2606: Don't Fold Your Cards

LifeBlood: Some people are dealt incredible advantages, others face challenges from the very beginning. But while we can't control the hand we're dealt, we can control how we play it. Because hope isn't believing you'll win, it's believing your next move still matters. Want to say “Thanks!” You can buy us a cup of coffee. https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lifeblood George’s newest book is available! Get your copy of You’re Money Isn’t the Problem- You Are here: https://amzn.to/4uDYFRz Feeling busy but unfulfilled? The Meaningful Few helps you identify what truly matters, eliminate distractions, and live with intention and clarity. Learn more here: https://www.mymeaningfulfew.com/ Thanks, as always for listening! If you got some value and enjoyed the show, please leave us a review here: ​​https://ratethispodcast.com/lifebloodpodcast You can learn more about us at LifeBlood. Live http://lifeblood.live/, Twitter https://twitter.com/ourlifeblood, LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/lifebloodlive, Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lifeblood.live/, YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNQ9Gc4mMwCHZKUHjbt0-qA and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lifebloodlive or you’d like to be a guest on the show, contact us at contact@LifeBlood. Live. Stay up to date by getting our monthly updates https://george-grombacher.aweb.page. Copyright LifeBlood 2026.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:45Speaker 01

  Have you ever met somebody who just seems like they've given up? They've thrown in the towel? Maybe they're unhappy, maybe they've just got a bad energy, or they're super negative. Maybe they carry themselves as though life has already just passed them by. They don't seem excited or enthusiastic, they're definitely not engaged, they're really not even that interested. And after you interact with people like this, you spend time with them, you walk away feeling a little bit heavier too. Like you got stuck underneath that rain cloud that's been following them around also. And I recently found myself thinking about this because I ran into somebody like that.

• 1:30Speaker 01

  And it just got me wondering, like what happened? Were they always like this? From the time they were a baby, were they moping around? Or maybe something changed? Maybe there was a point at which time they just stopped trying? And what I always think about when I run into people like that is I think about poker. I think about playing cards. And I feel like that person, in this example, this person I just ran into, but anybody who is conducting themselves in that manner, I feel like they folded their cards.

• 2:07Speaker 01

  Life dealt them a hand of cards that they did not like, and they folded it. And it could be that their hand was crappy. It was unfair. It was difficult. Maybe it was disappointing. Instead of making the best of the card that, you know, you gotta play the hand you're dealt, sort of a deal, they just mucked their cards. They threw them into the center of the table and they checked out. Now, before we go too far, I want to acknowledge something that's really important and obviously real, and it's that life isn't fair. Some people are born into immense wealth. Some people are born into abject poverty. Some people are born healthy.

• 2:52Speaker 01

  Some people are born with chronic illness. Some people have supportive families. Some people experience and have experienced trauma and neglect, abuse, really terrible stuff. So your hand is different than mine. Some ways I bet my hand's better than yours, and in other ways I bet your hand is better than mine. Our hands are not equal. But here's the thing. Life is not poker. Poker, once you fold, the hand is over. But in life, you're gonna wake up tomorrow morning, God willing, holding the exact same cards. You don't get to leave the table. You don't get to quit the whole game.

• 3:37Speaker 01

  You only get to decide whether you're going to continue playing. And that's where most people get stuck. And I don't think it's a function of being lazy. It's not even necessarily that they're weak, but it's because somewhere along the line, they stopped believing that their actions mattered. What's the point of exercising if nothing's ever gonna change? Why would I save money if I'm never gonna get ahead? Why would I work on relationships if people always disappoint me? Heck, why even try at all? Because when somebody loses their belief in their ability to influence their future, that terrible, terrible, sinister...

• 4:21Speaker 01

  Terrible sinister, I guess those are the two right terms, begin to take hold. And that's apathy. Apathy, well, it spreads. It shows up. Shows up in the way you look, your appearance, certainly in your attitude, in your health, in your relationships, it's going to show up at work, the amount of effort you're putting forth, your energy, not just the energy that you enjoy, but also what you're putting out. And it doesn't mean that that person is a bad person. It's because the effort no longer feels like it's a worthwhile thing. Like, again, what's the point? Because the opposite of apathy, it's not happiness. The opposite of apathy is agency.

• 5:06Speaker 01

  And agency is the belief that your actions matters, that your life choices, just all your choices, actually matter. That your behavior influences your outcomes. And it's not that you're always going to get what you want. And that it's not a function of all of a sudden, life's now fair. And it's not also thinking that everything that you do is going to work. It just simply means that your next move matters. That's all. The next move that you make matters. I've known people who have had every imaginable advantage. They were deeply unhappy people.

• 5:47Speaker 01

  I've known people carrying crazy burdens that I really can't get my brain around, I can't comprehend, but people who radiated joy and optimism and happiness and gratitude. So the difference isn't circumstance. The difference is whether they believed they still had a role to play in shaping their future, that they believed their future would be better than their past.

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• 6:43Speaker 03

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• 7:12Speaker 01

  Now, obviously, it's important to be careful because I know, I don't have any idea what that person that I ran into was going through. I don't know what wars they're fighting. I don't know what they're struggling with. I could have gotten really bad news the minute before I walked through the door. And somebody who appears to be apathetic might just be exhausted. Maybe they've got a newborn baby and the baby was up all night. Who knows? Maybe they're grieving. Maybe they just lost somebody. They could be depressed. They could be carrying the weight of the world, responsibilities, and pain that I can't see. So...

• 7:52Speaker 01

  I'm not necessarily judging somebody else or that person, but what I am advocating for is that we examine ourselves. How we present ourself in the world matters because, more honest, every one of us has at least felt like, if we hadn't folded our cards, we felt like we're going to fold our cards in some area of our life. Could be our health. Could be our marriage. Could be our money. Could be work. Could be our personal growth, our faith. Relationships, or maybe it's our dreams. Maybe we folded our cards on the person that we hoped we'd one day become.

• 8:31Speaker 01

  Then if that's you, I've got good news. Because you don't have to win the game today. You don't have to solve every problem. You don't have to transform your life right now. You just need to make the next move. One healthy meal. One walk. One difficult conversation. One book. One new application, one apology. One deposit into a savings account or an investment account. One small act of kindness, one step. Because hope isn't believing that you're going to win. Hope is believing that your next move still matters. Your hand that you're holding may not be the one that you wanted. But the game isn't over. You're still playing.

• 9:16Speaker 01

  You're still standing. You're still holding the cards. Don't fold them. As always, what we're really talking about is doing your part by doing your best.

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