What's on Your Bookshelf?
“What’s On Your Bookshelf” is a personal and professional growth podcast exploring the intersections of passion, potential, and purpose - featuring multi-certified coach and leadership development consultant Denise R. Russo alongside Sam Powell, Zach Elliott, Tom Schweizer, Dennis LaRue, and Michelle King.
What's on Your Bookshelf?
133 UnF Yourself: Wake Up, Let Go, Move Forward
We explore how “expect nothing, accept everything” shifts us from rumination to action, drawing on Stoic ideas, happiness research, and candid stories from work and home. The theme is simple: lower the grip of outcomes, raise ownership in the present, and move.
• why hidden expectations derail progress and mood
• solving the reality–expectation gap without toxic positivity
• Inside Out as a model for reframing and presence
• attention bias and choosing what to notice
• work examples where titles and mind reading fail
• using positive intent and direct asks with leaders
• rituals to reduce digital clutter and anxiety
• Amor Fati, Epictetus, and practical Stoicism at work
• turning insight into action with present-tense steps
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Welcome to What's on Your Bookshelf, a life and leadership podcast where we live out loud the pages of the books that are on our shelves. With your host, Denise Russo and Sam Powell.
SPEAKER_02:Hi everyone. Welcome back to another episode of What's on Your Bookshelf. This is our Life and Leadership podcast where we're living out loud the pages of the books that are on our bookshelves. My name is Denise Russo. My co-host and friend is Sam Powell. Together, we are sharing with you our thoughts and insights in the book called Unf Yourself. It's a New York Times bestseller about how you get out of your head and really get into the life that you want. It's written by Gary John Bishop, and we only have two chapters left before this book is done. I can't even believe this one went so fast.
SPEAKER_01:I know. And I wrote, like, I don't know, when I started this one, I just, I didn't really have any expectations for it, but I've really, really gotten a lot out of it. Like it's it's not a very long book. It's a super easy read. And it just like has so much gold all throughout it. Like you can tell this guy has been a life coach for a very long time. Like he has helped people through a lot of things because it just, it's just like nugget after nugget after nugget all throughout this. And again, like I think it's come really nicely after The Obstacle is the way, because that one was about like ancient stoic wisdom, lessons from history, right? Like all this sort of stuff. And it was, I don't know, it felt like it was on a little bit of a different wavelength, like maybe deeper and slower, where this one is like fast to the point, like it's almost like it's you took a minute to get really like deep into wisdom, and now you're in the uh higher gear to just get going, right? Like get moving, get you know, get pushing forward. So yeah, I really like this book, and it has gone super fast, but I think it's because it feels like it functions in a higher gear for me.
SPEAKER_02:I think this one feels like a guy covered up to slapping you in their face and saying, Wake the F up and talk. He's like no holds bars, he's very aggressive, he doesn't bite his tongue, and he pretty much doesn't allow excuses. And I think that's what's good about this book is that you can go through all the dreaming and create better habits and living a happy life and following the wisdom of John Wooden and intentional living with John Maxwell. And yet this is saying, great, you've got all the tools now. Wake up, take some action, get your feet moving, stop making excuses. He even says that at the beginning of this chapter chapter, which is don't be deceived by the title of this chapter, which is I expect nothing and accept everything. He goes on to say that here's the reality. If you can imagine your situation, imagine if that you have had this dream, whatever the dream was, you decided that you wanted to maybe be your own boss or control your own schedule or build something that could make a difference in the world that you're proud of. And maybe that's a major life accomplisher for you that you want that. So if you can imagine that that's what you want, that's your dream, and then you couple it with, well, what's it gonna take? Like we talked last week about if that's your why, then what and how do you do what you do to get the thing? And so he says it takes hard work and determination and a plan, which I know you like, the planning part to be able to get this together. And so you've got the idea, you've got the plan, you've taken the action, and it is not easy, it's not easy. And so, what is it that you need to do to make sure that you get to the point where it's finally like, ah, I I got the thing. Was it really the thing I wanted? Was it worth all that to get to where I am now?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, definitely. And this one, I think I enjoyed this chapter so much more because we read Solve for Happy and because we read The Obstacle is the way. Because this is those some of the core concepts from those two books slam together into this like mantra that you tell yourself, right? Of like, I ex I I expect nothing, right? Which comes, I think, from Solve Happy, like not doesn't this doesn't come from Sol for Happy, but it really like plays on the Soul for Happy piece of it, and I accept everything, which I think really plays on the obstacle, you know, is the way, right? Like you have these dreams, you have this, you know, this thing that you're saying, and then all this stuff comes up and the expectations don't match reality, and all of a sudden you're spiraling, yes, instead of just accepting it, and you know, and moving forward. And I think, right, so with the Sol for Happy, he said that, you know, really the happiness equation is that reality meets expectation, right? Like what you expect is really what happens. And so if you release a lot of the expectations and you allow that to be much more nebulous, it doesn't mean you don't go pursue things, but you sort of let go of the results of it, then you sit in happiness or you come back to happiness much faster when you know the inevitable dips and you know things happen. And you know, I think that that is, you know, really what he talks about is like expecting the expected, like expecting things to pop up, expecting things to go wrong helps you just move with them, move forward.
SPEAKER_02:I think a lot of that also comes from the how of happiness, which was the first book we did in the series. Was it last year? Was that two? That was two years, two years ago. So last year, the first book was The How of Happiness, and basically the gist of it is things can be going well. You know, you've got the train moving on the tracks, but then boom, something happens. That is life, that is real life. And so if you can find a way to get outside of the thing that happened, that it didn't happen to you, but it's something that can maybe happen through you because of the experience. That book combined with obstacle is the way, it were the books that I think for me also, like you said, are relevant here because he says you can have all the checklists you want as you're building your business or you're you're building your career at your company, or you're planning a vacation, or you're moving to a new community or something. All the checklist items can be there, but then something Murphy's Law will happen. Something will happen, and so now things go sideways. Maybe um you were planning to move, and we were watching Inside Out yesterday, the Pixar movie by Disney. And in the first scene, there's a situation where the family is moving to uh San Francisco, and the little girl, it's a um um a little girl who doesn't have any brothers or sisters, just mom and a dad. They move to this new place, they walk into the house, she doesn't like how it looks, and she's feeling down because she misses her friends, and they get there, and so she goes into her room and she notices that the room is dirty, there's spider webs, and it doesn't look like she wants your room to be. But she sits there for a moment and joy, which is one of the emotions, helps her to envision well, what could this look like? So she starts dreaming up what the room could look like and where she could put her toys and her books and her stuff. And she's a hockey player, so where could she put her sticks and her trophies and things like that? So then what happens is she goes downstairs all excited to get to the moving truck to bring her things upstairs because she was upset, but now she's happy again. She goes downstairs to get her things, and boom, the moving truck isn't going to be here for a couple more days. And now she sees her parents have sadness, and that's another emotion in the movie. So the parents are sad and confused and a little angry, and there those emotions are cropping up, and she decides to do something about it. So what she does is she grabs like a piece of trash and her hockey stick and she starts to play out like you would love this from a sports perspective, Sam. They play out this scene where she and her dad start playing hockey and hitting um like stuff into the fireplace because there's no furniture, there's no distractions, there's no obstacles, there's just this big giant room. And they end the scene really by laughing and just realizing that it's in the moment that they're together that matters more than the furniture or the situation of not having the moving truck there. And so this chapter is really, really touching on that that things may not always go so smoothly, but you can't then say, yeah, well, I knew this would probably happen. I knew this bad thing, nothing good can really ever happen in my life. And I get caught up in that too, where I might have something really good happen in life and I start to think, is this a trick? Should this really good thing really be happening right now? Or should I just wait around the corner? Something's lurking that's not gonna be good.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I think I think we get caught up in that, and then all we do is we find the negative things, right? Like I'll see that happen with people where they're like, this one thing goes wrong in the day, and then it's like the rest of the day is just shot because it's like, well, this thing went wrong, and so none that are looking for all the things that will go wrong. You're paying attention to, right? It's that I forget what the official bias is called, but it's the it's like attention bias. Like when you buy a red car, all you start to notice is red cars, right? And so it's the same thing when you are paying attention to the negative things, all you see is the negative things, right? You literally like, well, I just should have known that this would have gone wrong. I shouldn't have known, like, right, should have been able to anticipate it. It's like, no, like the odds of this happening aren't that great. Like, you can't know that, but it's like, so what are you gonna do about it, right? Like, just set that expectation aside because that's what's keeping you unhappy, right? My day was supposed to go. You and I talked before we got on. I was supposed to, my daughter goes to daycare and they sent her home uh because they thought she was sick. She was definitely not sick. And so I spent the whole day on Monday home with a very happy, very energetic baby and got zero things done, right? And so I had a choice in that moment of saying, Oh, my whole day was ruined, all the things I'm supposed to do for the week, like this is all terrible. Is all that true? Like, yep. Am I behind? Yep, but whatever. I got this really nice day with my daughter. We, you know, we had extra snuggle time, extra playtime, you know, have some cute pictures I wouldn't have had, right? Like all this sort of good stuff. And it's like, it's not this like toxic posity of like, oh, let's turn this around into something positive. It's like let's just stop focusing on the negative, right? Like this is what it is, and so let's just move forward with it.
