How You Choose Your Altitude

Steven Webb: 00:00:04

Welcome to my podcast. And first of all, I want to say Happy New Year.

Steven Webb: 00:00:11

I think some must Be nice to see 2020 behind us. I think that's a collective sigh of relief at

Steven Webb: 00:00:19

that part.

Steven Webb: 00:00:22

What's 2021 have in store for us? Well, to be quite honest, it really is down to what we do

Steven Webb: 00:00:28

with it. I really do believe this. I think my life is a testament to that. So in this podcast,

Steven Webb: 00:00:34

you know, first of all, thank you for joining me. I want to talk about not settling for the life

Steven Webb: 00:00:40

you currently have. You don't need to do that. And I'm going to use my life as an example. I'm

Steven Webb: 00:00:46

severely paralysed and I could have so easily settled for less of a life. But more about that in a

Steven Webb: 00:00:52

moment. I'm Steven Webb and I'm your host of Stillness in the Storms podcast that helps you to prepare and

Steven Webb: 00:00:59

get through difficult times and have a little peace during those storms.

Steven Webb: 00:01:05

And if you haven't already, it would be awesome if you could give this review, give this podcast a review

Steven Webb: 00:01:11

that'd be amazing. And thank you. And it just helps it to go up through the ranks and it helps

Steven Webb: 00:01:15

more people hear it. And the more people that hear it, the more people it might help. And there's always

Steven Webb: 00:01:20

someone that needs to hear the odd message. And even if it's not you that needs to hear this message

Steven Webb: 00:01:26

today, one of your friends may need to hear this message. So sharing and giving a review would be awesome.

Steven Webb: 00:01:32

And you can always pause it and give a quick review Now. That'd be amazing. Just a honest review a

Steven Webb: 00:01:38

Few lines, but the points I want to make. You know, it's new Year, and I want you to have

Steven Webb: 00:01:45

the best possible year, and I don't mean the best possible year of like, going from where you are right

Steven Webb: 00:01:51

now to the top of the mountain, achieve all your goals and have the most amazing 2021, but just move

Steven Webb: 00:01:58

on a little bit from where we are. Very, very many of us, very many of us do you know

Steven Webb: 00:02:04

many of us wanted to achieve so much in 2020. And when it came in, and even when the lockdown

Steven Webb: 00:02:10

came in, I was like I'm gonna write my book. I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. And I

Steven Webb: 00:02:15

didn't capitalize on it. The world stopped just for a few weeks. I know if you're a frontline worker or

Steven Webb: 00:02:23

something like that, it didn't stop for you, but for many of us, it did. Many of us, it enabled

Steven Webb: 00:02:27

us to just breathe a sigh of relief. The World slowed down and we can get off just for a

Steven Webb: 00:02:33

moment. But we didn't use the time, we didn't capitalize on it. We were going to read books, we were

Steven Webb: 00:02:38

going to get fitter we're going to lose weight we're going to do all these different things. I was going

Steven Webb: 00:02:43

to finish my book and get it out and none of these things actually happened. Certainly didn't for me. And

Steven Webb: 00:02:49

achieving the best possible life isn't about suddenly going right. This year I'm going to achieve everything. I'm going to

Steven Webb: 00:02:55

be my ideal weight, I'm going to get my perfect job, I'm going to do everything I've ever wanted to

Steven Webb: 00:03:01

achieve and by summer I'm going to be the best possible version of me. Well, it doesn't quite work like

Steven Webb: 00:03:07

that. Outside world's always looking in, judging us well that's what the way we feel. And I've been thinking about

Steven Webb: 00:03:14

it more recently about my life and you know, we started to reflect at the end of the year and

Steven Webb: 00:03:20

I'm reflecting on my life and I remember coming home from hospital and this was what in 1992,

Steven Webb: 00:03:26

coming into 93, I came home from hospital after spending 12 months in Salisbury

Steven Webb: 00:03:34

spina unit and at the time I was in a electric manual wheelchair. I did not have an electric wheelchair.

