S5E10: Getting Back to the Basics
If I reminded you that you are perfect, would you argue me down or step into your perfection? Welcome to perfect, welcome to perfect, where there are no excuses, no Everything. Anything. Anything. Anything.
JClay:Perfect. Everything. Anything. Anything. Perfect.
JClay:Everything. Anything. Anything. Anything.
Troy Washington:What up? Up? Welcome to perfect mode. And first off, let me start by telling y'all that we love y'all. We're grateful for the opportunity to be in, hopefully, in helping you realize that you are perfect.
Troy Washington:And the reason why I can say that unapologetically is because I know you are one of 1. You are numero uno. You cannot be duplicated, replicated. And the only reason, Jay, and I mean the only reason that you're not perfect is if you look into this person on the side of you and saying, I'm not them. But you are you, and that's all you need.
Troy Washington:And, of course, it's yours truly, Troy Washington, your friendly neighborhood realtor. And I have my boy, J Clay, spiritual rapper and teacher. And we've got to jump on here and talk about getting I I gotta say this slow. I'm a say this real slow. Getting back to the basics.
Troy Washington:Getting back to the basics. What up, Jay?
JClay:Yo. Yo. Happy day to all the wonderful people in in perfect land doing the perfect thing. He had the perfect place, perfect time. This joyous Sunday.
JClay:It's a beautiful Sunday outside. Well, at least it is here in Houston. But every day is a beautiful day. And I I'm I'm very excited to talk about getting back to the basics because this is an important thing. I I had a jump start on it last night, and it's time to simplify, man.
JClay:It's time to simplify. Oh, real real quick. Let me let me say shout out to our patreons. Click the link in the description if you wanna support Perfect Mode. We invite you to support yeah.
JClay:Alright. Go ahead.
Troy Washington:Yeah. So the question or the the begging question at this moment is, what are the basics? What does that really look like? Because through our life, the way that we live in all the things that we get to touch on and, you know, get get to get to feel on and experience.
JClay:Yeah.
Troy Washington:Sometimes we lose sight of how we even got to the air the places that we're actually in. So what is actually the basic in your mind?
JClay:The basics is is getting to the core not only the core of who you are, but the core of who you want to be. Like, taking stock of inventory that you're doing, like, all the stuff that you're doing right now, all the projects that you wanna do. Get it all written out, get it all organized, and see if you're aligned with it. But not only that, like, see if see if you're moving toward it. Because, again, like, things could get so busy, we can get caught up in so much routine that we miss the most important things.
JClay:And we're we're we go down this trail of just busyness, busyness, busyness, but it's no reward for the busyness because it's not what we really want. And and so it's it's to make sure that if we are busy, it's in the the field that we want and the things that we want, in all areas of our life. Like, don't don't leave any of this to chance. Look at your life totally and and make sure you're on track.
Troy Washington:So I I I I love that you say that, and I wanna even go a step further. And, again, I can only throw myself in the in the in the pool and and use my life as the example of what you're talking about or at least the way that I see it. Yeah. And when you talk about getting back to the basics and getting back to the core of who you are, the thing that comes to my mind first is for myself, how easy it is to get caught up in and I don't I don't wanna say social media. That's not what I mean.
Troy Washington:But I want to say, other people's social activities. Other people's, and it it's tied to social media, Jay, but it's just the the this is the funny thing, man. You know, 2 years ago, I took the class to get my MLO license, mortgage life, lending, mortgage originated license. Right? Yeah.
Troy Washington:And I never went and took the test. And the reason why I never went and took the test is because I never felt comfortable, like, I I knew and felt like I didn't study enough in order to put myself in position to pass it. And then I felt like it was no reason for me to go and do that unless I knew that I was a 100% ready. That and the funny thing is, last week, maybe a week and a half ago, I said, I'm going to throw myself in. Now when you talk about getting back to the core of who I am, the core of who I am whenever I wanted to do something was always throw myself in.
Troy Washington:So when I threw myself in, I realized I was using technology to throw myself in by the way you could distinction between social media and stuff like that. I I found different things to help me study online. A bit of videos, YouTube, and I literally just was locked in for at least 10 hours on on on the on the computer on my phone. 10 hours is locked in. And then I went back to the books that I was finding so hard to read.
Troy Washington:And then when I started reading the books, I started to realize, like, dang. I noticed stuff. Now again, this is partly because I'm getting back to the core of who I am by throwing myself in, whether it's via the Internet or looking at the books. And then I said, okay. You know what?
Troy Washington:I'm gonna take a break. I will take a break. I I said I wasn't gonna stop until I did 20 hours, but I said I'm gonna take a break. And then I got on TikTok. And then when I got on TikTok, I looked at the video, and I was like, oh, let me look at another one.
Troy Washington:Then let me look at another one. And so before I knew it, hours had went by. I thought to myself, man, you wanna talk about losing your core easily? And I and I don't feel bad about doing it because I I I needed to take a break anyway. Yeah.
Troy Washington:But the core of who I was changed or shifted into, I would rather do this. And that's that's what it draw draws me to. Well, go ahead, Jay.
JClay:But but see, I'm I'm talking about not not even from the standpoint of, like, one of the things you wanna do. I'm I'm saying like, you you zooming out completely. You saying, alright. I know right now this is this seems like the most important thing. I know this too.
JClay:Let me get organized with my thought. Let me figure, like, I okay. Because you you got personal stuff you wanna do. You and within that is different categories like family. Like, you might have goals, health goals, whatever.
JClay:Then you got your work stuff, the the stuff you gotta do where and actually, like, for for mine, for example, what I consider work is not what I wanna do. Like, work is just the stuff I'm doing for money right now in in a sense. Like, it I mean, it's it it still brings me joy, but I'm I'm moving to my passion projects where that's my sole income, so whatever, anything. So that that's that's separate from work. You got all these different categories.
