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That's FijiAirways.com. From here to happy. Flying direct with Fiji Airways. Once upon a time in the middle of the summer toward evening when the air was clear, the sky bright and the dimmed sun setting, a great king was sitting in his palace roof garden. He took enormous pleasure from the sight before his eyes as he overlooked the ancient city.

As he looked at people walking back and forth, he noticed a simple man, not from the royal family, all dressed from head to toe with golden clothes. He sent his messengers to summon the man. When the man came and stood in front of him, the king asked, "Where did you get all this gold?

Are you a highway robber and a murderer?" The man replied, "No, I would never do such a thing. I am working with both my hands and I earn my livelihood with manual labor." He continued, "I am an excellent silversmith. It is well known that our great city is considered to be the wealthiest city in the world and people come to trade here from the four corners of the earth.

Every day kings, ministers, and wealthy merchants come to our great city. One has a broken ring, another a broken watch, and all of them come to me to repair these items and I return them as new." The king put his arm around the man's shoulders and said to him with a light smile on his lips, "If you are such a wonderful craftsman, let me test your great craftsmanship and wonderful wisdom and see what you can do.

I command you, a royal command, to make for me such a wonderful ring that will be able to affect a man spiritually, changing his mood of the moment. If the man is happy, he will become sad when he looks at the ring, and if he is sad and worried, the ring will change his mood and he will become happy.

If you can show me this, then I will reward you as befits your skill and wisdom. If you cannot fulfill my command, I will cut off your head." The silversmith asked the king to give him three days' time. In his craftsmanship he had done many strange and different rings, but he did not even know how and where to start for such a work.

He grieved greatly, for he feared death. After three days, he went to the wise king, bringing with him several rings to show the king. He reached the royal palace and found the king's son sitting in the front room. When the prince saw the silversmith and his ashen face, he asked, "Why are you so miserable?" The silversmith answered him, "I am walking to the king trembling and my knees are knocking.

I am bringing to the king a golden ring, but I doubt whether the king would like this expensive ring." He told the prince that the king had asked him to make a ring that would change a man's mood every time, but he did not know how to make such a ring.

When the prince heard these matters, he said, "Put one ring on my finger, and I will show you how to make it." The silversmith gave him one ring, and the prince put it on his finger. He took a nail and engraved on the ring three letters, G-Z-Y, in Hebrew, Gemel, Zayin, Yad, each at a different point on the ring.

He said, "Take this ring to the king, and he will favor you and will give you many presents and will not punish you." The silversmith happily went to the king with the ring. When the great king examined the ring carefully, he recognized the three letters at the three points on the ring, and the wise king, for whom all mysteries and secrets are revealed and known and understood, read it and understood the wise hint, Gam, Zay, Ya'avor, which in Hebrew means "This too will pass." When the king examined the ring with the initials G-Z-Y, he applied it to himself, "This too will pass." That is to say that, although now I am at the highest rank, a king of the whole world and can enjoy all kinds of pleasures, this will not last forever, and my huge success will not last always.

When such thoughts came to the king's mind, he immediately grieved very much, and indeed it befell him exactly as he interpreted it. A great trouble came upon him, demoting him from his high position, and it came to pass that the king lost his crown and wandered as a beggar in remote lands.

And when the great king in his poverty looked at the ring on his finger and read the initials G-Z-Y, "This too shall pass," he said to him, "The trouble that came upon me will not last forever, and I hope one day to return and gain to be the king on a high throne." And so it happened.

This story my wife hates, but I find encouraging. Now there are various, there are many versions of this story. There's just one that I thought was evocatively written to read to you today. But the fundamental value is in the wisdom of the words, "This too shall pass." And I've had a tough past couple of weeks, and I've been sick the last week.

It just knocked me down flat, compounded that on all the challenges from the hurricane and all of that, and just had a tough couple of weeks. And yet I don't regret those things. I actually often appreciate it when I am sick, because it allows me to have more empathy and compassion for others for whom being sick is a way of life.

