10 Minutes to Start Your Day Right – Morning Motivation for a Fresh Start
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What is it that's going to truly fulfill you? What is it that's going to give you that extraordinary life? What's going to make things magnificent on your terms, not somebody else's terms, not your father, your mother, your background? What is that really? What if you live your whole life only to discover that it was wrong, that it was wrong, that you were chosen to do something else and you didn't do it?

It is not the things we do in life that we regret on our deathbed. It is the things we do not. Because I assure you, I've done a lot of really stupid things and none of them bother me. All the mistakes and all the dopey things and all the times I was embarrassed, they don't matter. Last August, I was told that I had three to six months left to live.

Somebody said to me in light of those numbers, "Wow, so you're really beating the Grim Reaper." We don't beat the Reaper by living longer. We beat the Reaper by living well and living fully. For the Reaper will come for all of us. The question is, what do we do between the time we're born and the time he shows up?

Because when he shows up, it's too late to do all the things that you always want to kind of get around to. As you are responsible for your life, and if you're sitting around waiting on somebody to save you, to fix you, to even help you,

You are wasting your time because only you have the power to take responsibility to move your life forward. And the sooner you get that, the sooner your life gets into gear. What matters is now, this moment, and your willingness to see this moment for what it is, accept it, forgive the past, take responsibility, and move forward.

Because in the end, none of us have very long on this earth. Life fleeting. And if you're ever distressed, cast your eyes to the summer sky. When the stars are strung across the velvety night. And when a shooting star streaks through the blackness turning night into day. Make a wish. Think of me. Make your life...

Here's the problem. When you go through life, as you go through life, what happens is, you know, your brain starts to fill up with information and that's what creates a state of feeling overwhelmed. You have to be able, like when you, first, when you start out at jiu-jitsu, you're a white belt. Like, I remember being a white belt and being like, oh my god, I am...

You're never gonna get good at this. I'm gonna suck forever. But to look at people who are better than you and know they had to have sucked at one point in time. Okay, there's gotta be somewhere along the end of this tunnel, there's gotta be a light. I just gotta keep going. Discipline. The thing about self-discipline is that it is necessary for everything you do in your life. But see, what is the choice? That you walk a path like everyone else, dressed in suits,

go to work and come back and never have a legacy or you swim upstream like a trout against norm and then whatever little you achieve is only yours. I just need you to start and here's the other cool thing. We know based on research that if we can get you to start 80% of you are going to keep going. And the truth isn't in the 20%. The truth is in this other part of your brain saying look man

You're wasting a bunch of percentage here. They want to avoid discomfort. They feel like any type of exercise is just like something to be avoided. That's not for me. Fuck that. I don't want to sweat. I don't want to strain. And a lot of times this association that they have is about the beginnings of getting in shape. It's not about once you're actually fit because once you're actually fit, exercise is something you look forward to. It's an alleviation of stress. It's

It feels great. And I think that helps with mindset. We got to risk everything. Great artists, Dylan, Picasso, Newton, they risk failure. And if we want to be great, we got to risk it too. I'm willing to sacrifice my sleep. I'm willing to sacrifice food. I'm willing to sacrifice quality of life, if that's what you want to call it. And to be able to achieve, to be an achiever.

My lack of interest in complaining is so high and when I watch what people complain about it breaks my heart because they completely lack perspective. When I was 297 pounds and I was fat as hell trying to be a Navy SEAL, the scariest thing in the world to me even to this day was that that could have been the rest of my life. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something. Your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.

Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path and that will make all the difference. It's a luxury to pursue what makes you happy. It's a moral obligation to pursue what you find meaningful. And that doesn't mean it's easy. It might require sacrifice. If you need to change your job too, let's say you have family and children and a mortgage, you have responsibilities.

You've already picked up those responsibilities. You don't just get to walk away scot-free and say, well, I don't like my job. I quit. That's no strategy. But what you might have to do is you think, well, this job is killing my soul. All right, so what do I have to do about that? Well, I have to look for another job. Well, no one wants to hire me. It's like, okay, maybe you need to educate yourself more. Maybe you need to update your curriculum vitae, your resume. Maybe you need to overcome your fear of being interviewed.

Maybe you need to sharpen your social skills. You have to think about these things strategically. If you're going to switch careers, you have to do it like an intelligent, responsible person. That might take you a couple of years of effort to do properly. I've dealt with hundreds of people in my clinical and consulting practice, and we set a goal, we develop a vision, and work towards it, and things inevitably get better for people.

So it's not a luxury, it's difficult. It's a moral responsibility and it isn't happiness. The pursuit isn't for happiness. It's a moral responsibility to pursue what is meaningful. Absolutely. Charles, I love what I do as a leader and a journalist at Axios. My dream would be to do what I do at 65, 75, let alone 85. How do you do that? How did you make that possible? Like, what is your regimen? Well, the first thing is...

As one of my, another one besides Frederick Douglass, my hero is Viktor Frankl put it, "Ever more people have the means to live, but more meaning for live for." The way you do it is have meaning in your life. And the way you have meaning in your life is you discover your gift

you follow Maslow, "What you can be, you must be." And whatever your nature calls you to be, you dedicate yourself to that. So I've dedicated myself to that, to learning every day, trying to find new principles every day, searching for how to better apply the principles we are applying.

and every day try to improve. So I wake up every morning. - What time? - I get up, usually a little before six, say 5:45, try to get to the office by seven. And what keeps me going is, oh, I think I can contribute today.

And then I work out every day. So you work mind and body and you have something to look forward to every day. This is the problem. People who just have stuff and don't do that, retired and just fool around. I mean, I wouldn't last a year. I'd be, I'd been dead long ago. This is the, where my alma mater,

MIT in Latin, it's mind and hand. So body and mind. And you work those every day, which is what I do. - I know how you work your mind. How do you work your body? - Well, I work out every afternoon or evening.

for about an hour and a half. - You've got a gym here? - Yeah, I got a gym in the basement. Yeah, I do cardio, I do mat, core work, and I do weights.

This episode is brought to you by Indeed. When your computer breaks, you don't wait for it to magically start working again. You fix the problem. So why wait to hire the people your company desperately needs? Use Indeed's sponsored jobs to hire top talent fast. And even better, you only pay for results. There's no need to wait. Speed up your hiring with a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply.