Kay:

Hey, there Questers hope you’re having a marvelous Monday so far. It’s August 16th, and this is episode 421. We have a quote from the Queen Bee today, Ms. Beyoncé Knowles Carter, and she says, “I don’t like to gamble, but if there’s one thing I’m willing to bet on, it’s myself.”

Shi:

Man, she is just such a powerhouse and we love when she comes forward with a quote like this, that’s both good advice and backed up with confidence and power and when you study her and when you know anything about her, you know, that she has achieved and accomplished so much in almost everything that she puts her mind to. She continues to push the edge on artistic expression and fighting for civil rights and for social justice. So, we know that Beyoncé bets on herself because her actions and her life prove that. They’ve proved to be fruitful for her, which is easy when we look at someone else objectively. But man, when it comes to the subjective experience of your own gamble, it can be really hard.

Kay:

Especially when you’re betting on yourself. I mean, in fact, most people prefer to bet on someone else. I put my idea behind another leader. I mean, we see this happen in our political parties. You bet on someone else. They bet on a leader in the business, they bet on the thought leader that they follow. They bet on a spiritual leader that they follow. So, in so many instances most people aren’t even betting on themselves in the first place.

Shi:

Well, and it makes sense because who knows you better than you.

Kay & Shi:

You.

Shi:

Right. You know yourself best and which means, you know all of the times you haven’t followed through and all of the things that you have failed at and all of the ways that you have gone through life where you could have done it better. So, you have this distorted perception of your ability to achieve versus everyone else because you don’t have that front row seat to everyone else who literally has the same thing. A past full of mistakes, missteps, missed promises and we all have done that to different and varying degrees, of course. Are there things like self-sabotage at play and disorders and those kinds of things? Yes. Could it be true that in the past you have absolutely just let an opportunity go or wasted money or failed at something miserably that you had better control of? Of course, you have. We all have and just to varying different degrees but remembering that everyone has that same front-row seat to all of their mistakes and their issues and that they can push replay on those all the time just like you do means that if they’re willing to bet on themselves and win, you can too.

Kay:

So, we have a little bit of a challenge for you today. This is not your quest, but if you are in camp, I don’t like to bet on myself ever and prefer to bet on other people. We would challenge you to maybe just start thinking about your successes just as much as you think about your failures. This is a hard one to understand. We get it too. We struggle in this zone as well. Every day we remind ourselves that, we get that, you know, we have successes in our past just as much as we have failures. I heard a quote recently that was so beautiful. It might’ve even been here on the Mentorship Quest but it said that “so many things have to go right for your eyes to open in the morning”. So, if you are saying to yourself, well, I’m just a failure and you’re in the ‘woe is me’ land and you can’t figure it out. You had so many successes this morning with your body firing and your heart beating and your lungs going and your eyes opening and you being able to take on the world and get out of bed and be here on this podcast to listen to it today, you’ve already been successful just by waking up.

Shi:

You have the confidence that you would be able to succeed at brushing your teeth. So, you didn’t have to have a mental crisis about it.

Kay:

You bet on yourself.

Shi:

You bet on yourself. You said I bet that I can get my teeth cleaned before I leave the house this morning. Guess what you won that bet. Not all of the odds at every table in Vegas are even. We know that if you want to play the best odds, you’re going to head to the craps table. And if you want to lose all your money, you’re going to sit down at a slot machine and your life is the same way. If you continue to focus on your mistakes, your issues, your past failures, then you’re magnifying those things to yourself and you’re not allowing you, your subconscious, or even your conscious brain to be able to look for the possibilities of how to pursue the next endeavor in a way that’s successful. But if you walk yourself over to the metaphorical craps table, which means starting to look at your successes, look at the things where you’ve bet and won, look at the times that you’ve pushed and pulled through and succeeded. Now, you’re helping those odds and allowing yourself to be successful just like what Beyoncé is telling us here.

Kay:

She says, “I don’t like to gamble, but if there’s one thing I’m willing to bet on, it’s myself.”

Shi:

Alright, that brings us to your quest today. It’s a Betting with Beyoncé Quest. Motivate your Monday by deciding to bet on yourself and “shoot your shot” as our dear, dear friend, Megan Scott likes to say, with any opportunity that comes your way big or small. Are you ready? Shoot it with us now.

Kay & Shi:

Let’s quest