Ep.28 Happy new year

[music] What's going on everyone? Welcome to another episode of Reality Ground Table. I'm your host Jonathan Brown, I know I haven't done an episode in over two years, and I want to take 100% responsibility and accountability for not doing that. And I also want to apologize for not doing that. I just didn't have the motivation at the time, and I honestly didn't have anything to talk about, but I am back and I promise to be more consistent. You have my word on that. And also, before I say anything else, I just wanted to tell you guys this. Happy New Year, and I know we hear that phrase a lot around this time, sometimes it feels automatic, and sometimes it feels forth. And I really want you to sit with it for a second. A New Year doesn't mean everything magically resets, it doesn't erase which went through last year, and it doesn't suddenly make life easier. For a lot of people, the New Year actually adds pressure, pressure to be better, pressure to have things figured out, pressure to prove something to yourself, your family, and to the world. If you're listening to this and you don't feel excited, if you feel tired, if you feel uncertain, you're not doing the New Year wrong, you're just being honest with yourself. And this episode is for people who are trying to keep it together, for the ones who want to set goals in 2026, but already feel the weight of them. And for the ones who are applying the jobs every day, and hearing nothing back, and for the ones who are wondering how much longer things keep going on like that. I just want you to know that every day that you wake up, your day closer to getting to the goal that you have set for yourself, but in order for you to do that, you have to keep trying and keep pursuing your goal. And you also have to keep trying to do something, or anything that can get you 1% better today than you were yesterday. So try to find something to productive you, or that's reading the book, or that's going to the gym, or that's sending very small goals that will help you attain your much larger goal. Just try to do something that way you have something to look forward to, which will keep you more motivated to get to your goals. And if that's you, stay with me, because this conversation isn't about hype, it's about endurance. Let's talk about the job market honestly. Right now, people are doing everything that they're told to do. They want to school, they got a degree, they took on their debt, they got experience, they learned new skills, they updated their resume, they rewrote it again, and again, and again. They tailored cover letters, they made work, they followed up, and still nothing. Or maybe worse, they almost got the job. And I've had plenty of instances in which I almost got the job. Only for them to tell me the cliche excuse, we just went with somebody with a little bit more experience. And I understand how the more alive that could be, because that's really not specific to why they chose not to hire you. That's really just the political answer they give, just so that they don't sound bad. People interview once, people interview twice, even three times, and they imagine their life changing. And then we decided to go in a different direction. Like I said earlier, they'll give you that cliche excuse, we just went with somebody with a little more experience. And I know that hurts people in the way that we don't talk about enough. Because after a while, it's not just rejection, it feels personal. You start asking yourself, what am I missing? Am I not good enough? Did I waste my time? Did I make the wrong choices? In future episodes, I'm going to tell you about some of the experiences I had when I was looking for a job and some other interview stories that I, some of the interviewing troubles that I had to go through when I went through my nine months of unemployment. And the mental toll that it really did take on me. But let me be clear about something. The job market does not define your worth. It doesn't see your late nights of you applying. It doesn't see your stress that you get whenever you hear no every now and then or when you hear no every time they reject you, it doesn't see your growth. It sees budgets, hiring freezes, internal politics, and timing. So if you're struggling right now, it doesn't mean you fail. It means you're navigating something that's genuinely hard and that deserves a knowledge. Waiting is one of the hardest things to do mentally. And that's also something that I went through and it honestly got to the point to when I was unemployed and I was applying on weekdays. I would really hate for the weekend to come because we all know that on the weekends it's very little to no chance that you're going to get an update on the job that you applied for. So it just made the weekends like kind of unbearable during those nine months that I was unemployed but I do think my family and my support systems were being around me for helping me get through those nine months because Laura knows without them it would have been just just no way it went downhill in a pretty bad way more unlikely but with their support I did get through it. And when you do get those nose life keeps moving on. The bills don't stop, they'll collect these keep calling, maybe you have to loan that and they keep calling asking when you're going to pay. Trust me, I know all about that. Responsibilities don't pause, your thoughts definitely don't pause. You go through social media and you see people announcing promotions, new jobs, new opportunities and even if you're happy for them, a part of you does feel left behind. Maybe that doesn't make you bitter but it just makes you human but comparison can quietly destroy your confidence if you let it. Someone else's chapter has nothing to do with yours and that's one of the lessons I had to learn throughout this entire process because I really wanted, I really wanted a job quite fast in a hurry and honestly I didn't really start getting a good bit of interviews until I literally had to sit down with myself and just say you know what I'm going to do what I can do I'm going to control what I control and I'm just going to let God take care of the rest and once I did that I'm not saying that that's the guarantee that it's going to happen for you but