ADAPT WHAT IS USEFUL
EPISODE 201 of a Daily Dose of Greatness Quest with Trevor Crane
SUMMARY
Today is special because I’m announcing the end of this podcast – at least, for a while.
I was at the gym the other day, and worked out for 3 ½ hours. Weights, Tennis a big Cardio workout, and a Bike ride.
Afterwards? I was knocked out for 2+ hours just to recuperate.
When I told my personal trainer at the gym, he was like, “WTF Trevor?! You working out that hard on all that extra just negated all of the work we did together. Trevor, if you want the results you told me you wanted… YOU NEED TO DO LESS.”
The subject for to day is from a quote from Bruce Lee, ”ADAPT WHAT IS USEFUL, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.”
The truth is, this podcast needs to change.
The shift will also be MASSIVELY to your benefit. Fact is, I want to help you get more, have more, create more, contribute more… to help you take your life and business to the next level.
This has been my mission for 5-years with this podcast.
But the birth of something NEW and something BIG that is coming. So enjoy today’s show, and stay tuned for what’s coming next…
DAILY QUESTION
What do you need to START?
What do you need to STOP?
What are BIG CHANGES do you need to make to get the NEXT LEVEL OF AWESOMENESS that you’re going to bring into the world?
DAILY CHALLENGE
START something. STOP something. COMMIT “publicly” to a new BIG GOAL.
DAILY QUOTES
“Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.” – Bruce Lee
“Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.” – Bruce Lee
THE SECRET TO LIVING
Inspired By Bruce Lee
Is there really a “secret” to living?
I think so.
Let’s look a little deeper into this quote today:
“Research your own experience. Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is essentially your own.” – Bruce Lee
The key to Bruce Lee’s way of life was constant and ruthless and relentless focus on researching and refining.
When Bruce broke away from traditional martial arts, he wanted to know what really worked in combat and how to train his body for actual conflict.
He viewed the process of fighting holistically. He focused on fitness and nutrition and he researched his own body by experimenting with cardio, weight lifting, food and supplements.
He researched countless fighting techniques such as boxing and fencing, branching out from his traditional wing chun training.
Bruce’s secret was to only incorporate what was useful to him. And he left the rest behind.
I think this quote is the recipe for to help you find your path in this world.
STEP ONE
The first step is, “Research your own experience.”
Be the discoverer, be the researcher, understand what’s going on with you from a neutral place. Without judgement.
Notice what you normally gravitate towards and notice what you enjoy. What are the tasks you already do in life today?
Consider everything. What you want to eat? What you like at work? How you enjoy spending your leisure time and your relationships? Who do you get excited about connecting with? What do you create? What do you contribute? What lights you up? What do you get excited about?
IMPORTANT STEP: Take notes and capture your thoughts in your success journal.
STEP TWO
The second step is: “Absorb what is useful.”
After researching and noticing, what you like, and what works best for you… pull out the things that resonate with you and KEEP THEM!
These are the things that you keep and take with you. These are the things that bring usefulness in your life, bring you joy and will help you attract more of the same.
“Absorb” what is useful to you personally and professionally.
Forget about what society or those around you “do,” or think is “right.”
Your notes should capture moments that spark your interest and grab your attention. THIS IS ABOUT WHAT WORKS FOR YOU.
Capturing these moments and thoughts and feelings, will give you clues as to what should be guiding you to your path in life.
STEP THREE
The third step is “Reject what is useless.”
Ooooo… This is often the most difficult step. What are you going to get rid of? And look at that word… REJECT! What are you going to REJECT as useless?
In this step, you need to identify the things that are holding you back. At first glance, this doesn’t seem that difficult. But, look deeper. Some of the things that SERVED YOU IN THE PAST (your beliefs and behaviors) are not serving you any more.
Most people find it hard to really to really be HONEST about this one. That’s why, when you’re doing self-research, it’s important to pick out what is useful to your journey and leave behind what doesn’t work.
Honor what you do or have done, and what it’s given you, and taken you. And… give thanks to your brilliance for listening and following the path that has gotten you to here.
And… when you consider the “advice” from others, for your to “set” and “get” big goals, or you explore what the experts “say” you should be doing…
You do not have to take in ALL their advice. Pick what resonates with you and discard the rest.
