Sheep Get Sheared
Navigating the Nexus: Politics, Religion, and Relationships
My friends, a lot of people are not free thinkers. They want to just accept one thing, whether it be politics or religion or even when it comes to relationships. How many of you gentlemen have been told that relationships operate a single way and that's the only way they should go? Or the man needs to treat a woman a certain way or the woman needs to treat a man a certain way? Look, when we look at relationships, relationships have never been easy. Ever, they've always been hard and at the end of the day, you need to ask yourself what is it you want? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the sheep get sheared podcast. I'm your host Austin Creed and my friends. You know what? I'm going to do a little bit of a different mood. The reason I bring that up is because you know what? The more I'm on X, whatever the hell you want to call it, I don't even know what to call it anymore. It's not the end of the point where I'm old enough to where it's been Twitter for me for so long, but also I'm down for the change I like where it's going so, but that's not the point. I'm getting sidetracked already. You know, I realize that a lot of times I'm going to show, I can come across as negative. Cup of crows is very doom and gloom, very cynical and unhappy. You know what? I get that. I truly understand that. You know what? I think we should try a different show. I'm in a little bit of a different mood today anyway, so you know what we're going to do? We're going to discuss the balancing of life's burdens, navigating through religion, politics, relationships and how they all kind of come together into this melting pot we call a mind and how it plays out in our lives and where we think it's important, is there such thing as a balanced bandwidth? Is it all just a giant lie? Who knows? But we're going to try to find out. So before we jump into the videos and we get into the various conversations we're going to have on the show today, I think it's important that we really ask some questions. First question one would be why does it matter? How has these three things in particular religion, politics and relationships, how would you rank the importance of all three things, number one? Number two, how are they infected or impacted? It could be infected if you think it's bad. How is it impacted your life? What parts of those three have either hurt you, have affected you in such a way where you adapted and changed your outlook and lifestyle accordingly? All these things are very important and I think we need to have a dialogue on how we've gotten through, whether it's for on the older side or whether we're on the younger side, how have we gotten through life where we are today? Whether we're proud of it or unhappy, it's a totally different discussion. I will view those three things and talk to your life and how important are they to you? I think it's a very important question because we're going to explore this idea of if there is a work-life balance. I hear this term thrown around a lot and I'm not a huge fan personally because especially for you, if you're in your teams, twenties, even early thirties, I don't think you need work-life balance. I think you need just work to build a life that then you can have a balance of. You can't have a work-life balance if you don't really have work, you don't really have a life. How can you find balance between two things you don't really even have yet? When you're a younger man especially, ladies I can't really discuss it from your angle. I can imagine it but I can't directly relate to it. I can imagine how women and men have a totally different outlook on life and two totally different experiences. For one, women tend to, as soon as they hit puberty, they got their options are out there, they got the whole world in front of them and they have all the opportunities in the world especially if they're good looking and especially if they come from good stock and they have both parents, they have a ton of options in front of them. Men on the other hand, we can have all those things but our value is based on what we build, we have to be based on what we build, not what our parents built for us, meaning our bodies. Unless you're an athlete, women on the other hand they have that advantage. Now, that advantage changes as we hit, you know, old 30s, early 40s, this tends to change men call it the wall, I don't know what women call it, I imagine it's a big similar. But, my friends, I think we need to find if there is such a thing as a balance and if you have found this balance or you don't believe it exists or you're somewhere in between, please let me know, I'd love to hear what you have to say. But, and then without further ado, let's jump into the videos I have for today's show. First, we're going to look at things from the man's perspective of this work-life balance and then we're going to look at the female, all right? So, let's see how the rule and the rules he has, let's see what he has to say. Seven ways I live a balance lifestyle that makes sure all aspects of my life are on track and not being neglected. One, I have working hour boundaries of 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the weekday and rarely ever allow myself to overstep them. Two, I set up coffee meetups with people at least one week in advance, otherwise I will find excuses that I am too busy in the moment to carve out the time. Three, I turn on do not disturb when I am with people so that I am not getting distracted by the notifications of the buzz on my phone and I can be fully present. Four, I say yes to experiences or events that are in alignment with my goals and interests. Five, I am mindful about the money I spend on myself but I see it as an investment in my well-being. Six, I try something new each week, whether it's a restaurant, workout, class, coffee shop, etc. I push myself into the discomfort of doing something or going somewhere I've never been before. Seven, I do not set an alarm clock on the weekend which allows my body to get the proper rest and recovery that it needs from a busy week. Here are the... Okay. Okay. Thought too bad. Uh, I don't know. I don't know if I agree with everything he said because like I said before, I'm not a huge believer in this idea of a work-life balance. I think you could get there but you don't start there because if you start there, you're going to be trying to like a war on two fronts. You're trying to find work but you're also not trying to work too hard which is stupid because I don't think there's such a thing as working too hard. There's such a thing as working too hard too long but you have to be able to build something. You can't maintain something that you don't have and the same way that you can't edit a blank page as one of my best friends likes to point out to me, he was written multiple books and he's a fantastic author. Uh, you know, just in the same way, you can't maintain something that you don't have. You can't... You haven't built yet but I think it's important that we as men, you know, it's easy for us as men and especially as biblical bachelors or men who are in this community, easy for us to get very depressed, very cynical and trust me, I'm a very cynical man. Um, you don't believe me, listen to any other of my shows, I can get very cynical and very realistic, but you can call it cynical if you want. But we also need to understand that we need to have some kind of balance between what we know to be true and we don't, and we probably don't like it and what we can do about it with ourselves. I know a lot of us would love to change the world. We would love to do something that would change the world into the image we want and the way we want and the time we want and everything, but it's not going to work that way. We have to control the things we can control and we have to either get over or fix the things that we can't control. If there is a problem you face, you can't either affix it or be get over it, you gotta just, you gotta stop thinking about it, or you gotta do something, you gotta think about it and say, and put it in one of those two categories, otherwise you're just going to be miserable. And I don't want you to be miserable. Look, I understand I can come across as someone who's very unhappy and angry. Now I'm just passionate about this stuff. I'm passionate about people finding what matters to them and getting it. That's the whole point of the show is to find out ways you're being exploited or you're not getting the full truth, and then ways that you can then bridge that gap and use the proper information that is being presented to you. I do a lot of research, do a lot of reconnaissance, and I try to provide the most balanced perspective you can find. I mean, I'm not going to tell you I'm not biased. Of course I'm biased. Everybody's biased. I don't care if they're on the alphabet channel, they're on YouTube or if they're to present in the United States, everybody has biases and preconceived notions that they're going to bring to any discussion, speech or round table, so called that you're ever going to listen to. This is just a fact of reality. We looked at it from the male perspective. I think he was smart with stationing out his week and his schedule, but gentlemen, did you notice a couple key things in that? Number one, he had a house, or at least it seemed like he did, two, he had income coming in, three, he was taking care of himself, he was going to the gym, he seemed like he was eating well. I could be wrong about that. I haven't seen a video about him talking about that particular, but overall, he seems to be having a somewhat balanced life because he has things. Most men when we're young, we don't have much of anything because we're trying to get a house or an apartment or a townhouse or whatever. We're trying to get that, we're trying to get money in streams of income coming in. We're trying to build a network of people we have respected and want to associate with. We're trying to get all these things. Once you have those things, you can then make sure that you balance it and make sure that you, like you would balance the checkbook, you want to make sure you balance your life. I could see where he's coming from on that, but that's step two or three, that's step one. Step one is getting those things, and that's where a lot of men struggle the most. Because me, I'll use myself as an example. I'm struggling with that right now. I'm building a lot, but I don't really need this quote balance he's talking about yet because I love what I'm doing. I love talking about this. What do you love? You love what you're doing? If you don't, I recommend you either A, fix it immediately, or B, if it's not that simple, well, then to find a way to start a side hustle that you like, that it may be in five years from now, or hopefully sooner, you can then monetize that, and you can do that instead. It might not be immediate, but it can be something that you can then make money off of. This is how you bring all three of these together, and the trickiest one is religion, because a lot of people are very zealous, or they're pretty subpar in what people might call lukewarm. Look, I'm more spiritual, I'll be the first one to tell you. I'm more spiritual, because the reason I'm not religious, so called, is because religion without teeth is like a junkyard, it's like a guard dog with no teeth. Religion without rules and regulations is like a guard dog with no teeth. Pointless. Do the pun. Anyways, I'll stop. I need like a sound effect of like, funny, but look, I think the metaphor stands on all four legs. There's no such thing as being religious. If you can't have rules and regulations and statutes, otherwise, there's no point in my opinion. That's why I'm more spiritual. Until there are time comes when religion actually matters again, then I might consider being religious until then, I'm going to be spiritual, and I'm going to stay in my self-thinking lane. Thank you very much. That's what biblical bachelorism is. It doesn't conform to a single doxy. It's open to interpretation and open, leaving the door open to you to not be boxed in. But speaking of boxed in, let's see, we explored the male work-life balance. Let's look at the female work-life balance, but I'm going to turn off the sound on this because I'm pretty sure it has obnoxious music on it, but let's look and see what she's doing here. Let's look at what she's going to do. The 96 p.m. job work-life balance, project advertisement, the gym, the beach, the grocery store, tennis, oh, let's pickleball, sorry. Going for a drive. Okay, I mean, look, see, this is what women talk about when they talk about work-life balance. They talk about, I'm going to let them, hold on, I'm going to let this play in the background for a second because I think that we can look, so this is the kind of stuff that women talk about when they talk about work-life balance, this kind of stuff right here. They like the idea of being free, doing what they want to do on their own schedule and their own timing and going to the gym and here's the part they leave out, though, a lot of ladies like this who are, quote, independent boss babes, they have a large roster of dudes, which is totally fair. They can do what they want. Just don't need to see by that. Most, I'm not telling you that the other guy that we just looked at doesn't have a roster of women, he's possible he does. But gentlemen, when we talk about work-life balance, just be aware that people don't always mean the same thing and also, if you're a content creator like me, this nine to five or nine to six or whatever it is, people calling it now, it doesn't really work. Why? Because I spend a lot of time finding up ideas, working on cover art, recording these videos, editing them afterwards, make sure the sound is good, the video looks good, and everything. I know that just because this channel is not really big, it might just seem like all I do is just cut and paste everything. No, it takes me like hours to do all this, by the way. And any content creator will tell you the same thing. But gentlemen, when we get into this idea of work-life balance, we need to have it work in a life to begin with and not just any job. It can work any job at Walmart, McDonald's, or something else like that. If that's you, there's no shame in that. But we need to understand if we want a certain lifestyle, I wish I'm sure some of us do. We need to find a way to get there. And just being passive and finding balance, it's not going to help us get there as fast and as efficiently as possible. It's not going to work. I'm sorry. I wish I could sell you. It would. It's just not going to work. But on a more positive note, just because you're not where you are and be right now, does not mean you can't be there in relative short order. You know, I mentioned my friend earlier, he was a very, he's not a well-known author yet, but he's very good. He's published multiple books. I'll mention his name, Nick Oliver, he's a fantastic author. But what's interesting to me is I remember a time when he was pretty new to the scene and he was, he's an independent guy, he's not someone who's sold his soul for a contract, but now he's getting in the barns and noble stores. Now he's really stepping up in a way that his hard work is paying off and I love to see it for him. Gentlemen, I don't care if you like to do things that other people might think are lame, goofy, dumb, pointless. If it matters to you, then it matters. If you care about it and don't let other people's notions about whether it's cool or lame or whatever deter you from chasing what you want to do, even if people don't like it, who cares what they think, who cares if they think it's cool or if you think they can do it or not? It doesn't matter. What matters is if you think you can do