JClay:And within those things, like there's certain things that you wanna do. There's certain things you wanna hit, certain goals you want. And one thing that I found is I'm doing a lot and there's a lot that I I want done. And realistically, it's better if I focus on maybe 2 of the 7 things that I really wanna do right now, 2 or 3 of them. But again, everybody's different, but it's one of those things you won't know until you shake loose that tree and just see like, oh, I forgot about this.
JClay:I do wanna do this. This does take more precedence than this. This this is way more important. Why have I neglected this thing for so long when it's like, duh, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. So it's it's a it's a rehashing of everything.
JClay:Like like pulling everything out that you ever wanted to do, getting it on paper, and then just kinda reorganizing from there.
Troy Washington:No. No. And and I agree. And again, to, you know, to tie yours what you're saying into my story, me not skipping any steps. That's essentially what I did.
Troy Washington:That's how I end back up to the mortgage loan officer test. It's because I shook the trees. Right? And I and and what was left was what I really what I really wanted to again, it's not the only thing that I wanna do. Yeah.
Troy Washington:But it's one of the things that were prominent that I feel like I could do this. But when I shook everything away and I got still had just only that one thing that I wanted to do, there were still things that will prevent me from locking in on my basics. And again, the same rule applies to all the other things that you're talking about. So once I finish with this thing, there are other passion things that I know that are important to me. But again, I cannot get to the basic.
Troy Washington:I cannot get to the core of me in those things because of not again, I don't I don't wanna even frame stuff as a distraction anymore. The core of me of who I want to be is somebody that's focused. Somebody that wants to be able to accomplish things that I feel feel like are important to me. And somewhere along the way, I allow myself to be distracted in ways that are not bad, but not way go ahead.
JClay:Right. And and I will say to that, like like, you know that about yourself that you enjoy certain videos and stuff. Like, that's something you can incorporate too. And like you said, I I don't think it's a distraction because even me yesterday, for those that don't know, Saturdays, that's that's that's like my Sabbath. Like, I I do nothing.
JClay:I I well, I don't want I don't wanna say I don't do anything. I don't do what I normally do. It's like, I I I do things that I wouldn't normally do at all, and that can include doing nothing at all. That can include just, I don't know, working on something completely different. And so, like, so so coming from coming from that that space, in the midst of me doing this, I took a bunch of breaks.
JClay:He was like, okay. I'm I'm done. But they're not when I was ready to be creative again, it was like, okay. Let me revisit this because this is part of my creativity. Like, the the things that I spend my time on creatively are the things that I really want.
JClay:So let's make sure it's part of that. And I I did. Like, I I watched social media a bunch. I probably watched a TV show. Like, I did all of this in between that, but when it was time for me to, like, alright, let's do some let's do something.
JClay:That was the something because I I knew it was pointless to work on one of the projects, if it's not really what I want. Even though it is, but I I don't know that until I kinda get back to the basics, if that makes sense.
Troy Washington:And and, again, I I love that because us trying to distinguish and get to the point of understanding what those things are is important. And, again, along with me shaking the trees again, I I I talked to you, a week and a half ago, and I was like, man, I'm fast. And I was like, you know, I just kinda told you. And a part of the reason for that was that. It it that's and and that's the reason why it's it's very funny that this is our topic today because I was trying to figure it out.
Troy Washington:And I'm trying to figure I mean, again, there's a millions of things that we could do. There's millions of things that I want to do, love to do, can do, but I had to quiet the talking of the food, I guess, in the sense in order for me to focus or hone in or, you know, I can't dig deep to get down to the basics. And I think that's the part that we kinda need to hash out for everybody. You know, how do we because for me it's fast, and for you, it might just be, you know, meditating. It it could be a a million different things, but trying to figure out the thing that that works best for us, and then also, making that choice.
Troy Washington:But go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Yeah. Yeah. And and I I think I agree. Like, meditation is something that allows me to keep my mind clear. And it's amazing how quickly it can become cluttered.
JClay:I'll shout out to to Angela. Write the vision, make it a plan. Yeah. And that's what I was gonna say. Write the vision like e and and even even in the midst of you writing your vision, write out your current things that you're doing already.
JClay:Like you you you got you have things that you're doing that you may feel you have to do, which again, there's nothing wrong with that. But when you see it, when you see what you have to do next to what you want to do and next to what you need to do, it changes things. You can kind of reorder stuff. You can, you might be able to align 2 or 3 of them where it's like, Oh, I can still do what I have to do that it actually includes what I wanna do. And it's it's just like those slight tweaks that you can make when you have it all in one location and you're you're giving your time to it.
JClay:And it doesn't, it doesn't take a long time. Like this maybe took me a hour. And and again, that hour was broken up because I was doing other things in between in between that time.
Troy Washington:And I I would say this as well. When you're writing this this about I know there's a sentiment of thinking, like, man, I know I'm gonna have to make a choice, and I'm going to have to potentially leave something behind. But what I encourage everybody to do, even myself is, when you look at all this stuff that you're capable of, acknowledge how amazing you are at even knowing that it's all possible. And, you know, allow yourself the grace to know that without putting limitations on yourself knowing that I can get to these things when I finish doing my passion or whenever I finish accomplishing or fulfilling whatever it is I'm trying to put first. Because I know a a a a big part of this, and again, this is me projecting, I guess, but I I think that people feel that same way is that we always feel like we don't have enough time.
Troy Washington:We're running out of time. If I don't do this now, then I'm never has to do it or, you know, the the reality of it is when you have all these things on on the plate that you're not anyway, you're still spending the same time. So it it really doesn't have that type of bearing that you try to allow it have today.
