Discipline Or Regret—The Most Important Decision You’ll Ever Make Motivational Speech
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If I had a glass of water up here and it was full, question: Can that glass hold any more water? If it's full, if the glass is full, can it hold any more water? The answer is yes. But for it to hold more, you got to pour out what's already in. That's what I'm asking you to do. If you're full of ideas, if you're full of good things, I'm asking you to pour it out, pour it out, pour it out. Why? I'm telling you more will be poured in, poured in, poured in. Next, when you do pour out, you become bigger.

It's not like a glass that stays the same. Human beings have the ability to grow in consciousness and awareness and capacity.

You've got to start to build the habit of being decisive. Successful people, happy people, leaders are decisive people. And I believe somewhere if there's 100 problems, challenges in life, 85 of them should be decided immediately with not a lot of deliberation and then certainty and massive action will eliminate that challenge and that problem most of the time. It's the people who procrastinate on the problem or ignore it or think it might go away that gives that problem time to

to magnify, to fester, to grow to where now it's become bigger than it needed to be. If you're going to make mistakes and you're like, make them fast, right? If you're going to lose a deal, make them lose the deal fast. If you're not going to make any money on the deal, make sure the deal is quick.

I want to suggest that you make up your mind you're going to get in what we call the success zone. It's a way of thinking. 95, 96% of the population are blowing it. If 1% of the population are earning about 95% of all the money, you're not going to get a whole lot of people agree with what you're doing. What I could control was my work ethic. You've heard me speak many times about outworking everybody, but I think that just feels good when we hear it.

But most people don't take it seriously. If you think that I have a little bit of success in my life, I can tell you what I attribute it to. Yes, self-confidence. Yes, mindset, visualization, goals.

All the things I talk about all the time, listening skills, influence, energy transfer, how to be happier, all of that stuff applies. When you get to winning, for me, it's come down to maxing out. And what maxing out means is you do one more at least than you think you're capable of. So when you're done, whatever you're doing, whether it's at the gym or phone calls or meetings or in sports, one more shot, one more throw, one more swing of the golf club or the baseball bat,

The separator is for the winners. They do one more. I'm addicted to one more. And so I want your mantra going forward to be one more. We've got to change ourself. We've got to build a new image, a picture in our mind. We've got to see ourself the way we want to be. And then we have to live with it. That's you go to the gym workout. That's what you do. You build a picture of how you want to see this arm, this arm, and you build that picture. And then you build the body.

Well, you build the life in your mind. Take your pen and write out how you want to live. And always start by writing, I'm so happy and grateful now that. And the second you write it, you've got it intellectually. The moment you impress it upon your emotional mind, you've got it emotionally. And it's only a period of time until it manifests on the physical plane. Spirit works from a higher to a lower potential. Most people are going to look at you kind of strange. What are you going there for? You went there last month.

what are you listening to that for you listen to that before what are you reading what do you read the same book over and over for they don't understand and you see they're advertising their ignorance by the questions they ask when we get into the success zone everything in our life starts to change but understand this you're going to be a bit of a nut you're out of the box you're not one of the masses and when you get out of the box your whole world starts to shift

I'd like to ask you to take a look at any place you've got a limitation and ask yourself, "When did I decide to accept that limitation?"

See, most of you in the room, unfortunately, you listen to the media so much, you think everything's good. You think you're fine, okay? Because the media has not exposed the reality on the middle class. They talk about poverty, and they talk about the rich people, and they never talk about the people in between. The people in between in this country suffer more than the people in poverty. People in poverty are actually taken care of. People in the middle...

are completely ignored. I'm talking about the people that make 200 grand a year and live up here and still don't have any money left over. They send their kids to school, they got two BMWs, they live in a nice house, they have air conditioned water and heat, right? And there's no money. So they send a little bit of money to a Keough account and they think, okay, we're gonna retire one day. You're gonna be old one day. By the time you get to use that money, you'll be so old, you won't wanna use it. The only thing that's gonna change anything for you and your family is like, man, what am I doing here?

Okay? You don't need to go work in another industry. You take the habits you have right now to the restaurant business, the restaurant business will fail. Every business is in disruption right now. Everything is changing. You want to go trade Bitcoin? It's going to take a commitment. It's going to take ups and downs. It's going to be a bunch of ups and downs in that crypto play. Everybody agree?

Okay, you want to go do the real estate game rather than a car game? I'm gonna tell you something right now, man. If you don't bring commitment and discipline and fortitude and persistence to the real estate game, you will get killed in the real estate game. There's no game that you're going to win at that doesn't require a commitment. What's an area that's important to improve? If your body's great, how about your career? If career's great, how about your relationships? Intimate one especially, or your kids, or your relationship with your creator, spiritual side of your life. Or is it your finances?

Figure an area that really matters. Decide on that area. Number one, write down what your life is like in that area right now, specifically as possible. So you might say, "Well, I'm 13.5 pounds overweight." You know, whatever the weight is, whatever the situation is. Or, "My body fat's like this." Or, "I wake up exhausted in the morning." And you write the truth of where you are right now, so you're real clear. Or, "I'm not in a relationship. I say I want a relationship, but I'm not in one, and I don't seem to find them. All the good ones seem to be gone, is my belief.

You know, and I really do want one, but I don't have it. Whatever your definition. I'm in a relationship and God, I wish I wasn't in a relationship. I'm planning my escape wherever you are. Or I have a wonderful relationship. We love each other, but there just isn't enough passion. Just write the truth of where you are. The area you want to change, but write how it is. And then the second step is, this is where you got to be really honest with yourself. What are the rituals that have put me there?

Because whatever results you're getting, even if you don't like the results, there are some rituals that are keeping you in that place. There are some rituals of what you eat or don't eat, how you move or don't move, how you sleep or don't sleep. There are some rituals in the lack of variety or spice or energy or focus in an area.

