(these are auto generated, so may be 80% accurate)

[00:00:00] Chris Furlong: Yo, yo yo, welcome back to the Further your lifestyle podcast, conversations on lifestyle passions and hustles. My name's Chris Furlong. I am your host and I'm super excited to be back here having the conversation with you episode 51 today. And at the time of the release of this episode tomorrow is actually the one year anniversary of this podcast, which is just, it's just, wow.

[00:00:20] Chris Furlong: And I've been talking about this over the last couple of weeks of how we've been rolling closer to this milestone and it's, it's been such a blast to actually do this. I did mention there is going to be a giveaway. So to find out all the latest details, not just on the giveaways, but if you want to stay up to date, jump over to my Instagram over at, at for the, your lifestyle and all the details will be there.

[00:00:40] Chris Furlong: And that's where you can keep up to date with other things that are going on now today, what I actually want to chat to you about, and it kind of comes back to the whole, I guess, reflecting on how I've gotten to this point and this isn't a recap or a reflection of the last year, but it's actually about.

[00:00:56] Chris Furlong: Just what's really been resonating with me over the last, I guess, couple of weeks. And that is about setting your vision statement. And maybe, maybe you would know this more of maybe a north star or a mission statement or something that you can just lean back on. And I guess keep shooting towards, um, whether it's goals or ambitions, but the whole point of this statement is.

[00:01:16] Chris Furlong: To, to capture that all in and it kind of just gives you that navigating or that roadmap to help keep you back on track, keep you back on path. If you lose focus or lose direction. Now I don't want to just chat about it. I actually want to help you understand it, the importance of it and how it can be of a benefit for you.

[00:01:35] Chris Furlong: And I think the best way to do this is probably with some story time. I want to share with you my own example, my own mission statement, my own vision statement. Hopefully this will help clarify and give you a better insight of, you know, why it might work for you, but also to inspire you to create your own and actually wrote mine cheapest.

[00:01:53] Chris Furlong: I think it was back when I was around 16. It might've been a bit later, but it's about 15 years ago almost which, which just blows my mind, but I'll be honest. It's probably taken me 15 years to realize. I get very close to understanding what that means. And it's probably actually been in the last 16 months that I've really been able to embrace and I guess start to actualize and live this mission statement every day.

[00:02:16] Chris Furlong: And that's the whole purpose of it, but it's a journey to get there. So what is the statement like, what am I talking about here? Well, let me share it. I want to inspire, be innovative and promote success through all that I do. And to the people around me, I wish to spread happiness and express life through my actions.

[00:02:33] Chris Furlong: I plan to create opportunity through my visions dreams and inspire those around me to aspire further in their own lives. Now there's a lot there. It's deep. There's a lot of, it's just, there's a lot. Right. And I, and I think that can come across as a little overwhelming, and maybe it sounds a little cliche or a little, you know, airy fairy or whatever, but.

[00:02:53] Chris Furlong: It's always been very important to me. And I think if I backtrack all the way back to my early teen years of what I actually, well, not my early teens, but when I actually wrote this and actually started thinking about this, but you know, back as a teenager, like most of us, you know, we're, we're a young Ling of the world of business and the world of business didn't really.

[00:03:11] Chris Furlong: I have the same, I guess, understanding that it does today and it doesn't right, because you don't know what you don't know back then. And there's still a lot of things I don't know now. But back then, when we're talking about the world of business hustles and passions, you know, they were, they were still very tip of the iceberg kinder.

[00:03:28] Chris Furlong: Um, I guess. Levels in my head and I had goals, I had dreams and majority of them were probably just to do the norm, to be honest, you know, go to uni, get a job, fall in love, get married, buy a house. And the rest will just happen. The rest being some bigger dream and. That's kind of, what's like instilled into us as we grow up, you know, whether it's through education or whether it's just through people around us, you know, that's kind of, it's like the Australian dream.

[00:03:55] Chris Furlong: It's like the American dream, you know, it's, it's kind of like, do this, do this, do this and everything else will be good and you'll be happy and Laddy daddy that, but for some reason, and I, I honestly don't know why, but there was a lot of frustration. Of me seeing other people being successful or me wanting my own ambitions, which, you know, at the same time, it's, it's, it's a good thing to have ambition and goals, but it's not good to be jealous and be frustrated because other people have it, but, and I'm still trying to really lock down and identify what, what really pushed me to write this.