JClay:Yeah. I'm I'm glad you said that because, there was a part of me that tried to that almost put a limitation on it, from from a resources standpoint. Because I'm like, oh, I wanna do this. I wanna do that. And I was like, I'm a have to wait though.
JClay:Because I gotta, you know, raise the money for this particular thing. But I was like, nah, nah. Let's let's stay positive. Everything is happening. Divine timing.
JClay:What What else could I do? Is there another way? And I did find another way where I can take action now towards the things that I really wanna do. And it's important that we hold that vision, but, but even the stuff like you said that we don't have time for, if it's important enough, we can find somebody who aligns with it that might want to do the same thing, and it could be a partnership. Because, I mean, if you're if you're not doing anything with it right now, it's not moving forward.
JClay:Why not split something with another to to collectively benefit both of you? And and similar to that, I don't I don't know. Have you heard of the Eisenhower matrix?
Troy Washington:I heard the name before, but go ahead and elaborate.
JClay:So I I I think I heard about it before, but I was reading on it yesterday, and they said, like, like, let's say you wrote out everything you wanna do and some of the tasks that need to get done or the next important task for each thing. You would mark everything that's important as important and everything that's urgent as urgent. And so, like, the the things that are both important and urgent, just do them. The things that are important but not urgent, assign a date to do it. Like, you know, yeah, assign it.
JClay:The things that are urgent but not important, delegate. Because if it's not that important for you, but it's urgent, delegate to somebody else to do. And then the things that aren't important or urgent, delete them. Forget about them. Because I mean, it is it is not meant to be right now anyway.
JClay:And I and I I I'm trying this out now. So I I've never done this before, but it's it sounds sound in wisdom.
Troy Washington:So so and when you were explaining it, yes, I have heard of it, and, yes, I have implemented before.
JClay:Yeah.
Troy Washington:And, the it's when I was a manager at Chase, they made me actually take the course. And they were, making us do it because of the amount of, task and emails and things that we had going on at work at the time. So they were trying to teach us how to maneuver around that. Right? Yeah.
Troy Washington:And I would tell you, it I was successful at doing it at first. And I'll I, I encourage people to be consistent. Because what I found for myself as well as all the other managers that were doing it at a time, we did it, but then we got caught back up in our day, and then it kinda just went by the wayside. Because, you know, life be moving and, you know, we it was easy for us to revert back to what we feel is comfortable even when something we something is working for us, but but we haven't seen, the results that we feel like we should see at the time. But what I will tell you is when we were when I was doing it, there was a stress relief that came over me at the time.
Troy Washington:So, no, I I do remember that, and I do cosign that. And then the other piece oh, go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Wait. Wait. I was gonna say real quick. The stress release for me was that deleted column. I was like Yeah.
JClay:Shoot. I can delete this. Made my life so much easier. But go ahead.
Troy Washington:No. No. No. Straight up though. And and that's one of the things that I have always kept with me.
Troy Washington:That's the only reason I can live with emails because I mean, just my personal email because some stuff I don't even look at, I just delete. Or else I'll I have a 1000000 emails. But the other piece to this is, at least in my opinion, is that, when you when you actually, you know, decide and you you touched on it. You said resources. When you start to make your decision on what it is that's important to you or how you feel, don't allow, lack of resources be the deciding factor on whether you do it or not also.
Troy Washington:And and the reason why I say that is because a lot of times resources are not apparent to us because we haven't put in the time to look at the thing that we're looking at. And so you can look on the surface and say, well, I don't have enough money for that or I don't have the tools to do this. But a part of the reason why you having is because your focus has been somewhere else. And I liken it to the thought of, like, whenever somebody says I want a red car. And then now all of a sudden, you look around and you start seeing red cars everywhere because you are actually focused on that.
Troy Washington:And there have been many occasions, even again, with me talking about this loan officer book and this training that I've been doing. Like now, because I've been looking on YouTube and going through all of these studies, Again, the algorithm is set to work this way, but a ton of other things that are important to have that are included in that have popped up in my feed. And it's brought me down the path to watch it, but only because I've highlighted this as a a part of my life that's important right now. And so I I just caution you to when you when you when you're shaking the tree loose, don't say, well, I don't have this, so I'm a go ahead and move this down to go. Decide and then move forward.
Troy Washington:Go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Yeah. I I love that. And and similar to that, man, it it is funny that we're doing this topic today. I recently did this with my finances. And so, there's a book, we probably mentioned it before, it's called Profit First.
JClay:And it just talks about how taking the profit out of your business first, because that's why you have a business to make profit and everything. But anyway, I applied it both to my business and to my personal. And one thing that's that's relevant to this is every quarter, I audit all of my finances. And you're supposed to put, like, 3 letters next to each one. So you put a u next to everything that's unimportant.
JClay:You put a, a p next to everything that drives profit. So it's like, oh, this is needed. P for profit. And then you put a r next to something that is good, but it can be replaced. Be meaning that it can be replaced with something cheaper, or you could just do it yourself or you know a way that you can get it done without paying for the service.
JClay:And I say that to say, like, when when I did that for for my resources, it's a lot that could be replaced where I can save a lot of money, and then I can have resources to do the things that I really wanna do because I'm spending it on stuff that this is not really high priority. Maybe it was for some point, but it's not that important right now. And if I hadn't done this, I would've just kept on paying and paying and paying, not really getting anything from it. Not not that there's any, again, anything wrong with it, but it's it's important to just bring it back. Like, shake that tree again.
JClay:Shake see what comes loose and look at everything for what it is, and just make sure you you're back to that basic level of this is what I want. This is who I am. This is what I'm doing. Let's get it.
