DailyJim: Is it the same conversation?

Hello everyone, welcome to another Daily Gym. This is the episode for Monday, May 27th, 2024.

Today I want to talk about how sometimes we repeat ourselves.

Yeah, that'll be a good title. I think I was going to record an episode talking about how I've been traveling. I've been in different time zones. I'm back here in Germany. Where am I? What's going on? I think last time I updated, I was in the U.S.? Yeah. I don't know. It's been a whirlwind. And so I thought about that. I said, let's talk about this. And I looked at the last episode. It's called, wait, what time is it? My goodness, am I going to have the same conversation? conversation is it really the same conversation or is it a variation on the conversation I mean sometimes sometimes we tell the exact same story in the exact same way and it gets really boring but I think I've noticed that sometimes people will say to me I'm just tired of having the same conversation over and over again maybe it's not exactly the same at least I know when they say hey, I'm tired of having the same conversation with you over and over again. From my side, it doesn't feel like the same conversation. I tell different stories sometimes, or I have different emotions during the day when I'm telling that story, or new things happen, so I integrate new things into the story. But for them, they pull back and look, oh, it's just the same thing. This is something I've worried about doing a podcast. Am I going to say the same message over and over again, or is it going to be a different message? Even if I talk about the same thing, is it the same thing? Am I talking about the same thing in the exact same way? I wonder why we often go, oh, I'm just tired of having this same conversation. Well, maybe we could go deeper in the conversation. Maybe we could add a different element to the conversation. Maybe we could change the conversation in some way where it's not exactly the same. Maybe we can add a new detail or we could speak less so we could speak more or we can ask them about something that we've wanted to ask them about the last three times we've had a similar conversation but we didn't have the courage maybe we could share something new that happened that might relate to that uh what we would call same conversation i think yeah i'm trying to understand What are the emotions behind someone saying, oh, I'm just tired of having the same conversation? Is it just...

Kind of like a helplessness or hopelessness, maybe a powerlessness, this lack of agency and the ability to change the conversation or to maybe it's just not recognizing the nuance and how conversations are different and how is anything really the exact same? Even identical twins aren't the exact same. Maybe identical twins, not the best example.

Yeah so I'm tired and yeah I just I think I worry a lot about people going oh it's going to be the same conversation I've already heard that story I remember one time I was down south with my great uncle and he would tell the same stories every year in my mind it was the same story, but there also was a joy in hearing the same story over and over again I mean there are some plays I've seen multiple times, hell, there are some TV shows which are exactly the same that I've seen multiple times over and over again. And so I think a lot of it is just recognizing that things aren't exactly the same. So for example, let's say if I watched a Rick and Morty episode over and over again, when I first watch it, maybe the episode, okay, the episode is the same. It's the same recording. It's the same delivery. Commercials are different, but it's the same episode itself. But where I am isn't the same. So maybe when watching one episode, I was in a breakup, relationship breakup. Maybe when watching that same episode again, maybe I had just got a new job, or maybe I had just had success in a professional way, or maybe there was a death and the family. Those episodes can feel really different based on what I'm actually going through.

Wow, this is a realization. So when people are telling me, I'm just tired of having the same conversation, why can't they see that maybe they're in a different place each time that we have the conversation? And so it's not the same. Maybe we're having it in a different environment. Maybe they are in a different context in their lives. So I just, I think so often it's like, have you ever read a book when you were young and then read the same book when you were much older and realized lots of different things from the same book. Or with a movie. Ever see a movie when you were younger and watched it when you were much older and went, wow, I never even noticed that. Or, again, kind of with a Rick and Morty episode, I've seen it maybe one, two, three, four times, but maybe the fifth time I watched the same thing and I pay attention to something different. Oh, I never even noticed that thing was in the movie.

And so, yeah. yeah, so anyways, just trying to reflect on this idea of having same conversations and how it's not really always the same. And also to give myself a little grace and realize that when I am recording episodes like this, it's okay, even if it sounds somewhat similar, even if I tell a similar story, because maybe the person who's listening to it is in a different space than they were before. And that, well, actually they are, we're never in the same space. So to just have more appreciation for that nuance. All right. I'm recording this in an office and somebody just walked in, so I should end. And I will talk to you all tomorrow. Bye.