which is from Ralph Waldo Emerson
Posted: Tue Feb 11, 2025 6:12 am
And this concept of wanting or not wanting what we don't want, I found it in a lot of readings, in many readings. I recently spoke to you in a personal development video on the Français Authentique YouTube channel. And I invite you to watch these videos. I know that they are not the most popular videos on the channel, but they are the videos that I record with the most pleasure. We have a personal development playlist, we publish a video per month on personal development, and I invite you to go watch these videos if you want to improve your French while improving your life.
And so, I was talking about John Wooden, who was a famous American basketball coach and who said... he had a quote that he got from his father, and it was even more than a quote, it was a principle of life, it was: "Be true to yourself", so, stay true to yourself. So, we find this concept in him. I also found this concept in Shakespeare's Hamlet , he also talks about it. And in another... so, he's not a thinker, but for once it could be a contemporary influencer, called Craig Valentine, who I followed a lot at one time, a little less now, but who has very interesting things to say, and he said: "Your values and your vision must drive all your decisions". So, basically, you define your priorities, your values, your vision, your priorities, and from there, you act.
So, I did this exercise, I defined what my priorities were, I defined three, I have three main priorities, which are my family, my personal development and Authentic French, those are my three main priorities. And I tell myself that I don't have time for the rest, I don't really have time for the rest. The rest must be marginal, it can't take up a lot of my time. It's unfortunate, but that's how it is. And so, it allows me to filter.
If a friend asks me to go out for a beer, I'll first see. "Okay, is there something important I have to do for Français Authentique that this beer would prevent me from doing? Would my family suffer or would there be a lack in my family or would I take less care of my family if I went to drink this beer? Would it be bad for my personal development?" And if and only if these three major priorities are not hindered by it, then I will say yes. So, it really allows us to filter our commitments and our decisions.
Does that mean that we should never reconsider our routines? No. Does that mean that we should not listen to others? No. Obviously, we must remain attentive to others without being influenced, wanting what we do not want, but we must remain attentive, obviously, but we must still develop this confidence in our personal judgment.
I have another quote on the same subject. Now, it's very old, much older than the ones before. It's: "A wise man seeks everything in himself; a foolish man seeks everything in others." "A wise man seeks everything in himself; a foolish man seeks everything in others." It's from Confucius. So, he invites us to really take the time to reflect and think for ourselves. We often already know what to do. We know it because we know what we want, we know what we don't want, so we iraq whatsapp number data know what to do, but very often, we don't want to do it. So, we just have to have the courage to do it and to remain ourselves, to have confidence in our judgment, to act according to our values and that allows us not to worry about what others think and to have total freedom of mind. And I really think that this is an essential condition for a beautiful life.
So, before we leave, I'm going to give you another quote, one last quote that I really like, an American writer and philosopher who said: "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you someone else is the greatest accomplishment." He said that. So, I think it was probably in the early 19th century, I think, we'd have to check, but it's a quote, a thought that is very old, and I repeat it because it ultimately sums up one of the great messages of this podcast, of this episode. "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you someone else is the greatest accomplishment."
Thank you for listening to me today. I hope you enjoyed it, that it will help you. I hope you enjoy these episodes of Marchez Avec Johan. In any case, more and more of you are listening to them and telling me when you join the academy, and that is always something that touches me, when I go to the meetings in the Zoom room 24 hours a day to get to know the members of the academy to chat with them, I am often told: "I have been listening to your podcast Marchez Avec Johan for years, it has helped me a lot". And that is always ultimately the most rewarding thing for me.
And so, I was talking about John Wooden, who was a famous American basketball coach and who said... he had a quote that he got from his father, and it was even more than a quote, it was a principle of life, it was: "Be true to yourself", so, stay true to yourself. So, we find this concept in him. I also found this concept in Shakespeare's Hamlet , he also talks about it. And in another... so, he's not a thinker, but for once it could be a contemporary influencer, called Craig Valentine, who I followed a lot at one time, a little less now, but who has very interesting things to say, and he said: "Your values and your vision must drive all your decisions". So, basically, you define your priorities, your values, your vision, your priorities, and from there, you act.
So, I did this exercise, I defined what my priorities were, I defined three, I have three main priorities, which are my family, my personal development and Authentic French, those are my three main priorities. And I tell myself that I don't have time for the rest, I don't really have time for the rest. The rest must be marginal, it can't take up a lot of my time. It's unfortunate, but that's how it is. And so, it allows me to filter.
If a friend asks me to go out for a beer, I'll first see. "Okay, is there something important I have to do for Français Authentique that this beer would prevent me from doing? Would my family suffer or would there be a lack in my family or would I take less care of my family if I went to drink this beer? Would it be bad for my personal development?" And if and only if these three major priorities are not hindered by it, then I will say yes. So, it really allows us to filter our commitments and our decisions.
Does that mean that we should never reconsider our routines? No. Does that mean that we should not listen to others? No. Obviously, we must remain attentive to others without being influenced, wanting what we do not want, but we must remain attentive, obviously, but we must still develop this confidence in our personal judgment.
I have another quote on the same subject. Now, it's very old, much older than the ones before. It's: "A wise man seeks everything in himself; a foolish man seeks everything in others." "A wise man seeks everything in himself; a foolish man seeks everything in others." It's from Confucius. So, he invites us to really take the time to reflect and think for ourselves. We often already know what to do. We know it because we know what we want, we know what we don't want, so we iraq whatsapp number data know what to do, but very often, we don't want to do it. So, we just have to have the courage to do it and to remain ourselves, to have confidence in our judgment, to act according to our values and that allows us not to worry about what others think and to have total freedom of mind. And I really think that this is an essential condition for a beautiful life.
So, before we leave, I'm going to give you another quote, one last quote that I really like, an American writer and philosopher who said: "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you someone else is the greatest accomplishment." He said that. So, I think it was probably in the early 19th century, I think, we'd have to check, but it's a quote, a thought that is very old, and I repeat it because it ultimately sums up one of the great messages of this podcast, of this episode. "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you someone else is the greatest accomplishment."
Thank you for listening to me today. I hope you enjoyed it, that it will help you. I hope you enjoy these episodes of Marchez Avec Johan. In any case, more and more of you are listening to them and telling me when you join the academy, and that is always something that touches me, when I go to the meetings in the Zoom room 24 hours a day to get to know the members of the academy to chat with them, I am often told: "I have been listening to your podcast Marchez Avec Johan for years, it has helped me a lot". And that is always ultimately the most rewarding thing for me.