[00:04:29] Chris Furlong: And I can't remember, it could have been something I read or maybe, maybe from another blogger or something like that, but I did, and it took, it took a, quite a few attempts, but I think. If I, if I skip a couple of years when I'm riding it, it didn't really mean much, but I just wrote it because that's what I wanted to have.

[00:04:46] Chris Furlong: But if I fast forward to 18 to 22, the years of me going through uni and then discovering of who I wanted to be, and then starting a job and all that, by this time, I had actually started to share some positive messages and trying to be an example in all that I do. And, you know, we, we, we do that in the persona that we create in who we become.

[00:05:05] Chris Furlong: Um, and. But as much as I knew, I wanted to finish uni at this time, I, I. You know, getting a job and all that jazz, and you're wanting to have something for my own. I just, I just wasn't sure what it was. And I've, I've done a number of different things. I've tried to start a couple of different businesses back during university and after university we've we've friends at university and you know, those things, we thought they were going to be tickets to something bigger and better.

[00:05:29] Chris Furlong: And I hadn't even started working at corporate job then, but you know, you, you try all these different things, but by the time I had finished doing university and I got. It was the start of planning to create a living. Right. And you know, you're going to get a job. You need to start paying bills and become an adult and all those adult things.

[00:05:45] Chris Furlong: Right. And the in parallel, I actually was already looking to find a way to escape getting out of that life or escaping the nine to five in, in air quotes. I actually remember when I got my job working, um, in, in professional services doing it. I remember walking into work. So I used to catch the train, or it would be about an hour and a half commute and walking into, into work.

[00:06:09] Chris Furlong: And for the first couple of weeks, you know, you're kind of just doing orientation, getting used to it and just learning who's who in the zoo and all that jazz. And I actually remember listening to two podcasts. They were on repeat. I was just basically doubling down on all the back-to-back episodes and this is while I'm starting my new job.

[00:06:26] Chris Furlong: Um, and this. The smart, passive income podcast and the solopreneur hour podcast. And these two, basically they have been monumental in actually helping me build a different mindset. And it's funny because I was already thinking of how can I get out of this to do something for myself. And I hadn't even really started, but that was the intent.

[00:06:46] Chris Furlong: I always knew. I wanted to have this bigger dream, this bigger goal and something, I just, I just didn't know what it was. And you know, that that's why I have the north star, but the north star hadn't clicked yet, but. If we, if we dive back to what was really happening at this period, so started working full time, listening to the podcast, dreaming, having these ambitions, wanting to do all these different things.

[00:07:07] Chris Furlong: I started blogging. Actually I jumped, I've actually had quite a lot of blogs over the years. I've had something that was actually combining my, my sentimental side of things, you know, deep thoughts and whatnot, and also applying it with some technical background being, you know, I love to technology and, you know, I was in the it industry.

[00:07:25] Chris Furlong: So combining those two things, and then I moved across to more words of wisdom, like daily inspiration. And then I actually started a blog which lasted for a good three years or so. And. Focusing around, you know, Aspiring to aspire others. And I eventually actually moved to daily blogging we've inspiration, um, to help people win the day and win the year end.

[00:07:45] Chris Furlong: And that actually I did for 365 days for three years in a row. And the first year I did it was, it was, it was game changing. It was really good. I loved it. It was a great way to learn building a blog and just learning how to write and all those, all those different things. You too, it got a little rough.

[00:08:01] Chris Furlong: It was, I mean, it was still there and it was exciting and I was living. By the time I got to year three, I was struggling because I had drifted away from the original purpose of why I was doing it. And I was just doing it because I felt like I had to do it. It was a chore and I was doing it more. So just to prove that I could get it done and, you know, I didn't really have much of a following.

[00:08:19] Chris Furlong: And I was obviously doing it for the wrong reasons, but I couldn't figure out why when I kind of lost the plot on that, I didn't see the value of why. Other than doing it for the sake of doing it right. And in year three, that's also what I had started to take a deeper focus. I had actually launched my previous.

[00:08:35] Chris Furlong: Business, which was bef before this podcast, which was called furry. Um, and which is now the podcast for the lifestyle. And I had started to focus to build that out. And that was basically selling apparel, motivational clothing to help people pursue their passions. Right. Um, and I was focusing on building.

