no this is real you need to love pain it gets harder for anybody that's living and breathing so no matter what you do you got to keep moving forward strong in the trenches you don't know where you're going you're lost you know what I mean you have no Direction so for me I felt like both of them together when when you really when you have the vision and you're able to manifest you also put the work in Magic happens man magic that's where the magic is but a lot of people never get there unfortunately a
lot of people we're blessed that we can dream right I got to get stronger I got to train differently the weight training program that I'm doing I got to tailor it for an 82 Game season so that when the playoffs come around my legs are stronger and that ball gets there so I look at it with rationale and say okay well the reason why I shot air balls cuz my legs aren't there I go well next they'll be there that was it done done come on where are your values behind the scenes what do your
habits look like behind the scenes come on what kind of work are you putting in behind the scenes come on drop down to give me 50 come on write it again come on believe it again come on sing again record the song again come on I'm talking to that athlete I'm talking to that musician come on who are you out there when you are committed you give everything you have every single day you are either losing ground or gaining ground the choice is yours this time make it personal attitude goes a long way so again
going back to this guy here chadrick Boseman rest in peace passes away four years has colon cancer no one knows about it he goes to the doctor that mean that this doesn't mean he's not taking care of his body he's going to the doctor but he doesn't advertise his pain sometimes it's just good not to advertise your pain sometimes it's good to not just tell the whole world what you're going through I'm not telling you don't talk about it with a group of people I'm not telling you have some private conversations with certain people I
do believe in the ability to have some kind of a form of a release but the way people are doing it right now posting everything on Instagram all this other stuff what's the point behind it you need attention is that what you need it's not necessarily mental toughness mental toughness people are not looking for attention mental toughness people are trying to get results a big difference I don't drink I don't smoke I don't F around I don't party I don't go out am I lame for that absolutely to be lame in the eyes of somebody
I would never want to be like is nothing but an absolute success you see it's only an uncertain person that needs company and what they do to feel like it's the right thing but real confidence stems from doing what's best for you even if that means doing it alone my biggest confidence comes from consistently pushing myself and leaving no gap between what needs to be done and what I do on day 1962 in a row of running every morning look who's out here with me not a soul that's just [Music] fine there's no no such
thing as a free lunch there's no magic pill and there are no three easy payments of $9.99 if you want something if you want to be good at something you want to accomplish something you've got to put in the time and the minimum amount of time that you can put in is an hour a day of dedicated practice for six straight months if you want to be good at something you've got to do it every day like we look at people like LeBron James why is he good at basketball because he does it every day
you look at Wayne grexi in hockey why was Wayne so good in hockey arguably the greatest of all time because he did it every day and so my number one piece of advice to people if you want to be good at something whatever that thing that you desire is whatever your passion is do it every single day that's the real secret to success hustle is putting it all on the line hustle is waking up one day the day before you die and realizing you gave it your all into the parenting of your children the building
of your businesses the philanthropy that you wanted to do whatever you define it's just you know all in well there's a difference between something missing and am I satisfied yeah right cuz I'm not satisfied I mean I always want to go like I never I never get done with the end of the day and go cool mission accomplished like it's like close ET aren't you ready to take a break yes I might be but listen to me I can't why cuz I grind for jayen I grind for Jada I grind for deei I grind for
my mother are you hearing what I'm telling you I grind for Vanessa I hustle for so the days I want to hit that alarm clock I think about my why I can't quit Achilles were like the kiss of death athletes like I don't I don't know if I can do this I don't know there's so many factors there the surgery that has to take place the surgery has to go well right and then just it's a tendon I'm not dealing with anything that's muscular or things that I can control I can't control a tendon you
know what I'm saying so like I don't know it's a long long process but like when I I went in the trainers room my kids are in there and you know they're looking at you and stuff and I'm looking at them and I'm like you know it's all right dad's going to be all right it'll be fine it'll be all right it'll be all right it'll be all right as a parent you got to set the example you got to set the example this this is another obstacle this obstacle cannot Define me it's not going
