Stuff I Learned Yesterday
About Stuff I Learned Yesterday
Stuff I Learned Yesterday is a podcast that aims to encourage, inspire, challenge, motivate, and improve the lives of those who listen to it. Stuff I Learned Yesterday is released each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Each episode ranges from 5-15 minutes long and contain short stories based on real events and lessons learned by the hosts. Friday episodes are called the Friday Forum and are filled with inspirational and motivational thoughts submitted by Stuff I Learned Yesterday listeners. Submit your story for a Friday Forum episode by calling 304-837-2278, visiting our feedback page, or click on the Send a Voice Message button on the left hand side of this page.
89- Remembering to Stay on Target
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I’m really excited about Podcast Movement. As the days tick by and Podcast Movement draws closer, my excitement grows. I love the opportunity to learn from other people and this conference will have some amazing leaders and teachers. The thing I look forward to the most is meeting new people and reconnecting with others. I learned quite a while ago that the best moments from conferences are normally found in the hallways and the coffee lines. Those are the moments when one-on-one conversations and real connections are made.
I’m also looking forward to this conference because it will mark a milestone achievement for me. It will be the first time I have have led a solo session at a conference. Back in 2012 I had a goal to speak at a conference. That was really the entirety of my goal. It didn’t matter what context or conference. I simply wanted to be invited to be a speaker at a conference. I saw it as an opportunity to test the waters for the future career goals that I had and I saw it as a way to challenge myself and grow. In June of that year I was asked to organize and lead a podcasting panel at Blog World in New York City.
Since that time my goal has been to increase the number of speaking opportunities that I am given. I consider a speaking opportunity any appearance on someone else’s podcast, speaking locally, participating in a webinar, or speaking at a conference. These are all opportunities to share my knowledge, encourage others, challenge myself, and improve my communication skills. Read More…
88- The Second Arrow
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Have you heard the philosophy that life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react? I believe in this idea 100 percent. I’ve noticed that people who believe in this idea are happier, pleasant to be around, and even more successful in everything they do.
Sure, I’ve found that it’s easier to believe in this philosophy when things are good, and not as easy when life gets hard. But, in the good times and in the bad times, it’s my reaction that counts. My reaction is the only thing I have control over anyway, so, might as well start there.
Now I’d like to talk with you about a related idea that comes wrapped in a slightly different color paper. Read More…
87- When Parenting Got Real
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When I was growing up I can remember talking with my friends about what we thought our families would be like when we got older and what we thought life would be like when we graduated. I thought that I’d graduate high school, go to college for 4 years, find the right girl along the way and get married when I was around 22. I then thought after I’d been married for a few years that I’d have kids. I wanted 2 or 3 kids. I think most of my friends pretty much had the same plan.
Funny how things change once stuff gets real. I didn’t graduate college 4 years after graduating high school. I didn’t get married at 22, but I was close. I got married shortly after my 23rd birthday. Once I got married, something weird happened. As a kid and even a young adult, the thought of having kids and starting a family was a really cool idea. I looked forward to it. However, once I got married, that all changed.
I don’t think it happened immediately, but some time very soon after I got married I realized that the idea of having kids freaked me out. My wife soon started having an interest in starting a family, but the idea of it really made me uneasy. We talked about it from time to time and I’m grateful that it was never a point of frustration or tension between us. We were always able to talk about it honestly. After a while I realized what my problem was.
I was not at the point where starting a family was a far off and intangible thing. I was at the point where it was a reality. The reality of the responsibility of everything that comes with having kids was really weighing on me. Kari was patient. Her biological clock was ticking, but she wanted to make sure that both of us were ready. So that was the way things went for at least a year after we started talking about it. Read More…
86- Street View Vs. Porch View
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It’s been exactly 30 episodes since the last time I talked about my flower beds. When I first mentioned my flower beds and my neighbor with the green thumb back in episode 31, I mentioned that I was committed to the hard work and dedication it would take to keeping the plants alive and making sure the flower beds were more beautiful than they’d ever been.
It’s been nearly 3 months since I recorded that episode and I’m happy to report that not only do the flower beds look better than they ever have, I continue to learn new stuff through the process of keeping the beds looking good. Before I get into today’s story I want to let you know that some of you have asked to see pictures of my flower beds. Now, they still aren’t going to win any yard of the month club awards, but you can see a picture of my yard by going over to the website and checking out the featured image for this episode. Again, this is episode 86 of Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
I’m really enjoying taking care of my flowers. I still don’t like the planting part, but the rest of it has become quite enjoyable. I go out to look at them 4 or 5 times a day and see how they’re doing. When we started the project at back in April, we had 2 plants in our 2 flower beds. We now have about 65 plants. We’ve had 3 or 4 die along the way. I bought a few new plants last week, and before I planted some of them I tracked the sun pattern over a 7 hour period before choosing the spot I thought would be best. Obsessive? Maybe. But those plants are looking good! Read More…
85- Friday Forum
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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, I’ve never traveled outside of the US but hope to do so one day, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I’m pleased to bring you another installment of the Friday Forum.