There's something you're doing and it's usually not one thing. It's a bunch of little things that you kind of do consistently whenever you think about getting in a relationship, whenever you think about working out, whenever you think about money. You get yourself in a state of overwhelm. You start thinking about all the things you can't control. Just write down all the rituals you have and then here's the third step. What do you want? What's your vision? And be really specific. I want to be my fighting weight. I want to be the strongest I've ever felt. I want to be, I'm going to turn my, whatever it is, be specific.

And then last step number four, what are the rituals that will get you there? What would you need to do differently each morning if you're going to be that kind of energy, that kind of strength? How would you have to, how often would you work out? What days would you work out? What time? A ritual is something you do consistently, usually at a specific time, so it becomes automatic. Let me tell you something. Willpower doesn't last, but rituals can last a lifetime.

Bet you have some rituals in your life right now. You've been doing for years even though some of them don't serve you I'm just saying wake yourself up make if you want a new year and a new life You don't need to start in January first start today start with this little video and Just begin to see what happens and see how easy it is to just do a few little rituals don't do them all just do two or three new things and you know what happens you'll get momentum because once you discipline yourself in one area of your life and

You feel yourself doing it in other areas as well. I always say something that my original teacher taught me. I always remind people, there's always two pains in life. There's the pain of discipline or there's the pain of regret. And discipline weighs ounces, as my friend Jim Rohn taught me. Regret weighs tons. You don't have regret. So right now, what do you want to change? What's it really like? What are the rituals that got you there? That will take a little homework. If you're not sure, ask the people around you. They'll tell you what your rituals are.

what do I really want in depth, what are the rituals that will get me there, and then get yourself to start a few of those actions and lock them in place. The first thing I want you to know that success is not a destination, it's a journey. Think of success as a process. Let me illustrate it and explain it this way. If you go to college,

You work hard and in four or five years, depending on what kind of degree you're working on and in today's society, sometimes six or seven years, but eventually comes the day of graduation and you're all excited and your family is there and your friends are there and you're there with your classmates and you've got your cap and your gown and you know that there's going to be a

time in that ceremony where you're going to walk across stage and the president provost somebody's going to shake your hand hand you a diploma congratulate you and and you're going to get off the other side they're going to have presents waiting for you and they'll be taking pictures and everybody will be shaking your hand say congratulations today you become a success you're a college graduate now now my friend you did not become a success the day that you got your diploma

Now what you did have happen to you in that ceremony is you got recognized for success. The diploma is recognition of what you have done the previous four or five years. You see,

You were a success in your freshman year when you decided to not drop out of school like some of your other classmates and decided to stick to it. And you were a success every time you studied for a test. And you were a success every time you did a project or did a writing assignment. You see, you're a success all through school. You're a success every day. Success is a daily thing, not a destination thing.

The day you got the diploma, you just got recognized for the success that you already were. Now that's very essential because so many times people have a tendency to devalue the moment today. What they do is they greatly value the destination. And so they kind of talk about, well, when I get there or if I arrive there or when I do that or when I accomplish this.

And they don't understand that success is a daily thing. And I'm here to share with you that the secret of success is determined by your daily agenda. In fact, I wrote a book a few years ago called Today Matters. I'm passionate about that book because what it does is it helps you, it helps me to understand that we make decisions and then we manage decisions.

And too often we think, I will make a decision. For example, you're saying, I'm going to make a decision to be a coach. Or I'm going to make a decision. You know what? I'm going to make a decision to be a public speaker. I want to be a communicator. Well, congratulations. You've made a wonderful decision. Coach, speaking, good decisions. But that won't make you a successful coach. That won't make you a successful communicator. It's not the decision that makes you. You've got to make the decision yourself.

by managing it and you manage the decision on a daily basis. In other words, what you want to be tomorrow, you've got to do today. You visualize tomorrow. That gives you hope, but that's your motivation and that's your dream. Nothing wrong with that. You visualize tomorrow, but you value today. What's that mean?

That means that what I do every day is either getting me closer to that vision, that dream, that goal, or it's really driving me farther away from it. You see, every day we are either repairing or we're preparing. You see, if I messed up yesterday, guess what I get to do today?

Fix yesterday. In other words, if I didn't do the right thing yesterday, what I got to do today is I've got to repair. I've got to go back, make amends, backtrack, put the car in reverse, put my life in reverse. I've got to go back there. I've got to repair. Now, every day I spend repairing, I'm not spending preparing. Well, you see, we repair when we fail to manage the decisions that we've made.

We prepare when we on a daily basis manage the decisions that we've made. So your footprints to success are really footprints of success. Because every step that is made and taken based upon the goals that you have for your life and you're managing those goals correctly, every step is the progressive realization of success in your life. And by the way, you'll get the diploma.

You'll get the certificate. But when you get that, you didn't arrive. It just is another step in preparing you to reach your potential. Each one of us should live our life as if. We'll never learn everything we need to learn. We'll never be able to accomplish everything we wanted to accomplish. We won't be able to experience everything we wanted to experience. We should live our life every day hungry, understanding that we are to live until we die.

You see, I think success can't be summarized in a flippant degree or program or diploma or arrival. I think today, if you are learning to coach, if you are learning to speak, if you're doing the things that are essential to the decisions and you're managing those decisions well, can I say something to you? Congratulations. You are already a success. Now, guess what? Over time, it shows up.

You've heard the expression. You maybe even said it yourself. You've heard the expression, I'm sure. I've worked all my life to become an overnight success. That's the way it works. All of a sudden somebody recognizes you. All of a sudden somebody congratulates you. You didn't get good at that moment. You've been good for a long time. It just showed up someday.

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