You Don't Need More Time...You Need More Focus.

In the moments you feel like giving up, Motivate Me speaks. Daily quotes. Time to your struggle. You're worried about losing or it's not going your way and your game hasn't even started. Let them gossip about it because they're going to do what they're going to do because you cannot change what other people do. You can't control what they think. You can't control what they do. If they're going to gossip, they're going to gossip. So let them gossip. Aim for the extraordinary. You can't have achievement if you don't disrupt your peace. If you're trying to achieve anything exceptional, you're going to be unbalanced. Sacrifice is the price you pay. You can't achieve the extraordinary by being ordinary. If we don't make a decision, nothing will change. In fact, it most likely will get worse. So think about this. Whatever's stopping holding you back, makes you scared, makes you worried. If you do nothing about it, all it will do is occupy your mind, occupy your thoughts and fast forward a year, five years, 10 years from now. Will it be any different? Imagine if that one thing you're thinking, but if you keep ignoring it, how would it feel if you compounded it a year from now and you're in the same exact spot? The sun rises and the sun sets one day, but not today. I really started to enjoy the fact of seeing what the human mind was capable of and seeing that what is so horrendous, there's so much joy and glory in this. Never quit. Finish the race. Ever heard of learnt helplessness? It's a psychological phenomenon that can happen from quitting too often. You quit once, you quit again, and then it becomes habit. Your brain learns that quitting is an effective way to avoid discomfort or difficulty, and it becomes a go-to response in challenging situations. It's all to do with the way the brain processes rewards and reinforcement. When a behavior is rewarded, the brain releases dopamine, which reinforces that behavior and makes it more likely to be repeated. In the case of quitting, the reward is the avoidance of discomfort or failure, which can be just as powerful a motivator as a positive reward. When faced with this dilemma, you must change the narrative in your mind. Bring it back to the intention. What was the intention? Well, you entered the race, so you intended to finish it. Go get it done. When I think about pain, I think about what thing am I paying for right now, and is that thing something that I want? And if so, it reframes the pain as the price of the thing that I want. The bigger your goal is, the more pain you're going to endure, whether you want to or not. It's the price. Doing the same things, hoping to be a better person, expecting the same things out of the externals, hoping it would be different. The only way that you can conquer yourself and move past this is the renewing of one's mind. In order for a man to gain his life, he must lose his life. So you've got to be willing to die to who you are now, to give birth to who you are to become. Understand just how hard it is to work every single day to try to be great. Everybody is excited in the beginning. Like New Year, everybody started in January. Gym's back every year. You get to February and March. Habits matter. Habits matter. Principles matter. How you view what you're doing and trying to accomplish matters. If you want to achieve success, you're going to have to pay the price, and it won't be cheap. It'll be tireless nights, long days, isolation, loneliness, tribulation, heartaches, headaches, and a lot of pain. But on the other side of pain is pleasure. On the other side of pain is success. Those who have left their mark in this world believe that they were chosen for something great, and a lot of us think that it's just the special ones who get to live out their dreams. It's not those who are special. It's those who believe. It's not those who are magically chosen. It's those who choose to be chosen. Epictetus's question was, how much longer are you going to wait to demand the best of yourself? We all know we have potential. We all know we have things we need to stop doing. We all know we have things that we should start doing, but we tell ourselves, we'll do it later. But will you? So tell yourself the truth about the situation that you're in. That's what we need to do, and it should hurt a little bit, by the way. It should hurt a little bit. There should be aspects of your life that you know you can improve upon. That should hurt a little bit. Here's the cool thing. Take ownership of those things, and guess what? It doesn't hurt at all. Now guess who's in control? You are. But if you're having trouble finding discipline, start by telling yourself the truth about what's going on. You can have what you want in five years, but there's two conditions. You have to know what it is, and you have to aim at it. Figure out what you want. Write it down. Figure out what you could do to start moving towards that. Develop a vision, and you have to do that in dialogue with yourself, right? It's like, if I could have what I wanted, what would satisfy me? And you might think, well, I could never get that. And I could say, well, maybe not, but I'll tell you one thing, man. You can move towards it. And I know almost all the pleasure is in the moving to work. Let me tell you a secret. No one does when they begin. Ideas don't come out fully formed. They only become clear as you work on them. You