If you don’t reject the useless in your life, you end up carrying excess “baggage” around with you that blocks your ability to do what is useful and interesting in your life.
Not letting go of this “crap” is like trying to climb up a mountain, with 15 huge bricks dragging on the ground behind you.
STEP FOUR
The final step is “Add what is essentially your own.”
This is all you baby. Your unique awesomeness.
Now you might be thinking… “What is essentially my own” mean?
Well, that’s a good question and it’s different for everyone. This is unique to YOU.
TRY THIS:
Listen & Feel. “Listen” to your inner voice. “Feel” what is right for you, with your heart, not your head. What speaks to you?
Trust yourself, and have the confidence to believe in yourself. What inspires you, moves you, motivates you personally?
Become the divining rod for your own experience. Pay attention to what ignites the spark within you.
This whole process is about radical trust in oneself.
If you are tuning into this podcast, it’s likely because you want “more.” You want to be more. Have more. And, contribute more.
You know there’s another level for you PERSONALLY and PROFESSIONALLY.
You’re probably looking for the path that calls to you so you can find your “secret to success.”
Maybe… for you, this quote, and researching your own experience is the secret.
Bruce Lee was able to simplify this into these four steps:
STEP ONE – Research your own experience.
STEP TWO – Absorb what is useful.
STEP THREE – Reject what is useless.
STEP FOUR – Add what is essentially your own.
It’s not complicated. (But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.)
The hardest part in this process might be adding what is essentially your own.
Why?
Let’s face it. Most of us go through life “pleasing” others and doing what we think we are “supposed” to do.
Applying Bruce’s philosophy can give you confidence to pursue our own destiny, driven by your own spirit and authentic self.
Think of it like this:
BE REAL.
In other words, TELL THE TRUTH. At least, and especially to, yourself.
BE RAW.
Don’t overthink it. Just be naked and authentic. Again, especially to, yourself.
TAKE A STAND.
Don’t settle or compromise. Stand for what you want and what you believe in.
Discover and understand yourself. The light and the dark within you. Come to understand and LOVE the harmony between the two.
Don’t judge yourself.
There is no condemnation in understanding.
Just observe.
Just look.
Just watch.
A perceiving mind is, “living, moving, and full of energy.”
As you go through the process and see what sparks you.
Good and bad.
Don’t judge. Just notice it. Explore it. Allow it.
Denying or judging something will not make it go away.
If you refuse to examine what TURNS YOU ON, and what HOLD YOU BACK, you will never be able to move beyond it.
ONE LAST STEP
The last step of all of these is ACTION.
It’s not enough to just sit back and “think” about something. You have to do the work.
You have to participate in your rescue. You were not put on this earth to be “saved” by anybody. You are all you’ve got. It’s YOU looking back at you in the mirror.
You. You. You.
ONE MORE THOUGHT:
Often times, people think that to “Add something that is essentially your own,” means you have to invent something new that doesn’t already exist.
The truth is that everything is built upon something else.
Bruce Lee cultivated this philosophy through reading other philosophers and examining the parts that spoke to him and his experience.
He was actively engaged in working through his ideas and experimenting on himself. He used himself as the compass to determine what was “essentially his own.” Become your own compass.
TAKE ACTION
Who is your mentor? Your other teachers? Philosophers? Authors? Who do you really connect with?
Make a list of those people.
What in that list of people draws you to them? What is it?
Remove your judgment. Don’t censor yourself. Take note of any thought or feeling that catches your interest throughout your day and write it down.
At the end of a few days, or a week, look at your notes. Notice what speaks to you.
And if you’d like to share, please chat-me-up on social media, and email me at support@trevorcrane.com.
SOME OF MY FAVORITE BRUCE LEE QUOTES
When I look around, I always learn something: to be always yourself, and to express yourself, to have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.
Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.
There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.
Forget about winning and losing; forget about pride and pain. Let your opponent graze your skin and you smash into his flesh; let him smash into your flesh and you fracture his bones; let him fracture your bones and you take his life. Do not be concerned with escaping safely — lay your life before him.
Jeet Kune Do favors formlessness so that it can assume all forms and since Jeet Kune Do has no style, it can fit in with all styles. As a result, Jeet Kune Do utilizes all ways and is bound by none and, likewise, uses any techniques which serve its end.
