Transcription
A friend of mine years ago taught me when I was like coming up and I was deciding if I was going to do this and he said, "Uh, I think that means if not now, then when." So, whatever you want to do, it stop talking about it. Stop thinking about it. Stop telling people what you're going to do and just freaking do it. Get up and do it. Take one step. Don't look a thousand cars ahead. Look one. Take one step. That's all you need to do.
If I have one legacy, if I create more bold people in this world, I will be happy because we've got too many timid hairs out there. We need more bold lions. Start your business. Write that book. Do it. Just do it. Please. I've tried to eliminate as much time between "I think I should do this thing" and beginning doing it. And I think you get this positive reinforcement cycle. I call it pulling the thread. It's like, "I just need to start pulling the thread." And then all of a sudden, what feels really unknown becomes very tangible and you're like, "Oh, I understand the six problems I have to solve to do this big thing." But now I know the problems and then it feels like you can, you can wrap your arms around it. And then you can start taking it one bite at a time.
Let's say that I want to start a business. In your mind, you're like, "Well, I don't really have the finances or I don't know if I'm ready. Let me pick it back up at the top of the year. I'm going to think about it next year, January. See where I'm at. Will re-evaluate." The only thing that changed in that year's time is how you felt about it. You still have no idea the outcome of that decision once it's made. You make a decision, you still have to wait to find out the outcome of that decision. There's no way to predict that. And the only thing that you're delaying is your progress, your growth by putting off the decision.
Do it without commentary. Do it without drama. Simply show up and do the thing. Focus on the practice. Not hoping and wishing for the outcome that you need to be reassured by, but the practice, the best you can do it. 'Cause if you, what could be better than the best you could do it? Nothing. So do that, learn from what works, and then do it again.
The concept of living life is just so simple. You could take the words "live your life" and expand on that into a million-page essay and just do it. But just getting out there and living and experiencing life and doing the things that are difficult and challenging and cause you to grow. And the person that I envy the most and I enjoy being around the most is just that, like, old wise man who has all these crazy stories, who's lived his all this life and is just like, happy to sit on the park bench and talk to random people about what he's done. You know, it's if that's a person I respect, how do I become that person? It's not from doing nothing. It's from doing something.
What is it today that you've been wanting but, to be honest with you, you haven't yet gotten? I will almost guarantee you the reason that your want and desire is far from being fulfilled by achieving it is because you haven't taken action necessary. So today, don't think about it, don't talk about it, don't wish for it. Go for it. Dive, move, start, act. What's one thing I'm doing wrong that I know I'm doing wrong that I could fix that I would fix? It's like you meditate on that, you'll get an answer and it won't be one you want, but it'll be the necessary one.
A lot of people sit back and they dream about being a sports figure or dream about being a SEAL or dream about being an astronaut and all it is is a [ __ ] dream. They don't put the work behind the dream. That dream has become their [ __ ] master. When you become the master of your [ __ ] dream is when you say, "I want to go be a Navy SEAL." And you say, "Okay, I'm going to lose 106 lbs in less than three [ __ ] months." The dream was the one thing I thought about and the dream was now gone. Now what comes in, the dream goes away and the [ __ ] laundry list of [ __ ] details and tasks come up. Got to do this. Got to do this. Got to do this. I do this. That's when you become the master of your dream. So, a lot of people out there dreaming.
When all that fear that's in your head, all the "what ifs" and the scenarios that you create inside your own mind that are way worse than anything that is actually going to happen, they all disappear when you go. So, just, just take action and and start moving forward. That is the moment that can last a million years is waiting to go. I, I'm pretty good at it now where, oh, I'm like, "Oh yeah, I know what that is," and I'm going, and then that's it. Make that decision because one thing's for sure with my life. You're one decision away from changing, literally. You are one decision away from changing. It's a decision away. You're one decision away from changing your life. Like, "What would I do if I weren't afraid?" and "What would I do if I knew I couldn't fail?" and the idea that I will never wish for fewer epic stories at the end of my life. And I've never regretted failures. I've always regretted things that I didn't try.