to [ __ ] me it's not going to be responsible for me stepping away for the game that I love I'm going to step away on my own terms and that's when the decision was made that you know what I'm doing it doing it Champions keep going when they don't have anything left in their tank that's the difference between the great that's that's what separates them when they don't have no more when it's over when they're tired when they're frustrated when they're ready to give up when they spent their last dime that's when they get
started are you hearing me it's when you have nothing left it's when you depleted all your money when all your energy gone when you have nothing left that's when it's show time when you find the way out of nowhere when you find Brea breath that you don't have when you find energy that did not exist when you want this thing as bad as you want to breathe that's when you find a way you still got work to do stay on that basketball court stay on that football field all the homies texting and calling and trying
to make you feel bad about being so focused it's grind season homie it's not about today it's about the future you do the work now do the work now and all of the that you could ever want to do for your family your kids your loved ones it's all going to be on a whole another Stratosphere you know you got to take ownership of what's going on in your life when you're not where you want to be and you say it's because the boss doesn't like you or it's because the girl girl treated you this
way or the guy did this like all those things you got to take ownership of them and if you're blaming all these other external things you're not going to make any changes and that's going to be a problem it's then that's the problem too if you're chronically rejected by people it's often because of your own insufficiencies you know whether that's cowardice or lack of social skills or whatever it is it's like you can't just brush it off is oh well you know no one likes me but really I'm okay it's like no no wrong if
everyone rejects you there's probably something wrong and it's probably deep and difficult and it's going to be horrible to fix and so this this isn't a trivial problem it's not a trivial problem at all Todd I'm sorry all right I screwed up I I know I screwed up I don't know why oh great of course here it comes you can't keep doing this you can't keep doing shitty things and then feel bad about yourself like that makes it okay you need to be better but yet you're full committed to sabotaging yourself and your career then
you sitting back stressed out and depressed wondering why why ain't things happening that's the answer I just gave it to you it's about as real as it gets the question is what are you going to do next week 2 weeks from now you're in your own way you are the reason your career is not on the next level nobody else but you when you don't have a true appreciation and acceptance for who you are and you allow yourself to be immobilized by fear what happens in the process is that you begin to abuse yourself you
begin to sabotage your life you begin to sabotage your dreams you begin to unconsciously work against yourself you become your own Own Worst Enemy so what do you do about that well you you begin to realize that your dream and your gifts have so much meaning and so much value for you till your hunger for them will begin to push you past the field your hunger to have them will give you a special drive you might be sitting there wondering if you're going to wake up tomorrow and do the thing you said you would but
why on Earth would you wonder this thing you're so uncertain about is literally you there's nothing in this world you have more control over than yourself but if you decide to wake up every day surrender that control to chance I guess you'll be stuck wondering Forever This disconnect between you and you is unnecessary though the pattern of hoping you fulfill the role of a better you disobeying that desire every time is completely in your hands is a recipe for no self-respect so there's some certainty within yourself that needs to be built that's not going to
happen by accident if you look in the mirror and you ask yourself what do you have to do to be successful I promise you your heart will tell you you've never looked at your in the mirror and said you let you down until you get to that point you let you down you never you're not brave enough you want to put it on somebody else the reason why I'm not successful is because of my boss have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror and said I'm not getting up on time I'm not going to
work on time I'm not putting in 120% when I'm at work I let me down you always want to blame other people you always want to you want to hold other people to the fire but you're not holding yourself to the fire you just said you giv 50% you owe you an explanation you owe you an explanation you need to look at yourself in the mirror and say why are you only giving 50% what's wrong with you you need to put yourself on punishment you need to tell you no more TV no more snacks no
more desserts no more no we working out now no no more alcohol not right now not no I can't handle it right now you need to tell you that you owe you something this is you versus you most of us we live in a box and we don't want to go outside that box at all ever outside that box is all these possibilities of Life what we do is we shackle our mind we are a prisoner in our own mind that this is all I can do this is all I'm good at and we we
we take away the possibilities of you could be this you can be that you can be all these things and I never thought at 300 lb I could be n SE wow so if my mind was sh tled me and you would never meet there' be no book right there' be no book right there' be nothing so what people understand is that they live for themselves not knowing that you have the power within yourself to change millions of lives by facing Life by facing yourself if you're struggling if you're frustrated with yourself if you're at
that point where you're so sick of yourself and your excuses I've been there Steven's been there this is a normal part of the human experience and at some point either the pain is going to get big enough or you're going to bump into somebody's story somewhere on this planet who has been in the position that you're in right now facing the stuff that you're facing right now and there is something about their story at this exact moment in time that will IGN ignite something in you that is missing and what is missing in you right
now is Hope if you you set your own value by what you believe about yourself if you think that you're worthless if you're not very good at it other people pick that up it doesn't matter what lifestyle you have it doesn't matter what Walk of Life you have no matter what you do if you allow excuses to tell you what to do then ultimately the excuses have more control of you than what you have of yourself so get up work hard put some effort into what you want out of life because all you have is
you all you have is what you have inside don't wait for somebody to tell you what to do you know what you need to do get out there and get it done because that's ultimately what it's going to take you have to have the courage the will and everything you have inside to get to the level and Beyond the level you want to be life does not stop until they put you in the ground my friend strong mind is a catalyst for change when you see the best athletes in the world either perform really well
or on the other hand completely bomb out it's because of that muscle that lives between the ears it's interesting to me that the comfortable route is seen as the safest path but the undeniable disappointment that comes from giving up the ideals of the true self doesn't seem so safe to me don't indulge in the comfort that comes to before effort because that Comfort is nothing but a lie so what kinds of things what kinds of thoughts are you feeding your Consciousness what kind of things are you putting in your mind that will enable you to
either move forward or to justify why you staying where you are what really breaks my heart is how stuck people are and that they are things you can do to change your life for the better and if you don't have hope and you don't have this breakthrough where you have for just a millisecond this Insight where you go well what if things did work out if you don't have that moment most people stay so stuck in resignation so it's time to come face to face with pain look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself how
much more can you take because what hurt you what what what tried to [ __ ] you and kill you only made you stronger you have the capacity to whatever comes up to handle it to face it and rather than feeling powerless you begin to feel powerful my content creators my entrepreneurs my musicians come on my Kyo speakers my captains of Industries my CEOs from the captain to the cashier there is more in you stay atome father stay atome mother lawyer doctor hygienist author I don't know who you are where you're from but there's more
in you you may be hurting may be dying on the inside but you still got life left when you are starting out I think you got to find the thing that's the pain and like pain motivates significantly faster and stronger than pleasure does like people are like no passion is the right way it's like point a gun at a family member all of a sudden 10 out of 10 motivation pain and so like I think people should use their pain more what matters is at some point you have to identify what you want to do
and you've got to become the best in the world at that period And so you say in your life well something grips you and and fills you with interest and you think well should I do that and the answer is if not that then something what if it's a mistake it's a mistake rest assured what do you know you're going to stumble around right and what's going to happen is this you're going to move you're going to not stay in stasis you're not going to wander around in circles and I see people like that they
said well I never knew what to do and now I'm 40 it's like that's not so good that's not so so good and you might say well and there is a literature too that suggests that people are a lot more unhappy when they look back on their lives about the things they didn't do than they are about the mistakes they made while they were doing things we have these these um idealized versions of purpose that I think Instagram and all this stuff kind of make terrible but like I think there's a lot of honor and
work period And I think a lot of people uh fool themselves by thinking that what they do for some reason is not honorable if you build [Music] you're building the muscle either way you're either building the muscle that says I do what I say I keep the commitments that I make or you're building the muscle that says I make excuses I don't do what I say I can't be counted on right and so when we think about discipline it's really about like what promises are you going to keep and the tricky thing is you're keeping
promises to yourself that nobody even knows that you make right it's not it's not like hey you made this commit if I don't write this book by this time like uh you know I I have to do this embarrassing thing or you know that I'll I'll retire you know they're not even you're not really putting your ass on the line in that sense but you've said to yourself you're going to do this thing and and building that muscle is really important I mean sometimes you have to let other people's dreams for your life die for