[00:08:53] Chris Furlong: Content to motivate and help people pursue those passions while at the same time, trying to push that apparel out, you know, for a way of making some dollars. Now, at this point, let's just reflect back. Where I'm at compared to the mission statement. Right? So if I look back at the mission statement that there's a lot there, right?

[00:09:12] Chris Furlong: There's we're talking about, I want it to inspire. I want it to be innovative. I wanted to promote success through all that I do to everyone that's around me, you know, spreading happiness, expressing life, um, through my actions. Right. And I wanted to create opportunities through my vision streams to inspire.

[00:09:28] Chris Furlong: Those around me to aspire further in their own life. So there's a lot there. And if I reflect on what was actually happening at this point, I had the intentions to inspire and spread happiness and express life. That's what I was doing. I was trying to do it through blogs. I was trying to help create that, I guess, atmosphere around me, however, when it came to dreams and, you know, inspiring, I guess, others to aspire for that, there was still a bit of a catch 22 here because, um, Encouraging others to pursue.

[00:10:01] Chris Furlong: Chase dreams is great. Like it's, it's really good. Right? It's really good. But in all honesty, I wasn't even doing it myself. Right. And I hadn't kind of clicked at this yet because here I was, was trying to live this idea of being something greater and helping other people achieve it. But I wasn't even trying to work closer to door.

[00:10:18] Chris Furlong: I thought if I could help other people do it, then I could actually do it myself because people will pay me for it or whatever, but I wasn't even doing it myself. I was kind of just doing it. Yeah, most 5%, 10% of my weekly effort of working and doing whatever that was put into these, this project, into this passion project of furry and, and blogging and all that jazz.

[00:10:40] Chris Furlong: So I hadn't really gotten to that point yet, but I want to make it very, very clear here that, you know, I'm not trying to say that you, you shouldn't be doing a nine to five. What I'm saying is. Fat. I wasn't working with the dreams and goals as my intent, or as my priority. I was working with the intent of building a safety net of being comfortable and having that job security and.

[00:11:04] Chris Furlong: I had this idea that these, these things would come. Like, I think we just expect that everything would just change. Everything would just land in our pockets where everything will just fall, fall into being, which it's not always true though. Things don't just happen. You have to actually do some work. You actually have to do some things to make it happen.

[00:11:22] Chris Furlong: So I hadn't kind of clicked on this yet. And what happens next is I continue to focus on working. Actually. I kind of lost a lot of momentum and trying to build out something outside of the nine to five. I prioritize doubling down white, my mindset and workload. Um, so working more working over time, working on the weekends.

[00:11:41] Chris Furlong: And I guess I allowed myself to, to justify it as well, but I was still in the back of my mind, hoping that something was going to change. And at the same time of doing all this, I was, I was doing running videos on YouTube. I was still sharing content on my, on my fairy, um, apparel, website, and Instagram.

[00:12:00] Chris Furlong: But it wasn't with full intent. It was hoping that I was ticking a box and expecting it. To blow up and everything was just going to change. You know, like I was expecting that I was going to make some money from these shirts and then I would just, all of a sudden be able to have more money and I wouldn't have to work, but that's not the way it works, but I think that's the mentality.

[00:12:17] Chris Furlong: You make it. And everyone else was doing it. And I could see that theirs was so successful and progressive. And this was back when Jim shuck started. Right. And you see Jim Shaw taking off in this guy, she's made it out of the back of his house and. You see all these success stories, but it wasn't really playing at the same way for myself.

[00:12:34] Chris Furlong: So did this for about two more years, um, give or take right. And likely what started to push me, I guess, into challenging my thinking around my mission and actually living it was, was this two things. Actually, I had a few people, which I regretted actually came to this it's something which has really, really taught me a lot of lessons now.

[00:12:54] Chris Furlong: Um, they called me out. Right. And what I mean by that? Hera was encouraging people. As I said to chase dreams, pursue passions and make it happen. And yet they, they called me out because they could not see me doing it with the same or with the same intent or investing the same heart into what I was telling others to do.

[00:13:14] Chris Furlong: And I didn't really get it. Then I, it was hard to kind of. Get it all, but eventually it kind of compounded and I just snapped at that, but it really did wake me up. Um, it hurt, it really did hurt and I got defensive about it. I look about it. Think about it now. I'm thinking it was so right. It was true, right?

[00:13:32] Chris Furlong: It, it challenged my whole thinking of what am I doing? Like something has to change like this isn't there. Right. You know, this, this isn't the right way of doing things. And second. This is when the pandemic started to, to hit. This is when, um, at this point things were changing, right? It means that the ways I was trying to sell apparel, it wasn't going to work because I was drop shipping.

[00:13:55] Chris Furlong: Um, and that meant that became a bit of a blocker. So all of a sudden I was changing the way I was doing. I wasn't motivated around trying to make that happen. Cause I didn't have product to kind of put behind people or to promote people with or to sponsor people with and, and all that jazz. Secondly, as I said, the pandemic kit that they came with a few issues and this end we've 0.1, that's when, I guess this fueled that frustration, even more of what am I doing?

[00:14:21] Chris Furlong: And it started to bubble up even more. And when I looked back at my north star, I couldn't see where I was headed. I couldn't understand what's going on. What am I doing? Where am I going? And long story short, having a big, hard look at myself. I found something had to change. Something really had to change.

[00:14:39] Chris Furlong: People think things are just going to change. Like, you know, are maybe, you know, there was even thoughts of like, oh, well, you know, if I got fired, then I'd be able to work on it or if this happened or that, or, and they're all things which they're not going to happen. And you shouldn't even be thinking about those kinds of things.

[00:14:55] Chris Furlong: They're excuses to hold you back. So I kind of had to kind of think about it. Something had to give something, had to change. If I want to change, I had to do it. And I've just spoken about this a few times and that meant I needed to take control of the things that I wanted to make a reality. I needed to take the hard decision and rip off that band-aid and that's when I decided that I needed to take a chance on me, step away and chase those dreams and aspirations and goals, and really just go all in.

[00:15:22] Chris Furlong: And I guess that's how this podcast and all that surrounds that in the lifestyle I have now has kind of come to life. Right. And. It's taken me obviously in the last year to really embrace it all. And I've done some pretty cool stuff that I'm very, very proud of in the last year, building out this podcast, making it happen, starting my own business, to be able to, you know, fuel my, my lifestyle in terms of paper bills and help me invest in save and all that jazz.

[00:15:48] Chris Furlong: And in the last, now that I've done it for a year in the last month or so, I hadn't really soaked it all in. And I've been doing that in the last month. And. I've just been taking in the moments to digest it all. Then having received feedback from people, comments, encouragements, and that's from many of you listening and other people as well.

[00:16:09] Chris Furlong: It's been one of the most encouraging moments and I kind of feel like it's just kind of hit me and I've just realized, wow, this is, this has actually happened. I did this. And obviously I'm still doing it, but a big thank you to everyone that has reached out and giving me support and encourage. But I guess from all of this, you know, my big takeaway is now I'm actually making it happen.

[00:16:30] Chris Furlong: But the real big takeaway is you cannot just expect to just flick a switch and everything is just on, like in everything's working and everything is figured out. It's it's not how it works. The key here. If you create a vision or a statement or a north star for yourself, like what I had mentioned at the start, it won't be all just happening.

[00:16:53] Chris Furlong: It won't just all happen as you have written it, right? Like it's going to require you to actually. Take that run with it, build it, create that, live it and own it. Right. You're going to have to take a year, take two years, five years, 10 years, 15 years to really develop that, mold that and use it as a guiding post to a director.

[00:17:16] Chris Furlong: In keeping you aligned to where you want to go or whatever those goals and dreams are. And sometimes those goals and dreams are fuzzy, fluffy, and you don't know what they are. You just know it's not what you're doing now. And that's okay if you don't know what they are, but you know that you don't want to be doing what you're doing now.

[00:17:30] Chris Furlong: And it's a means to an end. That's the start of that. And I feel I'm truly starting to really actually live that, that mission statement now and own it now. Okay. I'm excited to see what that's going to bring for me over the next year, in the years to come. But I know that there will still be a lot of lessons and a lot of learnings that will come through that, but, and that's all part of the journey, but I think for you, if you're stuck and I feel like a lot of people are probably feeling like things will get better.

[00:17:58] Chris Furlong: I want to do this. I just don't know how it's going to happen. And that's where I was at. And it was a lot of touring and throwing back and forth of just things are going to get better. And it wasn't until I ripped off that bandaid and made an action plan to make it happen, which in this case it was very aggressive, emboldened, stepping away from working the nine to five, but you don't have to do that.

