Podcast Episode - Suze School: What Are You Capable Of?

What excuse keeps you from doing that which you are capable of doing? In this episode, Suze shares a lesson she learned about how silent negative thoughts were limiting her capabilities and how she overcame them.

Listen to Podcast Episode:

Podcast Transcript:

November 26th, 2023. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money podcast as well as everybody smart enough to listen.

Suze O here. But then again, as I always say, I'm sure you know that. So did you have a good Thanksgiving? Did you eat a lot?

Were you happy? You ate a lot? We ate a lot and we were happy. We ate a lot and the truth is Colo and I cooked the most fabulous meal. Now, we happened to be on the island and this Thanksgiving different than most of our Thanksgiving were just Colo myself and KT, did you look on the Women and Money community app and see our pictures?

You'd see the turkey that we made the stuffing, everything. It was fabulous. But anyway, we're here mainly on the island because yesterday was the island's Wahoo tournament and this is a big deal in especially my life and I'll tell you why in a second. But for those of you who don't know what a Wahoo is. And trust me, six years ago, we didn't know what a wahoo was either. However, a wahoo is a large fish.

It's usually anywhere from 20 to 100 pounds. It can be anywhere from maybe 3 ft long to 6 ft long. It is a big, big fish. Ok.

The thing about a wahoo is it's usually only in cooler waters here in the Atlantic when we're fishing for them anyway. And they like it cold and they swim about 60 miles an hour. So they are without a shadow of a doubt. One of the top 10 hardest fish to catch out of all the species of fish and to catch it is a big, big process. Number one, you in the boat have to be going about 15 miles an hour and then you on your pole need a weight and that's usually anywhere from 24 ounces all the way up to 80 ounces on a long li that's about 30 ft long.

And then all these other things on it and a huge lure that has a big hook on it. And a lure is like this thing that's like 14 inches long in this case and has all these feathers coming off of it and maybe I'll post a picture of it on the app and then you put it out and usually you have three lines or four lines at once and they're out anywhere from 100 and 50 ft behind the boat to 250 ft behind the boat, 350 ft behind the boat and 450 ft behind the boat. So you have like four lines out. You're going 15 miles an hour. Is your head already swimming with all this. And anyway, if the Wahoo bites, it will take the line out another 400 to 800 ft.

And then you have to start pulling it in in the hopes that you can get it in the boat before it shakes the hook. So it gets off or a shark eats it.

So it is an incredibly hard task to go Wahoo fishing.

And it's something that KT and Colo and I got into a few years ago and somehow we won this contest. It's always the Saturday after Thanksgiving and the Wahoo fishermen on the island that we live on. It is a big deal and the boats leave at like six in the morning and they stay out till about two when you have to be back and then you have to catch at least three wahoos just to even enter the tournament and have your fish weighed.

So a few years ago, KT Colo and I won the contest and that caused in my opinion, a lot of ruckus on this island because here were these two women really because I was the captain of the boat who didn't know anything about Wahu fishing at the time, won the contest against these men who had been fishing for, oh, I'd say at least 15 20 or 30 years and we're experts at it. We have a little tiny, 32 ft boat and I say tiny in comparison to their 60 ft 70 ft big Viking boats with all their crew.

So Saturday was the wahoo contest, and did we win? Did we lose? I'm gonna wait until Thursday for KT and I to tell you the results of the contest because I just know she would want to be with me and tell you all about it. But because of that, I just want to say on Thursday, Robert, the producer of this podcast created a podcast because we needed to go practice our wahoo skills.

And so I said to him, I have an idea for you, Robert, why don't you do the podcast on your own? And you tell people anything you want, you tell them why it's meaningful maybe for you to do this podcast or whatever, but you just do that and I'll listen to it at the exact same time that everybody else hears it.

Now, I cannot tell you what a big deal that was because I have never let a TV show a radio show, a podcast go out without me giving its final permission, making all the edits on it. I would never ever let somebody just record something and put it out and I hear it after it's been put out except for Robert because I know him so well.

If you haven't heard last Thursday's podcast, you should because Robert Fabulous. Fabulous. There wasn't one thing about it that I would have changed. So, thank you.

All right. But it is Suze school today.

It's hard for me on some level to want to talk about anything other than Wahoos and fishing.

But I did learn a big lesson that I just want to pass on to all of you because just maybe, maybe you were or are going through what I had been going through for the past two or three years.

So just take a listen for a second here.