yours to live and for me it was like when I when I continued to every day not want to wake up that was my wake up call where I was like either I continue to live this way and not want to be alive or I just risk the fact that I'll die to everybody else and I think that that like it was the hardest decision my entire life by far all the all the hard stuff we went through still the hardest decision in my life is your foundation and your fundamental principles so strong that if
this thing was to go away could you still create happiness and success all over again if your foundation and principles are extremely strong no matter what Endeavor it is you look at the most successful people in business and everything else they've gone to do multiple things that have allowed them to create different levels of happiness within that confined Circle you know Michael had basketball then he had the shoe brand now he's got other now he's got other other endeavors he's involved in you know a lot of philanthropy things the competitive nature doesn't stop and everybody
thinks you can only be happy with one one certain aspect in your in your in your life you can create happiness in multiple things in your life and if it gets to the point where it is burning it is burning you out that means it's time for you for that you are no longer longer obsessed with that thing anymore and it's time for you to become obsessed with something else so my obsession became that humans are the ultimate adaptation machine we are literally Wired from the ground up in order to grow and improve under stress
and pressure so it's like What's the phrase uh pressure can burst pipes but it also creates diamonds so it's like you need the pressure and yes it can hurt but it can also make something amazing if you're willing to put yourself in that situation so it's a weird twist of fate that humans um in order to build the muscle you first have to tear it right yes so H but once you accept that that's how it works you can do extraordinary things the the satirical and the ironic and the and the Troublemaker the the comedian
the fool the fool is the precursor to the Savior why because you're a fool when you start something new and so if you're not willing to be a fool then you'll never start anything new and if you never start anything new then you won't develop and so the willingness to be a fool is the precursor to transformation and that's the same as humility and so if you're going to write your destiny you can do a bad first job you're going to get smarter As you move forward they really want what they want and they really
end up getting what they want cuz they have to have it they're obsessed about it and anytime they're obsessed about it they start figuring out creative ways to get what they want if it's a girl if it's a business if it's a position if it's a certain success if it's accolades if it's certain place they want to be if it's a certain lifestyle they want they're going to figure out a way to get it because they're obsessive they have to have it they're just wired that way I was saying what I said earlier about like
I believe these things to be true about the universe or like the world but a lot of those are like what do I believe about myself which is like I can choose to do work in this way which then I can derive Joy from so like if I'm Shoveling [ __ ] I can choose to be like I will be the best [ __ ] shoveler because I believe that I will figure out how to do this more efficiently and I will you know I will I will get better and I'll have calluses on my
hands and I'll have a better back and whatever um but I will do this well and I think you can find joy in work if you decide to do it well um going back to the only belief that matters you said it it's your the way you act is ultimately all that matters and the way you act follows what you allow yourself to believe maybe a better way to say it is what you choose to believe so if you choose to believe that your energy and efforts will result in more skill set then you will
actually put energy and effort into getting that which means you actually will get the skill set but if you think well my talent and intelligence are fixed so no no matter how much I work I'm never going to get better right if you don't think that putting time and energy into it will yield anything then you won't put time and energy into it and you thusly won't get the skills so and if you don't have the skills then you can't do the things other people can do and so people just get stuck because they don't
have the only belief that matters so they don't put the time and energy and so that's like where everything starts is are you putting the time and energy into getting better yes or no if you didn't withdraw in fear from everything that life threw at you who could you become thinking other thinking and when you other think usually you don't go to the positive if you make all the right decisions but you have like you absolutely think that it's impossible for you but you still do the right things you will win mediocrity always attacks Excellence
o you know it's it's kind of a rule no one's attacking a couch potato but the moment you start to walk toward your dream and you start to break habit you start to change relationships that no longer serve that dream you start uh you start to be talked about now many people um are afraid of failure which really means that they're afraid of being ridiculed but once you become aware that you're going to be ridiculed if you fail and you're going to be talked about if you succeed then you can able to put that aside
cuz you know you're going to be talked about either way no matter what yeah or if you go for it and succeed they'll say oh it was luck you know you know whatever they say about you so once you get out of your mind or become aware that people are going to talk about you either way then you go for it you're alive here you are you got these problems to contend with and if it's an impossible task then how could you be anything but hopeless and desperate but then you think well wait a second
how would things transform if I took this on as a voluntary Adventure you know regardless of it scope and the scope would include unjust suffering death and hell and and that's a that's not just some religious or metaphysical Vision it's like no no you're actually going to have to contend with that in your life in whatever way those things make themselves manifest to you personally yours that's coming man and so maybe you better get prepared so you can't say you want to be successful you can't say there's certain dreams and goals there things want to
have and things you want to be if you are still average success and average have absolutely nothing to do with each other that's what I'm telling you your boss can't stand average your coach can't stand a your teacher can't stand average your spouse listen to me your mama might put up with it your Daddy might put up with it but listen to me very closely nobody really likes average some people have a problem for every solution some people don't believe that they can achieve at a high level some people are okay doing what average people
do doing just enough to get by but that's not you you have dreams you have goals you have aspirations you have desires and you are taking action to make all of your dreams a reality if you practice forthright and voluntary exposure to that which terrifies and dismays you it transforms you much of the biochemistry of motivation and emotion is transformed when you take a stressor which could be oppressive and paralyze you and cause you to withdraw and you reverse that you decide to advance it's like a different Spirit inhabits you and and I mean this
physiologically there's a whole different pattern of being that makes itself manifest in you neurologically and psychophysiologically and pharmacologically so you take it on as a challenge right and that transforms you at a cellular level too because one of the things we've discovered in recent years is that if you do something new and complex then that turns on new that parts of your DNA that haven't produced proteins before will start producing new proteins and reconstruct you from from the cellular level up so it's a deep transformation and we we have no idea how deep and again
you could ask yourself if you if you didn't withdraw in fear from anything that that from everything that life threw at you who could you become the only belief that matters is that if I put energy and effort into getting better I actually will get better and so you can look at anything and say okay maybe I suck at this right now which was the key realization for my life okay I'm I actually am not good like my father-in-law wasn't crazy I really wasn't anywhere useful for his daughter at that time my mom wasn't crazy
I really was lazy like so she was just picking up on the fact that I was tremendously lazy she wanted me to be successful but she was just looking at my behavior and so I hadn't been misidentified people just didn't calculate how much I could change and that I would so grasp onto the ability to change as an emotional life raft and so the the big switch was that I decided to believe that I could get better and once I made that decision it aligned my behaviors with skill acquisition and that's all life is acquire
skills it's time to stay focused it's time to decide clubs partying trying to fit in and socialize rub elbows with everybody so people can stop calling you weird why are you so antisocial because I'm trying to get it why are you staying on the basketball court so much because I'm trying to get it why are you out there practicing in the hot sun when ain't nobody else out there because I'm trying to get it why are you not clubbing like every time I text you and invite you to go do some fun and cool you
always studying because I'm trying to get it I'm just thinking how funny it is where I'm going to be tomorrow morning and my competition still drinking down their fears and their you know trying to escape their current reality you know Friday night partying so they going go out there and party it up and everything else you find some relief to the stressful life they live in that's a bull temporary relief I'm working tonight for a permanent relief that's why I laugh I laugh on how much further I'm getting ahead of that mental toughness isn't something
that you sample it's something that you live in every day so when something hard would happen to these kids like in hell week it would draw all on something that made them very insecure and they look for Comfort whenever hardness comes and you don't know what it is it may be different for you than is for me but you go back to your insecurities and then when you go back to insecurities you then look for Comfort within those insecurities and we all look for that cookie that your mom used to give you when you were
sad when you were sick we look for our wife or our husband we look for Comfort it's in those moments you must retrain your mind to think differently what if I told you this was the last Monday morning of your life how do you stay driven I'm going to ask you a question how don't you stay driven let me get this right you won the lotto of the universe which is you are a human being on Earth and you're not driven and you're not fired up and you're not going for it and you're willing to
sit like a lump and just wait till you die you suck