Steven Webb: 00:03:41

You know, my ego wouldn't let me have it at that time. I'm not that disabled, I don't need an

Steven Webb: 00:03:45

electric wheelchair. And I was in a manual wheelchair they'd provided for me. And I was sat in

Steven Webb: 00:03:53

my front room just a few meters away from where I am now, a Tv in front of me. And

Steven Webb: 00:03:58

after the carers got me out of bed in the morning, they would leave me sat in that chair until

Steven Webb: 00:04:04

after lunch and they would come back and they would do me lunch, they would do my leg bag and

Steven Webb: 00:04:08

anything that was needed and then leave me there until my parents got home in the evening. And you know,

Steven Webb: 00:04:15

I was what about 20 years old at the time and that was okay. We had cmt, the country music

Steven Webb: 00:04:21

channel. Country music television or something. It was quite new in the uk, so that's pretty cool. I like my

Steven Webb: 00:04:27

country music. And suddenly with sky we had like 30 channels instead of three.

Steven Webb: 00:04:35

Life was pretty damn good and come the weekend and all my friends would come and get me and we

Steven Webb: 00:04:40

would go into town or go to a nightclub and you know, my life, I gotta be honest, for a

Steven Webb: 00:04:46

20 year old that was pretty well all right. I didn't have to do all the cleaning and tidying up.

Steven Webb: 00:04:51

I didn't have to do all the hoovering and putting the bins out that I had to before my accident.

Steven Webb: 00:04:55

And if I continue my life like that now, and I was still now watching Netflix all day just sitting

Steven Webb: 00:05:02

in front of the computer doing um Youtube which essentially I do that quite a lot of the day. But

Steven Webb: 00:05:09

if I just did that and I didn't stand on the council and I didn't um do my podcast like

Steven Webb: 00:05:16

I'm doing now, my Youtube channel, and go live writing my book and do my blog, if I didn't do

Steven Webb: 00:05:22

those kind of things and help as many of you as I can go through difficult times, no one would

Steven Webb: 00:05:27

have judged me for it. They would have gone, well, you know, he's paralysed just below the neck. If he

Steven Webb: 00:05:32

just watches Netflix and goes on the odd zoom call with friends and he, he's just happy and he smiles

Steven Webb: 00:05:40

and gets on with his life and doesn't snarl at every little thing and doesn't isn't really grumpy. They go,

Steven Webb: 00:05:46

he's living a good life. I don't blame him, you know, he's pretty well, doing all right. But then people

Steven Webb: 00:05:51

go, well no he's doing amazing because he's doing these other things. The thing is, no one would have judged

Steven Webb: 00:05:56

me for not stepping up and doing more than what I was expected to do. Everybody has this expectation

Steven Webb: 00:06:04

of what the level of what other people should achieve. Well, a, we should forget that, forget what other people's

Steven Webb: 00:06:12

expectations of us are. That's, that's their problem, not yours. But we do have an expectation of what we want

Steven Webb: 00:06:19

to achieve

Steven Webb: 00:06:21

and we should take notice of that. We should go, well, wait a minute, I wanted to do this, I

Steven Webb: 00:06:28

wanted to do that. And I'm not really doing much of that in my life. And I know adulthood takes

Steven Webb: 00:06:34

hold and you children and things take a turn and we don't always achieve, but there is things you can

Steven Webb: 00:06:42

do. There is those little things you can do on a daily basis that will help you to get closer

Steven Webb: 00:06:49

to the life that you would like to live or the legacy you would like to leave. Those little, small

Steven Webb: 00:06:55

steps every single day that we don't tend to do. And it might be a few press-ups it might be

Steven Webb: 00:07:01

making a couple of phone calls, you know, eating one healthy meal or something like that. It really, I don't

Steven Webb: 00:07:08

know what it would be for you, but what do you want to achieve this year? How far up your

Steven Webb: 00:07:15

mountain? Because we have a glimpse, all of us have in our minds somewhere of the ideal life we would

Steven Webb: 00:07:22

like to Live. We often dismiss it and go why it's not possible for me. I don't have the money,

Steven Webb: 00:07:27

I don't have the brains, I don't have the ability to do it. So we kind of dismiss it.