SPEAKER_02:It's the whole idea, I think we've talked about this before about you can't change the things that are outside of your control. And if you expect what is as it is, he talks about how there's this world of hidden expectations and there's these cracks and crevices hidden in the foundation of our best laid plans. Those best laid plans can kick can kill potential ideas and things like that. And so you never know what the hidden expectations are. So if you have places in your life where you've had disappointments, resentments, regret, suppression, anger, lethargy, and then he says essentially anywhere you're deflated or have lost some sort of personal chutzpah or suppressed emotions, then any place where you're not yourself, if you look there long enough, you'll see that the reality of that part of your life is in some way short of the scenario you ant anticipated it would be. And so you thought of some dreamed up thought in your mind that you were going to have this other scenario, but this is your scenario, right? You know, and so how do you live within that? Because there's maybe an unmet expectation that's in there, and you don't know what beauty can come from living inside of what you can control and living in the moments. I have a friend, and she recently she lives out of out of state, went to college with her, and we've uh maintained our friendship because she found out about Olivia. She collects shoes, she's a school teacher in her classroom every year. Collect shoes for Olivia. So we've stayed in touch on just different things in life. And so she contacted me the other day and she said, Hey, I'm gonna be in town. And she knew nothing about what's going on in my personal life, like with my my mom right now. And my mom is experiencing some different things as she's aging. But this friend said, I'm gonna be in town. Don't you live by Orlando? And I said, Well, yeah, I do. I actually do live near Orlando. And she said, No, because I always see these pictures of you at Disney World. And she says, I'm gonna be in town because my uh my parents, my father is um experiencing some aging issues and I need to come attend to some of that. But I thought, hey, if you're in Orlando, I really want some happiness before I leave to go back home. And if I'm gonna go spend the day at Disney, I thought, who better to spend it with than you? And I thought, well, gosh, I love that you said that because I would love to go to Disney World. And if I'm associated with, I want to be happy, let me call Denise and go to Disney World. That makes me happy. Yeah. And so what she didn't know though was that I think, and it hasn't happened yet. We're meeting on Saturday. And so what she doesn't know yet, I think, is that we're gonna likely experience not just happiness, but some part of finding joy and sadness, which is this experience of what our parents are enduring as they get older, and we, as their children, adult children, are watching them transition and change and those types of things. And so, again, her expectation was just to meet me and go have fun. My expectation is, oh, I heard what you said about your dad. And my expectation is we're gonna talk a little bit about that. And my my ultimate expectation is we're gonna come back from Saturday, even stronger friends than we were before, all because we have an experience that we are taking an action on to see one another. Now, something could happen, right? Like she could say, I got sick, I didn't come, or oh, my dad needs me, or my mom needs me. We don't know. But if we let go of that and just say, it would be great if this dream comes to pass on Saturday. But if it doesn't, it doesn't mean that your life is bad. It just means that your life is now taking a different turn.
SPEAKER_01:Right, right. And um, I think that the line in here that I really like is like your your problems don't derail you, your hidden expectations do, right? Like our problems aren't our problems, it's our reaction to our problems that are the real problems. And I love that you're I love that she associates joy with you and with Disney World, and that just sounds lovely. And uh it's funny, I was just telling my son I was he was like, I want to go to Disney World. And I was like, We we'll know at some point. I was like, I won't we do. I know somebody who knows everything about the park. So he's like, Oh, do you think she'd show us around? I was like, uh, without a doubt. But you know, but you're right, like I, you know, you're you've got this expectation of like you're probably gonna also address this other thing. And you know that like in the obstacles, in the hard parts of life, there's depth and there's connection in that, right? Like, we don't we deepen our relationships by facing the hard things together, right? But we don't set that expectation a lot of times. Like, I think about that with like romantic partnerships all the time, right? Like it's like, oh, we're gonna fall in love, we're gonna have happily ever after, blah blah like right, we've all been sold this like fairy tale. But like anybody who's been married for you know five minutes will tell you it's a lot of work, but the more you turn towards each other, the more you work on those problems together, right? Like you face that, there's this depth that comes to these relationships. And I think that's true in any partnership, but you see it, I think, the most in romantic partnerships, like of just this like, if we work through this, if we turn, if we have the fight instead of not having the fight, right? Then on the other side of it is depth, but we don't have that expectation. We have this expectation of like, oh yeah, this lovely, happy, you know, 70-year marriage and blah, blah, blah. Like, that's not it. And so then when we see that difference of like, I expect to be happy with this person, and you're like, on all of a sudden, I like kind of want to stab this person a little bit, like, you know, then it's you have this like huge space that it's like if you could remove that expectation and know that in all that goodness and in all that depth and in that hardness is where real connection, real joy then comes from. Like, wouldn't you just change, like, wouldn't you chase after that from the beginning? Wouldn't that be the expectation from the beginning, right? If you really could embrace that and know that. And I think that that's what he's getting at is just don't have the like let go of expectations and just deal with the things that are in front of you, right? Just get in there and and figure it out.
