Transcription
I'd say one of the strongest mental frames that has gotten me through my hardest times is thinking this will be the story that I will one day tell. And that means the harder it is, the bigger the dragon, the more epic the story. And by consequence, the more epic the hero.
And if you think about the difference between winners and losers, winners define themselves by what they made happen and losers define themselves by what happened to them. And the difficult part of the lonely chapter is that the rocky cut scene lasts 90 seconds in the movie and lasts 5 years in reality, with no promise of it ever ending. No guarantee of glory.
What's interesting about and I don't again I don't like using the word psychology but I'll say what's interesting about humans is that our ability to endure is very robust if we know that we'll make it out. And so they've done mice studies where they drop the mouse in and then they let it drown and it drowns really fast and then they drop a a mouse in and then before it gets to the point where it drowns they pick it up and then they put it back in. And the second time they put it in, it can last like 20 times longer.
Think for the stats of something around will drown in less than an hour. If it's taken out, dried off, and allowed to relax, it'll swim for a day. An absurd amount different. And so if I were to say, "Hey, I need you to hold your breath, but I don't tell you how long." 20 seconds in, you might be thinking, "This is stupid. When is he going to stop? Is he going to wait for me to pass out?" And all these stupid thoughts go into your mind. But if I say, "I need you to hold your breath for 3 minutes." Your lungs might burn, but you can see that there's this end that's coming.
The difficulty with personal development and entrepreneurship is that you don't know when the end is coming, but you still need to fight like the second mouse who gets out, gets right off, and gets put back in. And the only certainty that I can give you is that it's the same thing that every other mouse, every other person who got through that period went through. and you won't die. And if you do die, you won't care because you'll be dead. And so, best case, you win. Worst case, it won't matter.
You know, a fun frame with that is when someone says, "Must be nice." You can just say, "Yeah, it is." Or someone says, "Man, you must have exceptional genetics to have the body you have." And it just happens so easily for you. And you're like, "Yeah, it's sweet." And the thing is is that if we think if we were to just say like if we lean into it, right, to some degree by leaning into it, you also eliminate a competitor if you want to hear my my ugly side. Because if I just affirm the fact that they think it happened overnight or that it was genetic or whatever, make it more out of reach.