Steven Webb: 00:07:34

But really, should we really dismiss it completely? Can

Steven Webb: 00:07:40

we not go part of the way towards it each year? Even if we don't get there, are we going

Steven Webb: 00:07:44

to enjoy moving towards it? You know, progress and peace are the two things that we really, really want. And,

Steven Webb: 00:07:50

well, freedom as well. And that's a different podcast about freedom and things like that. But we want progress and

Steven Webb: 00:07:58

peace. And

Steven Webb: 00:08:00

you cannot have peace unless you have some progress. And

Steven Webb: 00:08:05

you cannot have progress unless you have some peace. So it's kind of a paradox, you know, not a paradox,

Steven Webb: 00:08:10

but you need them both. And when I talk about progress, it, you know, if you're sat on the sofa

Steven Webb: 00:08:16

after a big meal or something like that, and the dishes need doing, go in and starting the dishes is

Steven Webb: 00:08:21

progress. You feel happier. We feel happier when we're making progress from our current position. You know, whether

Steven Webb: 00:08:29

it's turning off the Netflix and writing that one page, or we don't have to achieve everything

Steven Webb: 00:08:37

we're setting out to do. We just have to make progress towards that. And then we feel much happier. We

Steven Webb: 00:08:42

go to bed we sleep better at night. I'm just making that little bit of progress there. And those little

Steven Webb: 00:08:49

bits of progress will really improve your life over time um James Clear says that in Atomic Habits, it's. It's

Steven Webb: 00:08:57

the little changes that are the massive. Have massive impact on your life um People often want big changes. You

Steven Webb: 00:09:04

know, unless they can climb halfway up the mountain today and do the other half tomorrow, they're not interested in

Steven Webb: 00:09:09

starting. And they don't realise that everybody that has managed to achieve a lot of the stuff in their lives,

Steven Webb: 00:09:15

they didn't do it overnight. They did it with a little, little bit each day little beach day You know,

Steven Webb: 00:09:21

everybody that's grown their Youtube channel or everybody has wrote a book. None of them did it overnight. They did

Steven Webb: 00:09:27

it a little beach day. So, you know, be honest with yourself. Okay? Be honest with yourself. You know, what

Steven Webb: 00:09:34

do you want to achieve this year? What direction would you like to be going in now do you want

Steven Webb: 00:09:40

to be still doing what you're doing today at the end of this year?

Steven Webb: 00:09:45

And just some of the things. Yeah but not all of the things. Not all the things. I'm not saying

Steven Webb: 00:09:52

go out and do anything radical like packing your job or move away or anything like that. I'm talking about

Steven Webb: 00:09:58

decide the attitude, the altitude that you want to get to decide how much peace you want

Steven Webb: 00:10:06

and then work towards it. I hope that helps I Hope that helps. The next podcast is 10 things

Steven Webb: 00:10:13

that is really awesome about being severely paralysed. It's a bit of fun really, but it's got a really

Steven Webb: 00:10:21

important point to it um That's the next podcast and the aim is to put a podcast out 11 a.m

Steven Webb: 00:10:29

every Friday morning Uk time. So this one here, not quite that time, but every Friday 11

Steven Webb: 00:10:36

a.m Keep an eye out for stillness in the storms but Please subscribe, Enjoy. Leave a review. That'd be amazing.

Steven Webb: 00:10:43

You know, the podcast is about giving you some stillness and inner peace, giving you the wisdom and

Steven Webb: 00:10:51

courage and the strength to deal with life when it sideswipes you. And I want to thank you for joining

Steven Webb: 00:10:58

me today. You know, I'm deeply humbled and grateful. I love the feedback I get from these podcasts

Steven Webb: 00:11:06

and it means so much and it means more that you get something from it and that's the feedback

Steven Webb: 00:11:13

I like. So if you'd like to leave a review, that would be amazing and awesome. And my website is

Steven Webb: 00:11:20

StevenWebb.com and it really made my day. If you head over there and book in a coffee with me, I'd

Steven Webb: 00:11:27

like to know you, my audience. You know, I want to know a bit about you. So book in for

Steven Webb: 00:11:33

a coffee for me completely free, 15 minutes and perhaps you can ask me some questions and I can answer

Steven Webb: 00:11:40

your questions on the next podcast. Who knows? Well, the next one after the one about my 10 things that

Steven Webb: 00:11:47

is really awesome about being severely paralysed that Take care guys. Have an amazing weekend and

Steven Webb: 00:11:54

I'll chat to you again next Friday, 11am Uk time. Namaste.