Troy Washington:So, bro, like and I and I heard what you said, and then I have a million things going on in my head at the same time. And the thing that I that that's prominent in my mind when I think about this conversation is time. And I know we're not talking about time, but I think about myself. I think about you. I think about all the people around us, that express, you know, things that they're going through.
Troy Washington:And to me, the thing that I it it just kinda just keeps keeps hitting the the top of the line for me is, do we spend enough time on the things that we want? Again, I know identifying it identifying it is important. But once we identify, are we willing to spend the time to do what you did? I mean, even in doing the breakdown, that's additional time spent to realize. And we run around all the time saying we don't have time to do things, but the only thing we need is the time that we already have that we just don't want to put.
Troy Washington:And and and again, that's when I shifted back to myself and how I started the conversation, with me spending the time. Again, I shook the trees. I don't wanna skip the step. I re value weighted my life, and I didn't let anything go by the wayside. I said, this is the priority of things.
Troy Washington:It doesn't mean this is more, but this is the this is my current because my my your your current priority can change also. Because I think it's based off of how you're feeling. But in this moment, this is my current priority of things. Now that I know what that is, let me dive in. Let me give it the time.
Troy Washington:Let me give the time. Let me give it the time because, you know, one of the things you always say, things that you appreciate appreciate. And I believe that. I 100% wholeheartedly believe that. And there, there's a another piece of this where I'll say don't allow panic to set in.
Troy Washington:And the reason why I say that is because once you start to spend the time on things, not only do the resources pop up that might be needed, but also the obstacles that you have to overcome. The obstacle that you have to overcome. And you also have to spend time in resolving those obstacles, and panic will make you divert and go away even though your priorities haven't changed. Go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Man, check this out. So, like, even in doing that yesterday, even in kinda doing stuff like this this this week, just getting back to the basics, other stuff that I wanted to happen that I had been trying to kinda make happen was just happening. But it it didn't happen until I kinda reorganized and set my focus and let go of some stuff that I was holding on to that didn't need to be there. And it's just like, this is just crazy. Like, why why why don't I just stay in this place?
JClay:Why do I keep letting myself get bogged down by just all this other stuff and just why not always keep it simple? So this is just a reminder to that. Like like you said, those resources will be there. They will be made more apparent that they were always there, but you just hadn't seen you you never saw them because you weren't looking. You were too busy looking at everything else that's just taking up space, but that might not really serve you.
JClay:And and and and shaking the tree, like you said, with time, yeah, it's it's anything at all that you spend significant amount of time on, put it out there just for you to see it. Like, do I want this? You know, do do I wanna look at social media for an hour every day? Like me, I'm cool with maybe that much, maybe one day out the week, but not every day. And but it's cool for me to know that because sometimes I I get caught up, and I'm like, nope.
JClay:Let me let me get off all of this. So I'm I'm I'm with you.
Troy Washington:And and 2, I'm I I wanna talk to you about the social. Because again, I don't wanna I don't minimize the importance of social media and the things that entertain us because I think that fun is important. I think that entertainment is important. The only reason I bring those things up is because it's the trends that we get in. You get what I'm saying?
Troy Washington:And the the trends that we get in well, I guess let me speak for myself. I don't think that being on social media for more than an hour a day looking at videos is a ideal thing to do. Sometimes I fall into the trend. And the proof in the pudding for myself was me taking me being 100% focused and throwing myself into something that I really wanted to do. And then me saying that I was going to take a small break, how it turned into some hours.
Troy Washington:And it wasn't purposely it's not that I downed myself from doing it because once I realized it, I was like, damn, Troy. You know you you know you didn't wanna do this. But even yet and still, I went back into it because I found myself in a bit of, enjoyment. My my endorphins was flowing. I was happy.
Troy Washington:And I and again, it it was a and I don't wanna say it was a false sense of happiness. Right? But it was me forgetting about the basics in the point of me finding another joy. And when I finish watching these things or whatever it is that I'm watching, this is how you know that you're you're not, on your basic game like the way you're supposed to. Because though I enjoyed all that I enjoyed and I don't regret it, when it was done, the thing that I thought about was the basics.
Troy Washington:And, you know, I always talk about, Sister Act 2, one of my favorite movies, man. And, you know, and when you go to sleep at night, you think about singing. You wake up in the morning, you still think about singing. You will sing. You need to be singing.
Troy Washington:When you stop doing the things that you're doing, the basic or that core is always going to be prominent. It's gonna be prevalent. And you may even have an adverse feeling about it. And so when I said I don't regret looking at the videos, I regretted missing the opportunity for the time I could've spent doing the studying that I really wanted to. And so it's it's it's, it it it's about remembering, and making sure that basic concept, that core concept is the prominent thing and everything else falls in line.
Troy Washington:Go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Yeah. Check check this out. So the reason we ever become distracted is simply what we're doing right now is just isn't fun anymore. Like, we're we could be, you know, stuck in traffic. We'd be waiting in line.
JClay:We could just be doing something where it's just not fun or just doing a mundane task we don't want to do. And so we we allow ourselves to be distracted. But the cool thing about this is, again, when you have it in front of you, everything you wanna do, the things you really wanna do are going to excite you. The things that you wanna do in service of that, like moving toward that are going to excite you. And if you come to things that don't, it's crazy because you can, like, simply reword a task.
JClay:Like, instead of do a 100 videos in a 100 days, do one video today. I mean, that's that's just an example, but just you can you can set these up because you know you in such a way that, oh, this is very easy to do, and this gets me toward this, and I'm having fun doing this. And it is it's just like a re a restructuring of it all. And I say to say that I I was very excited to do this yesterday. I'm very excited to do this again today after this show, because I didn't even completely finish everything that I wanted to do.
