You can turn your life around

Hi guys, I know this is not my usual video setting. You guys always complain about my lighting and video quality. Well, this must be the worst thing I've ever filmed, but it's all about the message, isn't it?

I need to make this video today because I was walking around listening to music I used to listen to when I was severely depressed. It put me back in those memories of that period, and I just realized how far I've come. It wasn't until this moment that I actually realized this. Before, I used to just listen. I'm going to explain something to you: when you're someone who comes from an abusive household, a toxic household, your whole life, and you're getting out of it, you're still in survival mode. The only thing you're thinking is, "Let me get and do as much as I can and acquire stability for myself," and that's it. But in the moment of accomplishing all these things, you don't realize what you're accomplishing. You don't realize what you're going through because, in your head, it's just, "Okay, I need to be stable; my family needs to be stable; whatever, you know, I need to get this done." But that also makes you feel like you didn't accomplish anything at the end.

For example, I used to think, no matter how far I got, no matter how many subscribers I got, it was never good enough. It was never like I had done something great or something powerful. When people would tell me, "Oh my God, you did that in such a short amount of time," I didn't even realize how crazy of a thing that is. I think I didn't even realize that I got famous because people would come up to me constantly. I see myself as a regular, normal person, which I am, but they come up to me and say, "You saved my life; you changed my life," and I'm like, "Oh, okay," but I don't realize it. It keeps me humble as well because I don't see myself as this big YouTuber; I don't see myself as a famous person. But at the same time, it can be dangerous because I'm naive. I think everyone sees me the same way I see myself, which is not true. People see me and think, "Oh, I can gain something from her; if I befriend her, she can give me something; she can promote something." So they have an ulterior motive that I don't understand because I don't see myself the same way they see me.

I also think when you grew up in a childhood where you were never applauded for any of your accomplishments—whatever you did or accomplished was never good enough—you grow up and become that kind of person for yourself as well. So for me, it's like, whatever I do, it's never, "Oh, Liz, you did a great job." It's like, "Liz, you can do more; Liz, you can do more; unless you can do more." But it's like, no, you did good; it's okay. That's why I also want to say to you guys: if you feel like you haven't accomplished anything, you probably have. I think for a lot of people these days, just getting out of bed is a big accomplishment. We have gone through so much suffering and pain these past years, all together, and it has not been nice. But the fact that we're still standing, we're still going, and we're still trying to create that best life for ourselves is a huge accomplishment.

So when I make this video, I want to encourage anyone watching who's living in a toxic household, whatever, like that, that is poor as well—you can literally turn your life around, which is what I did. And I am shocked to be honest, because now I'm sitting in a park; I moved to a different country; I have my own apartment; I make more money than I could ever imagine. It's crazy to me. I remember I used to pray for such small things. I'd be like, "God, give me this kind of job," and I'd try to get the most stupid job ever, but I would never get that job because, obviously, it was not meant for me. I was meant for something else, but I would get angry because I was like, "No, I want that job!" But I also could not see that there was a bigger picture for me that I could not see for myself, obviously. When you are in a negative and toxic environment, you think that your life is really limited, and you think that everything in life is limited. But you have to see further than your situation; you have to look at things greater than what your situation is. You can look at your family, you can look at your situation, and you can tell yourself, "It does not have to be this way. I do not have to go through what my mom went through; I do not have to go through what my dad went through; I do not have to have the same life as my siblings. I can do things differently for myself." You can come from the best childhood and end up having a really bad life, or you can come from the worst place ever, pick yourself up, and create a beautiful life for yourself and your family. Your life is not a written thing; you can change things around for yourselves. I want you to have that belief, and I want you to know that it can happen.

As much as I hated going through what I went through in my childhood, if I did not experience those things, I would not be where I am today. My career is literally based on giving advice based on my circumstances, based on what I went through. Imagine I didn't go through anything; I could not tell you guys these things. So take whatever is happening to you, take it as a lesson, take it as a stepping stone. It doesn't have to knock you down, and your life does not have to be that way. I keep repeating this because I don't think people understand it, because I never understood it: you're not a done deal. It doesn't matter where you come from; it doesn't matter what you did in the past; it doesn't matter what happened to you; you can turn your life around. If you have that mindset and if you actually believe that it can happen, it will happen for you. God always had a bigger purpose for me, and I could not see that for myself. I remember I would constantly pray for the smallest things ever; I would not get them; I would not get them; I would not get them. There was a point where I just hit rock bottom so hard that I was like, "You know what? I do not care anymore. I literally do not care for anything anymore. I don't care; I'm just going to do whatever I can to make myself a better person, to make myself healthier mentally, from the inside out." That's when I started changing things around.

I went from never leaving my room to actually going for walks. I went from watching stupid videos to actually watching things that educated me. I went from never working out to doing like 10-minute or 20-minute workouts in my room. I went from having an eating disorder and just putting everything in my body to actually thinking about what I put in my body, being mindful about it, and starting to realize that I can turn things around. When I turn them around, I think it's a sad thing, but it's liberating as well to know that, first of all, we will never be good enough for anyone. We will never be good enough, and I think especially if you're a woman, whatever you do, how intelligent you are, how beautiful you are, you will always be knocked down for those things, always. People get insecure by women like that, and other women see you as competition. So at the end of the day, you will constantly get knocked down by everyone, and they will tell you you are not as good as you think you are. But you have to have that mentality to yourself where you constantly reinforce to yourself that you are—it doesn't matter what other people say; it's what you believe about yourself that will manifest. I read this thing, and it was basically like your conscious mind—your mind doesn't know anyone else; it only knows you. So if, for example, you say, "Oh, that person is so ugly," your conscious mind thinks that you're talking about yourself because your conscious mind doesn't know anyone else; it knows you and your mind. So you have to be careful with what you speak into existence; you have to be careful with your words; and you actually have to be careful with what you allow other people to say to you. You have to be careful with who you allow in your life and what kind of energies you allow in your life.

I think if you actually start having the mentality of, "You know what? I will accomplish what I want to accomplish, no matter what they say, no matter who's against me," if you want it bad enough, it will happen. You can even see this with people who are actually really bad at what they're doing; they're not good at all at it, but they still accomplish what they're doing because there is no stopping them. And when you cannot stop someone, how far can you actually go? Most people don't even reach 20% of their potential at all in life. I think the saddest thing is, for me, the one reason why I always wanted to be the best version, I always wanted to accomplish the most things that I can, was because I was so afraid of being old and looking back and regretting my life, thinking that I lived a life for someone else. That was my worst fear. There came a point where I was so low that I was like, "You know what? Nobody can stop me anymore because I will not live like this. I refuse to live like this." I think when you come to that point where you're like, "No, no, I refuse to let this be my story," that's when things actually shift for you, and that's when things actually happen. If you want advice on how to do this, I have a lot of videos, so you can watch those. But this is more like telling you that I know maybe it's bad right now, but it doesn't have to be your story; you can actually change that around. If you live a life thinking about what other people will say, that's just the biggest prison ever. Imagine you live in a prison in the mind of others; that's insane to me; that's no freedom at all. The only thing I've ever craved in my life was freedom because that's the only thing I did not have ever. I did not have freedom.

So yeah, I would say appreciate where you are right now because those things are teaching you huge lessons. Just know that whatever you decide to do, if you do not want this to be your story, it doesn't have to be. Just because you see your siblings, family, whatever, go through that, it doesn't have to be like that for you, too. You can be that cycle breaker. And honestly, I did it. I came from nothing; I did not come from money; I did not come from a stable household, and I completely turned my life around. Now I actually have the freedom that I always desired because I never lost faith. I knew—some days I might think, "Oh, it will not happen, whatever"—but my base faith was always, "No, this will not be my story, and I do not have to accept what my mother accepted; I do not have to accept what my father accepted; I do not have to accept these things." I was scared to get out of there; I was so scared; I did not have support for most of the time. But at the end of the day, when I did turn it around, I am very proud of myself today. To be honest, there is not a situation that I cannot handle; there is not anything that I cannot do once I set my mind to it because I'm just built that way; I built myself that way. I said, "Liz, you're not going to be a victim; you're going to be a warrior," and I am a warrior.

If this can encourage anyone on whatever you're doing, whatever you're trying to accomplish, you can change it for yourself, and it can happen fast once you decide that it's going to happen. For me, it came very fast once I was like, "I'm done; I'm going to actually take responsibility for my life and how it's going because it's all my fault and nobody else's. I'm done playing the victim." That's when it came so fast, and everything I wanted came, and then 10x more. So don't worry because life figures itself out. You just have to make sure that you do the things that you need to do in order to be the best version for yourself. You do those things, and then life will fall into place; the picture will fall into place. You don't have to have it figured out; I still don't have it figured out. You will never have it actually figured out. I know people who are sixty-year-old billionaires who don't have it figured out. But if you have some consistency in what you're doing throughout the day and how you are showing up for yourself, then you will see a clear picture of where you're going. So don't worry; you're doing amazing, and everything will fall into place. I promise you, everything will fall into place. Thank you so much for watching this small little video. I hope it helped someone, and yeah, I see you next video. Love you guys, bye.