Wise Black Pearls
Wise Black Pearl is more than illustrative podcast built on contemporary wisdom. It is also exhumes the pearl of wisdom from our rich past. The goal is to remove the shells from the eyes of our listeners and restore critical thinking to our global community. We want to leverage both successes and failures to provide insight to accelerate authentic and organic emotional well-being. Through spiritual wisdom, philosophical insight and anecdotal stories for health and wellness, prosperity, purposeful practice and preparation for success we offer tips for real lifelong JOY! The topics are curated to inform and encourage thought leaders and creatives to step into their gift and thrive there. This podcast will offer suggestions to recognize how uniquely special you truly are. We will explore best practices and frameworks for understanding your reason for being and other compelling topics.
Hosted by Maceo Z Keeling
Wise Black Pearls
Turning Promises into Progress: Embracing Action and Growth
Ever wonder why "I'm going to" or "I'm about to" often end up as empty promises? Discover how to transform these words into action steps that propel you forward. Join us at Wise Black Pearls as we unravel the power of the present moment and the necessity of authenticity in achieving your personal goals. Hear engaging anecdotes and motivational insights that challenge you to overcome fears and procrastination, stepping boldly into life's arena. We promise you’ll walk away inspired to break free from self-deception and seize the opportunities that exist in The NOW.
Explore the transformative power of expanding your mindset for growth. We'll navigate the dangers of closed-mindedness often disguised by the phrase "I know," and illuminate the path towards enlightenment through diverse experiences. By placing ourselves in unfamiliar environments, we invite lifelong learning and new perspectives that fuel personal and generational growth. Tune in to learn the benefits of staying open to fresh ideas and continuously pursuing knowledge. This episode encourages you to subscribe for premium content and join a community dedicated to exploring access and opportunities for a brighter future.
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Hello listeners and welcome to Wise Black Pearls. Today's conversation is about keeping it real, keeping it 100. The conversations that we're about to have today are all about receipts. Very often, we put ourselves out there to know a certain thing or to understand a certain thing, because we want to appear to be informed or up on game, when the reality is you're being gamed. And so today I'm going to lay out a couple of ways that you can verify and validate your position and how you can really produce receipts for when you want to move forward in a conversation, in an activity or just within your own personal desires and drives and goals. And there are a couple of phrases that we use that are clear indications whether we are real or not. So buckle your seatbelts and let's have the conversation Right now.
Maceo Z. Keeling:One of the top statements that I hear among people across age groups, across races, across gender preferences is the word I'm on Now. Unless you come from where I come from, you don't really know exactly what I mean when I say, well, I'm on and I'm on and I'm on and I'm a do. Or the sentence is I'm on and I'm on and I'm on and I'm going to do. Or the sentence is I'm going to, I'm going to, is the killer of dreams, is the killer of progress, is the killer of activity. Because what that says in clear terms out of your own mouth is that I haven't done it yet. I haven't done it yet. I haven't initiated the action that I need to move forward to get from where I am to someplace else. So my book is a perfect example. I've been saying oh man, I'm going to write a book, I'm on, I'm on, I'm not moving forward with action. Another sentence that we hear I'm about to. Yeah, man, I'm about to blow up, I'm about to go for it, I'm about to set it off, I'm about to start it, I'm about to get this money, I'm about to make this move, I'm about to, I'm about to.
Maceo Z. Keeling:With the energy that you have to talk about what you're about to do, you have the opportunity to use that breath to be about what you're talking about. And when I say be about it, I mean let the thing that you're talking about be the thing that people see in you, or let it be the thing that drives you in the morning, let it be the thing that keeps you up at night, because you want it so badly, so emphatically, that you can hardly sleep. Let me ask you a question how are you able to sleep if you know you're going to wake up broke? How are you able to talk about what you're going to do when you have no evidence within yourself that you've started the process? I used to be a host on a radio show called the Conscious Call in Asheville, north Carolina, and my byline was you don't have to be great to get started, but you do have to get started to become great.
Maceo Z. Keeling:It's important that you take the very first step, lean into it slightly so that you can put the next foot, the trail foot, right in front of that, lead off foot and move forward. I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that there's time involved and that time is always the same time. That's right now. Take a step right now. Put one foot in front of the other, lean in and stay leaning in to keep your movement or momentum going in the direction that you would have it go. Now.