JClay:But because now everything is is more simplified, I am so excited for everything right now.
Troy Washington:No. I I love that. And, the funny thing is I've experienced it both way. Like, you're right. A lot of times we get distracted because there is a boredom that sets in.
Troy Washington:Like, you're you're you're just literally, like, let me just do something else. But there's also sometimes where you can still be excited, but something else can excite you more. Something else can be more entertaining to you. There have been times where I've been in, training when I was working. And, you know, training is not necessarily the funniest thing, but sometimes you get that that one trainer that's just on point and they they got your engagement and then they'd be like, I they they they do something and they they hit you with that and they be like, okay, let's take a break.
Troy Washington:And then you be like, you gonna leave us on a you gonna leave us on cliffhanger like that. And then you go and you go you learn to then you keep it with your friends. And now that break has taken you away from the momentum that you had. And so, again, I think it's important, like again, I that's why I love this topic. And I love, some sentiment that you always give to, Jay, is meditate.
Troy Washington:And to meditate doesn't mean take 5 minutes. It could be a it could be 10 seconds. I always encourage once you once you write this stuff down as Angela said and and make it plain, you shake the tree like Jay Clay said and you decide you know, this is the order of operations in Troy right now or Jay Clay or Angelo or whoever's listening. And when you decide that you're going to do something else, take a second. Breathe.
Troy Washington:Take a deep breath. Meditate on the basics. Meditate on that core and see if you're still driven in that moment to reenergize yourself. Because sometimes you just need to remember why you're doing something for you to get the energy and the joy back. Sometimes you just need to let it sit back in so that way you can feel what you feel when you thought it in that the the the when you first started.
Troy Washington:And so I think that's really, really important in the in the medical field.
JClay:Yeah. And and that actually brings us to the question of the day. The question of the day, like, you you can answer it, you can tell us, or but it's more for you to just think about. And that's what's one thing, you can simplify in your life right now to reduce stress and find more peace. What's one thing?
JClay:And it and it's funny, like, just even asking this, it's probably something that just jumped out at you. Like, oh, I can do this. But you might feel like you might be ready to add resistance to it. Like, I can't do that. I can't let that go.
JClay:Or I can't exchange this for that. But don't let that. Just just ask yourself how how can you if you feel like that if you're building resistance around that question? And, again, what's one thing you can simplify in your life right now to reduce stress and find more peace?
Troy Washington:And I'm I'm going to say this as well just to kinda reiterate what I've been saying this entire time. The only way these things work is if you even take the time to think about it. You know, even if something didn't jump out to you, there should be a desire for yourself to always simplify your life. And there should be a desire for you always to, create less stress or make things easier for yourself. But it does take time for you to sit back and internalize and get back to the bay the basic is you, the core, your core, and and and realize what makes you feel good.
Troy Washington:Right? Before the show started, man, well before it started, probably almost an hour before it started, what I did not want one thing that I knew that was going to stress me out if it happened was if my camera was not working. It was going to drive. Like, I knew if I had to sit on here for a whole show that it was going to egg me for an entire hour. And I didn't wanna be stressed for an entire hour.
Troy Washington:Even though everything about perfect mode is everything is perfect, I still wanna put forth an effort. That's why I say, you always gotta take the time, put forth the effort in order to make your life what you want it to be. So I started an hour before the show, and all the way up until 10 minutes before the show, I had no camera. But the graciousness and the and the the the love I have for myself for getting it done is sim simplistic as that may seem. And then the relief that I have in doing this show knowing that I can see myself, it you know, it's small things that add up to a greater thing in our life all the time.
Troy Washington:And so, like, I think that that question is very, very important. What is what is it that you can do to make this next moment, this next day, this next hour, you know, it's less stressful for you. Go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Yeah. What what's funny is, a small problem, a small perceived problem can easily become a big perceived problem if you're not in that state of of the basics. Like, if you're not in that simplified state, things just become magnified and you try to solve this perceived problem from that mindset. And it it just it doesn't work, like, because now you're looking at it like it's greater than you when actually, like, you can look down on it and see an an easy answer. And so sometimes, the answer is to just let let everything go for a second.
JClay:It could be meditate, go for a walk, do something completely different, or, you know, like we're saying, get get your vision together. But in the in the problem mindset, that might not even be the best thing for you. So, so so I I said it to say that it's important to to simplify as much as you can even before making these decisions as to what you wanna do, where you wanna go, all this other stuff.
Troy Washington:So, you know, I always like to bring my kids into the conversation because there's always examples, that I get to kinda witness firsthand, by, you know, something simple as getting back to the basics. And I wanna, congratulate my son real quick, TJ, who has become a Mavericks bio kid. And, essentially, it's his his first job, and he gets to go to all the Mavericks games and work alongside basketball players and see how the organization operates and, you know, just be around a world that he decided that he want to be a part of. And the reason why I bring it up is because not this summer, but last year, he could only talk to me in the summertime. He's like, man, dad, I can't wait till I can get a job.
Troy Washington:I wanna work, and I can make money and, you know, all of these different things. And I, you know, I asked him. I was like, well, why you wanna make money? You know, I was just picking his brain. He said, so I can go to basketball games and I can do all of these different type of things.
Troy Washington:Right? And, you know, I still remember the conversation because I told him I was like, look, man. You know, what is it that and and and the reason why I do this, and you might think I'm crazy, but I asked my kids this over and over again because I love basketball, and I never wanted my passion to drive what they're doing. So if you know me, my kids actually, you know, they play soccer, they play football, they play sports year round, but basketball is their main thing. But, at this time, when he was talking about getting a job, I stopped in at that moment and asked him, what is it that you wanna do when you grow up?