Truth has no path. Truth is living and, therefore, changing. Awareness is without choice, without demand, without anxiety; in that state of mind, there is perception. To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person. Awareness has no frontier; it is giving of your whole being, without exclusion.
In life, what more can you ask for than to be real? To fulfill one’s potential instead of wasting energy on [attempting to] actualize one’s dissipating image, which is not real and an expenditure of one’s vital energy. We have great work ahead of us, and it needs devotion and much, much energy. To grow, to discover, we need involvement, which is something I experience every day — sometimes good, sometimes frustrating. No matter what, you must let your inner light guide you out of the darkness.
I have come to discover through earnest personal experience and dedicated learning that ultimately the greatest help is self-help; that there is no other help but self-help— doing one’s best, dedicating one’s self wholeheartedly to a given task, which happens to have no end but is an ongoing process. I have done a lot during these years of my process. A swell in my process, I have changed from self-image actualization to self-actualization, from blindly following propaganda, organized truths, etc. to searching internally for the cause of my ignorance.
Whether or not we can get together, remember well that art “lives” where absolute freedom is. With all the training thrown to nowhere, with a mind (if there is such a verbal substance) perfectly unaware of its own working, with the “self” vanishing nowhere, the art of JKD attains its perfection.
You must have complete determination. The worst opponent you can come across is one whose aim has become an obsession. For instance, if a man has decided that he is going to bite off your nose no matter what happens to him in the process, the chances are he will succeed in doing it. He may be severely beaten up, too, but that will not stop him from carrying out his objective. That is the real fighter.
Walk on.
Faith makes it possible to achieve that which man’s mind can conceive and believe.
Thoughts are things.
Make at least one definite move daily toward your goal.
The intangible represents the real power of the universe. It is the seed of the tangible.
Emptiness the starting point. — In order to taste my cup of water you must first empty your cup. My friend, drop all your preconceived and fixed ideas and be neutral. Do you know why this cup is useful? Because it is empty.
Life is wide, limitless. There is no border, no frontier.
Life lives; and in the living flow, no questions are raised. The reason is that life is a living now! So, in order to live life whole-heartedly, the answer is life simply is.
The meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be traded and conceptualized and squeezed into a pattern of systems.
Meaning is found in relationship.
Life is never stagnation. It is constant movement, unrhythmic movement, as we as constant change. Things live by moving and gain strength as they go.
Life itself is your teacher, and you are in a state of constant learning.
The primary reality is not what I think, but that I live, for those also live who do not think.
To spend time is to pass it in a specified manner. To waste time is to expend it thoughtlessly or carelessly. We all have time to spend or waste, and it is our decision what to do with it. But once passed, it is gone forever.
Time means a lot to me because, you see, I, too, am also a learner and am often lost in the joy of forever developing and simplifying. If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.
Be aware of doing your best to understand the ROOT in life, and realize the DIRECT and the INDIRECT are in fact a complementary WHOLE. It is to see things as they are and not to become attached to anything — to be unconscious meant to be innocent of the working of a relative (empirical) mind — where there is no abiding of thought anywhere on anything — this is being unbound. This not abiding anywhere is the root of our life.
Concentration is the ROOT of all the higher abilities in man.
Seek to understand the root. — It is futile to argue as to which single leaf, which design of branch, or which attractive flower you like; when you understand the root, you understand all its blossoming.
A self-willed man obeys a different law, the one law I, too, hold absolutely sacred — the human law in himself, his own individual will.
One should be in harmony with, not in opposition to, the strength and force of the opposition. This means that one should do nothing that is not natural or spontaneous; the important thing is not to strain in any way.
What you HABITUALLY THINK largely determines what you will ultimately become.
Know the difference between a catastrophe and an inconvenience. — To realize that it’s just an inconvenience, that it is not a catastrophe, but just an unpleasantness, is part of coming into your own, part of waking up.
The change is from inner to outer. — We start by dissolving our attitude not by altering outer conditions.
Choose the positive. — You have choice — you are master of your attitude — choose the POSITIVE, the CONSTRUCTIVE. Optimism is a faith that leads to success.
Cease negative mental chattering. — If you think a thing is impossible, you’ll make it impossible. Pessimism blunts the tools you need to succeed.
A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.
Don’t fear failure. — Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.
MY MISSION:
1 – To help you become RICH and HAPPY.
2 – To empower you to design your IDEAL BUSINESS, so you can live your IDEAL LIFE.
3 – To create 1,000 new authors by 2019.
If you want to become IRRESISTIBLE to your ideal target client, and massively grow your leads sales and revenue, I can help you craft a book that becomes your most powerful marketing tool, in 90-days or less.
For details visit: EpicAuthor.com
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to another episode of greatness quest. This is Trevor Crane. And today is a video episode.
And this is a special episode because today is the last of our daily dose of greatness quest for a little while. Ooh oh dizzy, I’m dizzy because I’m spinning around in the chair right now. I’m in my office.
The subject for today is adapt what is useful. We’re going to get into that in detail here so you can see why we’re changing the format and potentially pausing the daily dose greatness quest for a while. I think you’re going to love this show.
(INTRO – AUDIO)
Alright, so welcome back again. Today the subject is ADAPT WHAT IS USEFUL. In fact, I’ve got that from a Bruce Lee quote, “Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless and add what is specifically your own.”
Now here’s the thing. Just the other day, I was at the gym. This was actually last week. I was at the gym and I was working out with my new fitness instructor and he was helping me just basically. I haven’t hired a personal trainer ever to work out in the gym. I always thought I knew how to work out.
And so instead he said, “Trevor, you’ve been doing a really good job. But the truth is that if you want to get stronger and look bigger and build bigger muscles and whatnot. You need to change your workout routine. What you’re doing right now has given you the results you’ve gotten. It’s really good. But if you want to take things to the next level, you’re going to need to make some changes.”
So he gave me different exercises. He gave me a different nutrition schedule. And what happened is I wanted to shift it and push it and change. And in fact, one day I rode my bike to the gym. And then I worked out with him for an hour. And he was telling me to not work as hard as I was as I wanted to like my in the past.
I used to do an exercise and he used to push push, push, push, push, and like try to push through it and he said, That’s not what I’m supposed to do. I he has been working on with less weight, doing fewer reps.
I work out for an hour, which is unique because in the past I’ve done a lot of 20 minute workouts, but he said for the results that I want. He wanted me to do things differently. And so not only that I ride my bike to the gym but I worked out with him for an hour and I listened.
And honestly, sometimes the exercises I was doing I’ve done before, but I had to just modify by a little bit like 5%, 2%, 10% like change, leave everything the same, but just changed my breathing.
After that, I went to private tennis lessons, because I think you’ve if you’ve been following my podcast at all, you know that I hadn’t actually played sports for a long time, not since I was in high school. And so I decided to start playing sports again. And I started tennis lessons.
And so I’ve got private tennis lessons. And I went to that class. And now that’s right into the gym on the bike. We’re hanging out for an hour. Now, going to tennis lessons in tennis lessons aren’t that challenging, a little bit of cardio or whatnot.
But it’s like more of teaching me how to swing a tennis racket because I’m really a bad player. I’m a little athletic but I’m not that good of a player. Next thing I did was joined cardio Tennis Now cardio tennis that is running around.
What ended up happening is I worked out for three and a half hours one day and I talked to my fitness trainer just yesterday. And he said, “Trevor, you realize that all that extra cardio and all that extra work on that two and a half hours worth of extra work that you just did, you basically negated all the value of muscle building exercise that we just gave you, Trevor.”
In this example, LESS IS MORE. He’s like many of my clients, are pushing too hard. They’re doing, they’re they’re not, they’re doing too much of the right thing which ends up sabotaging their value.
So here is the focus for today you might notice that it’s kind of weird like why am I walking around my office right now in house with a selfie stick? Why do I keep having this picture of Bruce Lee behind me? Because the art of Jeet Kune Do or whatever it is that the Bruce Lee called his martial art is. His vision was to find what worked and to reject everything else.
So as I look at the value of what I wanted to bring you with this podcast and why it’s started this podcast in the first place. The truth is, is that in order to use what works and adapt it to my personal style, it is time to take a break from this podcast.
And so I’m not sure how long I’m going to break right now. I think I’m going to come back with a few more episodes. But there is the birth of something new and something big that is coming.
And the truth is, is that this podcast needs to change. It needs to shift to help you get more and help you create more value and to help you take your life and business to the next level, which has been my mission when I got this whole thing started.
So in honor of Bruce Lee, one of my new heroes, and in fact, what I’m going to do is, I’m going to pick some of my favorite Bruce Lee quotes. I could probably I could have, you could have a whole seminar on any one of his quotes.
But if you look at today’s show notes, I’m going to go ahead and have a whole bunch of them there. And I think they’re powerful, they’re inspiring. I’m going to find more ways that we can use these in our future so we can have them.
But I wanted to give you the gift of the, this adapting what works for you and rejecting something else in your life rejecting the things that don’t work, and then modifying things to your specific style because that was the quote of the day that I just read to you from Bruce Lee.
And my challenge for you is to go ahead and think about what is it that you need to start. What is it that you need to stop? What are the big changes that you need to make to get this next level of awesomeness that you’re going to give the world?
What I also did yesterday is I had a conversation with one of my business mentors and we talked about what’s next this big things that’s coming and then there was an explosion. So if you’re looking at this, you can see my floor is covered with this new vision of what I’m going to create.
This is like the war room in my house that I come up here to to teach podcasts and trainings and different things but you can see like I have just gone nuts on creating what is coming next. So something big is coming. And I know big things are coming for you as well. But you’ve got to make space for it.
One of the quotes that I also love by Bruce Lee is he talks about a cup of tea. Like if one of the most valuable things for this cup to be useful is that it’s empty. Because if until it’s empty, you can’t taste anything else other than what you’ve already got. You’ve got to first empty your cup of tea.
And as we’re looking, I’m coming into my primary office. That is a 12 month calendar behind me. There are big things coming in my life. I don’t know what the new big things are for you, that are coming.
But I do know that I wasted over 20 years to not publish my first book. I didn’t want to wait one more day or one more minute to pause what I’m currently doing to go ahead and adapt what is useful and then apply something else so hopefully you’re going to find some value from today’s show in and of itself, and stay tuned for what’s coming.
I think I’m bringing this podcast back for a few more episodes to round it off and have it be absolutely amazing. But there will be a pause to the daily dose of greatness quest. You know what, I’ve got 200 episodes. If you haven’t, if you’ve already seen, I can’t imagine that you’ve listened to or watch them all.
So I’m going to invite you to go back and if you want more value from Trevor Crane’s awesomeness, that is cool. Go check them out. But for right now we’re going to pause and I’m going to come back with even more power, passion and clarity.
And I can’t wait to share with you what’s next. We’re going to take all of that madness and craziness and all the craziness. Like if I if I could, like I should start drawing on my walls ever on my wall should be whiteboards. I’ve never get anything done because that’d be creating all the time.
Hopefully I’m going to connect with you again here really soon. And it’s going to give you some value and there is Allie bringing rendering. Thank you, Ali. That looks like some some some juice some carrot juice right there. I think that’s what that is.
And so I look forward to serving you and to connecting with you again soon. And it’s not like I’m going away. And like I’m disappearing, I’m just doing a massive shift and what we’re going to do to change and as you can tell, I’m giving you a lot bigger view of my background here.
There’s a whole bunch of craziness going on in my life personally and professionally. And I can’t wait to share some of that with you. And again, hold on, let’s bring this back to you. Because this isn’t about me, you’re here hopefully to help take your life and business to the next level.
You’re here because you have great things inside of you that it’s time to go ahead and pull out and and to make and to make real thoughts are truly things. So I don’t know what you need to turn on or turn off.
But let’s go ahead and take this moment of hiatus of planning of creating the right plan so that we can go promote and then create what we want most. We need a plan of clarity about what we want so we can go talk about and promote and live that which we want to create in and give.
That’s actually part of my epic author publishing steps of creating a blueprint than the bland than performing and and and produced and promoting and sharing them with the world and then creating some cool shit.
So I can’t wait to see you on our next episode of greatness quest. I’m not sure when it’s coming so stay tuned. And I can’t wait to go ahead and see you and support you on taking life of business to the next level. I’ll see you soon.
To get even more awesomeness, which means all my best stuff, download my app by texting Trevor to 36260. It will show up right on your cell phone.