Transcription
I learned a mindset hack a couple of years ago that changed the trajectory of my life. Nothing in the last 10 years has had a bigger impact on my life and my kids' life than what I'm going to share with you right now. You can master it in 5 minutes or less. You can teach it to your kids in 5 minutes or less.
So I'm an endurance athlete. A couple of years ago I was training for an endurance race called The Last Man Standing. So during my training, I did 10 training runs of 38 miles. And every time I got to 38 miles, I'm like, "That's my limit, 38 miles." I stopped. I'm like, "Not bad for a guy in his 50s," but that's not going to get you very far in a race like this.
I was listening to a podcast. I heard a Navy SEAL, a guy by the name of Chad Wright, and on the podcast he's talking about how he medicated the starting line of a 100-mile race and had him run all the way to the finish line. He had only run five miles in his life, all the way to the finish line of a 100-mile race by having him repeat, "I will not quit. I will not quit. I will not quit." I'm like, "That's impossible, man. Nobody can 20x their longest run." I've been running my whole life, but this guy's a Navy SEAL on a highly reputable podcast. I doubt he's lying. So I cold call him—create your own luck—I get him on the phone. I tell him my problem. He says, "Brother, I can solve this for you in two days, man." He's got a beard down here like he's in ZZ Top; he's covered head-to-toe in tattoos, and he's got a look in his eye like he's seen some stuff in the military that nobody here would want to see.
Next week he comes to my house. He says, "Jesse, today we're going to do three things and three things only, man. And if you do these three things, you're going to shatter your 38 miles." He said, "The first thing we're going to do is we're never going to give our pain a voice." "What does that mean, Chad?" he says, "I know you're going to be thinking, 'This is hard. I'm tired. I got blisters,' or in your case, 'I'm not good at sales. We don't come from money. I don't have enough experience.' I know you're going to have those thoughts, but we're never going to speak the words, 'cause if we speak those words, we give them power." If I ask you how you feel today, your only answer is, "Outstanding." How do you feel? How do you feel? How do you feel? Number two, "We're never going to die in the chair." I said, "What does that mean, Chad?" He says, "We're never going to come back after one of these loops and sit in the chair and be, 'I say I quit today.'" We're taking quitting off the table. And number three, "Every time we come back, I want you to say one thing you're grateful for. We're not going to forget what we're grateful for."
So I did those three things, and that day I shattered my 38 miles. Fast forward 30 days later, I'm at the start of the Hundred-Mile race. Chad Wright's running it with me. I get to mile 74, and I'm broken. I got six toenails floating around in my shoe. I have hypothermia. I'm freezing, and the end is near, and Chad can sense it. I start walking. He starts walking with me. He says, "Jess, I'm going to tell you something about me, man, that nobody knows, man. It's a miracle, dude. I never get [Music] tired." "Not now, Chad." He says, "No, man, I can't explain it either. It's the…the craziest thing. I want you to say it," but I was so broken I couldn't say it. He says, "It's not fine, Chad. I never get tired." I said, "No, man, say it like you mean it." "Fine, Chad. I never get tired." Chad grabs me by the shirt like this and he goes, "Let's go." Mile 75, "How do you feel?" "Outstanding." 77 miles in, he asked me, "Come on, Whiz, how do you feel?" "Outstanding." 79, 80, 81, 83, "How do you feel?" "Outstanding." 87, 88, me and Chad through the woods, nobody around us with a headlamp, 90 miles in, "I don't get tired, Chad." 93, 97, all the way to the finish line of a 100-mile race.
The words you speak matter. The words your kids speak matter. Listen, I used to walk into the office, my office when I was 21 years old, every day, turn to my partner and say, "We're millionaires. They just haven't paid us yet. We're millionaires." How do you feel? How do you feel? Who you…how you feel? How do you feel? "Outstanding." How do you feel? This is f…gentleman, Mr. Chair, right? [Applause] This man taught me a lot. The words that you speak matter.