Troy Washington:And he said, I wanna go to the NBA. And I said, okay. Cool. And now the again, I'm pointing this out because this is a point of me talking about getting back to the basic and reminding somebody. So I'm telling you to remind yourself what it is that you're wanting in that moment.
Troy Washington:And it doesn't mean that my son's mind won't change later, but in that moment, that's what he said he wanted. So my response to him was, well, stop worrying about a job. If you just focus on basketball, all that you want will come. I mean, working will come in basketball. You know, money will come in basketball.
Troy Washington:Fun will come in basketball. Everything that you want can come if you just focus on what you want. And so fast forward, a year later, he was at Mavs Camp, and they had let us know about the Mavericks ball kid. And, you know, we asked, could they put in a recommendation for him? And a lot of kids, don't get this opportunity.
Troy Washington:And so they reached out to us not too long after that and let us know that, you know, once he wrote his letter and fulfilled his great obligations, that he was gonna be selected to be a Miles Bob kid. Now what does that look like to him today? He has a job that he wanted. He's been able to go to basketball games that he wanted. He's around the industry in the world that he wants to grow up to be in, and he's seeing all the other opportunities that he can have whether he's in the NBA playing or in the NBA working as a coach or NBA working as a, a field coordinator.
Troy Washington:And, again, this is all based off of him being focused on what he wants right now. But go ahead, Jay.
JClay:I I love that. I I I love that. And not but not only that too, like, your part in it as well. Because I I remember I asked you, I was like, you wanted Mavericks season tickets before. Right?
JClay:And you was like, yeah. And but you might not have got it just because you're like, nah. It's not important to spend resources on that. But because you get to take him to the games, you essentially have season tickets. And I think that's one of the most beautifulest things, and it it it go it goes to show that we don't have to sacrifice anything.
JClay:We don't have to sacrifice, something else for something else. Like, we can get what we want. If if we're willing to stay faithful to the idea, if we're willing to stay true to that vision and not let anything else distract us from it, we can have that. And it's and I I think that's amazing.
Troy Washington:Yeah. And, you know, to your point, yes, 100%. I did say that in me helping him focus on what he focused on, which again, a part of my job is focusing on making my kids or putting my kids in a position to be who they wanna be. And, you know, there's a benefit and byproduct for myself, but the reminder for everybody that's listening as well as myself again is that there's a core of things that I want for myself as well. There's a core of things that you want for yourself as well.
Troy Washington:And a lot of times, we forget that and try to skip the core for ourselves to get to things that we don't realize our core will take us to. And so, like, me being able to witness it firsthand, or and also me share the story. I hope that everybody can see that that thing that you want, it leads you every every everywhere. And the funny the the the the funny thing is, bro, when and I when I go back to this time, and I'm telling TJ that day of the job, though I haven't been acclaimed in music the way that originally thought. Right?
Troy Washington:And when I to him, I traveled all around the world, And I music took took me there because there's not a trip that I ever went on when I was growing up. Because when I was a kid, I I never went on. My mom and my dad weren't together. So we didn't have all the money in the world. So from the time that I met you been traveling, music took me everywhere.
Troy Washington:Music put me on the stage with some of the biggest names in the industry. Music dollars. Music did so much when I was locked in to the music the way that I wanted to, and it was all the things that I actually wanted to the world. But music took me there. I wanted to meet friends all over the place.
Troy Washington:Music took me there. And it's, it was the the sentiment that I shared to him that I forgot along the way. And I encourage people to just to remember and trust. Go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Yeah. And and, you know, I I would share something similar how, like yeah. Music has has my love for music has gotten me so much. Even my my so called spiritual awakening. Like it's it's the the pursuit of it.
JClay:And and I'll I'll say just to clarify because yes, it's music for some, basketball for others, but it's the love, the love of those things.
Troy Washington:It's the
JClay:love that leads us to everything we could ever want. And if we if we follow our love, if we follow our heart, as they say, like, anything we ever wanted is is is truly is ours. And and again, it's it's it's that simple, but we make it more complicated. We we think we have to do this. We hear somebody else's success story.
JClay:We get caught up in, oh, this how they did it. So maybe I have to switch all of this over and do it that way. Or, oh, I got I can't do this without this. This is the only way I can do it. The only way ever, really.
JClay:So let me try to do it this way. And we we put ourselves in this box and this hole, and there's no love anymore. And we're just we're just going through the motions because we think now now we're thinking our way through it instead of loving our way through it. And so just getting back to the basics and, again, putting everything in front of you is is a way for you to be like, yes. I want that.
JClay:This is for me.
Troy Washington:And see, that's the part of the story too that I wanna reemphasize as well. And I I'm telling you, bro. I asked my kids over again, what is it that you wanna be? And the reason why I'm I'm bringing that back up is because to your point, follow the love. Just because you love something today doesn't mean you're gonna love it tomorrow.
Troy Washington:That's not what that means. Just because you've told everybody you love something doesn't mean that you gotta stay true to what you've told everybody you love because a lot of time, we will set our expectations based off of what we think that we made people believe that we wanna do. But it's okay to change what you love, and that's the reason why I asked my kids over and over again. And again, the point here is you should be asking yourself over and over again and being okay with yourself changing. Because if today I felt like I was in love with basketball, but yesterday I mean, yesterday when I was on my way home, I kicked the soccer ball and I never felt like I never felt that before in my life and it made me feel all this joy, then I might wanna be a soccer player.
Troy Washington:I might wanna stop, shake the trees, put soccer on top. Doesn't mean basketball goes away, but I get a I have the opportunity in life to spend time on this while I love it and see how far it can go. Get get to the basics of it. Get it my attention and my time and see what it can grow into. Go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Yeah. Yeah. And and and if we haven't said it, that is the basis of of getting back to the basics. So the things that you want, it should be the things that you love. The things that you love to keep in your life.
