Penny Casselman [00:00:00]:
Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in her hand and melting like a snowflake, Frances Bacon. Welcome to the Pivot with Passion podcast. Hi. I'm Penny Casselman. I believe everyone is deserving of a phenomenal life, and that life starts when you grab a red marker and claim what you truly desire. Regardless of where you came from, where you're at, or where you think you're headed, life is what you make of it.
Penny Casselman [00:00:47]:
And when you learn to pivot with passion, your world explodes with opportunities. Go grab your favorite beverage and let's shake things up as we explore how to pivot with passion. Hello and welcome my friend. Today, I wanna talk about what works for others may not be what works for you. Because too often, we get caught in this trap of thinking they're successful doing something. It must work for everyone. And it might be that we give it a go and it is a complete fail for us. For instance, I am not a huge workout person.
Penny Casselman [00:01:36]:
It has taken me years to recognize that the only way that I will seriously devote time to working out is when I hire a coach. Now there's lots of people in the world who have the mental fortitude to do that on their own. I would not be one of those people. So for instance, if I saw an ad for p 90x, I might be dating myself here, but that used to be huge back in the day. I would rather sit in the corner and curl up than think that p 90X was the only way that I could get my body into shape. It just would never happen. But that's the beautiful thing. If we keep searching and exploring, we will find other opportunities, other resources, other ways of thinking, of acting, of doing the thing that we want to do.
Penny Casselman [00:02:33]:
And, eventually, if we're paying attention, we will find one that resonates with us and propels us forward into the life or action or outcome that we want. I still remember when I first started in corporate America, I was sent to a Franklin Covey planner class. It was a 3 day course. Yes. 3 days, all day devoted to learning how to use a planner, and I fell in love with planners after that class. However, I learned how to use it before the digital age, so I didn't have a smartphone. I literally carried this 3 pound planner with me everywhere. There was even a point in time where I would make sure if I bought a new handbag or purse that my planner could fit inside.
Penny Casselman [00:03:30]:
Of course, we all know what happened. The digital age came with it ushered in a smartphone, which now had you connected 247 to every single thing you could possibly think of. And I thought it's time to change with the times. And for a while, I attempted to convert my entire life into a digital format. Epic fail. Epic fail. I wasn't taking notes. I couldn't find the notes I wanted.
Penny Casselman [00:04:00]:
I was getting confused between my work schedule and my personal schedule and everything was in a different location. And that's when I realized this may work for some people, but a fully digital life was never gonna work for me. So then I started on my ultimate planner quest, which has taken so many different directions. I probably have tried at least a dozen different planners, but none of them quite seem to fit what I needed. Luckily, 2 years ago, I happened to stumble upon one that seemed to offer the flexibility that I needed between a digital and a paper planner. Now had I not kept exploring, kept searching for the thing I knew was out there somewhere just waiting to be found, I would have settled. And we all know what settling leads to, the dreaded fine. I would have said fine.
Penny Casselman [00:05:06]:
I will force myself to make this digital footprint work or fine. This planner isn't exactly what I want, but adding 25 Post it notes and 3 highlighters might make it work. But once I settle for fine, my friend, settling for fine, that's the land where dreams or desires go to die. The minute you start saying, it's fine. It's fine. Is the time when you might as well just kiss whatever you wanted to hold goodbye. So I'm excited today to kind of dive into being okay with making your own path forward, with not being stuck in cookie cutter outcomes. You get to choose.
Penny Casselman [00:05:57]:
You get to pick what feels best for you in your season of life, in your moment, during that phase where you have to make a choice. In the last episode, I talked a lot about asking for help and learning how to do that the right way and giving yourself permission to pick and choose what resonates most with you, I think perfectly aligns with what we're talking about today. And that is exploring other options that move you forward without the guilt in thinking that they don't work. I started the episode today with a quote from Francis Bacon, and I'll read it again. And I just love this quote because it's it's so beautifully crafted and you can see what it's saying in your mind. And it goes like this, Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake.
Penny Casselman [00:07:02]:
My friend, I don't want you giving up. I want you to continue to explore other choices that you can make that move you into the life that you want. It's time for a clarity cocktail. Oh, today, my friend, you are getting 2 for 1. That's right. You are getting 2 quotes in one episode for you to noodle on and apply. So here's the clarity cock cocktail I chose for today. Always remember that you are absolutely unique just like everyone else, Margaret Mead.
Penny Casselman [00:07:46]:
Now I love this because it calls out the obvious, but the complex idea that we are all unique. Every single one of us. Every single one of us. And because of that, how could we possibly think that what works for someone else is going to be the cure for what we want to accomplish. The likelihood of that, probably not very high, but with a few tweaks and remembering that we're all different will help us weigh our options and see our choices a little bit more clearly. Now, I don't know if you know this or not, but even identical twins have different fingerprints. Let that sink in for just a minute. Identical twins, different fingerprints.
Penny Casselman [00:08:44]:
So if you needed a bigger example that we are all not made from the exact same mold, there it is. 2 people that when you pass on the sidewalk, you'd have to do a double take to see who is who, yet their fingerprints are different. So hold tight to the fact that you are unique individual. You have different experiences than I do. Even if you and I were born on the exact same day, in the exact same hospital, at the exact same time, that might be all we have in common. Beyond that, our life experiences, the friends we have, the places we go, the things we see, all shape who we are. And there is no one, my friend, in this world ever that has come before or will come after you, that would be anything like you. You are unique.
Penny Casselman [00:09:48]:
You are once in a lifetime special. So honor that in yourself and embrace the things that work for you and let go of the things that don't. And now back to the episode, cheers. Circling back to the idea of finding what works for you, there is a small little circular process that we can think about when we want to move forward in anything that we are doing in life. 1st, we want to explore knowing that in our digital age, we have access to tens of 100 of 1000 of 1,000 of options that we can apply to anything that we want to accomplish. So first, exploring which ones even resonate with what you're trying to accomplish, then trying them out, seeing how they work. And then the last is evaluating where you ended up after going through your exploration and trying on. Think of it as a linen shirt.
Penny Casselman [00:10:56]:
Back in my, let's say, in my thirties, I avoided linen at all cost because in my mind, I thought all I'm gonna look like is a disheveled wrinkled mess. It will never be kept pristine. Why bother even wearing it? But I was in a store with a girlfriend of mine, and she had incredible taste, by the way. And off the rack, she pulls this beautiful tangerine colored linen shirt. And she said, here. It's on sale. Go try it on. And I looked at her and said, what is that made out of? And she said, linen.
Penny Casselman [00:11:34]:
And I went, I don't think so. I don't do linen. If looks could kill, I would not be, podcasting today right now with you Because she looked at me and said, Penny, if the Kennedys can wear linen, it's good enough for you. And I stood there, and I think she kinda had a point. I had never tried it on. I had never even attempted to purchase or own or wear linen. So I grabbed it from her hand, went back to the dressing room, and put it on. My friend, that became my favorite shirt for years.
Penny Casselman [00:12:13]:
I had worn it, laundered it so many times. The tangerine started to look like a sad shade of its former self, and I finally had to send it on its goodwill journey somewhere else. But had I not tried it on, I would have never known how much I love linen. Even today, it's one of my favorite summer fabrics. Just saying. So, yeah, in that scenario, I had written off that linen was never gonna be my thing. But at the suggestion of a friend, gave it a try, evaluated it, and decided, yeah, it really was my thing. So I think there are 2 crucial questions for us to consider.
Penny Casselman [00:13:00]:
The first one is you have to try it on. You have to see how it fits, how it feels. And I'm just not talking about clothes here. Maybe you have a list of the 10 things you must do every morning to have a productive day. No one is saying those 10 things are absolute. They can be a good guidepost for you, but you kinda have to try them out. For instance, here's one for me. In the small world of entrepreneurship, podcasting, and speaking, you will often hear the, quote, gurus say, get an early start to your morning, be productive.