just have to get started. The idea of a single moment is a dangerous lie. It makes us feel inadequate because we feel like we haven't had ours yet. And it prevents people with seeds of good ideas from ever getting started in the first place. Be prepared to be misunderstood. Anyone working on a big vision is going to get called crazy, even if you end up right. In our society, we often don't take on big things because we're so afraid of making mistakes that we ignore all the things wrong today if we do nothing. People should know that you never will be able to go through life without failures. Failures make us learn. Failures make you stronger. Pain makes you stronger. So I think all of that is good. Write everything you want on a piece of paper. Everything. I don't care. Use your wildest imagination. If you can think it, you can achieve it. Write it on a piece of paper. Read it every morning and every night. Come back here one year from today and see how much of that It's easier to live a life you hate than it is to live a life you love. Doing what you love can be hard because we live in a world that encourages the opposite. But that doesn't mean it's right for you. No one can decide what struggle or success looks like in someone else's life. You get to choose that. And if you don't, then society will decide for you. People will belittle your plan. People will tell you that you have the wrong vision. People will tell you that it will not work. But here's the thing. It's not their vision. It's your vision. It wasn't given to them. But there will be people who will try to tear it down. Who will tell you you don't have what it takes. Who will tell you that this is impossible. Who will tell you that you need to be realistic. But nothing great has ever happened from being realistic. In their own hearts. Small minds cannot see a big plan. The higher you fly, the deeper you fall. Okay. So if you want to fly high, do it. But if you fly high without somebody telling you before you're starting the flight, that there will also come the descent, then I think it's kind of blind. Just keep it in mind that there is something in our lifetime which is always balancing out. This idea of being happy is this concept that people have been sold, right? That life is about happiness. But what if life wasn't about happiness? What if life is about experiencing every aspect and every emotion that life has? Wouldn't you want to experience the full sudden range of emotions that life has to offer you? The sadness, the heartbreaks, the joy. When you have butterflies and you're feeling anxious and you have anxiety or nervous, that's when you're most powerful, I believe. A lot of people, instead of homing this power and using it, they allow it to just consume them. A big challenge or big pressure is like a fire. It's like a raging fire. Either you can allow this fire to consume you and just take you off completely, or you can gain control of this fire and harness it. If you can dream it, it can potentially become yours with the right energy input, the amount of work ethic necessary, and a good attitude. Understand that you have one life. How you live it is your choice, but life will pass you by. You don't want to be the person that wakes up 30, 40, 50 years from now and regrets what they I never like to look back because it's just there's really not much in it for me, right? It's just I always like to look forward. I don't want to look out the windshield or do I want to look through the rear? I'd rather look forward because I know where I'm going then, rather than I was looking in the back. If you think the price of winning is too high, wait till you get the bill from regret. And that bill from regret is generation. And the only way that bill gets paid off is you got to be willing to make the hardest decisions. The energy requires to start doing something is way more than the energy required to continue doing the thing. And that the beginning of doing anything results in the lowest amount of reward, both internal and external, than when you've been doing it for ages. The only reason why you're not living the life that you actually want to live is because you keep on feeding the life that you don't want to live. Day by day, keep on feeding the life that you don't want to live. That's a lesson that people need to hear and learn. It's so important because everybody just wants to be comfortable. Everybody wants to sit in the car. I don't want to go outside. It's cold. I don't want to do this. It's hot. You've got to do things that you don't want to do because you show your body that your mind is the boss. Just telling your body what to do and then you have control. You got to do something. If years and years pass, and you're just the same dude, you're not really living. In a way, I kind of feel like you're just being pushed through life. I think people are where they deserve to be. And if you look at what they did over the last 10 years, their life is going to look exactly what it should look like. If you can't become aware of your own internal dialogue, and you can't start to have control over your own internal dialogue, and you can't start to tell the voice that you have in your head to sit down or shut up, you're going to have a very hard time making any year your year. In failure and in suffering, all the answers are in there. All the answers to all the test questions. The test is your life. All the answers are in there. You have