Dustin's Book - Chapter Ten (#138) — Transcript
Updated: Oct 26
THE PICTURE OF WEALTH · EPISODE 138
Dustin Serviss reads chapter ten of his book. On the last day at Permission Peak Lodge, Theo considers the relationship between money, effort, happiness and the need for change.
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This transcript was generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability. It may contain transcription or speaker-attribution errors. Refer to the recording for exact wording.
Chapters
[00:00:25] Chapter ten: Fantasies Born
[00:01:07] Drawing the glow zone
[00:01:51] The relationship between happiness, money and effort
[00:02:34] Recognizing the flat-line zone
[00:03:14] A warning against blindly continuing
[00:03:51] Imagining a place to reset
[00:04:29] Leaving the lodge with a different perspective
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Transcript
[00:00:00] Dustin Serviss: Welcome to the picture of wealth or TPAW as we call it. I am your host, Dustin Service.
[00:00:25] Dustin Serviss (reading): As I mentioned in the last chapter, I don't know what the book name is going to be. It was Man's Picture of Wealth. But actually, it's going to be something different, something more meaningful, something more true to the text. So listener, I appreciate you coming along the journey reading the book with me. So without further ado, chapter ten, fantasies born. Fourth contest, fourteenth of June twenty nineteen, last day at Permission Peak Lodge. It was warming up now that they were in the sunshine. Theo, when I finally sold my aggregate business and took account of what I really had, it made me realize that success has to do with finances,
[00:01:07] Dustin Serviss (reading): but that's not the whole picture. The picture is way bigger than that. Man swept his foot across the ground, creating a clean canvas in the dry soil. A friend told me about this a long time ago, and it really helped me to understand how to make my own transition into a different mindset and lifestyle. He called it the glow zone. It's kind of like a tachometer or a visual way to see if your life is bouncing off the rev limiter. Man's knelt and drew the two axes of a graph in the soil. He then put an h beside the vertical axis and an m slash e under the horizontal axis. He looked up and said, h for happiness, m for money, and e for effort.
[00:01:51] Dustin Serviss (reading): He turned back to the diagram taking shape. This is a crucial relationship between happiness, money, and effort. He kept talking as he dragged his finger in the soil inside the graph. As you start applying effort, your happiness goes up relatively quickly. Then happiness growth slows as you achieve a certain level of success and a sense of contentment. Then you get your second wind as you pour more energy into money and expel more effort, and your happiness gets a boost. Then something happens. Your money and effort continue to grow, but your happiness levels off, or worse, starts to tip downward as all the effort takes its toll.
[00:02:34] Dustin Serviss (reading): As he finished talking, he drew a flat line across the top that dropped off at the end. Theo had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach looking at the flat line. The first thing he thought of was a heart rate machine flat lining with a long drawn out beep. It reminded him of his anxiety he'd been having lately and his doctor's warnings. Mann's pointed to a spot on the diagram. The glow zone is right before the flat line zone, where your money and effort are producing a growing level of happiness. The longer you live in the flat line area, the more permanent and normal it seems, and you don't know what you're missing. The glow zone.
[00:03:14] Dustin Serviss (reading): Theo took out his phone and took a picture of man's dirt diagram. They reached a massive woodshed and began loading the tractor bucket with firewood. I can see you're where high was a lot of years ago. You're at the point where you've reached that flat line and you're wondering why everything feels so wrong. I don't want you to make the same mistake I did, which was to blindly keep going, thinking it would all work out in the end. The thing is, the energy we spend in the front end of our lives deeply affects the energy we have at the back end, and the distance between action and consequence can be farther than you think.
[00:03:51] Dustin Serviss (reading): The image of his dad sitting on the couch, griping about not wanting to golf anymore flashed through Theo's mind. How well did he really know his dad anyway? And how well would his own kids know their dad when they were grown? As they rolled back toward the lodge with the wood, Theo realized that he didn't want to leave. The lodge, he thought, represented a life cadence reset for him. He wondered how many other people could use a reset once every couple years, or even once in life to remove themselves from their lives for a chance to recalibrate and recharge. Ashley and Helena were in the foyer with the bags.
[00:04:29] Dustin Serviss (reading): They looked like they were connected. They were laughing like old friends. Chopper is fifteen minutes away, Helena said when they entered. After the two couples exchanged hugs, Mans drove Theo and Ashley out to the landing pad a few minutes before the helicopter arrived. Before they got out, Manns gave Theo a note with his and Helena's personal contact information. Keep in touch. Okay? As the rotor blades pounded the air, Manns exchanged containers of supplies for a tote of compacted garbage, which he deposited in the back of the chopper. As the chopper lifted, Theo gazed at the trees dropping away and
[00:05:06] Dustin Serviss (reading): felt a new exhilaration for something he couldn't put his finger on. He looked over at his wife, and she took his hand and smiled. That possibilities ignite when you start saying, I'll do this as a short term experiment.
[00:05:21] Dustin Serviss: Thank you for tuning in to this episode. If you enjoyed the show, please like and rate the show, share with a friend, or use your new knowledge in your next conversation. If during the show something gave you a pang of inspiration, motivation, or sense of uncertainty, act on it now. Get the clarity you're looking for. Find the permission you seek. Go to servicewealth dot com to discover how others are learning how to take Fridays off or buying a recreation property or spending more money. If you're an organizer of an event where you believe my philosophy on finance
[00:05:49] Dustin Serviss: and lifestyle design would be applicable, go to servicewealth dot com and book me as a speaker at your next event. If you want a copy of our new book coming out soon, send me a message on Instagram or Facebook, and we will be sure to get you a first copy.