Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The podcast that teaches tweens and teens necessary life skills to achieve their goals, develop unconditional confidence, cultivate positive habits and become UNSTOPPABLE in all areas of life!
Will (00:00.194)
What's good y'all. Welcome back to another episode of the Unstoppable You podcast. It's your host, Coach Will. And if you're not already subscribed to this podcast, then what are we doing? Come on, hit subscribe so you don't miss out on another episode. Appreciate you guys for being here. Let's lock in. As you can see from this podcast title, kind of a crazy idea. You know, people have been asking me, Will, what are you cooking up in your head right now with this podcast title? What can we learn from dogs?
Like what can a human learn from a dog and apply to their life and have it actually improve their life? Maybe it makes them happier. Maybe it makes them more confident. I was on a walk with my beloved Australian shepherd. He's six years old and his name is Dash. I will say I named him Dash because I wanted him to be a runner with me. Like I had this dream of like, we're gonna, we're gonna run marathons together, you know.
He's gonna run with me. He's gonna be my partner in crime and all those things. He is my partner in crime, but let me just say he does not run. I should not, let's just say he doesn't live up to his name. He and I were on a walk and it was a beautiful fall day and I looked down at him and bro, I swear he's got like the biggest smile on his face. Like if dogs could smile, like you know what I'm talking about. If you have a dog, they like low key smile at you. You know, they're like really happy.
And he was just like looking up at me. He was just smiling. And I thought to myself, dang, Dash, like, it doesn't look like you have many worries in the world right now. It doesn't look like you, you know, stressed out about a bunch of stuff. And it made me think on this walk. I mean, I spent like 50 minutes, y'all, just thinking through what else can I learn from this dog? Like, why are you the way that you are? And how can I apply some of that to my life? I look at like kids.
as an example, like little toddlers. If you guys ever hang out with like, maybe you've got a little brother, a little sister, I've got a nephew that's like almost two years old. And they are just like, there's so much that we can learn from little babies and kids and then also animals. And so I put together a list of things that I actually want to learn from my dog and I put it into a podcast and that's kind of what you're listening to right now. Okay. So enough yapping. These are things that I
Will (02:22.944)
really encourage you to practice in your own life, inspired by the one and only overweight Australian Shepherd, probably on the other side of the world, other side of the country named Dash. right. And by the way, if you have a dog yourself, or maybe you have like a cat, mean, let's be real, like cats aren't going to teach it teach a crap, you know, I'm sorry, you're cat person, but sometimes all cats teach me is how to be crazy, selfish and egotistic. JK, JK, but
If you have a dog, look down at your dog and be like, yo, what can I learn from you today? I think it's kind of a cool way to live. It's just like a curious heart. So the first thing is living in the present. This is kind of what I noticed. Dash really doing well. I don't even know if he knows to do anything else. It's like he's fully engulfed in the present moment. He's not thinking about the future. He's not thinking about the past. The only time he is, he's probably just thinking about food.
for the most part, right? He is fully in the present moment. And that's what we should do as much as we possibly can. I think in our culture, there are so many things trying to take us away from the present moment, like distractions, maybe it's comparison, maybe it's just overthinking. We are obsessed with trying to plan out certain conversations that we have with friends. We are so obsessed with living in the future and living in the past that we are really just kind of overthinking.
On autopilot, we are stressed, we are anxious, we are nervous, and all of that is kind of our natural state, right? At least that's what it feels like. And so the more that we can reel in our attention and anytime that we get stressed out about the future, just ask ourselves, what can I control right now? Like in this present moment? What is good in this present moment? My dog was not thinking about.
you know, eating when he was walking, he was looking out and he was just smelling the stuff, whatever they like to smell. He was just looking at the trees being like, dang, that's a pretty tree. And so that's what I learned. OK, that's that's all I got. OK, that's the first thing. The second thing is to show up with enthusiasm. think this is one of those ones that I think took a little bit more thought for me. But I feel like any time that I walk in the door, mean, Dash.
Will (04:44.546)
He's really lazy. Like I said, he's a little bit overweight. But when I like walk in the door and walk into his room where he's laying and sleeping, he gets so excited. And I feel like we can learn from that. We need to be a little bit more enthusiastic. I always say it's more of a choice than we realize to be in a good mood. Like it's we can choose more often than we think to just be in a good mood and chat. This is stuff that I got to work on.
Ton and this is again why I'm making this podcast because I'm like coaching myself of how Dash can coach me and other dogs It's like I need to be in a good mood on purpose more often How do we do that? Well, we just catch negative thoughts and We just say I'm not gonna let that negative thought impact my mood and I know it sounds really simple and it sounds really easy But it's actually pretty simple and pretty easy
It's like, can I reject some of the negative stuff that I'm thinking every morning? And how can I just choose to be in a good mood on purpose? Like asking yourself in the morning, what if today ended up being a really good day? When you start asking that question, you're gonna start looking for different ways for today to be a really good day. And that leads me to number three is what I think dogs do really well is they...
find a lot of joy in the mundane things. If you don't know what mundane means, it just means like the everyday things, the very normal things, right? I've never seen something so dang excited to eat or to do something. I've never seen something so excited. I've never seen something as excited as my dog go and pee in the morning knowing that he can...
come back and eat his food. He eats his food, the same food. He doesn't got like a variety of foods like we have. Like I just ate two Oreos, know, shout out Oreos. I think they're by far the best cookie ever created. Double stuffed. Okay, so if you guys are on my team there, then just know I love you. Okay. They don't have a variety of food. They can't just eat Oreos whenever they want. They can't eat a steak. They can't eat an awesome salad. They can't eat, like they eat the same dang food every single day, twice a day.
Will (07:06.07)
And they still get really excited for it because they just find joy in the mundane things. So maybe it's, you know, taking a hot shower. That's something that I find joy in, especially in the winter. But if I am not intentional, if I'm not like actively thinking, dang, like I'm lucky to take a shower. I am really enjoying heating up in the shower right now. Then I just kind of go through the motions and I don't find any joy in it.
If we want to be happier, the goal is not necessarily to do more things that make us happy. It's to find happiness in the things that we do every single day. And I want you to really think about that. Like what if instead of doing more things that bring you happiness, sure, that's really important. I definitely recommend doing that as well. But what if we had the perspective that I need to just find more joy in the things that I'm doing every single day, like eating.
and taking hot showers and petting my dog, going for walks, going to track practice, basketball practice, drawing, right? Hanging out with my friends. The more we can find happiness and joy and gratitude, I know it's kind of a cringey word, which is crazy because I think it's kind of the key to life. The more we can find gratitude in the things that we're already doing, then the more we're kind of like living like a dog. You know what saying? And I'm saying that's a really good thing. OK.
So those three things, some honorable mentions that I had thought about is being super loyal and consistent. Dogs are steady. They show up every single day. And that's the kind of person that other people want in their corner. So the more that you can be consistent for other people and loyal, then the more people are gonna wanna be around you. And I think good things will happen. I don't think good things will happen. I know good things will happen. Another thing that my dog does really, really well, like if I mess up,
And maybe I don't, I don't know, God forbid I don't feed him, you know, in the morning, maybe I just forget because I got a podcast or something here. Maybe I.
Will (09:15.668)
And another thing that I feel like my dog does really well, I'm really grateful for him doing this, he forgives me really quickly. If I yell at him because I don't know, he's doing something that deserves to be yelled at, like getting into the trash, I yell at him and he feels really bad, I forgive him way slower than he forgives me for yelling at him. And so being quick to forgive, dogs don't hold grudges.
you maybe for other dogs, if they have some, you know, they have some trauma with other dogs, like maybe they remember that, but they typically move on really fast. And I think they have taught me that holding on to resentment, whether it's with friends or whether it's with, you know, your pets or whatever, like it only hurts you, right? So being quick to forgive, being loyal and consistent, finding joy in little things for
showing up with enthusiasm and also just living in the present. Those are all things that I've learned from my dog. I encourage you to kind of ask yourself, like, bro, looking at your dog, like, what can I learn from him? What can I learn from her? You know you love him. So like ask yourself why and then try to like create a game for yourself to apply some of the things that you're learning from your dog or whatever, whatever pet you have and apply it to your life.
That is the crazy episode that I have for you today. I hope you guys have the best day ever. Go take your dog for a long walk. Make sure you pick up their poop and I'll talk to you in the next episode. Peace.