to live in suffering and pain and failure all the time. You have to learn, I need to visit it. I'm not going to negotiate with my goal. I've been negotiating sometimes with my goal. The time in my life where I'm most successful, there's no negotiation. A friendly reminder that in three generations, everyone who knew us will be dead, including the people whose opinions stopped you from doing what you wanted all along. Imagine that someone you know achieves every dream and hits every goal they have. Years later, they get old and die. Two years after that, how much do you care? About as much as everyone else will if you accomplish your goals and dreams. Do it for you. Consistency, consistency, consistency, man. That's the name of the game, bro. Don't get much simpler than that. If you keep going every single day and don't stop, they ain't ready for prime time. They ain't trying to really get it right. Grind every day, one foot in front of the other, bro. And I promise you, you're going to be laughing at these folks, bro. Give it a year. Watch what happens. Just do. You're living. How do you want to live? How do you want to die? How do you want to be remembered? That's it. Nobody can destroy you if you want little. Whenever I get to a low point where I think, why do I even bother? I just remind myself, this is where most people stop, and this is why they don't win. Got to fight. It's hard. It's hard. You're going to have days where you don't want to do anything. You're going to have days where getting out of bed is the hardest motherfucking thing you ever did in your life. You got to get up and you got to get in the fight. Get serious. That's number one. I don't know any substitute for that. You've really got to get serious. You don't have to be grim, but you must be serious. Go from average to fortune. You must get serious. You must get serious about two very important things. Number one is setting your goals and where you want to go. Designing the next five, the next 10 years is so vitally important. What do you want to do economically? Where do you want to go? What do you want to be? You got to keep working. Your time's going to come. Trust me. Just keep working. If you're not getting what you want, keep working. If you are getting what you want, keep working. You got to work. Your time is going to happen. You're here for a reason, but you got to be ready because if you're not, it's on you. The reinvention occurs in the micro actions that you're taking every single day. The tiny little things that perhaps no one even notices that are creating muscle memory around new behaviors that perhaps are very uncomfortable to you. Tiny little things repeated over time is what produces dramatic change. I'll get to it tomorrow. I'm like, who promised you that? I'll get to it a month from now. Who promised you that? Because life changes so quick. We live our lives and we feel as if we promised something. It's like when we try to control things, but when you really think about the macro of life and the grand scheme of life, we really don't have any control. We can control what we possess, emotions, attitude, thought process, perspective, how we speak, how we respond, but just life in general, we have no control of that. How bad do you want this? If it's as bad as you want to live, breathe, or sleep, I can work with it. Most people don't want it that badly. You know how to do it. You know exactly how to be you or how to be me. You don't want to do it. When you are willing to strip yourself down to nothing and give everything, that's who I want to work with. To get there, luck ain't going to happen. You have to put yourself in that situation, man. It takes a lot of work. Stay focused. Don't listen to nobody. What's on your mind, just do it. Because what's destined for you, you're going to get it. So you're at rock bottom. Good. You feel like you've completely lost control, like the world is caving in on you and there's not a thing you can do about it. Like no matter what you try to do to remedy this dreadful state of existence, it only gets darker. Good. Accept it. Stop running. There is a mountain whose peak is so tall, it is hidden behind the clouds. I want you to look up at it. Embrace the shadow that it has casted on you all this time. Understand that this mountain is no foreign entity. It is you. You are the mountain. And today, you stop cowering from your own potential. And there's a difference between feeling sad and being sad. Feeling angry and being angry. You can feel angry all you want. You can feel sad all you want, but don't do sad ----. Don't do angry ----. And I think that's what strength is. You can cry, you can be sad, you can do all those things, but doing what you're supposed to do, despite that, that's mental toughness. I'm going to do what is right, even though I feel this way. If you can master that, you can master ******* anything. You carry the heaviness. I'm stuck. By now, I really thought I would have left my mark, you know? Found my purpose. Instead, I've wasted so much time. Wasted. No. Time has been your silent sculptor, shaping you in ways you cannot yet see. You know what's funny, man? A lot of you young guys think it's a choice to be great. Bro, it ain't no choice. It's an obligation. You don't only owe this to yourself, bro. You owe it to all the people that believe in you, that have sacrificed for your success. This ain't no choice, bro. The day you were born, you signed a