The Game of Life Podcast
Welcome to The Game of Life Podcast brought to you by Alexandria Burek. Alexandria’s down to earth nature, vulnerability, and raw honesty shines through in each episode.
This show is in a constant state of evolution, much like the host and the world.
Join Alexandria in life’s journey, as she embarks on self development, entrepreneurial endeavors, various types of investing, and so much more.
You can expect to be inspired by her and learn with her.
Life is meant to be savored.
The Game of Life Podcast
#77 - The Coffee Bean Way: 3 Keys to Creating Your Life from the Inside Out
In this episode, we are featuring the book, The Coffee Bean by Jon Gordon and Damon West; in this episode we are going to dive into reframing our challenges, owning our ability to create our lives from the inside out, and finding ways to anchor life’s lessons in the physical world, so they are not lost or forgotten in moments of adversity.
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Podcast Tags:
self-improvement, mindset, growth journey, intentional living, spiritual awakening, financial freedom, personal development, entrepreneurship, goal setting, wealth building, real estate investing, tax liens, networking, becoming your own bank, short term rentals, STR, airbnb, airbnb host, healthy living, health conscious, subconscious, reprogram your mind, authentic living, breaking free, infinite banking, living from the inside out, mindset transformation, letting go, success habits, financial literacy, meditation, positive psychology, resilience, abundance mindset, habit formation, emotional intelligence, self-reflection, investing in yourself, mental wellness, empowerment, inspirational stories, healthy habits, actionable advice, overcoming ...
"Hello Everyone! Welcome to The Game of Life Podcast; I am Alexandria Burek and I am your host.
Thank you for picking my show; you will find this show is a blend of personal stories and life lessons covering a wide range of topics that are designed to help you live life, a little better everyday; my goal in sharing these personal stories, wins, whatever it may be is always to inspire you–my life is so radically different now even I am a bit amazed at the transformation that's taken place over the last 3 years. With that, no better time to get into it than the present.
In this episode, we are featuring the book, The Coffee Bean by Jon Gordon and Damon West; in this episode we are going to dive into reframing our challenges, owning our ability to create our lives from the inside out, and finding ways to anchor life’s lessons in the physical world, so they are not lost or forgotten in moments of adversity.
Before we dive into the thick of it, I will kick it off with a little personal update.
Personal Update:
My goal with the personal update is to put my money where my mouth is and lead by example. I’ll share three personal wins, sprinkle in some gratitude, drop a new original thought and leave you guys with a song I love (link will be in the show notes).
Wins:
First, you guys, I got my fire pit built at my house over MDW. I can’t believe how fast I got that done–it literally only took me about 5 hours start to finish which I think is quite amazing considering the size and scale of the space I transformed. It is just such a beautiful addition to my backyard and another thing done in preparation for airbnb. It is really getting real.
Second, I got my first day on the boat this season. I thought it would be chillier than it was, but it turned out to be a very nice day.
Third, I got set up with a project management and a marketing tool’s license at the consulting firm which is HUGE. I also uncovered so many projects, I kind of don’t know which to prioritize! Such a good problem to have.
Gratitude: I am so grateful for the way my house has healed me. When I say I needed this house, I mean I needed this house. I sincerely believe that I healed from the inside out here–from finally getting into good routines with nutrition, and sleep, and fitness to bringing my visions to life with my home improvements, to connecting with nature on my walks. I am just so grateful and thankful for the chance to live here.
Original Thought: Whatever you do, do not think about all the things you need to do in order to hit your goal or accomplish what you want. Just do the next thing you need to do. And don’t quit. See, a lot of people get overwhelmed because they are stressing about the next 20 steps that need to be taken. Take one small step, and then another, and then just do that until you’ve done it. Until one day, against the odds, you do what you set out to do. Because you kept showing up. Because you took one step at a time until it was done.
Feature song of the week. This week’s song is Pretty Life by Terrell Morris. I came across this song about a year ago and any and every time I hear it I am just groooooovin. This song is where R&B meets funk– I love a song with a great horns section, and this song checks that box for me.
Food For Thought
Book: The Coffee Bean Authors: Jon Gordon and Damon West
How I found it:
No idea how I actually found this book, but I do know that I have had this book for nearly half my life. It may have come to me in college–and was apparently a book I actually read–which is something I can’t say often when talking about books from my college days. This book is an all time favorite. So regardless of how I found it, I can’t recommend this book more.
Who it's for:
This book is for parents, kids, business women and men, military people, really anyone who has the ability to influence the people around them–so everyone. This book is all about reframing, reflecting, and acting in a way that lifts spirits vs beating them down; making the best out of the cards you are dealt.
A little bit of background on the book:
The coffee bean is an illustrated fable–this is a QUICK and I mean QUICK read–90 small pages, half the page filled with illustrations. The fable follows a boy throughout his life, beginning in school–where his teacher walks him through a very special experiment that would transform his life and how he shows up for anyone and everyone he encounters.
In the experiment–which is essential to understand in order to make meaning of the takeaways–Abe, the main character was sad and overwhelmed by life; his teacher wanting to teach him a lesson, had him essentially boil water and drop a carrot in one day, an egg another, and the a coffee bean on the third. What the boy learned was that the carrot was softened by the water,–the water representing his environment–the egg was hardened, but the coffee bean transformed its environment. The overarching lesson the teacher was conveying, is to be like the coffee bean; don’t become hardened or softened by your environment or circumstances, transform your environment despite the circumstances.
