I WON'T GO BACK TO BEING THAT PERSON AGAIN - Motivational Speech

You're no longer just a dreamer, you're a seeker. Dreaming is always more exhilarating than the actual process. But the thing is, once you're in the process of pursuing your dream, and that's a whole new ballgame, there's no sensation there, but you'll get to a point when you look back at all that you've accomplished and get the biggest high of your life, because you've earned it. Once you feel that, it's your receipt. It's there to tell you that you won, you succeeded, and it's time to dream the next part of the dream, a bigger dream, dream a new dream, or a deeper one than the one you've already achieved. Because your dreams aren't about the highs at the end of the tunnel. They're about fulfilling your purpose. They're about fully becoming the person you know you are deep down. You know, you can't go back. And it sucks. You can't undo the words you said, the chance you missed, or the choice you made when you didn't know better. I've had countless sleepless nights, tossing and turning, replaying that moment in my head, regretting the choice that I made, moments where I wished I could just wake up and realize that none of this was real. You can spend years wishing you had been different, but the past will never reopen, just because you finally understand it. Would you still do it if nobody saw it? Would you still do it if nobody ever saw it? If you never got recognition, if you never were acknowledged, if you never got praised, if you never got criticized, would you still do it? And if you would, what level would you do it to? I think these are the questions that if you can ask them and you can answer them truthfully, you'll see what's the energy behind what you're doing. Okay, get your mind right. Focus. Don't start slipping. Consistency is key, and you know that. Stop getting so easily distracted. Stop letting people play with your emotions, and stop letting outside factors control your mind. Everything else can wait. Everything else is a distraction. Clubs, distraction. Parties, distraction. Comparing yourself to other people, distraction. Listen to me. If you can get pinpoint focused, Zone in completely on just the goal. Cut out all other distractions, all other noise, all other factors until you get what it is you want. I promise you, you will get it. The reason why it's taken so many of you so long is because you keep letting other things distract you. You keep letting other things get in the way because you have a fear of missing out. You're not missing out on anything. So just let everything go and just focus and give your all to what it is you want until you get it. Have to face yourself. So many people live to be 100 years old and they die miserable having everything because they never examine. You never examine this. Happiness, peace, enlightenment, it's all up here man. It's all up here. You just got to go and face it and that's the hard part. So is it all in the mind? What actually goes on in a champion's head, in yours, when you sat alone thinking about your life? Who am I really? And what do I do to keep being a champion or to become one? A man sometimes doesn't even know what he is capable of. Sometimes he just can't really understand himself until he achieves success or becomes famous, wealthy and powerful. That is exactly when he discovers his true qualities. When he is limited in something, in money, in power, in everything that success eventually brings him, he doesn't really know how he's going to act. I believe it's wrong to just crown yourself king. From the very beginning, if you realize that what you're chasing isn't the most important thing in life, Then it gets easier for you. And then, you know, there are some people whose, let's say, ultimate goal is to be successful, powerful, and to make it big. At the end of the day, after all, we are not really such big, important people. We can't even control the basic need to go to the restroom. To some people, this will probably seem a bit crude, but we all go to the restroom, excuse my language. If we can't control even this, So what can we actually control in this life? Look how many people we know, how many great people have left this earth. It doesn't really matter how like big, strong or famous you are, how wealthy you are, champion or no champion, either way they put us all in the exact same grave. So I actually believe that every single person should have this realization that we There are just not some kind of big important people here who just decide and get to control everything. We don't get to do that. In my case, I was raised under the guidance of my father. My father was a coach and my goal was always to prove to my father that out of everyone I can show him he doesn't have to look very far. I'm right there and under his guidance I can become a champion. I looked up to him and followed his example a kind of a challenge to prove to him that look I am right here father and everything you teach I will take it all in zealously worthily I'll follow your program do it right and I will become a champion and that was exactly the kind of goal I had to prove it first and foremost to my father and secondly to the entire world that I can become the best wrestler or fighter. What was it that gave you this strength, a hatred of losing or a love for winning? I think it was the hatred of losing. Yes, definitely. Of course, you want to win, but for me, there was always this driver, like, no way, I am not losing, you know. I was, how do you say it, addiction. I was fixated like when