Most skills can be learned decently with about 20 hours of focused effort. 20 hours. Like, the first 20 hours of you actually doing something, you learn the most you're going to learn about the thing. If you just consider by percentage of learning from, like, you know nothing to 20 hours in, you already have a really good understanding of the thing. The problem is that most people will take years to start the first hour.
And so that habit that you're referencing is that my speed, at least now, as you know, I've gotten better at this stuff, is that, like, I try and detract the time from when I want to learn something or when I want to start doing something to starting it as soon as I can 'cause I just want to start getting through those 20 hours as fast as I can.
Yes. And so that's just been a very tangible 'cause it seems like this amorphous thing, but there was a study that was done, like, in the first 20 hours, you can learn almost any skill, playing guitar, running an ad, like, you will learn more in that first 20 hours than any other time. So it's like, then just get to that 20 hours and don't delay.
Yes. And that's been one of the, one of the most, one of the deepest lessons I've had because it took me four years to learn how to build a website and it took me one day to actually learn. Four years to delay and procrastinate and say, "I'm not a tech guy. I'm not a tech person. This isn't my kind of thing. I'm a gym guy. I'm a local business owner. I should pay somebody to do this. I'm above this kind of thing." Like all these stories, right? And then one day I sat down on a Sunday morning. I was like, "I'm going to learn this thing."
And you Googled it and you took, yeah. You just learned it. Step by step by step. And you know what? I set the whole day aside. It took me 4 hours. The nightmare is to reach our 60s, our 70s, our 80s, or even our deathbed. And to talk about everything we should have done. "I should have done that. I should have invested in this. I should have made the relationship work. I shouldn't have got a divorce." We sit around and talk about all of our "shoulds." We talk about all the things we wanted to do but never got it done. That, that's the nightmare. That's the nightmare that we all must avoid.
There are things that you have been called to do that you have never done. And there are things that you have been called to do that no one on earth has ever done. And so if there's anything that I can give you, if there's any piece of advice, if there's any information I can pass on to you, it would be the question, "What do you want?" Let that sink in because I don't think you're asking yourself this question enough. But I want to ask you, "What do you want?" What do you believe you were destined to do? And then you got to spend every single solitary day for the rest of your life going after that dream. You just have to start. If you don't start, you'll never learn. Start, then learn. Don't learn, then start. Just get started and watch how the journey unfolds. And I get asked all the time, man, "What should I do?" I'm like, "Do anything. Just start."
If you are not planning your future, somebody else is going to be planning your future for you. So, if you don't know what your purpose is, sometimes you can just start doing things that will make you a better person, and those things will give you purpose. "Life is what happens while we're making other plans." It's a brilliant observation. "Oh, once I've got this done, once I get my degree, then life will begin. Once I've, I've just got to pass these exams and get to that thing and buy that house and then I've just got to pay this off and then I've got to, and then we can start."
Necessity, in my opinion, is not the mother of invention. Refusing to accept things the way that they are is the mother of invention. Some of you will never be, you'll never have, you'll never do 'cause you're sitting around waiting on a phone call. 'Cause you're sitting around waiting for somebody to give you an opportunity.
Too many people get into a dwelling mindset. A "woe is me." A [ __ ] "I missed it." To me, "Start now, move fast, don't settle" is 6, 16, 26, 36, 46, 56, 76. This is about loving yourself and not beating yourself up for what you've done wrong in the past. Let's go. This life that you have been given, this life that you are temporarily holding on to, this life that has been just given to you for only temporary reasons, has more meaning than you can ever imagine. Your life is your life and you have the right to live it the best way you can. Door can't open today, look out. I'm going to come back and take the hinges off. You've got to have that kind of courage, that type of determination. If you want to make it happen, it's you that you've got to take personal responsibility to make it happen.
Listen to me. You want to be a rap artist, right? You want to go to the NFL. You want to go to the NBA, right? You want to go to the Olympics, right? You want to be the next Michael Jackson. You want to be the ne, I don't know who you want to be, what you want to do. You don't want to live in the community you live in. You want to be in a gated community. All right? You don't want to drive what you're driving right now. You want to drive something big. That's okay. It's okay to dream big. It's okay to think big. But you got to start small. You got to give small a chance to be big, baby.
You can't just talk about wanting to win. You have to prepare to win and you have to expect to win.