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Friday Forum
Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share contributions from Mark and Karen. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More…
84- Thinking of My Future Self
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I love my job. As you know, I left my job of nearly 19 years in May of 2013 so that I could become an entrepreneur. I had the dream of making a career out of podcasting and it’s been a great first year. I’ve acquired several new clients over the last year, and I’ve been privileged to help a lot of people start or improve their podcast.
It’s fun to think about the relationships I’ve formed, especially when I think about the fact that most of my clients were complete strangers to me this time last year. I wonder who I’ll be working with this time next year? Just the thought of all the opportunities heading my way and people who will be a part of it really excites me.
One of my clients is Zac Johnson. Zac is one of those guys who realized at a very young age that he would be an entrepreneur. He’s been in business for himself since he was in high school and has achieved a lot of success. Zac is now 18 episodes into his podcast, Rise of the Entrepreneur. In each episode of Rise of the Entrepreneur Zac interviews other entrepreneurs and talks to them about their successes and failures, the stuff they learned the hard way, the new projects they’re working on, and picks their brains for advice that other entrepreneurs would find beneficial. You can check out Zac’s blog and podcast at ZacJohnson.com. By the way, this is not intended to be a commercial for Zac. Zac doesn’t even know I’m talking about him today.
At the end of each episode of Rise of the Entrepreneur Zac gives an inspirational quote to help motivate and inspire his audience. As I was editing episode 18, his closing quote really hit me, and it inspired this episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
The quote is, “Go do something today that your future self will thank you for.” Read More…
83- The Question That Rocked My World
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Have you ever had someone ask you question that rocked your world? I have. I was asked a simple question by a guy I had never met before and it changed my life.
Several years ago I had a job that just wasn’t working out for me. There wasn’t anything wrong with the company, the people I worked with or even the job itself. It just wasn’t a good fit for me. I had been looking for a way out but didn’t really know what I wanted to do. So, I hung on to that job a lot longer than I probably should have.
Then I was asked the question. The question was in a book. The question changed my life forever. Read More…
82- The Rhythm is Going to Get You
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I mentioned in a previous episode that I sing and play guitar at my church. What I didn’t tell you is that I’m the worship leader and I’m, shall we say, rhythmically challenged. Most of the time I’m fine. That’s not to say that I alway keep in rhythm. I don’t. I have a tendency to speed up as a song goes on. I have to really focus to keep from speeding up the tempo.
However, speeding up the tempo isn’t usually that big of a deal. The band sticks with me and we all stay together. The drummer has worked with me in rehearsals to help me more aware of my tempo during the entire song and I don’t really ever get so fast that it’s hard to sing along, it’s just faster than it was when we started.
If gradually getting faster as songs progress was my only problem, I probably wouldn’t bother telling you about it. After all, it’s a problem that most people won’t notice. My bigger problem is that I will flat out lose my rhythm from time to time. That is, I’ll be strumming along, playing a song that I’ve done a hundred times before and add in a extra beat or even skip a beat. When I make this type of mistake, it’s noticeable by everyone. We’re all off. Well, actually, the band and the congregation are together, but the guy singing into the microphone and leading everyone is off.
When this happens it creates an awkward moment. I instantly realize what I’ve done, of course, and try to figure out how to get back on track. I think what normally happens is that once the odd beat has passed, I’m back on the normal rhythm and the band and congregation just have to sync back up with me. This process usually takes a couple of seconds. Then we’re all back together and the awkward moment is behind us. Read More…
81- Lessons From the Links
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I played golf over the weekend. You might be impressed to hear that I shot a 68. You might be less impressed to hear that that is just my score for the first 9 holes. In case you don’t really know that much about golf, professional golfers will easily score below 68 for an entire round of 18 holes. Unfortunately for me, golf is one of those sports where a higher score is better.
I really enjoy playing golf, but I am also really terrible at it. I hate that it’s so expensive to play, and I’d play more often if it didn’t cost so much. In fact, it had been about 2 years since the last time I’d played a round of golf.
I typically play with my dad and brother. Before we ever approach the first hole it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that my dad and brother will be competing for the top spot and I will claiming third place. That was certainly the case this weekend. After the first hole I was down by 3 or 4 strokes and that was the closest I would come to the lead all day. Since I know that I’m terrible at it, I adjust my expectations accordingly.
If you’ve listened to the previous episodes of Stuff I Learned Yesterday, then you should be very aware that I am not athletically gifted. You may think that golfing is not an athletic activity, but I believe it is. At the very least, it requires having good eye-hand coordination, and that’s usually a problem for me.
I have no expectation that I will hit a shot that Tiger Woods would be proud of. I don’t even have an expectation that I will hit a shot that Happy Gilmore would be proud of. My expectations are simple: have fun, do my best, and try to improve as the round progresses. Because I know I can’t really compete with my dad and brother, my competition is with myself.
This competition may seem false or insignificant, but it’s enough to push me to do my best and cause me frustration when I fail to achieve my goal. My dad and brother are both very encouraging when I hit a bad shot or a good shot, and they give me pointers along the way. Read More…
80- Friday Forum
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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, my favorite Dum Dum flavor is root beer, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I’m pleased to bring you another installment of the Friday Forum.
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Friday Forum
Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share contributions from Doug and Coop. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More…