people have this addiction, but for me it was commitment, that I absolutely had to prepare perfectly for the fight. I couldn't miss any training sessions. And you know, recently I came across this idea. There are athletes who simply want to win, and then there are some for whom victory isn't enough. They want domination. They want domination. And for that, what does a person have to do? They have to train. They have to grind morning and night and that was a full morning training at 7 a.m. Then I came home to rest and at 4 o'clock we'd head to the gym. The training would start at 5 o'clock and end at 7. By 8 I'd be home and by 11 I'd rest up and yet I kept thinking that something was missing. I know that I have a start, a competition coming up in like 40 or 30 days and I would wake up and I'd be like, let me go to the sea, I'm going to go down to the sea, do some running, some sprints on the sand, work out and so on. And so many times I ended up going out for a third training session as well. Sometimes father would say, rest, in the morning we're going to have a heavy workload. But sometimes I wouldn't tell father, I just go out at night, head out and train. At night, when everyone's asleep, when nobody's around, I'd grab one of my close friends, give them a call, have them pick me up, then hop in the car and head to D.C. I'd train for an hour or hour and a half, come back and crash. Next morning, I'd get up and start all over again. And just this routine, non-stop. That was just my approach. Everyone does it differently. I don't know, I just think it has to be in your head. You gotta want it incredibly badly. So you believe that to be a champion, you have to train like that, you have to be that serious for the majority of people. Let's say I believe that to be at the top, the top tier, right, one of the best in the world, a person has to always be, you know, a little bit, let's say just a little bit crazy, but in a good sense of the word. You have to be addicted to it and to want this incredibly bad. You have to take a fanatical approach to the training process. Just showing up and working out, that's what hundreds of thousands of guys are doing around the world. To stand out from that, from this crowd, let's say, who have the exact same goals as you do. To stand out from that, you have to take a fanatical approach to it. I'll say they've never seen you broken in training, not even losing, really. But when you were young, did it ever happen? Look, I've been in this grind since I was a kid. Wherever my father coached, there were always... Let's take the year 2004, for example. My father put together the Dagestan national team for combat sambo and in mixed martial arts, which was called no holds barred fighting. There were training camps too. I was 15. It was the winter of 2004. And I was the youngest guy there. the others were let's say between 22 and 30 all active world champions at that time i was like 14 15 years old pleasing comes from scarcity and fear self-loathing and insecurity if they don't like me, then i'm not enough well you know any great genius any the great women and men of the world stood alone even if they were an army of one. If you look at the great producers of the planet, they were ridiculed before they were revered. You can change the world or you can be liked by everyone, you don't get to do both. When you know within yourself that there's something you want to do, and I believe that all of us were born with a purpose, that all of us have something that we are supposed to do, that all of us have some goodness within us, and that goodness gives us a responsibility to manifest our greatness. And when you know that, you can feel it in your guts, and you know that you're deliberately operating below your potential, you've gotten comfortable, you stop expanding, you stop stretching, you stop challenging yourself. Let me share something else with you. Not only is it possible for you to have your dream, but it's necessary, it's necessary that you have it, that you work on it, that you develop yourself, that you go for what is yours in the universe. People wonder, well, what's the meaning of life? Like, what's it all about? What justifies the suffering and the misery and all of that? It's like, well, that's what justifies it. It's like you put yourself up against that. You think, okay, with all of this pushing against me, how much can I push back? Could I move the horror an inch back? With all the strength that I have at my disposal. Man, and the answer to that is, yeah, you can. It makes you better with regards to yourself, but it also makes the world a better place. With regards to your life, when are you going to stop saying easier said than done and start saying no matter how impossible it may seem, no matter how many people doubt me, no matter how many failures I run into on this journey of success, I'm going to get it done. That's the mindset that you have to have. Stop thinking about the reasons why you can't do it and find the one reason why you can, why you have to, why you should. Right? But we learn more in moments of defeat than we do when we get the victory. Because when you get the victory, nobody can tell you nothing. But when you lose, you listen. The task is to recognize that you are uniquely special. You have something to give, some talent no one else shares in quite the same way. And the second one reads, wherever you stand, be the soul of that place. When you change the way you look at things. The things you look at change. The most fundamental and major decision that you have to make