SPEAKER_02:I think from a professional side, Sam, if you take what you just described and you look at it through the lens of organizational and talent development, it's the same, right? Like, how many unmet expectations do people have of their people leader? Oftentimes somebody has a title, and like John Maxwell says in the five levels of leadership, your title just gets you in the door. It doesn't keep you there. But some people get so caught up in what somebody's title is, they have an expectation that that person is already a good leader, that they have the right morals and values and ethics, that they know everything they need to know about everything, and that they're gonna solve the world's problems. And that person at the end of the day still goes home. They still use the bathroom. They likely have issues that are going on with their own personal life. And we have these expectations we set up because we we maybe idolize or put people on a pedestal because of a title, and and and vice versa, right? Like sometimes there could be somebody on the team that has a lower title but isn't getting invited to the table. I have this one client right now, and she's a lower level uh leader, but she wants the opportunity so badly to be seen and to add value and to feel important. And once she was able to feel comfortable enough to have that difficult conversation with her leader around the scenario, the leader was like, oh my gosh, like I think you're amazing. I never realized that I was the one that was blocking you from having these opportunities. And it went from her going from feeling like in tears, like, I need to quit my job. I don't, I don't want to be here, I don't feel valued, to her realizing that wow, I just now heard the other side of how my leader actually does value me, but didn't realize I felt devalued. And it was all because she had this expectation that, well, he should know that I want to have these opportunities, or he should know that because I know all these things, that I should be invited to this meeting, or he should know this other thing. And on his side was, well, she should know I value her because I'm I give her all this stuff to do. So that there was this missing piece, this gap between the communication in both of them. And it wasn't bad communication, it was just a little misstep in the communication that thank goodness we were able to remedy it because these two people have worked together for a long time and want to keep working together. But there started to be this little saboteur saying, like, do you really want to work for him anymore? Because he doesn't value you and you're not getting invited to the meetings. Yeah, and yet it wasn't true at all.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, that's exactly it. I saw this really interesting video the other day that this reminds me of, but it was talking about how we assume somebody's judging us, right? Like, oh, they probably like think that I look ridiculous in this outfit, or they're noticing blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so, like, you're assuming this person is judging you, but in reality, you're judging them and creating a judgment about yourself that doesn't exist, right? The odds are that person's thinking about themselves. We are almost always thinking about ourselves because that's how we're wired, right? That's how we stay alive. So it like, and it was this thing, like it was this aha moment for me of like, I'm assuming my boss thinks that I'm not worthwhile because they're not bringing me to the table, because they're doing whatever, right? Like they think that I'm not worthwhile. But in reality, that person is thinking about 900 other things, right? I always tell this people, especially when they're having a hard time with their boss or they feel like they're not getting the recognition, it's like, you know, you have to tell your boss these things, right? Like they don't, they don't have know all the time to ask. They don't even know what to ask you if you don't tell them you did this thing or you accomplished this thing. But by you sitting there and assuming that they don't value you, is you judging them, not them judging you. It's you saying, this person can't recognize me, right? Like they're like, what's wrong with them that they can't figure this out? And you know, and and they don't think that I'm worthwhile. But in reality, it's like you're judging yourself based on what you're seeing out there. And I'm not worthwhile to be at the table, and this person is validating that thought. And so it's like if you break all of that and you flip over to like positive intent, the person was like, now I just assume everyone's cool. Like right. Like I assume everybody's like, yeah, I like Sam, right? Sam's pretty good. Sam's awesome. And then if they show me differently, then okay, I can show up in that way and whatever. But until they show me and tell me pretty much outright that like they think my outfit is ridiculous, then I'm gonna assume they like it because I like it, right? Because I chose to do this, right? I'm gonna assume they think I'm worthwhile because I know I'm worthwhile. And I'm gonna make sure I tell somebody that, right? Like I'm gonna make sure that I put that out there in the world.