I'm rarely sick, and when I am, it's generally not grossly debilitating. And I am able to appreciate again how easy it is to be positive and energetic and upbeat when you feel well, and how challenging it is when you don't feel well. And so I appreciate being sick. But it's just caused me to be back on almost everything, to be behind on almost everything.

Have you ever been there? I'm sure you have. And I want to just encourage you for a few moments that when you're in the middle of the challenges, encourage yourself, "This too shall pass." We talk a lot about money, and I try very hard to make sure that most of my content, most of my product that I create for you here is positive and upbeat and motivated.

I try very hard not to complain. I try hard not to keep things negative and to just bring a downer mood. So I do my best to make this show a positive and energetic place for you, a place where you can come and be confident that you'll walk away encouraged.

That's intentional on my part. But you know what? Life's not always like that. Life's not always positive and upbeat. Life is hard. It can be grueling. And when you're in the middle of a financial journey, there are parts that are really exciting and euphoric. But there are times of most of our financial journeys that are very difficult, draining, grueling, tiring.

Perhaps this is most dramatically seen when perhaps you're in the middle of working your way out of debt. It's easy to fall into debt. Nobody falls out of debt. I know when I've been there multiple times throughout my life just seeking to work my way out of debt, I found that often I'm just tired all the time, working hard.

If you're in that situation, I want to encourage you that this too shall pass. Life's not always going to be difficult and draining like it is now. That's just the phase that you're in. Or perhaps you're in a phase at which you're saving aggressively for a goal. You're in a phase of working.

You're not in a phase of resting and spending. You're in a phase of working and accumulating. That's right. That's good. It's tough. It's okay. You'll get through it. Or perhaps you're in a phase of business where things are not looking so good. Your markets are changing. Your customers are changing.

You're struggling with your ability to deliver new products and services in a changing world. It's tough. Businesses go bankrupt. People go out of business all the time. And you might be in that situation. I always find it encouraging to recognize this too shall pass. Now, I said my wife doesn't like the phrase I'm prone to often say when we're in the middle of a challenge.

She says, "This too shall pass." And she's, "What does that even mean?" It doesn't help anything to say, "This too shall pass." I want to solve the problem here and now. So maybe that's not as meaningful for you as it is for me. But I often find comfort in the fact of just knowing this too shall pass.

We can face almost anything, almost any trial, almost any struggle for the short term, especially if we know that there's light at the end of the tunnel. This too shall pass. And I want to promise you, no matter where you are and no matter the path that you're walking, there have been other people who have been there, been there in the trenches with you, been there sick, been there when they couldn't deliver what they wanted to deliver, been there when they're working late, up early, and they're tired, just want a break.

When they see all their friends all around who were seemingly living the good life and they don't feel it quite so much. A lot of people have been there. But I also want to encourage you with another story, which is to say, don't just focus on this too shall pass.

Appreciate what you're learning in the middle of the process. Once upon a time, a man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room was filled with a bright light and the Lord appeared to him. The Lord told the man that he had work for him to do.

He showed him a large rock right in front of his cabin. And the Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. This the man did day after day. For many years, he toiled from sunup to sundown with his shoulders set squarely against the cold massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might.

Each night, the man returned to his cabin sore, worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain. Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, the great adversary decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the man's weary mind. You've been pushing against that rock for a long time and it hasn't budged.

Why kill yourself over this? You're never going to move it. Thus, this gave the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man. Why kill myself over this? He thought. I'll just put in my time, giving just the minimum effort, and that'll be good enough.

And that's just what he planned to do. That is, until one day he decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord. Lord, he said, I've labored long and hard in your service. I've been putting all my strength to do that which you've asked.

Yet after all this time, I haven't even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What's wrong? Why am I failing? The Lord responded compassionately. My friend, when I asked you to serve me, you accepted. I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength, which you've done.

Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push, and now you come to me with your strength spent thinking that you've failed. But is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscular. Your back sinew is mighty, and your hands are calloused from the constant pressure.

Your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you've grown much, and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push. You were to exercise your faith and trust. This you've done. I will now move the rock.