in your life is this. Do I live in a friendly or a hostile universe? Which is it? Is it a universe that is filled with hostility and anger and people wanting to hate each other and people wanting to kill each other? Is that what you see? Because when you see the world that way, that's exactly what you will create for yourself in your life. Quality of my life is controlled by two things, meaning and emotion. The meaning you give to things controls the emotion that you feel. People come up with different meanings, and that produces different emotions, and those emotions make you make different decisions. When you're angry, you're going to decide differently than when you're playful or grateful or excited. So the secret to life is controlling meaning and emotion. Wow. We all ask why we should work this hard. Why take that many classes, you know? Why take the notes? Why read the books? Why work that hard? Why? Good question, Paul. The best answer to why, I think, is the second question. Why not? Why not see how many books you can read, how many classes you can take, how many skills you can develop? Why not see how valuable you can become to the marketplace, to your friends, to your family? Why not see what you can make Why not see how far you can go, how much you can see, how much you can earn, how much you can share? Why not? Wouldn't you want to know what would happen if you spent just one year giving it your absolute all? Giving everything your absolute all? Giving your diet your absolute all, giving your workouts your absolute all, giving your career your absolute all, giving your relationships your absolute all. How much different would your life look? How much better would you feel on a daily basis? Would you still be depressed? Would you still have anxiety? Would the problems that exist in your life now still exist in a year if you gave it your absolute all? I don't think so. I think one year of uninterrupted focus is going to lead to a completely different life, a completely different version of yourself, one that is That is unrecognizable. The next year of your life is going to happen one way or another. Time is going to pass anyway. You can come back and tell me that I'm wrong, that your life is exactly the same, but I'm willing to bet every single dollar in my bank account that you will look back and say that that was the best decision that I have ever made, and I have no idea how I was living my life before. I wrestled with them, grappled, was in this uncomfortable environment for myself, where we always had the rule that the youngest has to do everything, and he is always wrong. I had to deal with that. They throw you, hit you again and again. You have to show up morning and evening, day after day. This place hardens you. They say how the steel was tempered. Steel isn't tempered for nothing. How many times do you have to strike the steel before it becomes a sword? That doesn't just happen by itself. Yes, you have to give the right motivation to kids with proper communication. My father was very good at this. I now realize, interacting with my own kids, how wise he was and how deeply he understood this. Because when a child is eight, ten years old, and when they are just beginning to form as a person, it is important to have the right approach. I now understand how farsighted my father's approach was. First, he tried not to give me anything for free. And at other times, he always told me, well, if you want it, you need to earn it. You want me to give you money just like that? There would be some work around the house and so on that I had to do. And I knew that encouragement would always be there. My father always had this kind of approach. He set a very strong personal example, very strong. And I really learned a lot from him. Did you believe in yourself then? I didn't want to lose. I just didn't. It never occurred to me that I could get hurt, that someone could hurt me, that I might break a finger somewhere. I never had that in my head, that I could get hit, that I'd get a scratch and so on. I don't know if you can call it perfectionism. I didn't want to lose. And to not lose, I knew I needed to compete a lot and improve. Training is one thing, but competing is different. I understood that the more I competed, the more experience I would gain. I had to go through it. It was constantly on my mind. This understanding that I must compete a lot came to me at an early age, since I was 15, 16, 17, 18, and I never stopped thinking about it. So it was always in the back of my mind. I think Boubaisar said that these feelings standing on the podium becoming an Olympic champion, you only feel them in that moment when they announce you, you step onto the podium, that's it. They announced you, you won, you live, that's it. You only feel them there, you don't feel them anywhere else. And athletes live for those feelings, they train their whole lives for them. It's so rare. What is happiness really? The way I see it is when you experience certain feelings for a very short time. You can't be constantly happy like you achieve something and then you're happy for years. It just doesn't work that way. The Almighty didn't build us that way. You get there even when you become a champion and you fully feel that moment you win. And then you wake up the next morning and that's it. Is that all I worked for? There's nothing more like that. So well, you become champion, you win, then you wake up the next day. That's it, your daily routine continues. It doesn't end. You've already got different things going on, different problems, other