I'm saying for me when I did do that that interviews just started to come along and I just started to do a lot better with my job prospects but I do need you to hear this feeling discouraged doesn't mean you're weak it means you care you're allowed to feel frustrated you're allowed to feel tired and you're allowed to take breaks where you're not allowed to do is convince yourself that this is all you'll ever be because it's not do not quit on your 2026 goals so let's talk about not the ones you posted online but the real ones the quiet ones the ones you don't tell anyone about because you don't want to jinx them that's another thing that I understand maybe you want a better job financial stability and dependence peace of mind confidence and control over your life and maybe you're thinking I don't know if this is going to happen but here's something important goals don't expire just because progress is slow slow motion honestly is better than no motion most people don't fail they just abandon their goals they stop because the results don't come fast enough they stop because they got tired of believing they stop because discouragement taught louder than hope but consistency beats intensity every time you don't need to do everything today you need to do something one application one hour learning the skill one conversation one step because you never know that one thing could lead to another which could get you closer to your goals that's why you can't give up on yourself because giving up on yourself means that you stop trying and when you stop trying then your goals hit a standstill and when you go to the standstill you start to become idle and the pressure and for the most part really does come from an idle mind so do something today to try to keep yourself more productive and give yourself something a little forward to momentum comes from movement not motivation now I do want to shift the conversation because in today's world relying on one source of income is very risky jobs are important but jobs are not guarantees companies restructure but exchange market shift that's why it's important not optional to start building something for yourself I'm not saying quit your job I'm not saying to him a little everything I'm saying building parallel start by doing something small something important something you can grow over time a skill you can monetize a service you can offer a business idea you can slowly develop content that builds your voice knowledge you can leverage when you build something for yourself something powerful happens mentally you stop feeling trapped you stop feeling helpless you stop waiting for permission you begin to trust yourself and trust changes everything success in 2026 doesn't mean you made it success can mean you didn't quit you learn to adapt you protect your mental health you invest in yourself and you stay hopeful one times that hard because let's just be honest it's hard in today's world especially in this job market especially with this economy I know a lot of people who are overly qualified for the jobs that they apply for and they're either unemployed or they're unemployed and progress isn't always low sometimes progress is quite disciplined sometimes progress is showing up when no one is watching and the quiet moments they're building something bigger than you realize if you're listening right now I want you to hear this clearly you're not behind you're not broken you're not wasting your life away you're in transition and transitions are uncomfortable by nature and when you're uncomfortable that means that you're actually doing something to get closer to your goals because comfortably is the enemy of progress and I know that's very cliche that's not the thing I came up with it's honestly very very true because once you get comfortable you start to get complacent and once you start to get complacent you start to feel down about yourself you start to think am I doing enough? why am I not further ahead in life? it's because you were choose not to get uncomfortable and you chose not to take risks and 2026 doesn't need to be perfect it just needs to be intentional so I want you to keep going after your goals keep applying to those jobs no matter how many knows you get it literally only takes one yes just to change everything about your life and that concept doesn't just go for applying for jobs that that concept really goes for a lot of things in life whether that's trying to get into a relationship whether that's trying to find a job whether that's trying to get an investor if you're trying to start a business whether that's finding whether that's just getting a customer if you get your business off everything has to start at one so once you get that one then now you have something to build on so but you can't get that one if you choose to give up on yourself and that's another reason why I don't want you to give up on yourself you have to keep learning so that when your opportunity does come you'll be prepared for you need to keep building and also keep believing in yourself because at the end of the day you may want other people to believe in you but that won't mean anything if you don't believe in yourself even when it's hard even when it's slow even when it feels uncertain because the future you're working on today is still possible and it's still yours happy new year and don't give up on your goals I'm your host Jonathan Brown and thank you for listening to this absolutely reality round today we've made it this far I'm grateful that you even chose to come back and listen to this podcast and if this is your first time listening to this podcast I thank you for even giving me a chance if this is something you resonate with share with at least two or three people that you think maybe able to find this useful or just share with somebody who you think maybe need a little motivation or might need a pep talk to keep them going or send it to somebody who you think maybe on the brink of giving up but they need to hear somebody say hey keep going or hey I'm proud of you but like I said I'm your host Jonathan Brown thank you for listening to the reality round table I'm glad to be back with this episode and I have a new episode dropping next Wednesday at 12 p.m I guarantee you that thank you and I'm out