There are so many great lessons packed in this little book, it was hard to choose, but I have selected three key takeaways that I hope will help you reframe your challenges, own your ability to create your life from the inside out, and find ways to anchor life’s lessons, so they are not tossed to the wayside in moments of adversity.
The Takeaways:
OK- so let’s get into the three takeaways.
How can we use the lessons in this book, this experiment, to reframe life's challenges into a narrative that propels us forward versus stops us in our tracks. In the book, the authors use the pot of water as a metaphor for life–situations, our environment, challenges that come up–and the item placed inside as a metaphor for our response and interpretation of the situations, environment, or challenges. We all have a choice about how we respond. The way I like to look at this, is the carrot is weakened, and gives up, just stops trying. The egg is hardened, and maybe doesn’t give up, but certainly isn’t open to all that life has to offer–maybe the egg perseveres on some level, but has a miserable time doing it, does it alone without ever letting anyone in, just grits and bares and gets through it without every experiencing the full range of the human experience. But the coffee bean, the coffee bean steps back and assesses the situation, maybe uses an Alex Hormozi reframe like, what needs to happen for this to be amazing for me? Or This is good because… The coffee bean makes an intentional decision to work with the flow of life, versus working against it like the egg or just getting carried away like the carrot. How can you be more like the coffee bean in your life? How can you work with the flow of life and the universe instead of fighting or resigning to it? Where in your life are you mad about the way it is, versus looking at it from a different angle asking, how can I make this amazing for me? I will give a current example and frame I committed to believing in. With my house, and listing it on airbnb, I am pushing past the fear, I am nervous, actually excited, but still a bit nervous, and a little curious about the outcome. I was just telling my mom, either way this is a complete win for me: either my house does well on airbnb and I can be happy and proud and capitalize on that OR my house is now absolutely amazing for me and my friends who visit, and at least I know I tried. That is the coffee bean approach.
Maybe you are ahead of the curve and you picked up on something there. Maybe you are seeing that people might choose a totally different perspective on this situation than the one I have chosen. Maybe you find my approach “foolishly optimistic” or maybe you find it inspiring. Either way, what it does do is perfectly illustrate takeaway number two.
It is an example of choosing to transform my experience, to CREATE my experience. I am sure there are people who, given the same scenario, would say that if it wasn’t profitable it would be a FAILURE; that the effort put in would have been WASTED; that this was a STUPID idea; and that trying new things is BAD. Instead I am using the power of my mind and my perspective to tee up this scenario as a win regardless of the outcome–I am in control of my attitude therefore I can CREATE my experience. I am also going to get really radical here and go so far as to say that this is going to be FUN and that I am going to enjoy the journey and the experience. I am creating a FUN experience by moving back to the city that I love–again, worst case scenario, I get a Chicago summer (which is obviously still a win), then I come home and reassess. The purpose of this takeaway is to empower you all to believe that you have the POWER within you to transform your environment based on the attitude you chose to have, and based on your intentions going in. The thoughts you think and the attitude you bring to the situation will dictate the experience you have. For example, I have a firm belief that I will earn enough money to get me through to the next season and therefore allow my house to pay for itself. I believe this to be true, this is the beginning of creating my experience from the inside out.
SO How can you apply this idea to your own life? How can you own your power and create a life you love from the inside out? Maybe you start small. Maybe you wake up and just say, today is going to be a good day, your mind, your brain will be searching for evidence of that all day long–-you might even be overwhelmed by all the good things happening to you when you do this because you are asking your brain to find examples of this in your life. Maybe you want to experiment with something bigger, maybe that is saying something like no matter what the outcome of this {fill in the blank of the thing you really want, the job, the relationship, the move, ect} it is a win because {fil in the blank…} look at life and the situations in front of you as a win regardless of the outcome and your experience will be 10x better than most people walking beside you.
Now, please do not get me wrong. Terrible things happen. This is a fact of life. No one makes it a lifetime without losing a loved one, or without setbacks, or challenges.
But the last takeaway I selected is to address this. We know we will face adversity. We know that in those moments, it can be really easy to forget the lessons learned and fall into old habits or react versus respond. In the book Abe, the main character completely forgot about this lesson he learned and used many times over throughout his adolescence and adulthood–it wasn’t until he was sipping a coffee amidst challenges with his marriage, career, and finances that he remembered the lesson. He decided to place a jar of coffee beans on his desk as an anchor in the physical to remind him that he has the power to transform his environment, and that it is a choice to avoid becoming hardened or softened by the things he is facing. While I do not have an item myself, I do have a little tattoo that I got to remind myself that life isn’t that serious and it should be fun. That tattoo is a reminder, that nothing is permanent; ironic as it is, because of course the tattoo is permanent, the point is, it was an effort to anchor the spirit of, just have a little fun, on my body. As I was doing this episode there is a part of me that wants a little coffee bean tattoo as a reminder to not let my environment harden or soften me, but rather to own my power and transform my environment using my attitude. SO whether it be a tattoo, a jar of coffee beans, or something else meaningful to you, what can you use to anchor life’s lessons in the physical? What can you do to bring these ideas, mantras, whatever YOUR life lessons are into focus each day?
Closeout
You guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope you are inspired to own your power, transform your environment rather than be hardened or softened by it, and find a way to anchor life’s most meaningful lessons in the physical.
Thank you so much for spending this time with me—I hope it’s making your day, and maybe your life, a little better. I’d love your thoughts on what I shared today—leave a comment, shoot me a text via the fanmail link in the show notes, either way I would love to hear what’s sticking with you! If you loved this, or even just liked it, please share the show and or give it a 5 star rating!
Get out in the world. Do good. Be good. Byeeeee.