There was a time and I just told you that I was the Wahoo Captain. People admired it. They knew that wherever I was going that we would catch Wahu and people would follow us and we were called the Wahoo Girls. And our pictures were up in the little market that we have here. In fact, it's still up with Colo and the three of us really had quite the reputation then. As many of, you know, over 3 and a half years ago, I had the tumor removed from my neck and for over three years actually, really until just the other day, Thursday to be exact Thanksgiving Day, quite a special day to come back with it for three years. I couldn't even really go on the boat.

I could just simply watch KT and Colo go out and watch them for my little tracker that I have on my iphone. And I learned to get tremendous joy out of just watching them and me not being able to do it.

But I then started to buy the ticket that my fear was trying to sell me, which was Suze. You can't really do much anymore. Can't really exercise. You can't really run, you can't go on the boat, you can't drive the boat because you can't turn around easy. And I had every excuse, possible,

possible to keep me from doing the things that I used to do. You can't travel, you can't climb all these hills. You can't walk the camino, all the things that I used to do.

And I truthfully I know you may find this hard to believe. I settled into a life where I did some things, but I really didn't do much at all.

And I just kind of was settled into that like it's ok. I'm not gonna do it, whatever it may be. And

I was living my life like that, believe it or not.

Then all of a sudden, I'm not exactly sure what happened, but we went on one trip, then we went on another trip and then I was able to see over time that my fear and my unwillingness to just go for something to do something was keeping me from doing all the things that I was capable of doing. But I kept telling myself I'm not capable and I kept saying that to myself over and over again without even realizing that I was creating that to be true.

And what is so strange being Suze Orman is, I'm the one who tells all of you. You need to create a new truth. Don't let your fear get in your way. If you think you can't, you never ever will. How many times have you heard me say that? But without me even really realizing it, the silent thoughts of, oh, Suze, you can't do that anymore. It's ok that you can't do that. But it came down to me really thinking I can't do that. I'm just not capable. And that's ok because I'm still happy and there's lots of things I can do.

But the bottom line of what I'm trying to say to all of you is I am capable. I am more capable than I ever had any idea. I kept in that boat. I can sit in that chair now for seven hours in rough weather and do everything that I used to do four years ago, five years ago,

I can do it all now.

So I have to stop thinking, I'm not capable and my new truth is

I'm more capable than I have any idea.

Now, I tell you all this in a money show because too many times when it comes to your money, you don't want to look at it, you don't want to deal with it because you don't think you're capable. And so what do you do? A lot of times you do absolutely nothing. You let it sit in a bank account making a quarter percent interest because you just don't want to deal with it because you're not capable.

Or you hand it over to a financial advisor thinking that this person knows better than you because you're not capable or you just do what everybody else does that, you know, and you ask them for their advice and they're telling you, oh, they buy this mutual fund or this stock or whatever. So you just do it based on their decisions because you're not capable.

That is no way to live a life.

It was no way for me to live my life and it is absolutely when it comes to your money, it is no way for you to think it is no way for you to speak. It is no way for you to act.

So as we bring in this new year, as the holiday season is really upon us, the most extraordinary gift that you can give yourself and in the long run to others as well, because when your Children, your friends, your spouse, whoever it may be, sees you doing things again that you were always capable of doing, but you projected an image that you weren't for whatever reason, it will be not only the greatest gift that you can give to yourself. But the greatest gift that you could give to others as well after the past three days that we've been on that boat in some good weather, some horrific weather.

It was an incredible gift that I gave to myself because I went for it.

But it was also an incredible gift to KT.

I would look over at her and her smile and you know, she has a million dollar smile. No, I'm wrong. She has a multi billion dollar smile that lights up this entire world.

It was lit again because she knew I was capable that she couldn't get me to just go for it until I went for it myself. So in today's podcast, get out your Suze Notebooks.

I really want you to write down everything that you think you are not capable of doing.

You're not capable of investing your money. You're not capable of getting out of credit card debt. You're not capable of saving for your retirement. You are not capable of saving for your kids', college education. You are not capable of ever being able to retire. You are not capable of what, write it down and then just choose one, just one.

And I want you to do it. Just one. Not asking a lot, but I'm asking you to start living a life where you are more capable than you have any idea.

So that's really all I wanted to say on this podcast because the most important thing that can come out of this podcast is for you to just realize that you are more capable than you have any idea when it comes to every aspect of your money. And if you do that, I promise you you will be unstoppable.