SPEAKER_02:I love that. I think back to maybe this is a good action for our for people listening, is think back to do you ever have somebody in your life, whether it's a teacher or a manager, that you just really respect for something and that you really enjoyed being around. And for me, I think I talked about this guy a couple episodes ago. I have this uh former boss who's a friend of mine uh from when I worked at Planet Hollywood. His name is Steve. And Steve to me is such a good example of this idea of expecting nothing, accepting everything, that he was running one of the busiest uh restaurants in the uh region or maybe even in the world, and and really came to work every day with not happy go lucky, but a focus on today's gonna be the day that it is. And we're gonna make the very best of it by doing our very best and to do the things that our mission and vision statements say that we're gonna do, and to be there for one another, and to do some cool stuff together. And I can recall there was a time I came to him with a really crazy idea, which if for anybody that's worked with me for any amount of time knows that usually that happens. I I like to think in color outside the lines in boxes. So I went to him with this crazy idea, and he could have easily said, No, that's not in the plan. We haven't budgeted for this. This is not something you do at Planet Hollywood, it's something you do at the Hard Rock, or it's something that we've never done here, so there's no proven example that it'll work. But he didn't, he didn't be the naysayer, he wasn't my saboteur. He said, Look, come up with a plan, show me that you believe that this why of your plan is gonna work. How are you gonna do it? What are you gonna do? Where do you need my help? And then we'll try it. And if it doesn't work, then at least we tried it, but don't lose us any money. And so there was kind of the caveat at the end, don't lose us any money. But so he he gave me that opportunity. And what I think back on now, because it's been more than 20 years, more than that, that I've worked there ago, 25 almost years ago, that I can remember that conversation like it just happened. Why is it that that became a core memory? Again, go watch Inside Out to learn how core memories really stick on the good side and the bad side. In this case, he was a great core memory of a leader that I had that basically said, I'm going to just accept, expect nothing and accept everything, just like this chapter says. And sure enough, we ended up doing this thing. It was an amazing success. It doesn't mean everything we did was an amazing success, but that one was. And we laughed about it just the other day. This is something from a quartery quarter of a century ago. Like, think about the magnitude of how long ago that feels. A quarter of a century ago, we we talked about that particular event, and it was because he was willing as the leader to lead and also allow and allow for for creativity. And so I think that if you are able in the end to realize that if you do nothing in your life, expect nothing. If you don't like your job and you do nothing about it, then you're gonna keep not liking your job.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, that's exactly it. And if and I, you know, as he sort of gets towards the end of this chapter, right, he's he says that when you're free from expectations, you're in a dance with life where you can simply execute the plan and deal with what happens. And before that, he's talking about how life is a dance and and that when you release expectations, you really allow yourself, you create space for you to live in the present, right? You're not you're not lamenting over the things that did happen or should have happened that didn't, and things like that. And you're not sitting here thinking about the future and what you expect to happen and all this kind of stuff. You're just moving yourself to the present and saying, This is the life I have, and I'm gonna deal with it, right? This is where I'm at. And if I don't want that, I need to take action right now, today, in the present to make that happen, right? Like I think about this all the time. We're inundated every day. Like, I feel like I'm in a constant war with notifications on my phone. Just gets to the point where I'm like, please stop. Like, I just don't, I don't want any notifications. I don't even care if it was the happiest thing in the world. I just don't want to read any more notifications, right? And I do everything I can to shut them all down. Like as many as I can get rid of, I get rid of. But still, at like the end of the day, there's a pile of them. And so I made this agreement with myself recently that I will clear everything, I will deal with every single thing before the end of the day. And if I don't want to deal with it at the end of the day, then I better deal with it earlier in the day, right? I'm gonna move this more into my present, right? When it comes up, let's try to deal with it. Because what I hate is when I wake up the next morning and tomorrow, yesterday's notifications are dragging me into tomorrow, right? Am I always getting this right? No, but like this is the practice that I'm gonna be try to be really good about, right? Like, no more will a text message sit there for three days because all it's driving is me living in like this anxiety spiral of thinking out a reply to it and doing whatever. Like, let's just get rid of the perfectionists and let's let it all go and let's just dance with what happens, right? Like, let's just deal with it and figure out how to be more present. And I think that that to me, I really enjoyed about what he's talking about, right? Is when I release expectations, when I accept everything, I'm free to live in the right now, in the reality of what life actually is.