tasks now. And you're like, it all went by so fast. Then you wake up the next day, pack your bags, head to the airport, fly out, land back home. Everyone's celebrating. And just like that, the next day, everyone's gone. That's it. Everyone lives their own life. So your life story began in the mountains of Dagestan and Sildi then Kirovaul and then Makhachkala and in all these situations there are very interesting stories but one of the things I heard you say is that the best results are born out of the worst conditions. Philosophically is it correct to say that comfort is kind of the enemy for champions? When you live too well, let's say, you know, you're never in need. For example, you were born into a wealthy family and you already have everything. Would that same wealthy father, would he force you to do such a brutal sport? A sport where you come home every day with injuries. Where you come home with an exhausted body, you come home with bruises. Would he really do that? That's the question. And the kid himself, who lives a life of luxury, would he even want to do this? This is where you need that hunger. You have to be in a position where you are truly in need. And it's interesting that there's a psychological side to this as well. That you need a tough situation to create champions. And honestly, well, you just can't be born in these conditions, live here, stay here and be mentally weak. You just have to be tough. There's no other way to survive. There are different paths. First, you build an amateur career just to get into the pros and go even further from there. Second, after you've made it into the pros, you become a champion. And third, after you become a champion, you have to stay there. Not everyone has what it takes. It is incredibly tough. If you look at the numbers, you can literally count these champions on one hand. How many of them are there? Maybe 15, 20, 30 people? Let's say 50 over the last 30 years? And how many have tried? For example, 50 achieved it over 30 years, over 35 years of MMA combat sports. But how many tried? Hundreds of thousands. And look at that number, such a tiny amount actually reached the end goal. So for you to actually make it into this tiny list, you really have to be like just a truly unique person and a fighter and, you know, a student. And a person who can accept guidance from a coach who, when they are being guided, discard the cons and take only the pros. But there are people who take criticism very hard and very negatively. And are very sensitive, let's say, when they take criticism from a mentor. So it all has to click. And some accept criticism at the very beginning, but then, once they become champions, it's hard for them to take it. I've always placed My only hope in the Almighty, whatever situation I might face, I've always believed that only the Almighty can truly make it easier for me. And when it comes to not letting success go to your head, not becoming proud, not becoming full of yourself, religion and my faith in Allah have helped me with that too. I truly believe that only faith can help a person get through life's hardest trials. And sometimes I think about people who are... There are times when you want to quit. It's natural. You get frustrated. You've been disrespected. You're discounted. There are people who overlook you. But don't quit. Resign. Resign yourself to the fact that there's more inside of you. Answer the desire, that thirst inside of you that says, I deserve more, I am more, I want to be more. Resign yourself to the fact that you will improve and do whatever it takes so that you become everything you were called to be. You've lived a life dominated by doubt and fear. How do you step into bravery? That step towards your fear is the step into bravery. Because we're scared of what we don't know. There is only one way and to know and that is to confront that fear. You have to step, you have to go and this simple action, this simple attitude, it answers so many questions. Seeing with all of us have greatness within us, But when you don't come to grips with your greatness, if you don't work to develop it, if you're not seeking it out, if you're not finding where it is, if you're not trying to locate it, if you're not experimenting with your life to try and find out what fits for you, I'm saying that you're positioning yourself to be a miserable person, an unfulfilled person. Some days I win. Some days I don't. But each and every day, I get back up and I move forward with my fists clenched toward the battle. Toward the struggle, I fight with everything I've got. You've got to develop a sense of urgency. Confidence is arrogance under control. But this is what you should be careful of. Don't you ever cross that line into arrogance. Because arrogant people stop growing, arrogant people stop developing, because arrogant people think they have arrived. Be as confident as you can be without crossing the line into arrogance. You can't wait until life isn't hard anymore before you decide to be happy. Staying loyal. To what you said you were going to do long after the mood you're setting is level. That's commitment. So when it's inconvenient to do so, are you still going to do so? When it gets real, are you still going to stay loyal to what you said you were going to do? Yeah, I go here. Go to that dark place. I call it the dark room. Where you're alone. No cell phones. No music. No TVs. No computers. You by yourself. Very few people want to be alone anymore. They want to be around noise and people. And they have to... You can't think. Shut life off for a