How To Find Gratitude When Success Still Feels Empty | Rainn Wilson

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0:37When was the time where you felt like, maybe I should be really happy, but actually I'm going through some challenge, some suffering, some identity crisis? I love that question.

0:46Rainn Wilson:I love that question. I really, really love that question. Let's go, baby. Let's go, baby. I will say that so many lights went off in my brain when you asked me that. Because I think it's really important, you know, if you're seeking greatness, it's super important to say, like you said, to try and be authentic. I was not always authentic. I was a bull****** artist. Really? Through most of my life. I was an addict. I was a people pleaser. I just wanted to entertain. I was like the class clown. I just wanted people to like me. And I was in constant comparison with other people. So that's something that I've struggled with.

1:36Rainn Wilson:Really? Really is trying to bring as much authenticity and integrity to my interactions as possible and to be vulnerable. because if you want greatness and I've just been reading and listening to your book and really enjoying it and I'm going to switch the the complimentary tables on you and just say what I love about your book is there's no and here are like takeaways like you you you want to do this here's what to do nothing vague in the book at all like here's hooks you can hang your hat on And I just picture like some young dude trying to make a difference. And your book is like a Bible, you know, and I really I really mean that I've read a lot of like books that are I won't say it's not self-help, but like motivational, like motivational kind of leadership, entrepreneurship or whatever.

2:30Rainn Wilson:Yours is bigger than that. And I really appreciate that. But I do think that when we talked right before the interview, I was saying like sometimes messages don't get through unless you're really vulnerable and unless you're just as real as possible. Because there's a lot of those folks out there aspiring to some kind of greatness and some kind of motivation and leadership that are struggling. Yeah. And they have character defects. And they get sad some days. And some days they wake up and they don't want to do a cold plunge at 6 a.m. Right. Don't want to do a Tony Robbins three hour workout and a, you know, like a Mark Wahlberg.

3:09Rainn Wilson:4 a.m. 4 a.m. Yeah. Like protein all day. Like it's hard, you know. So I think it's important to talk about like the struggle. So you're leading off with the struggle. So when was the time that was the hardest for you? Well, in the last decade, I'm going to, but I'm going to, I'm getting there. I'm getting there. You let me, I'm going to get there. I got you. No, I'm there. But I will say that two things before the last decade. So my wife and I have had a lot of struggles and a lot of ups and downs over the years. That was some hard stuff. And that was, thankfully, a while back. But also, like, and I've been thinking about this, too.

3:47Rainn Wilson:Like, when I was on The Office and I had the first, I had been acting for 15 years professionally. And then all of a sudden I was on The Office. We almost got canceled, like, a dozen different times. And then all of a sudden we take off. We win the Emmy. where a top 10 show, it becomes, you know, everyone is getting movie deals out of it. And, and I, and I remember back to that time and how kind of sick I was that I didn't have the spiritual tools that I needed and the psychological tools and resilience that I needed to go through that. Fame is, is a very weird thing. That'll you up. Number one, number two, I wasn't happy with what I had.

4:27Rainn Wilson:I mean, like, to go from total obscurity to be kind of a weird-looking, goofy character actor and all of a sudden get the role of a lifetime and be lauded and loved and winning awards and whatnot, like, that's enough, Rain. If I could go back in time to those early years of The Office, you know, 2006, 7, 8, and I was always, and I was like, but I want more. I want a movie career like Jack Black has or Will Ferrell. I want this, or I want my own media company, or I want my own success here, or I want my own development deal here. I want to be the spokesperson for this. I want more money here. When is it enough?

5:09Rainn Wilson:When is it ever just enough? And I wish I could have just taken a deep breath and be like, this is enough. this is great I get to do 22 episodes a year this amazing character I'm making a really nice living I won't say like I've made it I want to do more creatively from a business standpoint but I wish so when you when you asked me that I think about those really troubled times that I should have been enjoying and I wasn't able to go to gratitude yeah I mean I enjoyed my time on the set and with the cast they were amazing and we all got along great and i love each and every one of them we were like this wonderful family we weren't even a dysfunctional family we were a pretty functional family right right like we'd come in every day and we would make comedy and get along and high five each other and and uh eat too much uh from craft services but um yeah so i was thinking about that but then i'm gonna i'm gonna go there there's a chapter in the book and it's called death and how to live it.

6:10And, uh, my dad dying two and a half years ago, right after COVID started,

6:16Rainn Wilson:uh, was really, uh, devastating for me. My mom left me and my dad when I was about a year and a half. So I, I stayed with him my whole life. So my primary bond, I didn't get to know my mom until I was like 15. So my primary bond was with my dad. It was always there for me. We had our ups and downs. We had our struggles and we bumped heads a lot and we didn't see eye to eye a lot, but it was, um, it was really devastating at a core level to lose him. And, uh, it kind of shifted a lot of things about my perspective about life.

6:57I have a brand new book called make money easy. And if you were looking to create more financial freedom in your life, you want abundance in your life and you want to stop making money hard in your life, but you want to make it easier, you want to make it flow, you want to feel abundant, then make sure to go to makemoneyeasybook.com right now and get yourself a copy. I really think this is going to help you transform your relationship with money this moment moving forward. We have some big guests and content coming up. Make sure you're following and stay tuned to this episode of the Daily motivation show.

7:38Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of the daily motivation. And I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description that will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on the school of greatness. And if you are loving the daily motivation, please follow us over on Apple podcast and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple podcast right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel on Apple podcast right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

8:28Again, have an amazing day, and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.

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