SPEAKER_02:I really love that you were talking about that because I have this one colleague that will not uh finish working and actually finishes working on time somehow, but won't finish working until his inbox is empty. And I am not proud of myself because my inbox has double digits in the thousands of emails that are unread. And they sit there. And I know I'm never gonna get to them. I know I'm not, but it's almost like this this fear that if I delete that one thing, what happens if I really need that email in the future? I'm probably never gonna need the email. But this guy that I work with, he is relentless about getting his inbox clean. So he said, Denise, try out this LinkedIn learning course on this that teaches you how to clear out your inbox at the end of the day. So I have unfortunately like not just one inbox, I have multiple email addresses for different things I'm doing. So I have to do it for multiple ones, but I tried it with just one of the email boxes. And it was so freeing feeling that when I knew there was nobody I had to answer, nothing I had to save, nothing that I had to worry about. It it felt clean. It's I I swear to you, Sam, we will be doing life-changing magic of tidying up at some point in our future because that's the whole idea is to get rid of the clutter, whether it's in your mind or it's in your space or it's in your relationships, in order for you to feel to feel free. And so it's funny because in the chapter here, he does say he gives a quote from a stoic uh philosopher, which we had said when the book started is that isn't it funny that the one book had was about stoicism and this one didn't seem like it, and then suddenly there was a quote from yeah, there's a whole bunch of them throughout the whole bunch of them. So this one, and and you're the one that I think realized how do we pronounce this guy's name, but it was like Epictetus? Epicetus, yeah. Epictetus, Epictetus, yeah. I Googled it. So Epic says, Um, don't seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish for them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well with you. So when you're thinking about the things that are happening in your day, or like this email inbox, or maybe an argument you have with somebody at work or at home, or maybe it's just something you want to change about your circumstance, when you catch yourself getting brought down by the expectation that you have in someone else or in yourself, then you can shift things in a different direction if you go into your thinking, into your emotions, and into the behavioral thought patterns that are going to lead you into what do you do or don't. Do? Are you going to take action or are you not going to take action? Are you going to let it derail your emotions or you're not? And then when you can get past all of that, if you're going through a struggle and you let go of it, I like how you said you're you kind of almost go into like a third person, right? Like you're looking at the scenario from outside yourself and from a factual perspective, not from an emotional perspective. And yet your emotions are the things that's all tied up in it.
SPEAKER_01:Right, right. Absolutely. And I he talks towards the very end of this chapter. One of the things, last things I have highlighted here is that you have to love the life you have, not the one you expect to have. And it reminded me again of like that stoic wisdom of Amor Fatih, of like the lover of like your you love fate, like the lover of fate. I love whatever the situation is, right? Like I am going to fully accept it and not just accept it, but I'm going to love that this is the situation it is. What opportunity does it give me to move forward? And I think that when you get to that level of acceptance, that that amorfati, the love of fate, then you really can empower yourself to do exactly what you're saying. Do something, right? Do something with it, right? Like it's not just, oh, these things have happened. Oh, I expected this, I expected that, I did whatever. It's here we are now what, right? What am I gonna do with the life that I have, right? Am I accepting it? Am I not accepting it? Am I moving forward? And if I don't, if I don't want this, what do I have to do to move it? And I think that when you when you can center yourself in that yeah, current real, you know, situation, there's so much power in how you can change your life.
SPEAKER_02:100%. So next week is the last chapter of the book, and it's called What's Next? So we're going to get into that last chapter about now what do you do with all the things that we've learned and walked through together. We've lived it out loud, but now it's time to take action for yourself. So next week we're going to go through the last chapter of where next, but for now, we're here now. So don't just settle from where you are and the circumstances that you're in. The last thing the author says in this chapter is stay out of the swamp of mediocrity and drama. Reach for your greatest self, your greatest potential, and challenge yourself to live that life every single day of it. So it doesn't mean love where you are if you don't love it. It's saying love where you are, knowing you can do something about it if you don't want to be there, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yep. Love that.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. So for today, my name is Denise Russo. On behalf of my friend Sam Powell, it's been an engaging, interesting, and I think very fulfilling episode of What's on Your Bookshelf.