little bit. Go to a dark place in your mind and figure out what the f*** you want to be. You don't know what you want to be because you haven't spent time, real time with yourself. Spend time with yourself. And once you find that passion, that purpose, your goals, your purpose, everything will just start lining up. But it's a dream killer that a lot of things that we want to do, a lot of places we would like to go, a lot of things we would like to experience. And we just stop at but. But is an argument for our limitations. And when we argue for our limitations, we get to keep them. What if the truth is that changing your life is one away? One decision, one meeting, one conversation, one extra phone call, one extra rep in the gym. You start stacking up those one mores. That's the separator. In life, we don't get our goals. We get our standards. Your biggest enemy is you. People don't understand it's you against you. The only person that gets in your way is you. I need you to confront you because you're the one holding you up. I need you to confront you. I need you to look in the mirror and tell you, you are not going to do me like this no more. You need an antidote to suffering and it has to be deep, you know, and deep moves you tectonically and it's not a trivial thing, but that's better than happiness. And maybe if you're lucky while you're pursuing that and while you're immersed in it, you get to be happy and you should fall on your knees and be grateful for that when it happens. You know it's a gift, it really is a gift, but you aim to climb uphill to the highest peak you can possibly envision And that's better than happiness. See, but will cause you to procrastinate, but will cause you to hide out behind fear, but will cause you to come up with all type of excuses that you can validate your inaction and not acting on your dream. And most people fail those one seconds, and then that one second leads to 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, and that's where people start to lose it. I realize that in that one second. I go through all that. I know how it's going to feel because I've failed so many times before. Failure is the ultimate thing, man. I've failed so many times before. That's why I don't look at failure anymore. It's failure. I look at it as my first, second, third attempt. There's a power to one more. When you start stacking up those one mores, not only have you put more contacts out into the universe, but you start believing, I'm doing something most people aren't willing to do. I'm fixing to get something most people aren't going to get. The shortcut is a lie. The hack doesn't get you there. And if you want to take the easy road, it won't take you to where you want to be. Stronger, smarter, faster, healthier, better, free. To reach goals and overcome obstacles and be the best version of you possible will not happen by itself. Will not happen cutting corners, taking shortcuts, or looking for the easy way. There is no easy way. A good human being, a fulfilled human being, doesn't need to break anyone down. All they do is want to build you up. So anybody you meet that calls you out of your name, that bullies you, that messes you up, that makes you feel not lifted, they are dealing with something deep-rooted. There's a beautiful piece of Zen wisdom that's been shared for thousands of years. And what it says to us is this, that we don't realize that half the time, the thing that's weighing us down, the thing that's holding us back is what we're holding on to. What part of your mindset are you going to leave behind today? What part of it are you going to say, you know, I might need to leave that behind. I might need to let go of that. That doesn't serve me anymore. Yeah, we all agree. Your heroes will let you down. Your heroes will let you down. One person that you can switch and change is yourself. This is when you got to do it, when nobody's watching. That's where you really got to push it. No one can be a great leader who isn't willing to follow someone first. And if you want to lead people, follow them. Follow the steps in the pathway that led them to come to you. Understand that you have to learn them because the greatest resource you have are the relationships you build. When you set out at the beginning of this year, Make it your mission to sharpen those skills. Make it your mission to become more disciplined. Make it your mission to become more mentally hardened. Make it your mission to become someone who exemplifies what discipline actually is and what it looks like and what it can build and what it can become. Because the reality is that the world is starving for examples of excellence. Once you figure out your brain, you become unstoppable to almost anything. Your brain is amazing. Once you feed it the right conversation, the right mental nutrients, the right mental supplements, the right internal dialogue at the right time, with the right hit, with the right proof of what you've done in the past, and you send it right to the right circuit, dude, you're a beast. No matter what happens to you, it ain't over. It ain't over. Ain't no such a thing as over. As long as God wakes you up, that means he ain't through with you yet. Nothing is easy. Like, running is running. It sucks. But you have a choice to make. Do you want to sit down and go back to that guy you once were? No. So this is what it takes. Consistency doesn't guarantee that you'll be successful. But not being consistent will guarantee that you won't reach success. Instead of spending time getting in the mood to work, just start working. Confront the work. People think they need perfect conditions to start when in reality, starting is the perfect condition. Don't post about what you're going to do. Don't talk about what you're going to do. Keep that to yourself and then just go do it. I try to do something difficult every day. Something I don't want to do. If you... Open your mind, your ear, to the moments where you don't really feel like doing it. Do it. Are you strong enough to deal with just your issues, or do you have broad enough shoulders so that you can carry the weight of others? And when you carry the weight of others, they will also come and carry the weight with you. Leadership is a... It's cool, it's a talent, it's a gift, it's a blessing, it's never a curse because if you were cursed you'd be abandoned, if you were cursed you'd be alone, but when you lead you will find that people have been waiting on you and then tell them where do we go because of where you went. We don't operate well if we don't have a mission because then you have something to shoot for. Imagine you have the most sophisticated airplane in the world and it takes off when there's nowhere to go. And so this is why it is so important to have a vision, to have a specific goal, because then every rep that you do will get you one step closer to that goal. You never know how good you'll be until you try. So let's get with it. As you sort of progress, I mean this could be, this could be anything. As you do it more and more and maybe you kind of realize like, okay this is something I want to put a lot of energy into. I want to put a lot of time into this. Because not only do I like the results I'm getting, but I also like the process You know, making that progress. Mark Shrew says you have to ask yourself every moment, is this essential? He says because most of what we do and say is not essential. And he says when you eliminate the inessential, you get the double benefit of doing the essential things better. Who suffer the loss of a loved one, someone very close to them. For example, when I lost my father, I remember thinking to myself, if I didn't believe in the Almighty, if I didn't have faith in God, And understand that it was predestined that we all come into this world and then leave it, that no one stays here forever, that no one belongs to anyone and we all belong to the Almighty and that we will all return to Him. I don't know how I would have coped with it. I'm a very emotional person. I think it would have been extremely difficult for me to go through all of that without faith. I know a couple of people who have lost someone very close to them And they... Struggle to accept it. They would ask, why, why, why? So many questions. I told them, to answer that question, you need to go deeper into religion and try to understand. Why were you even born in the first place? And why do these thoughts even come into your head? And what if you didn't have any thoughts at all? What if you couldn't think, couldn't understand anything? These thoughts, this awareness, your mind, your abilities, none of that was there before. Then it appeared. Why? That's the question. None of us existed. Then we were born, we were little, we weren't aware of anything, we didn't remember anything. Then little by little we grew up and became adults. We became successful, became somebody. We became who we are. So why did all of this come specifically to you? There are so many questions like that. And so these questions are, let's say, a kind of guide through life. And for me, that's what religion is. It guides me and helps me. That you're not nearly as important as the image you've created of yourself in your own mind. You start becoming more. As Americans say down to earth, you become more grounded. You're not flying, you're walking on the ground. He once put it beautifully, you can allow money and fame to stay in your hand, but not in your heart. If money stays in your hands and not in your heart, that's a good thing. But the moment it gets into a person's heart, it corrupts them. Once it's there, it's very difficult to pull it out of your heart. If you have wealth in your hands and use it properly for good causes, for the right purposes, for people in need, for your family, relatives, friends, people from your hometown, that's a good thing. But as soon as that wealth gets into your heart, it becomes very difficult to share it with others. And this is a very dangerous place for a person to end up. Money and fame haven't changed you. You're just growing as a human being, as you always have. I hope it's in the right direction. It's just, the thing is people only see the good, they don't see the bad. And we all have the good side and the bad side. Everyone sadly, and especially when it comes to celebrities, we only see, we only show the best side of ourselves. Even when you post photos, you only post the good ones. The pictures where you look your best, So I hope that the way people see me, as you pointed out, is the way I really am. Because it's difficult to judge yourself objectively. You're always biased when it comes to yourself. That's how it is. We tend to think highly of ourselves, right? You can't really see yourself objectively. We hide our flaws and put our best qualities on display. Sometimes people even start believing in a fake version of themselves. For me, I try to stay on the honest path throughout my life to remain true to who I really am and to show my true self to people. Maybe not everyone agrees with my behavior, my opinions, my worldview, or my attitudes towards sports, religion, and other things. Not everyone shares my views. Not everyone is a fan of mine. There are people who, let's say, see me very differently. So I'm just, I've tried, I continue to try to be who I am, that's all. And I hope that my ending will be a good one too. Well, you know, at least that's my hope. You have a choice in this life. You can make moves or you can make excuses. If you're not careful, you will allow situations in this life to cloud your perspective. And you will allow moments in this life to take away the hopes and the dreams of tomorrow. Failure is not final. It's formative. It's part of the journey. How are you gonna learn if you don't ever fail No, failure is fuel for your future. No matter how many people have hurt you, right, the pain might not be your fault, but the healing is your responsibility. The setback might not be your fault but the comeback is your responsibility. What happened to you happens and doesn't have to be your whole story. You're literally a choice away from a new beginning. A choice, that's it. And a commitment away from a new life. Accept and change. Accept what's happened and then change your life from it. What idea are you setting off? Write your ideas down. And then, once you get that idea, take the lead. Take the lead. See, a lot of people get the ideas and just walk around with it. Take the lead. See, it's out here in the universe. If you don't take the plunge, I guarantee you somebody else will. Take the plunge. Go into action. And ladies and gentlemen, you will be surprised at how things will come together. When you're an adult, you have to parent yourself. Here's the rub. You're never, ever, ever, ever going to feel like doing the things you need to do in order to have what you want. You're always going to need to push yourself. You're always going to need to parent yourself. I believe you're happiest not when you're. Watching TV. You're not happiest when you're playing with your apps. You're not happiest when you're looking for likes. You're not happiest when you're fooling around. You're happiest when you're going. You're not your past. You don't have to be your past. You're not the mistakes that you made. Just because you made mistakes doesn't mean you are one. But you have to make that choice to own it. You have to envision something that is more powerful than you. Something has to get you out of bed. Every day is day one. Every day you're deciding what you're going to do and you are not trapped by what you were or who you were because you never want to get trapped by dogma. You never want to get trapped by history. It doesn't mean you discard history, ignore it, but you can't be blindly following what you've done. And that's the heart of day one. You're always starting fresh. Time of year when everybody's talking about what they're going to do next year and what they're going to become and what they're going to achieve and how they're going to change and how they're going to do all these things that they have. Failed at doing many previous years before this year. What makes you think that next year is going to be any different? What makes you think that when January 1st rolls around, that all of a sudden you're going to change everything about yourself and become this brand new version of yourself? Haven't you told yourself this before? How many Mondays have you told yourself that you were going to start? How many years have you made the same resolutions that you failed to keep? You have to understand that if you are to make a change in your life, you have to develop discipline. Because to be a winner, you want to be disciplined. You want to know what you're doing. And then you want to be on the edge where your skills are being developed. And if you're going to be on the edge where your skills are going to be developed, you're at a place where loss, where losing is always a possibility. Because otherwise you're not pushing yourself beyond your current capacity. I kind of feel like every day you have a certain amount of energy. And I'm not talking calories, I'm talking, like, mental. A certain amount of stuff which you can put out into the world. And I think the more you have to deal with everything else on this, what do you have left if you want to do something productive, you know? How much stuff are you paying mind to? How much stuff are you putting energy into thinking about? How much effort are you putting into stuff that not only is not going to contribute to anything meaningful for yourself, but also just weighs you down? How much faster would you achieve your goals if it was just you and your goal, not you and your goal and Netflix and video games and social media and friends you don't like and movies and shows and all these distractions that are splitting your attention in a million different directions. You can blame your lack of accomplishment on your friends, on your family, on this, on that. But the reality is, if it was just you and your goal and no other noise, no other distractions, I guarantee you would have nothing better to do than achieve your goal. So look around at your life and identify the things that take your attention away from the person you want to be and the things you want to accomplish and remove that ----. Because if your goals are as important to you as you say they are, why would you voluntarily make it harder to achieve? Man, do what you do, right? Stop worrying about what everybody else is doing. Stop looking at what everybody else is doing. And stay focused on what it is that you feel God has called you to do. Specifically, that's your greatness. That's where your power is. People start to rush their lives based upon highlight reels on social media. I said, the part you forget, nobody shows you the failures. Nobody shows you the shortcomings. People very rarely show you the adversity in the opposition. And so do what you do, right? Approach it how you approach it. That's what God will bless you upon. It's not you doing it in a way that somebody else does it. No, he placed greatness in you. Do it how you do it, in a way that only you can do it, so God can bless it. Stop thinking that it could be better, that you should have said it differently, that you should have done it another way. It doesn't matter. What's done is done. And the rest is just your overthinking, making it out to be more than it is. You can't just wait for things to get perfect. You gotta just go out and do stuff. Your motivation. You need discipline. Because motivation's not there every day. I'm missing motivation most days. Every time I start doing things I don't want to do, I grow. So wherever you're finding yourself, whatever level of discomfort you're finding yourself in, look, just toughen up. Just toughen up, okay? We have a world full of weaklings, and nobody needs a weakling. Because when you do hard things, you then are fortified and reinforced for the inevitable hardship that life is because all of life is hardship with brief moments of bliss my friend and if you have created a zone of comfort in a world of hardship you become unstoppable you must adopt that mindset you will not be the victim in life You're going to start to create something. You have no motivation, you have no drive, you have no ambition, but you're going to force it to happen anyway because that's what bad motherfuckers do and that's what you are. So you're going to go through day by day by day doing the work regardless of how you feel like it. And then what's going to happen is you're going to see a little bit of a result. And when you see that little bit of result, you're going to get happy because now you can clearly see that if I do the work, this result will happen. So if you're in this phase, Where it doesn't feel like it's worth it. Where it doesn't feel like it's very fun. Just remember, since you keep going and you do not let your feelings dictate what your actions will be, the results will always be there. But you gotta want it more than anything. Don't quit on your dream. Quit on other people's purposes for your life. They don't know what you dream about at night. But you know your dreams keep interrupting your sleep. It's like someone is waking you up saying, it's time. It's like someone is saying keep staring at the ceiling until you can create a vision board in your mind and and paint it on the ceiling large enough that you see it every day. What type of legacy do you want to leave? There's a purpose to everything you've been through and there's a reason why it was given to you. You were born for such a time as this. You avoid things that stand in your way that frighten you at your great peril. If you cower from them in silence, or you turn away seeking security even, or even sensible security, you violate the principle of your own strength. And if you violate the principle of your own strength, you become weak. And if you're weak, there is no security. Like if you're weak and you have a pension, you're weak with a pension. All that'll mean is that you'll live longer in terror. That's not helpful. To truly change is to think greater than your environment, and every great person in history knew this. They all had an idea, couldn't see it, couldn't smell it, couldn't taste it, couldn't feel it, but it was alive in their mind. Welcome every human experience. You never know which one is going to turn it all on, even the bad experience. Sometimes from the bitterest experience comes the greatest awakening. So let down the barriers, take down the walls, the same wall that keeps out disappointment, keeps out happiness. Let life touch you. Don't let it kill you, but let it touch you. There is no easy way. There is only hard work, late nights, early mornings, practice, rehearsal, repetition, study, sweat, blood, toil, frustration, and discipline. Discipline, the root of all good qualities, the driver of daily execution, the core principle that overcomes laziness and lethargy and excuses. Discipline defeats the infinite excuses that say, not today, not now, I need a rest, I'll do it tomorrow. Every challenge that you are facing belongs to your journey. It is people change so that you can learn to let go. Things go wrong so that you can learn to appreciate them when they're right. And sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together. Always waiting for everything to be perfect before I live my life. I'm always waiting for everything to be perfect before I live my life. There's only one way. If you're at the bottom, there's only one way. But you gotta look up. And when you look up, there's somebody there waiting for you. If you truly believe that you have the power within you to change, the first step would be saying, I have to take responsibility for myself right now because I've got to start thinking differently, I've got to start acting differently, I've got to start feeling differently. It's going to be hard. If it was easy, everybody would be doing this. But how is self-love born? When the person sits through the fire and sits through all of that anxiety, all that hatred, all that anger, and keeps lowering the volume, sooner or later, the body's going to release it.