contract. You write my others, you write about yourself, you write my God, and watch the joy that fills your heart. I believe in you, bro. And so do all these other people. It's time for you to believe in you. You owe it to yourself, big dog. Owe it to yourself. Snow's coming down a bit this morning. Weather says it feels like 14. The ears hurt. The hands burn. I do three minutes in the ice bath before every morning run, and I don't want to be out here. The thing is, though, if I allow the fluctuation of my environment to dictate the likelihood of me showing up, my life would be up to circumstance, and that is a pitiful existence. All anyone really wants is a little bit of certainty, but almost nobody is willing to offer that to themselves. This world is going to do everything to keep you from showing up. They'll find a way every single time, and life will be very different. I tell people, you get rewarded in public for what you practice in private. You look at somebody like Steph Curry, and you see this guy, you know, just shoot the ball from almost half court, trumping on the side of his thing, and he turns, he doesn't even look. He turns around and just waves because he knows it's in already, and there's swish, and the crowd goes crazy, and people look at that and go, he's unbelievable. He's the greatest three-point shooter in history. There's no one like him, but what they don't pay attention to is that isn't like a little gift. Right? He shoots 500 shots every single day, never less than that, seven days a week, for more than 15 years, his 15-year professional career. He's been doing it since before he was in college. His dad really trained him, so think of that, 3,500 shots a week, 168,000 shots in a year, 2.52 million shots in his 15-year NBA career, so he could make 3,600 shots, not even one-tenth of one percent. What I have discovered is this. A strategy is like a freeway. It allows us to get to where we want to go as quickly as possible. So many times on the freeway, we take exits, but every time I take an exit, I lose my way. Every time I take an exit, I now am further away from my dream than what I probably was when I started. You have to understand that it's the pathway, it's the step-by-step process that allows us to get to the dream. So many times we look at the top of the mountain and forget the fact that it's the first step. Your dream requires thousands of steps in the right direction. You have to train yourself to become someone who is resilient, who has fortitude, who has grit, who can persevere, who can pay attention to their boss voice, not their bitch voice, and can execute against the things that they know are going to move them where they want to go, even when they don't feel like it. And if you can do that, it will become, quote-unquote, easier. You will perceive it to be easier. It will not be easier. You will be stronger. This is your one shot at life. It really is. And however you spend your time is up to you. Nobody is going to tell you what to do. So if there is something that you have always wanted to do, but you're not doing it because you're afraid, you're afraid of failing, then this is your chance to actually just do it anyways, to face that fear head-on. Because if you do that, then you can work towards something in this one life that you have and actually maybe get there. You know, you might not get there, but at least you tried. And that's the thing, right? We have the ability to try. We have the ability to actually try and possibly succeed. But the thing is, if you really give it your all and you really try your best, nine times out of ten, you're going to succeed because you never gave up. You worked on it every single day. You really gave yourself the ability and the chance to actually achieve that dream of yours. And because you did, you did. You did achieve it all. You know, imagine a life where you actually achieved it all. Instead of scrolling on social media all day, imagine a life where you're working on your dreams every day and one day you actually get there. Like, imagine how amazing that would feel. And like, take that feeling and use that as that motivation, that drive to push you forward. And every day is going to be tough. It's not going to be easy, but the more you work on it, the more consistent you are working towards that dream, you're going to get there eventually. It's going to take time, yes, but you're going to get there eventually because you never gave up. Chaos. It's a word we use when life feels out of control, when nothing makes sense and you're standing in the middle of it all, wondering which way to turn. Chaos can be overwhelming. It can feel like the ground beneath your feet has disappeared, like the world is spinning too fast, like no matter how hard you try, you can't catch your breath. Maybe you're in that place right now. Maybe your plans fell apart. Maybe you've lost something or someone you thought you couldn't live without. Maybe life didn't just throw you a curveball, it hit you with a storm. And in the middle of that storm, it's easy to feel lost, to feel like there's no purpose, no reason, no sense to any of it. But here's the thing about chaos. It's not the end of your story. Chaos is uncomfortable. Yes, it's messy, painful, unpredictable, but it's also fertile ground. Because when life strips away everything you thought you knew, when it forces you to let go of the plans you clung to so tightly, it creates space. