I'm going to start today's episode off with a quote this is from uh senica and he wrote I judge you unfortunate because you've never lived through Misfortune you've passed through life without an opponent no one can ever know what you're capable of not even you a brilliant member of the your world within team Ashley she sent me a kind of a thought experiment the other day and she asked if you're choosing between two trees right the exact same type of tree height everything one to one which one is stronger right and one of these trees
exists in a very turbulent you know climate high winds lot of fluctuation in weather extreme temperatures low temperatures high temperat versus that same Tree in a let's just say more mild consistent way less harsh climate which one do you think will be stronger and why the answer is well one obviously acclimated and adjusted over time it became tougher and stronger more adaptable and resilient in the face of turbulence it's proven itself because it exists where it exists right it had to evolve couldn't survive otherwise had to learn to endure it's by facing the storm that
you learn to navigate its chaos right and you know having lived in South Florida for a long time you see some of these palm trees take a beating during you know cat 3es fours God forbid fives and they're still there right the inverse or the opposite example Le is the tree that's never been tested because they've never had to be tested see every single one of us is stronger than we think and more capable than we know the question in my eyes you know is how often do you give yourself a chance to prove it
how often do you Nodge your head and kick open the door trusting that you can take on what's on the other side we have to to be tested in order to evolve just like those of you familiar with weightlifting at the gym building muscle is breaking down old muscle and then it builds itself back up a little bit fractionally stronger than it was before you broke it down right rinse repeat rinse repeat I think a lot of people don't realize that growth is just a lagging indicator right it's it's the product of your strength and
your willingness to attack something new in the first place and sometimes by the way you know life gives you no choice it throws the kitchen sink at you but and this is the fun part when you fall in love with that process when the gratification of progress pulls you in life becomes an opportunity a gift a game a chance to step into an evolved version of yourself we do what hurts now so that it doesn't hurt tomorrow so that the doubt becomes armor right we attack things that seem bigger than us today so that you
know those ceilings become flowers tomorrow stop signs become stepping stones and this is you know not merely a collection of cliches this is a very real reminder you know the further you're willing to go the more life will give the harder you're willing to push the more opportunities are going to present themselves to you comfort isn't the enemy because of what it is right Comfort is the enemy because of what it is not it is not conducive to growth it's antithetical to any pursuit of meaning Comfort is often [Music] stagnation so how do we realize
this simple go out into the world and as the saying goes do one thing every day that scares you you know you'll find what does scare you becomes more and more infrequent I'm not sure that it's the world getting smaller as much as you and your self-belief and Trust in who you are gets bigger it's earning confidence oh wow the city can fall down and I can Rise From the Ashes then why not not live a life with more skylines why not dive deeper into the Horizon not to prove anything to the world but to
show yourself and the Chisel sharpens the marble it initiates the Masterpiece so when you look around and think I'm worthy of more or my heart's longing for something different bigger a life transformed drop yourself into the storm so that one you become capable of moving through it and two you remind yourself you prove to yourself who you are that matters you're not the type of person who sits and watches life go by you are the person who steps into the abyss and determines what life is you're not an order taker you're an architect manufacturing opponents
not to defeat them but to elevate you so again go find obstacles attack chaos immerse yourself in unknowns be the one who doesn't know but step Sin anyway not to prove anything to the world not to show anything to anyone but to remind yourself that you can to remind yourself that host will say no and that's fine but that's not who you are when the sky is falling and the walls are crashing you are the one who finds a [Music] way courage storming the cassle and slaying the dragon overcoming All Odds achieving greatness taking the
game-winning shot when you have everything to lose courage doing that which you are afraid to do it's engraved in every step you take courage is in each little decision each fork in the road it's not just an end point or Victory or the act of holding up a trophy it's representative of so much more every Milestone is comprised of thousands of courageous actions deciding to Begin Again going where others haven't having the confidence to stay true to yourself and who you are courage has roots and they're interwoven into the current moment like anything it's built
if your goal is ambitious it is courageous and if it's courageous it begins now it's life moving around you waiting for you to see it to take it head on greatness is in every courageous step you take not tomorrow next month or next year but the one right in front of you today Seth Goden wrote in his book The Dip quit or be exceptional average is for losers and I love this and I love it for a few reasons first it calls out the fact that if we are going to live we might as well
live in pursuit of the exceptional why just Float by why just stand there while while time elapses around you no seek out the things that matter exist not in life's Shadows but in its fringes where few look but the best things live the places where most only dream of but the courageous go quit or be exceptional second it's a suggests that quitting isn't always a bad thing in context is everything here it's a beautiful thing if it's done for the right reason in other words it's far better to quit the wrong thing to pursue what
matters than it is to stay and immerse yourself in a lifelong dance with mediocrity it's not that you quit it's why you quit I have a problem with the word quit to begin with stop the wrong thing is less quitting than it is pivoting it's evolving But ultimately that's neither here nor there it's semantics right the moral of the story is if I never quit personally what I believe to be wrong for me I'd still be in the same building I was 10 years ago and I'm not being emotional here I'm being practical to become
your best self you have to shed yourself of the things that aren't you there's an idea that what we say no to is one of the most important components of growth so if you take that and create a little thought experiment if you have the courage to Adventure and try new things some of those new things will inevitably fall short of expectations they'll be wrong for you they can't all be aligned and so what then you do the wrong things forever or you take the lesson and move on to those level 10 opportunities that's what
this is about quit or be exceptional leave mediocrity behind do you have to well you don't have to do anything but the question is what do you want because a world where you chase down the exceptional will be better for you it will be better for those close to you it will be better for the world at large you will live a fuller life and since you can never give more than what you are means the amount of value you can then distribute to others will grow what we give is directly proportional to what we
allow ourselves to be so don't be mediocre don't allow that don't even entertain the thought that's not you quit or be exceptional go all in or don't go believe in it fully or walk away average is for losers defense is for people who forfeit the upside in an attempt to escape the downside completely unaware that the true loss is the moment of reflection years down the road where you wish youd had the courage to do a little more to chase down the things that invigorated you to wish you lived a little more boldly with just
a a tad more conviction quit or be exceptional to Simply put whether we realize it or not we have defied the odds in simply existing and I don't care that this idea is pushed to the point of it being cliche I still don't think we get it I don't think we've grasped the magnitude perhaps a metaphor we could use to help us think about it and still not in indicative of our reality but wor a shot is walking into a theme park and spending the entire day standing by the entrance holding the ticket right or
being handed a lottery ticket and keeping it in your pocket for fear of what could go wrong when you cash it out being there but not experiencing there see chasing down the exceptional feels good because it's what you were meant to do and if you haven't found it yet don't give up find what lights you up until you can capture it and immerse yourself in it be the best at it let curiosity lead you to exploration and findings that few would be tenacious enough to discover quit or be exceptional or maybe better put don't stop
pursuing that thing worthy of your commitment and once you have that Target go like everything is riding on It Go like it's the sun around which all else revolves go life is simply too short to leave your greatness on the [Music] [Music] Shelf I'm going to share with you a general metaphor about life it's brought me a t ton of value help me maintain perspective over the years and I think it's going to help you as well I'm going to be using YouTube as my example here but worry not this applies to everything I just
happen to be immersed in the content creation space so to frame it the growth of a YouTube channel is a lot like the stock market you certainly want it trending up over time you want your work to reach you know as many people as it can but there are and have been segments along the way where that growth slows down there are times when the channel overall it just gets less engagement less views all of it and you look at it when that's happening when you're in the midst of one of those dips and you
think oh no what have I done anytime something you're creating slows down it can be jolting and this has over the years occurred many times and every time my instinct is the same it's h you know that type of just duress and I put a lot of time energy effort into this this work is some of what I'm most proud of in my life so it's like sound the alarm right now I need to figure this out and every time things eventually correct and continue you in that upward Trend sometimes it takes a little longer
than others but I get there and here's what I've learned when there is a dip or a slowing down of anything that's going in the opposite direction of the way you want it to go I do four things one pause and breathe because you have to regain recapture that perspective life as I say so often is is simply not that serious so stop making mountains out of mole Hills two seek to understand why there is some sort of change what's different what prompted the change knowing that is power so find it three once you have
that information make the necessary alteration it's not only about having the answer but it's in implementation it's adjusting it's testing and four be patient trust the process you can be ferocious in your daytoday and also calm and poised with the overall process in faith in its unfolding and so I'm going to give you one more YouTube example and then we'll pull it up to a level that's more Broad and applicable everywhere right something interesting about YouTube is that a lot of channels only have a handful of videos we'll say four or five that generate the
majority of that Channel's interactions right it's a pretty common thing and so when things slow down you can often point to one of those four or five videos so let's say something does there's a dip you one you take that breather two you inquire pull back the hood what's going on right looks like one of these videos is not getting clicked as much as it was or it should okay that's great to know now what do we do about it test different thumbnails right try new ones you try and it fails and you try and
it fails and you try and it fails and you try and Bam one resonates this new thumbnail gets clicked 3.3% of the time instead of 2.8 everything goes back up Impressions go back up we have writed the ship right and I know that's a very detailed example not everyone's a YouTuber but everyone's you know in their own way Niche down doing their thing right and so you have to look at it in the context of what you're doing what's your metaphorical YouTube channel when things are wrong how can you pull back the hood identify that
piece and tweak right if we step outside that box what we'll find is that life is like that stock market it's like a YouTube channel it's not up and up and up there are lows there are metaphorical recessions there are times where it feels like the world is collapsing around us and we think oh no what do I do what do I do what do I do it's over in reality nothing is over this is the roller coaster ride that is life you don't get highs without lows and when you think about it you wouldn't
appreciate them without the lows either the setbacks are baked into the grow and I'll use relationships as another example because I know in some way it's relatable to everyone when the wheels fall off the wagon with the relationship that meant something to you whether it's a breakup falling out with a friend whatever the case may be the tendency is to perceive it as a Falling Down the Walls crashing down rather than a little blip on your S&P 500 so what do you do same exact plan one breathe understand that this is a process and all
will be well two you understand the why you're human you're going to feel emotion before you can reach any level of necessary pragmatism to fix anything so allow that to occur gather yourself and then ask what prompted the break were you twoo different did you not align why what did you learn about yourself about the type of people you allow into your life three once you have that information adjust how can you be better moving forward you'll never be perfect human beings are complicated and messy and relationships are not an exact art too many variables
but that doesn't mean you can't improve your approach in the future right mitigate some of the mistakes you made Target the things in people that you truly value and as you do and you are number four patient in the process you'll find things level out and ultimately begin to rise that situation was not and never was the end of you it was a a necessary low before a future high and so 10,000 ft view remember that during your difficult times those moments aren't indicators that life isn't working for you they are part of every Journey
factors necessary to every ascent and if you see them as such you will conquer them learn from them and climb them to that place you most need to be sometimes when I need to take a step back and think I like to listen to the sound of waves on the beach crashing in their beautiful Simplicity as quickly as they come they go proceeding back into that vast ocean from which they arrived they were an instant lightning in a bottle this gentle reminder that all we have is right now sure there's a future but that's just
a right now that hasn't arrived yet and maybe there's a past but isn't that just a right now come and gone we're a collection of these singular moments in time a product of the stars aligning the universe conspiring to put us right here right now and the truth is we can come back back to the location we can even attempt to recreate it but it will never be what it was in that moment because every moment is different than the one that precedes it and every breath takes in something new and every glance sees just
a little differently every second is the first the last and the only like waves pulsating through our veins for the very first first [Music] time why not soak in the warmth of the sunrise lose yourself in the depths of world's undiscovered why not chase down that spot where the road meets The Horizon taste the sweetness in every sip dance under the glow of the moon laugh like nothing else matters why not cherish right now this moment in time so when the tide reaches down and calls for its inevitable Retreat only the magic will remain [Music]
everyone wants to be great everyone wants to be the best the top the 1% or as the saying goes everyone wants to be a beast until it's time to do what beasts do do see what life has revealed and continues to emphasize is that our most vital decisions they present themselves in the dark of night the chaos of the battle they show up amidst our discomfort we know these moments the ones that seek to stop us in our tracks and turn us around they are what must be prepared for they are the gateway to Excellence
so let's look at the big picture for a minute life in totality because consistently doing the simple easy things they're important consistency of that which is simple is the foundation it's what we build the structure upon but it is far from everything moving right along we have the difficult things that push us to be more that show us who we are that hurt that test us the temporary storms they are the armor we come to wear they're what prepares us to endure the trials and tribulations of life like a muscle that must be grown and
developed but the difficult things are far from everything cuz lastly we have our defining moments the moments that put it all together when the sky feels like it's falling the body feels like it's failing the Mind feels like it's dwindling presenting the question will you do the hard thing when you feel like you can't do the hard thing it's doing what's difficult when the situation around you is screaming at the top of its lungs you've gone too far you've separated from normaly you are wandering into something that can no longer be deemed predictable or safe
see running is hard but running when you're tired when you didn't get a great sleep last night you don't feel good when you're busy when your schedule's full when you have things to do when you're in the midst of your workout and your lungs are screaming for air The Cloud of pain is hovering over you as you make your way forward for no other reason than you told yourself you would that's not hard that's transformative going to the gym is hard but going to the gym when you don't want to when you don't even even
feel like stepping into the car when your mind is trying to rationalize a day off when you're asking yourself what the point was to begin with that's not hard that's transformative growing your business is hard but growing your business when you've experienced a Monumental let down when you went all in and were left empty-handed when you were sued up and spit back out yet you showed up kept your eyes locked in on that win that's not hard that is transformative see these Monumental moments the ones that break so many of us that we've all come
face to face with over the course of Our Lives they're not about easy versus hard they're about doing the hard thing when it seems as though you cannot do the hard thing the world is saying no your body is saying no that shping in your head is saying no can you separate yourself from that hurt and that anger and that disappointment can you segment the negativity knowing that you will do what you can to remedy the situation but that life's curveballs can't stop you from moving forward for the simple reason that you won't let them
when life gets hard you have to be harder the one who gets Bolder you have to learn to surprise yourself here is what I believe to be the goal the Pinnacle it's what I aspire to become when life puts me through hell to dig deep and find the emotional IQ the awareness to know that right now is the invitation I've been longing for my chance to level up see you might be wondering what brought this concept to the Forefront of my mind and well it was one of life's inevitable setbacks and I had to look
in the mirror and say I'm not going to think about the technical issues that just cost me thousands of dollars and thousands of hours of my time no I'm going to one learn but put parameters in place so it never happens again and two to find the opportunity see when we build back we tend to build back stronger Clean Slate new lease on life where can I be better than I was where can I pinpoint and capitalize on the value I once walked right by when we adopt this mentality we become Unstoppable someone on the
outside looking in might say it's over the top and it is but so are the things that I want they might say it's not that simple correct running away from our problems is simple I'm not about that life they might say it's impossible to do all the time to think that way every day and perhaps so but if we bow our heads and Retreat every time life isn't perfect we'll never attempt anything I'm not aiming for perfection I'm aiming for Progress those who aim for Perfection tend to spend the entirety of their lives doing exactly
that aiming planning speculating wanting more for yourself means receiving more rejection from the world it means elongated valleys of Despair it means deeper TS through the heart of the vast unknown across distant lands and through turbulent Waters it means doing the hard thing when the circumstances are what mere mortals call impossible at some point we must transcend the versions of ourselves we once were we must recategorize and redefine the adversity we face in life be the ones who find something where others see nothing find Value in the seemingly valueless let us start from the premonition
that there's always a solution and if there is always a solution there is always a way to bring it to existence some will stop at easy fine let them some will stop at hard great to each their own but if one dares to push further to trudge forth into the night they will be tasked with doing the hard thing when the circumstances are devastating they will be asked not just to sail the ship but to sail it through the storm to not just build the Tower but to build as the Skies open up the wind
blows and the ground shakes that will be the difference that has always been the difference so what will you do when the time arises who who will you choose to become