it and you're willing to put in the work. Look, I'm not going to sugarcoat it for you. It's going to be hard. It's going to be uneasy, but you know what? If you stick with it, if you say, look, I know I'm going to struggle and know there's going to be adversity. I know I'm going to have haters. I know people are going to be naysayers and they're going to make sure they know that they're naysaying and they don't believe in me. If you can overcome those things, you will make it because most people, they sabotage themselves by telling themselves they can't do it. Instead of keep pushing, keep not giving up and pushing forward. They can continue to slowly inch their way towards their goals and gentlemen, when we talk about this idea of work, life balance, politics, religion, what up people use politics and religion as the end all beyond. I discussed it on this show from time to time. Do I think that the current regime in the White House is great? No. All you have to do is go look at the prices and the stores, prices of gasoline, the rhetoric here from their mouths, I don't agree with it. But what does me agreeing with them actually change? Not much. So what do I do? I attend my own garden and same thing with religion. Are there people even on this channel who disagree with me on religion? Probably yes. But does that change the fact that I'm very serious about all different kinds of religions and I find there to be a commonality amongst a lot of different religions and I find there to be appreciation for Judaism and Christianity especially and I really enjoy reading the Old Testament and the fire in brimstone and law and order that God provides there? No. I love that. Oh, my friends, a lot of people are not free thinkers. They want to just accept one thing whether it be politics or religion or even when it comes to relationships. How many of you gentlemen have been told that relationships operate a single way and that's the only way they should go or the man needs to treat a woman a certain way or the woman needs to treat a man a certain way? Look, when we look at relationships, relationships have never been easy. Ever. It's always been hard and at the end of the day, you need to ask yourself, what is it you want? Do you want to be married? Then get married. Do I think it's smart? No. Do I think that if you want to do it, you should do it to at least test it? Sure. Go ahead. That's what you want to do to do that. But my main point is don't do things just because of social pressure. I hope that's what you take away from this idea of finding balance. You want to find balance between what you want and not letting other people influence you out of what it is you want. That's the key to this message today. I don't want other people's opinions about what you think is cool, what you should do, what you ought to do, what you want and what you are doing. Look, if you agree with them, then by all means listen to them, but don't just listen to them because you want them to like you or you want them to think of you in a certain light or they want you to, you want them to sleep with you. I don't care what it, I don't know what it is, but don't do things just for other people. Do things because you think that advice is good and you've thought about it, not just because of some stupid reason that you're going to regret later. That's my main point. And look, this all stems from my desire for you to live the life you want to live, even if it's totally against what I think is right. I'm not a moral, I'm not a guy who uses morality as a, here's what you should do and what you ought to do. I find it amusing when people talk about how, oh, marriage should be a certain way. The same people who talk about marriage being a certain way are the same people who want to talk about, oh, well, no full divorce is not bad. See, that's the kind of stuff you end up running in. And that's why, look, there will be a time and place when I go in with a fire in the brimstone on these people, trust me, I've already done it and I won't continue to do it. Every once in a while, I think it's important that we have this conversation of, look, there is more to life than just the chicks, there's more to life than just politics and who's in the White House and more people care about who's on third base and who's in the White House. They care more about who's on, who's at the, who's at bat and they do about who's their congressman. And this is unfortunately true and we need to find a balance in our lives about things we can't control and the things that we can directly inform. Anyways, gentlemen, if anything you want to add to the discussion, ladies, if you want to add anything to the conversation if you're here, feel free to do so. I'm here for it. Share your life experience, you might think it's not valuable, trust me, it is. A lot of people can relate with the things you've gone through in your life. We can all relate to tragedy, we can all relate to difficult situations, we've all gone through part of things, why not talk about it? My help somebody, I saved their life, you never know. My friend, you take care of yourselves, please think of yourself, please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions and take care of yourselves and I hope to see you again. I'm out. Peace. [MUSIC]