Yo yo, welcome back to the Feather Your Lifestyle Podcast Conversations on Lifestyle, Passions, and Hustles. My name's Chris. I am your host, and I'm super excited to be back here having the conversation with you. Episode 248 today, and we're kind of following on from last week's episode about actually getting out there, giving it a go, not seeking the validation from other people and getting permission, but actually going out there and trying. And today's topic follows on from that, talking about, I guess, return on investment when we actually go out and do things. The return on investment when we go out and try. And it's it's really important that we take a moment to understand why trying, why doing, why giving things a go, why taking action is really, really important, right? We don't want to be focusing just on, you know, the success, the glory, all of that. But we do want to also be focusing on outcomes and what does the outcome tell us? Because I think what we forget is when we get into the into the groove of things and we just go, go, go, do, do, do, sometimes we're not really realizing the stacking we're doing in our ability to become a better version of ourselves and leveling up. So I want to take a moment through this episode and really help you understand that if you're struggling to feel like, is it worth it? What am I achieving? What are the results I'm getting? And you don't see the tangible vanity results of maybe whether it's revenue, whether it's you know, a figure if you're trying to get in the gym, or a result in terms of like compared to other people is less, and you're not getting that result that you expected to be better. This episode explores all of the unseen, I guess, all the unmeasured, but all of the powerful things that we get when it comes to a return on investment when we simply you know give ourselves the permission to actually go out and do something. And it's it's about shifting how we value effort and I guess recognizing the compounding benefits from that. That's today's episode. It might sound a little bit complicated. It's not, it's actually really, really simple. So we're gonna get into that today. If you do enjoy these episodes, make sure you do hit and subscribe. And uh, if you want to continue the conversation, you can drop a comment or a question down below. Otherwise, if you enjoy these episodes, please share them with someone else that needs this little nudge as well to, especially on this topic around how they can really see the value of themselves and the return on investment of actually getting out and giving things a go. Let's roll the intro and let's get into it. So the first thing we're going to talk about is what is the real definition of return on investment in the context that we're talking. Most of us associate return on investment with money, growth, stats, and wins. So let's say you buy something for a dollar, you know, you're able to sell it for$10, you know, maybe you make$9. So your return on investment is$9 on the on the$1 that you spent. Although return on investment could be revenue of$10, right? But it it we recognize it in so many different ways. But naturally, most of us are going to refer to money, we're going to refer to growth. Oh, I'm going to be, you know, last year I was I was here, this year I'm here. The stats, the wins, all those vanity numbers more so. But what about the return on investment that isn't very common, obvious? Or showing up in like KPIs, like key performance indicators. And I'll list a few for you. So there's you might go out and do something, and the return on investment is you have better clarity, better resilience, better confidence, better momentum. Are you able to pick up patterns better and problem-solving skills, courage, self-trust, all these different things? They're just the tip of the iceberg. And we what you want to be focusing on is when you go out to try, when you go out to do, when you go out to fail fast, we want to be building things that numbers can't measure. The reason why is because your future self is going to need those things to be able to then go make those numbers happen. So what actually happens when you actually try? When you go out and do intentional action, you stop circling ideas and you start collecting data from experience. When you have experience, when you do something, you get a result, an outcome. The outcome is either going to be positive, negative, and then there's going to be a little fluff in between. And using the whole common strategy that I use, which is rose thrown, but once you achieve something, or once you do something, when I say achieve, once you get to the outcome of the intended thing that you wanted to do, or you get to the endpoint of the intended thing that you wanted to do, you're going to have the outcome and the result. And that's when you can say, okay, of this, what worked really, really well? Which was a rose, right? What was a bad thing? What didn't go well, which was a thorn. And then what was a but? What's an opportunity from all this that we can learn and now go reiterate with, become a better version of ourselves, and try again. And doing that, you're going to learn how to navigate a lot of new challenges, you're going to learn how to navigate problem solving, you're going to learn how to, I guess, operate under pressure, changing situations. You can prove to yourself that you're not a bystander in your own life. You're basically going to start to stack all these qualities, all these skills, all these abilities, and basically level up. If you if you're a big RPG fan or if you're a big video game fan, this is kind of that. You're going to build all these different skill points that give you the ability to go out and do something. I'm a big Fallout fan. I've been playing Fallout 4 again. And in that, yeah, you build out, you know, your characteristics, your stats, your skill points, and they give you perks and give you little things that you're able to do because you've gone out and put the reps in, you've gone out and put the experience. Life is exactly the same. I mean, there's a reason why it's a role-playing game because you're role-playing a life, an experience of someone else's world, right? Why don't you actually just play your game of life and learn how to level up? So I guess you could look at it this way. Trying is the bridge between imagining and becoming. Look at it that way. So when we do go out and try, I think a lot of people miss this point, is trying is actually a skill in itself. Most people don't try because they don't want to fail. We're too scared to. Or we're scared to fail. But failure isn't, you know, isn't a bad thing. It's actually, we overthink that a lot because I think when we fail fast and we get back up and we're able to, you know, go, go learn from our mistakes, go do it again, give it another shot, we're compounding our ability to be better so much quicker. The more you try, the better you get, and the more you show up, the more results and outcomes you're going to have, which means you'll have more experience, which means you're going to be well more skilled than anyone else at trying. Simply because you're willing to go do it, give it a go, learn from the outcome, go do it, do it again, and you're stacking, right? So effort, the the effort isn't a waste. In the moment, we might think, oh crap, we didn't get the result we want. But you now know what is good, what is bad, so what do we need to do to fix it? If I had given up every time things did not seem like they were working, geez, I would be so disappointed with myself now. And here we are still. I didn't imagine where we would be right now two years ago. Probably imagine where we would be now a year ago, but I also expected maybe we'd be further. So it's like, what's that gap? What hasn't happened? What am what am I missing? And usually when you spend a lot of time with yourself and realizing what's working, what's not, you can start to pick out the things that you've been delaying doing, and those are the things which you need to put your hands on, and usually they're top of mind. Anyway, I digress. So the idea is when you do this skill stacking, when you put in reps, when you have experience, you're basically putting it's basically you're putting a small investment or a small deposit into your bank account, and it's going to keep growing over time. So there is this concept of the ripple return on investment or the ripple ROI. People see you try and it gives them permission to try too. It's an influence. People see what we're doing and they get inspired by it, they get motivated, motivated, motivated by it. That's why I document my journey. Simply because I want others to get the inspiration, the motivation to go after what they want to do. Doesn't have to be the same thing. Because they see you out trying, they're going to try too. And that that can be really encouraging. You can build a lot of support groups, a lot of communities, and a lot of like-minded mindsets when we all you know start sharing this kind of stuff, because you're able to build momentum, you're able to build each other up, you know, iron sharpens iron. Working together is a good thing. You don't have to, though. It's not for everyone. I'm just saying this is what tends to happen. You become someone who moves and not just dreams. You can dream all you want, but unless you're going to go take action, nothing's going to happen. So by doing, you know, the return on investment approach and looking at, well, let's just go try, fail, try, fail, try, fail, you're going to build that momentum and you're going to get ahead of most people that aren't just doing anything in the first place. You also will become more interesting, you'll become more alive and you'll become more self-aware. One, because you're doing so many more things, you're learning so quickly, you're going to grow as an individual. You're going to become a better version of yourself. What if the thing you tried this week doesn't change your life, but shifts your identity just enough that eventually does? That's the way we're looking at it. You hit the gym today, nothing's going to change. You hit the gym for two days, nothing's much going to change. Hit the gym for three days. Okay, you get in a routine, you've done it for three months. Now we start talking. This is when things start to show. This is where things start to change. It takes time. It built it requires reps and reps building. That's why it's so important that you do go out and try, give these things a go, and test your ability to be resilient, but also to learn. If we learn more things, we get more outcomes that we can possibly achieve. Therefore, we can get better outcomes. We also might have some bad outcomes, but it is going to get us closer to where we want to be. So I would encourage you with a couple of things. Number one, try one thing you've been putting off this week. Just try one thing. Simple thing. Maybe it's saying hi to someone or asking, here's a challenge for you. When you go get a coffee this week or go get a drink, ask for a discount. See what happens. Try without expecting an award or applause. And that kind of plays plays really well with asking for a discount because you're assuming you're not going to get one. Expect you're not going to get anything from it, but do it anyway. And just try and see what's on the other side of waiting. So if you wait around for a discount, it's probably not going to come because most coffee shops aren't offering a discount on coffee. But if you say, hey, look, any chance for a discount today, you'll be surprised. They might say, you know what? Have it on the house. Especially if you've been going there for a long time. Try it. I dare you. See what happens. All right. So trying is underrated. And I think I think people know that, but they don't want to think about it because trying requires effort and work. And a lot of us are lazy. It's just the truth. But the people who get where they want to go, it's because they're getting out there and trying. It's because they're willing to do things over and over again. They're willing to, you know, figure things out. They're willing to problem solve until something hits or sticks. And then they just keep going and they rinse and repeat that cycle. That's what it is. All right. So let me know what you're trying this week. Chuck it down in the comments below. It's probably going to be messy, and that's okay. I'd love to know how your messy goes. I appreciate you being here. If you think someone else needs to hear this, send it to them. Come on. Yeah. And if you do want to continue the conversation, you can jump down below. Otherwise, subscribe. And I will be here next week again, doing it all again, and I'll see you then. Ciao,