JClay:The things you wanna add more to. And and again, it it it is something so profound about saying what you love, what you want versus what you think you have to do. Fortunately, I don't have many things that I think I have to do anymore in my life, which is beautiful. There was a time where that took up most of my life. I have to do that.
JClay:I gotta, like, thank you. I'm I'm I'm just so grateful that I'm I'm no longer in that space, and I won't put myself in that again. And you don't have to either. And that that's the thing. Like, just just be honest with yourself.
JClay:Be real with yourself and and and say that you don't like something, and ask yourself those questions. Like, is there a way that I can do this that aligns or or move me moves me closer to what I wanna do? Because because we're not saying necessarily quit right away, even though that's that's an option. But, you know, just just do what works for you.
Troy Washington:No. 100%. To that point, like, you, most people have been living long enough to know when I mean, I I believe in love at first sight or love at first feel or love at first, you know, however you want, you know, experience. Love at first experience, man. You know, and, you know, again, when when TJ was born, bro, a tear came out my eye.
Troy Washington:But I I didn't even know why I couldn't even control my body. You know what I'm saying?
JClay:Yeah.
Troy Washington:When we feel something, you know, you you you you you know. And, again, I'm I'm a bring this point back up only because I've experienced it, and I've been around people who've who've expressed to me that they felt that I would be disappointed in them by switching it up. Right? And when you feel something, not only if you decide to follow that love, will the resources come, will the obstacles so will the support. So will the people who you think are not going to support you.
Troy Washington:Because whether people say it or not, everybody wants to see you win. But not only do everybody wanna see you win, everybody wants to see you happy. I never met a person that didn't wanna see another person happy. I have I know people get into it with people, but, yeah, when you're not into I've never somebody somebody happy. That's the reason why when somebody smiles at you, you smile back.
Troy Washington:I I automatically it's it's like a it's like when a doctor hit your knee with that deal and your knee flex, and you can't do nothing about it. You gotta smile back. When you decide to follow your love and you let it show, which you won't have no choice to, you get all things. You get all things. The people, the feeling, the love, the money, the joy, the experience, You get it all.
Troy Washington:And that's the basics. Go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Yeah. But you spoke on about how how did you say that? Man, I I lost my train of thought because I I was thinking about something else. But the oh, yeah. About switching up when you switch things and maybe disappointing yourself or someone else.
JClay:Like, you know how much I love music. There have been at least 2 times where me following my love, I thought, oh, I guess I'm never gonna do music again. And that's that's a crazy thought to think, but in reality, it was like, no. This is just gonna add to your music. It's gonna add to what you do.
JClay:And everything that we're inspired by, that that that causes us to to follow it. Like, it all adds to who we are. And it doesn't mean you have to give up something else or quit something else. I mean, you might not do it at that particular time, but it just adds to who you are. So I'm I'm I'm with you on that that following your love.
JClay:And so we need to get back to the basic. We need to shake the truth. We need to to shake the the dislike. We need to shake the hate. Shake out that other stuff so we can get to that that that core, like, okay.
JClay:This is this is what I wanna do. This is what I love. Yeah. So if you if you take nothing else from this episode, just list out everything you want right now and list out everything you're doing right now. Compare those lists and merge them or do do what you gotta do after you see them.
JClay:You'll put it like this. You'll be so driven by love. You'll know exactly what you need to do of those 2 lists to to make it work for you.
Troy Washington:You know what's funny? When you say make that list, I promise you, if you when you make that list, if you decide, I'm just gonna start. If I take it off this list, I'll never do it again. And I'm not saying that you should, really never do it again. Yeah.
Troy Washington:But you would know what you love if you decide to try to take something off the list that you don't ever wanna do again. If you if you say I'm never gonna do whatever I take out the list, I'm never gonna do again or I'm a cross that, you will start really allowing yourself to feel. You allow yourself to feel what it feels like to lose something that you really love. And I think that'll help provide direction and give you a starting point. It's just like the, I forgot the name of it.
Troy Washington:I already
JClay:Eisenhower matrix?
Troy Washington:Yeah. The Eisenhower matrix. When you start delete if you go to your email and you try to delete something that you don't wanna delete, watch how fast you hit that undo button. Watch how fast you hit that undo button because you're gonna know. Your feelings won't allow you to lie to yourself.
Troy Washington:Go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Not that's true. Like, that that unimportant, unurgent thing when it was, like, deleted. There was some stuff that I was like, I guess this is important. And I mark it as important because I I I wasn't ready to let it go.
Troy Washington:Real talk real quick.
JClay:Appreciate it. Love is the magic. Yes.
Troy Washington:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not straight up, bro.
Troy Washington:Like, and, you know, so so getting back to the basic on the way that we're saying that you should move forward with this. They just kinda say write down everything that you're doing, everything that you wanna do. I'm saying, you know, start to cross stuff out and and commit to, like, when I cross this out, it's done. And before you put that pen and paper, see how you really feel about it. The other thing that I would encourage to do in this is, once you shake that tree and you have what you have left, commit to the time.
Troy Washington:Like, the the the terminology when it pertains to the things that are left or the thing that is left, you can never say I don't have time. Like, that should be removed from the bouquet. Like, it doesn't matter what's going on. You can never say I don't have time for this. You have to have time for this.
Troy Washington:You have to have time for that. Go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Yeah. We we make time. Matter of fact, for one of my projects, the, my my to do list item that I'm gonna do tomorrow is find an hour to to not to work on it and then find another hour per week to to work in it. You know, like, if you have a business working on it and it is 2 sets of different tasks, is to actually doing that because I have some stuff that I really wanted to do this, but weeks go without me doing nothing. And and there there are plenty of blocks of hours that I could have chosen just once a week.
