Happily Ever After

Welcome everybody to another episode of Halftime Talks. My name is Rahim Rasul, and you’re listening to the podcast where we recognize that in the middle of your game of life, whether you’re up by 10 or down by 20, we all need halftime talks to uplift us, inspire us and challenge us to bring that level of performance we know it’s gonna take to win the game. [He sings the opening of Skee-Lo’s “I Wish.”]

So welcome everybody. This is another episode, and if you know how we typically begin, we begin with the appreciation. So without further ado, let’s get into it. Today. I want to appreciate synergies. Synergies are those interesting things that happen when one plus one isn’t two. One plus one becomes 10, when two people, a group of people, combine to create something that otherwise would not have been possible if one had attempted it themselves. I’ve had those relationships. When the world opens up, when the two of you, or the group of you get together, how it feels so much better, where it’s not bogged down with the stress and the friction that other relationships have.

Finding those good synergies are not only the key to life. They are the magic in life. It is amazing when you meet a stranger and you work together and something that otherwise may not have been possible is created, and that’s what I want to appreciate. I’m going to begin this episode really direct. Was writing in my journal recently and reflecting on the time, reflecting on the month, reflecting on the progress I’m making towards some of the things that I’m looking to bring into the world. And I was writing going between my whiteboard and my journal, and I wrote a phrase on a whiteboard, and as soon as as soon as I wrote that phrase, it was like electricity took over my hand, and I knew I was looking at something familiar differently.

And I love these moments. These are the moments that I live for, when I write, when you think, when you can now see the world in a more, broader perspective, and the words that I wrote are happily ever after. Now, if you’re like me, we’ve been inundated with this idea of happily ever after from a young age. It’s part of the story structure, the movies, the cartoons, the books, they all are about bringing not only the within the three acts, you have the exposition, where it paints the picture. You have the climax, where the conflict comes to a point, a boiling point, and a resolution worse resolved.

And at the end of each story, we’re told these fanciful tales of happily ever after. Not No, initially, this sounds like I’m not believing in the happily ever after. I think there’s just a little bit more to it that we haven’t considered thus far. So, typically, in our happily ever afters, they they solve it, they slay the dragon, they slay the demon, that resolution comes and they solve the conflict, and they go off into the sunset. Why are sequels. Why do they exist? Why does the next chapter exist? If we understand these patterns of life, there is no happily ever after that is void of conflict or obstruction, the freedom that we seek is not from obstruction, but happily, the perpetual creating of happiness.

Is it a condition or a choice in how we choose to focus? Because I guarantee at the end of every movie, if you just give it more time, something else will come awry. As soon as we finish a project, we will begin another one, and we will be within the Furion and the filtering of the pathos. This is pathos which is the cure, which is the cure of life, because it. Ask us for more. One of my favorite teachers said, This is not like college. Once you get your diploma, you are finished. This is something that we have to focus into every day, every week, every month, every year.

This is a clay that if we do not massage it in how we prefer it to feel, it will harden, it will become static. It will be capable of shattering at the first sign of conflict. So this idea of Happily Ever After is not negating life. It is embracing it is it embracing the understanding that the the flow of the wave are the incurrence the low tides and the high tides. They are the flow in and the flow out. But Happily Ever After is Kate the capacity to find that balance through it all, because once Snow White is rescued by Prince Charming, there’s still going to be conflict.

You still have to relate in a new sphere of relationship that wasn’t there before, even if you are a marathon runner or you are of a physical fit nature. You haven’t lived tomorrow. You haven’t lived a year from where you are today. And as we progress and matriculate through time, we evolve, but that evolution, that capacity to focus into that happiness, is not too far away. If we think that at the end of the goal, we get the reward or the lottery will be there, are we really understanding that this is an ongoing cycle, the goals that you have are only prerequisites for the next stage and the next stage and the next stage.

So since we recognize that this game of life does not end, how do we savor relish? How do we imbue happiness throughout the entire story that fulfillment that we see is available each day, not just on the day we cross a finish line, not just on a day that we host an impermanent trophy, but the permanence, the fortitude of our spirit requires us to find that satisfactory level of happiness, and how I get it, how you get it, how we collectively get it, is day to day, and once we Learn the patterns and the rhythms within it, we’re fierce. We’re not invincible, capable of not erroring, but we have tapped into what makes us endure through time, purpose and the way that we ride the board and find the balance is joy, the curiosity, the peace, the flow, the effortlessness, the way that we all understand that it all works out on our behalf.

So as we look at this idea of happily ever after, let’s give it the freedom to live longer than just the end of a goal, instead of it being a condition that we’re waiting on to fulfill the criteria of being happy. What if we make the choice of happiness each day. Now, the stories we were told growing up pointed us in this direction, but it could only take us so far. We have to embrace it. We have to take ownership of it. We have to exercise our agency within it. This is good in theory, but we have to be the practitioners of our own joy.

So this has been another episode of Halftime Talks. My name is Rahim Rasul. I appreciate you guys listening. With each episode that drops, we get better. It’s amazing to think that over five years ago, we began this, and together, we’ve taken it to some cool places. Until next time. Make sure you go to iTunes, subscribe, rate and review. We definitely love the reviews. Go on your social media feeds and share it with. Friend, the more who knows, the more we grow. And until next time you have a wonderful week and live happily ever after peace you