I don't usually go much for kind of pop sugar, feel good religious stories. And if I could dereligiousize that one, I probably would just to, not that it doesn't make a valid truth, but I feel sometimes like they're just too trite. But since I heard that story some years ago, it just really impressed me, and I've often thought back to it.

And I've often thought, am I learning something while I'm pushing against the rock? When you think about the challenges that life throws at you, you think about just the challenges, the things that you can't actually do. We're never promised success in any particular venture. You may push and push against the rock.

You may push and push to pay off your debt and ultimately be pressed by your creditors right into bankruptcy. You may push and push to save money and ultimately never get to your goal. You may push and push to build a business and ultimately have it collapse and crumble right underneath you.

All those things are entirely possible, and they've happened to better men than you and me, better women than you. Those things are entirely possible. But on the flip side, will you look down and see that your hands have become more calloused and your muscles stronger? Well, if you've pushed diligently against the rock, you'll learn from that mistake.

You'll learn from those circumstances. And I'll go with you to your next thing. So don't think that just because you're facing adversity, you can take comfort in the idea that this too shall pass and then ignore the current circumstances. Think that the way that you handle your current adversity will make a difference in you, and the lessons that you learn and what you're facing right now will move on and will go with you for the rest of your life.

I always love that little saying, "How you do anything is how you do everything." And I've found it to be true. How you do anything is how you do everything. You can't be committed in some areas and then think that that commitment won't reflect through on other areas. You can't fake it and just show up in some areas and not show up in others.

How you do anything is how you do everything. And so I close today's little motivational monologue, I guess this has been, with a simple encouragement. If you find yourself in a dark place or in a hard place, recognize that this too shall pass and if you keep on working, you'll come through it.

Things will look brighter in the morning. Don't think that everybody else doesn't go through exactly what you're facing. Don't think that everyone else's lives are just great. People feel great all the time. They're positive and upbeat and ready to go all the time. It's not true. Every motivational guru, every prominent politician, every community leader, business leader, every one of your friends, everyone you know has tough days, tough weeks, tough months, tough years.

That's life. If you're in a tough financial spot, join the club. Just about all of us have been there. Just about all of us will be there again. The scale may change, but tough times come and go. So don't give up. Keep pressing on. Recognize this too shall pass and focus on passing through it the very best that you can because that'll do a work in you.

Facing adversity, facing trial, facing difficult times will do a work in you. When I look back at my life over the last 20 years, the times that have been the most transformative for me have been the most difficult. The times in my life over the last 20 years that have been the most transformative have been the most difficult.

Ask any successful person, they'll tell you the same thing. It's not fun, it's not easy when you're in the middle of it. Requires growth, requires changes. If what you're doing isn't working, it may be time to sit down and say, "Should I quit and do something else?" Let's change the tactics, but don't quit the effort.

Just refocus. Anyway, that's all I got for you. I wanted to share this. I feel like it's valuable. People like me do things who, again, come to a microphone every day when things are going great. If we don't show up to a microphone during some of the times when things are tough, again, just facing sickness, it's knocked me back.

I think oftentimes it leads to an unbalanced idea. I just wanted to share those short little thoughts with you and encourage you. I hope this was more than just fluffy, positive-sounding motivational ideas. These are some principles that I think do have value. Even though they're couched in the middle of some fluffy stories and feel-good medicine, I guess, these things are real and they're encouraging to me.

I am doing better. I'm sorry I've been away this week. I haven't been able to talk for much of the week, but I'm doing better now. My voice is about 80-85% recovered, and I'll be back with you on Monday morning to help you build the knowledge, skills, insight, encouragement that you need each day, especially Monday, to live a rich and meaningful life now while building a plan for financial freedom in 10 years or less.

This show is part of the Radical Life Media network of podcasts and resources. Find out more at RadicalLifeMedia.com. Sweet Hop is an online marketplace curating the best in premium seating at stadiums, arenas, and amphitheaters nationwide. With Sweet Hop's 100% ticket guarantee, no hidden fees, and the personal high-level service you expect with a premium purchase, you can relax knowing you'll receive the luxury experience you deserve.

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