Click here to listen to Ep. 19- Erased From Existence
The transcript for Ep. 19- Erased From Existence
So back in the winter, our family was on a four month, nearly four month trip out west. We spent three months in Arizona. We were exploring, we were hiking, we were just enjoying a winter away from Pennsylvania. We’ve done that the last couple of years looking to get a place out there now to kind of split time and travel out west more. But it finally happened one of the days that we were out there, Andrew, our oldest son and I went for a hike at South Mountain Park outside of Tempe. We spent a good portion of our day hiking and then we drove back and as we drove back, on the other side of the road was a DeLorean, like not just any DeLorean but an exact replica of the DeLorean, from the Back to the Future movies. So when I saw this, any dad, anybody I think would do this, I spun around, did a quick u-turn and I got into the other lane where I get to pull up right next to it.
And as I got to pull up next to it, I could take pictures of it cause we were at a stoplight together and it’s just some dude sitting there and you could see the flux capacitor in the car, and you could see all the stuff in the back of the car. He did it exactly like the car from the movie. So we’re taking pictures, it says DeLorean on it, it’s got the whole thing going and we’re all jacked up about it. And of course after that we’ve got to go home and we’ve got to do a Back to the Future movie night. So Andrew and I go home, we tell the kids and Elizabeth what happened. So of course they agree we’ve got to do Back to the Future movie night. We chose Back to the Future III that night and it was a fantastic ending to a great night.
But a couple of days later I was talking to David Rhodes, a great part of our mastermind group. And he was telling me about the things that he gets stuck on and the things he knows he needs to do, but he just sometimes just doesn’t get it done. Something else becomes more priority. He doesn’t see really what will go wrong if he doesn’t do it. He just kind of moves on to the next thing. And I thought about that movie and I started telling the story because in every Back to the Future movie, Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox has a picture with him and as things start going the way they shouldn’t be going, the picture starts fading. Like his family members start fading from the picture and even he starts fading from the picture, basically erasing them from existence. And that was doc Brown’s line, throughout the movie often is a erased from existence.
So I started talking to him about, so I wanted to explain this to David and in terms of something that he might not be seeing here. Now when you’re procrastinating on what you need to do today, you don’t really see any harm in it. Like because life goes on and no real big deal happens from you not doing the work today. Like, yeah, maybe life’s okay, maybe life’s great, maybe life sucks at this moment, but there’s no real thing that you’re going to miss out on doing the work that’s going to benefit you in the future. You don’t really see it. But I said, I want to picture three years from now, is what I asked about, I want you to picture something that you really want three years from now. And he’s like, oh, Italy. And I was like, okay, Italy. He wants to spend long trips with his family in Italy.
And I’m talking about the food, and he’s talking about the artwork. He wants to take his kids around and show them the magnificent artwork in Italy that they can see, that they can understand, they can appreciate. And I said, okay, that’s perfect. And I want you to look ahead, and I want you to think of all those memories. Now I want you to think about that trip in Italy, and I want you to think about the experiences you’ve had with your kids, and the bonding moments that you had, and the memories that were made, the memories that those kids will never forget the pictures that you took, right? While you’re in Italy, while you’re walking around and you’re in the museums and you’re doing all this stuff and at the hotel, I want you to remember all those things, those things that are going to propel your kids forward, that when they’re adults and when their grandparents, they get to tell these stories that you guys did together as a family, okay?
I want you to think about that. I want you to think about the impact that that’s going to have on your family. So I said, okay, now I want you to look at that picture and I’ll want you to start seeing that picture fading. I want you to start seeing your kids fading from that picture, like they’re kind of becoming opaque, now you’re becoming opaque. We’re able to see through you a little bit more. You’re starting to fade away, and those memories are being erased. They’re literally being erased as you speak. And why is that? They’re erased because you didn’t do the work now that you needed to do to get to go on that trip three years from now. You’re envisioning that, you’re envisioning that as something that you really want, but if you don’t do the work now, when you don’t think you need it, you’re never going to have that trip.
You’re never going to have those memories. You’re never going to have your kids having those experiences that they can pass on, that they can grow from, that they can learn from that make them feel so special that bonded your family together. You’re erasing it. You’re literally erasing it by not doing the work now, so what you see as unmotivated or undedicated is this not for David, this is for all of us. If you feel like procrastinating now, if you feel like not doing what needs to get done because it can wait til later, you are literally erasing from existence, your future life that you really want. You are erasing those memories with your kids. That vacation you want to do in two years to Paris or out to California, or wherever it is, when you don’t do it, when it doesn’t get done, you go, oh, life just got in the way.
Or you know how it is, the economy sucks or whatever that is. No, you are basically right now erasing that from your existence because you’re not doing the work today. And when you think about that, what am I doing that for? What am I replacing it with? Netflix, doing nothing, scrolling on Facebook, whatever it is, whatever you’re doing to not do the work that’s going to propel you to the dream that you want in a year, three years, five years from now. You’re erasing that from existence by not doing the work today. So do the work today even though you don’t feel like you really probably need it cause you’re okay, you do need it for your future and for their future. So there you go. If you like what we’re talking about here, if you want to hear more of it, if you haven’t gotten it, go to the link on our website, totallifefreedom.com/f2fbook. There’s the free audio download from my book, Freelance to Freedom. It is totally free if you want to listen to it. All the stories of our life, how we built this life and how we help other people do it as well. There you go, I will talk to you all tomorrow.