] That's because scarcity creates a certain level of desirability. And the same thing happens when we recognize that we do only live once. Unfortunately, there's also some downsides to this. I'm sure you've seen articles where someone w. Tweeting out. You only live once before, perhaps dying in a drunk driving accident or people who are arrested and their excuse afterwards is you only live once.

[00:06:44] The truth is there is also times when our mortality thoughts when recognizing that we're mortal can actually. Affect our self-esteem and belief systems. And that means that when we're [00:07:00] reminded of death, the things that we value, the things that we put our priorities to the things that give us the most joy and the most self-esteem are amplified.

[00:07:11] And that means sometimes that may include reckless or bad behavior as well, because. Sometimes, if our value system isn't set up in a way that is powerful and good, but instead values behaviors that many people would look at as negative. Then those are what get amplified by recognizing that you only live one.

[00:07:38] That's not a problem with Yolo. That's a problem with how we've identified our values and priorities. And by the way, if you haven't done the hard work of identifying your values and your priorities that having a Yolo philosophy leads you to just jump from thing to thing with no pattern and no sense and no real [00:08:00] direction to your life, to both of these are true.

[00:08:06] Of recognizing that the life that you're living today is the one and only life that you get. Thanks for listening.

[00:08:16] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your call. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips series by going to

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[00:08:43] Scott Maderer: stewardship.com/time or texting 4 4, 2, 2, 2 time tips, and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time [00:09:00] until next time.

[00:09:01] Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.