Maceo Z. Keeling:It probably sounds like I'm beating you up. It maybe sounds like I'm calling you out on your stuff. I am. I absolutely am. I'm telling you the truth because I know where we find ourselves. I'm going to do this, I am about to do this, I'm all do this, I'm all have that.
Maceo Z. Keeling:Well, here are a few phrases that are truly dream killers. You may not even recognize them. The first one is I'm going to. In my neighborhood we say, well, I'm oh, I'm oh, I'm oh, I'm oh, okay, I'm going to do something. Well, that suggests that you haven't done it yet or you are not doing it now, which means you are wasting the most precious commodity we have, which is right now the best time to do. Anything that is worthwhile that will benefit you is to do it right now. And for those of you who don't speak, ebonics, I'm about to do, I'm about to do. If you are about to do something, once again, it means you have not begun the process. You have not taken the steps that are required to be in action right now. The only time when you have power over a thing is right now, the next thing I'm getting ready to in my own life. I don't know if I promised, threatened or otherwise just flat out lied to myself when I said I'm going to write a book. Or maybe I said I'm getting ready to write a book.
Maceo Z. Keeling:We, myself included, can spend an entire life getting ready and never putting ink to paper, never going out for that tryout, never auditioning for that part, never stepping into the arena that Theodore Roosevelt talks about at Sorbonne when he says it's not the critic who matters, but the man who is actually in the arena. We got to quit playing. We got to quit playing and get in the arena. You know, we have all these conversations about what a real man is and how to be hard and how to show up. Walking around mean mugging each other, when the reality is we're hiding behind a facade of fear and ignorance, anxiety disguised as fear. Then you can break through and break free from the shackles that keep you bound up. Of course, we all walk in trauma, we all walk in anxiety, we all find ourselves feeling powerless from time to time, but responsibility falls squarely on us.
Maceo Z. Keeling:We must be able to respond to the demands of the day and if we don't, we have no one else to blame, because no one can take away your ability to say yes to yourself, to look yourself in the mirror and say let's get it on. And when I say let's get it on, I'm talking about the spiritual being who is having a human experience and having an emotional crisis. No one can take that from you. No one can address that for you. You cannot do it alone. You cannot do it alone because we are incarcerated by that which we know and that which we do not know. We cannot activate our power until we understand that we have power. We must become aware of our power.
Maceo Z. Keeling:It doesn't mean that you have to step on somebody in order to get where you're going. It simply means you will try to front and we all know there's no future to your front as someone who exudes confidence but has no competence and therefore cannot produce the receipts, and without the receipts, without the credibility and without the evidence, then you're just arrogant. Then you're just arrogant. You have a false and inaccurate assessment of who you are. And even if we discover that the end that we anticipated is not the one that we were hoping for, we are still far better for the knowledge, for the experience, which gives us the wisdom to press forward and to try something else. How many of us will walk towards a goal, bump our head against the goal and stay in that place and continue to bang our head against the wall? If you look around at the people who are close to you. Many of us do exactly that same thing. We run into a block and we either A stop, in which case we are not perfected in our efforts, or B continue to do the same thing over and over and over and over, to sheer exhaustion, or we change lanes, we change lanes. We counterfeit all of that learning, all of that experience, all of that insight, all of that success because we successfully discovered what didn't work and we traded for something untested, untried, and we trade it for something untested, untried and that we have no experience in.
Maceo Z. Keeling:If you want to know how to develop an attitude that will get you the amplitude and the altitude that you're looking for, it begins with attitude. It begins with decisions like Diana Nyad, the 64-year-old swimmer who swam from Cuba to Florida. Her slogan, her saying, is find a way. That's just one example. Find a way, start out with a decision that cuts you off from any possibility of failure. And if Winston Churchill said that success is stumbling from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm, then I'm going to say to you that success is to stay leaning on the door. If you find yourself in front of a door that is closed and locked, lean on it, kick on it, try to pick the lock, stay grinding, stay leaning against the door. Because just the physical laws of this human experience will show you that eventually, with that consistent, unwavering pressure on that closed door, the hinges will loosen, the door will begin to rattle, the door will begin to rattle, the knob will begin to to give a little until ultimately, that door, if it doesn't open when you knock on it, if you lean on it, kick on it and against it, it will eventually come off the hinges.