JClay:Like, really? I'm I'm like you said, I'm not gonna let that stop me anymore because now I know what's important, and I know what I'm actually eager to do. It's not like this is not even a chore. It's something that I want to do. So it's it's it's almost like, yeah, I can't wait to to block out that those hours for this week.
Troy Washington:You you know, one other thing I wanna add to this, bro, when you start putting time like, we project, and we will make determinations on things based off of not having enough facts. And so what I mean by that is when I told myself a week and a half ago that I was gonna dive in, I was I shook the trees and said, this is good. What's gonna be first? And then I also set a timeline. I was like, well, I'm not gonna be done with this by this time.
Troy Washington:But because I was so locked in, the reason why I was able to take my break is because I ended up being way I'm talking when I say way, way ahead of schedule. I ended up being way, way ahead of the timing that I thought. And I mean, like, light years ahead. But the reason why is because I 100% wholeheartedly dove in. And projecting the time was unrealistic because I never knew what it was like to give it all to myself.
Troy Washington:And so, I said that to say this, all that you want to accomplish, all that you want to achieve is really right in front of you. It's really no further than you can even it it's it's way closer than you can ever imagine, but you don't know what that really looks like because you haven't given yourself the opportunity. And so, I just I just want you to know that it's right there. Go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Yeah. It it it it really is, man. And the like, the excitement the excitement I have right now And, again, much has not changed except I deleted some stuff that needed to be deleted. I I I I now I'm refocused. I have my focus back.
JClay:And, yeah, it's it's just excitement. And and the the thing and the cool thing about it is this is not the first time we we've talked about something like this. This is just a natural cycle. Like, we we we pick a pick a focus, we get excited about it, and then some kind of way we start letting stuff pile on. Let's not repeat that cycle.
JClay:Let's let's we've graduated from that cycle. Let's be in the space where we always have this this eagerness, this this light about us, that we're we're ready just to do the things that we're inspired by, that we love.
Troy Washington:So go ahead and tell me the name of that one more time. The apron what is it called again?
JClay:The the Eisenhower matrix.
Troy Washington:Eisenhower. Right. And and to your point and the point that I made when I went through the training and I started doing this. Do not get tired of the process. Do not on the process.
Troy Washington:Again, I'm not saying don't follow your love. That's completely different. But what I'm telling you is don't allow what was comfortable. Because if you're shaking the tree, you're you're you're bringing to the forefront what's important. Right?
Troy Washington:But sometimes when you bring to the forefront what's important, you revert back to what you feel like is comfortable or what is normal. And and and again, if those things that you come to the conclusion that that's what you love, then that's thing. You're doing it because you're not willing to spend the time and go through the process. I'm telling you, do not get comfortable, do not get bored, and follow through. You should always be enthusiastic about finding your greatest love.
Troy Washington:Always. Make that your priority all the time. Go.
JClay:Yeah. And and to that because again, you know, everybody might not wanna write out stuff or whatever. Like, find your process in that process of simplifying. And the the thing about the word important. Right?
JClay:Like important has many meanings. The things that were important to me before might not have been my love, which is which is crazy to think that I had a a a life without that, like without this joy, because I thought maybe other stuff was important. So but but but again, that that's why I say it's important to see all these things important side by side because you really get to see, like, man, you telling me if I just kinda focus on this, I can have this, and I don't have to have this anymore that I think that I have to have. And that that word important, it blurs and you see like, oh, this is what's really important, not this over here. So yeah.
Troy Washington:Real real talk, man. So I I I'll say this, man. You wanna talk about a show that will make you open up your eyes again? And this the funny thing is I know this is the way that we live, but it doesn't mean that we have it all right all the time. And it doesn't mean that we always see all the details.
Troy Washington:And so, I wanna thank everybody that joined in and and and tell y'all that you don't realize how much or how important you are to our lives and helping us realize our perfection. Because being able to talk through these things, to revisit, to reemphasize, and reenergize us in the things that we know are important. And it is important for you to continuously revisit things for yourself. And, I I I I say it because this show is proof for me and Jay Clay. And we hope that that's one thing that rubs off on you.
Troy Washington:No matter how many times you see something, it's always cool to shake the tree and get back to the basics to remind yourself where you're going, what you want, and how you wanna get it done. And, also, so you to remember and feel the love of it all. Feel the love of it all because your feelings will not lie to you if you allow it to touch your heart the way that you know that it can. And, I I I I again, I'm thankful for y'all. I encourage y'all all to, you know, remember that you are perfect, and and don't allow the side forces to dictate anything else to you.
Troy Washington:And, Jay, you can go ahead and take us out.
JClay:Yeah. Appreciate all y'all again for rocking with us. Again, if you wanna support us, check out our Patreon. Link is in the description. If you're watching on YouTube, like, subscribe, all that good stuff.
JClay:Shout out to Tipsy Pick, tuning in on IG. And, yeah, just just remember, your perfect creation made by a perfect creator. So you might as well accept your perfection and enter perfect mode. You. If I reminded you that you are perfect, would you argue me down or step into your perfection perfection perfection?
JClay:Welcome to perfect, welcome to perfect, where there are no excuses, no expectations, and we explore the world without limitations. I'm j Clay, rapper, a spiritual teacher, with my co host Troy Washington, your friendly neighborhood realtor. Let's be real. So let's be perfect. Perfect.
JClay:Everything, anything, anything, anything, anything, perfect.
Troy Washington:Oh, oh, oh.
JClay:Everything, anything, anything, anything, Perfect.