Penny Casselman [00:13:43]:
My friend, I will tell you if I had to adhere to that type of schedule, I might be living under a bridge sooner than later because I am not a morning person. So when we talk about find what works for you, obviously, we need to explore options. Which ones seem like something I could try? Because the cool thing is you always have a choice in what you do. So once you choose and then try on, and then you get to evaluate. And when you're evaluating, you can ask yourself 2 questions. 1, what did you like about applying that concept? And, conversely, what was challenging? And by asking those 2 questions, what did you like? What was challenging? You can start to refine how you approach going for your dreams, your desires, your outcome, your goal. And then the second thing is ask yourself this. And I think this is so important and something that we forget to ask, and this ties into how unique each one of us is.
Penny Casselman [00:14:57]:
How can I make it easier for me? So let's say you like the 5 things that you start your morning with, but you find that getting up at 5 AM to make them happen may not be your cup of tea. So then you liked the structure of the 5, but then you need to somehow challenge and say, how can I make it easier for me? In my case, I am not a morning person. Only within the last year, I finally pulled out, wait for it, my red marker and said, I will not schedule appointments before 10 AM. I just knew I couldn't do it. Every time I had scheduled something before 10 AM, I would feel rushed. The rest of my day would be slightly thrown off. There are instances where I choose not to adhere to that 10. Sometimes it's because of doctor's appointments.
Penny Casselman [00:15:53]:
Sometimes it's because the only flight that I wanna catch is earlier than 10 AM, and so I suck it up. However, I make it easier for myself on a daily basis by not scheduling anything on my calendar before 10 AM. Now it may not always be a time thing. When you think about how can I make things easier for myself, it could be maybe the day of the week? For instance, Monday Tuesdays, I try to keep my calendar clear. Those are days that I devote to this podcast. Or maybe it's the time of day, just like I illustrated with appointments. Maybe it's a physical location. I know when I absolutely need to get something done, I will go to the public library and book a study room because I don't know what magic happens there.
Penny Casselman [00:16:43]:
But when I walk into a study room and shut the door, I am laser focused when it comes to tasks and getting things done. So maybe for you, it's just changing your physical location. Maybe it's the quantity. Maybe if you are exploring, in getting fit, and some template or guru tells you you have to do a 100 push ups. Well, my friend, maybe a 100 is good for someone, but maybe not you. So maybe you go for 80 or 50 or 10. And then finally, the occurrence. Maybe instead of 5 days a week following that list, you say I'm gonna do it Monday, Wednesday, Friday, because that makes it easier for me to start building a habit.
Penny Casselman [00:17:30]:
There are so many ways, my friend, to make things work for you. We need to start embracing that what works for other people. And they might reach massive success, may not work for us for a whole host of reasons. The day, the time, the location, the quantity, the occurrence, all of these things, my friend, are in your control. So today, I want you to walk away with full belief that you hold the red marker. If something is not working in your life, pull it out and cross it off your radar. Cross it off your list, say no, and move on to something that really resonates with you. It is only when you find what works for you, can you then pivot with passion and go after your goal, your dreams, your desires, and achieve them? My friend, please know that I see you as a beautiful star out in the world, twinkling and ready to shine bright.
Penny Casselman [00:18:44]:
The minute you recognize what works for you, then you can embrace it, move forward, and achieve anything you want. I will be here next week, like always, cheering you on. Friend, thanks for listening to this episode of pivot with passion. If you've been feeling stuck, exhausted, or frustrated, this is your permission slip to go grab a red marker and claim the life you desire and deserve. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend, and then hop over to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts. Because my goal is to put a red marker in everyone's hand and I need your help to spread the word and make that happen. Until the next episode, go grab a red marker, get excited for your future, and make your first move to pivot with passion.