Maceo Z. Keeling:I'm talking about the challenges, the vicissitudes, the setbacks that occur in life day to day. In life Day to day, we can and we will Press hard Until we push through that closed door. That's what I'm talking about. Young men today Talk about being hard. Being hard Is staying leaning on that door. Being hard is a never quit attitude. Being hard is I won't give up. Being hard is knowing that if you will not quit, nothing can stop you, because our greatest weapon, our greatest tool, our greatest asset has always been that we are creatives.
Maceo Z. Keeling:There are alternative ways to do a thing. The old people say there's more than one way to skin a cat. In the Bible there was a cat that was trying to push his way into a church somewhere. I don't know the details fully, but I do know he was trying to get up in a room where Jesus was and there was no room for him to get in through any of the doors, so he cut a hole in the roof. It doesn't matter if you're Christian, it doesn't matter if you believe in God, but in this particular case, the action proves that creativity combined with action will get you in the mix, which brings me to action.
Maceo Z. Keeling:One of the major setbacks that we experience as we move through our life is we try to take action before we have understanding. It's almost like giving a kid a book of matches in his left hand and a stick of dynamite in his right hand and giving him no instruction. Given him no instruction, you can imagine that the likelihood is if he has enough information to know that he can light a match and figures out that he can light the dynamite, there's a very high probability that he's going to blow himself up. An example of blowing yourself up is making you move too soon, trying to take action before you have information. Information cured in your mind can become knowledge.
Maceo Z. Keeling:Knowledge is not power. The proper application of knowledge can be powerful, but if you do not understand how the proper application of knowledge can be powerful, then you lack the tools that you need to be effective. Once you become clear about its application and you have a clear understanding of a thing, then you need to practice the thing. And even though you have information, good knowledge, you understand its application, you know how it works and you are able to use it in the way that it was intended, then, with experience, you can now become wise. See, wisdom is not cheap. Information cured in your mind becomes knowledge.
Maceo Z. Keeling:Understanding the application of knowledge can be powerful. Understanding the power of applying your knowledge can give you understanding. Understanding coupled with practice that includes stumbling through failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm will give you experience, and that experience will give you wisdom, leaving the shores of ignorance and taking the great leap into the ocean of learning. You can do that by reading a book. You can do that by making a new friend. You can do that by going a place. You can do that by traveling to a place that you've never traveled to.
Maceo Z. Keeling:I'm not talking about traversing oceans and taking flights all over the globe, although I encourage it greatly. I'm talking about walking off the block and going to a place that you've never been, where you don't know anyone, because the chances are extremely likely you're going to hear something you've never heard, you're going to see something you've never seen and you'll learn something that you've never been exposed to. Just imagine that your mind is like a big jar and the information that you have in it is half full. There are things that you can do to fill up that jar until it overflows, or it has a lid on it that won't allow you to put anything more into it.
Maceo Z. Keeling:We call that being closed-minded, and the biggest indication of someone who is closed-minded is two simple words. I know, I know when the words that come out of a person's mouth always seems to begin with, I know, already know that, or that ain't nothing new. That is an indication that you are in the wrong room. If you are the smartest person in the room, you are absolutely and unequivocally in the wrong room. And I say that because if you're in the room where you have the greatest fund of knowledge, then you do not have room for additional knowledge, for additional learning, for a different opinion, even an opposing opinion, which could drive you into the rigorous review of your own thoughts with this new information, moving you to a place of enlightenment.
Maceo Z. Keeling:Even the word enlightenment means that you're going someplace where the light is on and you were moved, nudged, kicked, shoved, compelled and otherwise lifted from a place of darkness to a place where there is an additional light. This is how we gain awareness, and if we are not aware of the opportunities that are available to us, we certainly cannot access them. To all my listeners, I want to thank you for chopping it up with me today staying informed, looking at ways that you can improve your life through taking action, but taking the time to get understanding before you take those actions. I hope that you'll listen, going forward, follow the series that I have coming up regarding access and opportunities, access and opportunities and that you will share this link, subscribe for premium content and follow the show, as all of my intentions are to lift up empower and to give you the encouragement that you need to take that first step that will change your life, not just for today, but for generations to come. This is Maceo Z. Keeliong and I am your host of Wise Black Pearls. Ciao.