If it's a new meal plan, start today. If it's a new mentality, start today. If it's a fresh conversation, if it's a powerful, lifegiving strategy, whatever it is that's going to take you forward, start now. Start now. Don't push this thing off to tomorrow because lives are on the line. When people wait to fulfill, when people wait to manifest, when people wait and they push it off, it can cost the lives of so many people, the overall quality of life that many people walk in because you are a lifegiving agent of change in the arena of life. It is time for you to be the best version of yourself. Lives are on the line. At the end of your life, you need to be able to look up to heaven and have won some small victory for humanity because you becoming everything you've been destined to become is going to impact somebody's life. And so when we don't do this, when we push it off, when we procrastinate, somebody's life is being negatively impacted. And that first life is yours. So, what I want you to do is is think about something you want for you that's real for you, that's important for you, that will give your life some special meaning and power. Don't wait for something to happen. You make it happen. You make it happen for a reason. And take full responsibility and control of this thing we call life.
Think of 20 to 42 as being like the soldier of society. In fact, if we go to war, you're the ones going to war. 22 to 42. In business, you're the soldier. You're learning. You're growing. You're grunting it out. You're hustling. Right? If you work hard during that time and you've done well during spring, you come to the fall, which is, you know, you look at 43 to 63, that's your power period, right? That's the period where you've had explosive growth in your business, as an example. That's when you became who you are, where your name became known. That's where all of a sudden you can do probably more today with your pinky than when you worked 20 hours a day. And now if you work 20 hours a day, produce generational impact much greater than that. But the ultimate time, and I say to you this as a brother who's heading in that direction because I never would have believed it, is really when you get to 63 to 83, or 63 to 103, or 63 to 120, which is the oldest humans, the final season, the winter season. But that's the season in which you really are the elder of society. And if you've done your job up front, you've reaped so much. All you want to do is give back and you don't worry about what people think about you. I'm here to help the people that are interested. I'm not here to say I'm the right thing for everybody. And you own yourself at a different level and you really can move from pinky and have things happen.
You have to be confident in you. You have to believe that you have what it takes. You have to declutter your mind.
Give small a chance to be big. Are you hear what I'm saying? You got to give small a chance to grow up. You're trying to blow up. You're trying to do everything big. And I told you, think big, dream big, but start small. That's right. Start small. Remember what I told you. Start where you are with what you have. 'Cause what you have is split.
You must discipline yourself and take full control and responsibility for the outcome of whatever it is that you are seeking at this moment. And I just want to encourage you to start now. Little by little, make the decisions that are required to fulfill your destiny. I know you're tired. I know you're broken. I know you're weary. I know you're sleepy. I know you've gotten numb. I know it seems as though there is no hope. And you can get into this place of hopelessness and weariness and isolation. But right where you are. And some of you can't even see the light at the end of the tunnel. But right where you are, you got to start now. You ain't got to be perfect. You heard me. You ain't got to be perfect, but you got to perfect the day. And finally, stop planning for events. Stop planning for things. And start planning for your future. Start, start, start getting yourself ready so when you get there, it's a done deal. So, yep. You didn't do all of that stuff. So that's okay. Say goodbye to the past and embrace your future. Make the rest of your life the breath of your life. You have to make sure that you are managing yourself wisely, that you are making the right decisions. You have to make sure that you keep the promises that you have made to yourself. Stop stressing about the things that you cannot control and stop focusing on the things that you have control of. Take control of your life. Take control of the opportunities. Believe in yourself and know that it is not over for you. Step toward it. Don't try and duck it like most people do. See, most people want it easy. See, easy come, easy what? Easy go. When you go at what you're going to deal with and you deal with the difficulties of it, when you handle those hard things close at hand, making those hard decisions right now that you don't want to make, learning those things that you don't like to do, but you know that in order for you to get where you want to go, this is one of the hoops that you have to flip through. And I'm saying to you, whatever you got to do, do it. Because if you don't, life is going to whoop you until you surrender. I need you to stop pushing certain goals off and aims and targets and relationships and doors you need to walk through and tables you need to sit at. Stop pushing it off till tomorrow because tomorrow is not promised.