Work in Progress: Reflect on Self-Forgiveness, Fear, + Challenges

What happens when you turn the microphone around on the people who've been doing all the talking?

George and Liz have spent 17 episodes sharing stories, frameworks, and hard-won lessons about living beyond your default. But in this episode, the tables turn. And things get real.

What This Episode Explores

Don Stanley, an educator and behind-the-scenes member of the Beyond Your Default team, takes over as host to ask George and Liz the questions they've been asking everyone else. What have they learned? What are they still struggling with? What scares them about where this is all going?

The Lessons That Matter

The Response That Changed Everything

George admits something he didn't expect when they started recording.

"You go into this being vulnerable, sharing real stuff with a lot of people," he says. "This could go one of two ways. People could be like, why did you share that? Or people could be like, that's inspiring."

What he's learned: it's leaning toward inspiring. The emails and messages keep coming. Someone even sent a mini movie based on an episode. And the responses fall into three categories that fuel him:

"It's leaning on this, 'Oh, I deal with that too.' And it's leaning on, 'Wait. You mean I'm not alone?' These are core things that I love to hear because it's my fuel. Understanding that these things are being unlocked in other humans because I've had to unlock them in myself."

But here's the real insight. Through this process, George has realized two things that seem contradictory but are both true: "I've realized how far I've come and how much work I've actually done in a positive way to become who I am. And because of that work, I also realize how far I still have to go."

For you: Both can be true at once. You can acknowledge your growth and still have miles to travel. One doesn't cancel out the other.

Recording Through the Storm

Liz shares something she hasn't talked about much.

When they first started recording, she didn't have an office. She was in a small Airbnb. It was the height of some of the most challenging times in her life.

"Mornings when I would wake up and look in the mirror, I knew who was looking back at me, but there is that feeling of it's going to get better. It's gonna get better. It can't stay like this forever," she says. "So it was interesting to have to get up every Monday morning at 7:45 and sit down and, quite frankly, act like I have my ish together when on many of those days, I didn't."

What kept her going was the appointment. She had a commitment to the community. And something else she didn't expect: the episodes were perfectly timed.

"In marketing, sales, or personal development, you're often building the content you need because they're missing and absent. So it has really been genuinely a guiding light for me in addition to, 'Liz, I don't care how many times you cried over the weekend. You gotta be up at 7:45 in front of a camera with a mic and sounding like a human.'"

For you: Sometimes the work itself becomes the teacher. You might be building exactly what you need.

The Fears George Is Still Working On

Don asks the question George hoped wouldn't come: What fears are you currently working through?

George takes a deep breath and names three.

Fear of success. "I look at where I'm at now and understand the complete mind explosion of what has happened in my life over the last year. People saying this is gonna dwarf anything you've ever done. Excuse me? I kind of like where I'm at, and I don't know what above this even looks like. And that starts to get scary for me."

Fear of growth. "I wanna be very careful not to lose myself through expedited growth, whether it be personal or professional. Am I doing too much? Am I doing too little? And then you go back into the cycle."

Fear of screwing it up. "You've put in so much work. You've put in so much time. You've become who you need to become. And I've seen so many people get up into the upper echelon mountain peak of their life and then fall. I am always looking at how am I gonna mess this up. What am I gonna get blindsided by? What am I not paying attention to? Man, that scares the ish out of me."

For you: Fear doesn't disappear when you start winning. It just changes shape. Name it anyway.

What Grounded Actually Looks Like

Don asks Liz how she stays grounded through massive changes.

Her answer cuts through the Instagram aesthetic version of what grounded is supposed to look like.

"I have cried a lot. I have allowed myself to feel lots of feelings a lot. And when I say allow, it's not like I went, 'Oh, Liz, you can go ahead and feel this.' I didn't have a choice. The tears were coming. The rage was coming. The yelling at the sky. 'Is this what surrender looks like?' was actually something I yelled in my car once while crying with my head pressed against the steering wheel."

Grounded doesn't mean impenetrable. It doesn't mean calm in the storm. Sometimes it means screaming into the steering wheel and then getting up the next day anyway.

"Success isn't being some impenetrable feelings beacon," Liz says. "I'm a human being."

She's also learning to distinguish between fear and reality, to master her mind, and to identify her own escape hatches. And she's learning to be vulnerable with other people, which doesn't come naturally.

For you: Grounded might not look like what you think it should. Sometimes it's just getting up and doing the damn thing every single day, knowing it won't be perfect.

The Dash in the Middle

George closes with something that captures everything Beyond Your Default is about.

"I was born in 1971, and I don't know when I'm gonna check out. I have no clue. It could be tomorrow. It could be 20 years from now. It could be 30 years from now. But I know that the most important piece is that dash in the middle on my gravestone. Born 1971, died this date. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I am working on the dash in the middle."

He wants to be able to look back and know that somewhere in that dash, he went from a high school dropout who didn't believe in himself to a published author with a community of people whose lives were changed.

"And when I do finally check out, I can just simply ask this question: Can you please show me the ripples?"

For you: What are you doing with your dash?

Quotable Moments

"I've realized how far I've come and how much work I've actually done. And because of that work, I also realize how far I still have to go."

"Success isn't being some impenetrable feelings beacon. I'm a human being."

"Today, ladies and gentlemen, I am working on the dash in the middle."

Your Next Move

This episode is different. It's not a framework or a lesson. It's two people in the middle of their own journeys, being honest about what's working and what's still hard.

So here's the reflection:

Where have you come from? Take a moment to acknowledge the work you've done. The growth that's happened. The distance you've traveled.

What are you still afraid of? Name it. Fear of success counts. Fear of growth counts. Fear of screwing it up definitely counts.

What does grounded actually look like for you right now? Not the Instagram version. The real one. The one that might include screaming into a steering wheel.

What are you doing with your dash? The time between the two dates. The only part that's actually yours to fill.

Ready to hear the full conversation? Press play above. Don Stanley takes the reins and asks George and Liz the questions they usually ask everyone else. It gets real. It gets vulnerable. And it might be exactly what you need to hear.