[00:18:18] Chris Furlong: Right. You, you can find ways of working out of that and getting yourself out of a rat. And sometimes it's just having someone to talk to or someone to keep you accountable or someone to support you in all that jazz. So what I'm trying to say is like, there's probably a lot of you feeling that yet, you know, that you have all these goals, aspirations, you don't really know what they are.

[00:18:36] Chris Furlong: It just means that you know what you're doing now. Isn't that, and that's what you want to tap into is start to develop and create something that you can write down of who you want to be. What does that look like? And what does that on paper? What do you stand for? What do you want to present to people that find you and see you as a persona, I guess, and I would love to hear from you, do you have one or you're looking at creating one, what are your thoughts about this?

[00:19:03] Chris Furlong: Share it with me. You know, like let's, let's, let's continue the conversation, have a think about it. What is it? And what could it look like? Maybe you don't want to share it, but I really want you to really take the time and think about it and really consider. Seeing if one would work for you. Because for me it's been something that when I have got to those sticky situations of feeling rotted or deep, or, you know, in a gutter referring back to it has enabled me to kind of, okay, this is what I got to do.

[00:19:30] Chris Furlong: This is what I want. And look that might adjust, then it might change. But for me, it's been something to lean back on and keep me honest and keep me focused on where I'm trying to go. Um, as I said, let's, let's continue the conversation. Hit me up on Instagram at further your lifestyle, um, or Twitter at, for the alive, or you can send me an email and let let's talk about it.

[00:19:52] Chris Furlong: Um, an email@helloatfoodieorlifestyle.com. And I would love to have that conversation with you, or just hear it out. And maybe you want to do more. Maybe you want to have a call. Regardless. You've got to reach out. You've got to have that conversation with me before I can even start to dabble in, in seeing what, what makes more sense, but I would encourage you to go, go, go suss this out this week.

[00:20:13] Chris Furlong: If you are not doing anything today, spend, spend 10 minutes, 20 minutes. Writing this down, having a think, having a reflection on this because it, it can be life-changing it really, it really can be life-changing and it might not be instant, but it will start to unravel itself as you proceed to pursue that, that, that mission.

[00:20:34] Chris Furlong: Really do appreciate you being here. Um, as I said at the start of this episode, episode 51 in we're basically hitting one year on the podcast, which is pretty, pretty exciting. Like, it's really weird to think about it, but we are we've, we've done one year, so there will be a giveaway jump over to my Instagram for more details on that.

[00:20:52] Chris Furlong: Of course you might listen to this after that, that we plenty more things that I'm doing with the community. So don't feel like you've missed out. Um, but I would encourage. Jump on over. See what else? Leave a comment. Say hi, drop me DM. Um, of course you can jump over on Twitter as well. Now, if you are on the YouTube experience and watching this, uh, you can drop down, leave a comment, and there's some show notes in the descriptions there as well.

[00:21:14] Chris Furlong: Um, the other thing that I would really, really encourage, if you do enjoy this, if you did take something away from this is if you could share this with someone, if you think this will resonate with someone sharing. Um, send it to them and say, Hey, you know, have a listen to this. They don't have to listen to the whole thing.

[00:21:29] Chris Furlong: That might be just a certain segment of the episode. That would mean the world to me. Um, and if you want to leave a review on apple podcasts, then please go ahead and do that as well. You can rate this on Spotify as well. Uh, all that means the world to me. Um, of course, but no pressure, um, appreciate being here and I hope you've taken away something from this episode.

[00:21:49] Chris Furlong: Um, I love having these conversations with you. And most of all, I hope that yeah, you have a wonderful day. Cheers. Now, if you didn't know, we do have the podcast merge and this is with a key focus of enamel pins. Now, if you haven't checked these out, make sure you do because the intent of these are really just to be a small token and a reminder for you to charge on, to push on and to further your lifestyle, uh, whether it is a gift for someone else to encourage them or maybe to inspire them, or maybe it's a way to motivate.

[00:22:17] Chris Furlong: Or you can simply just make a purchase to simply support the podcast, which would be greatly appreciated. We do also have some sweaters and some long tees, so make sure you check it out, link in the description and in the show notes. Really do appreciate it. Cheers.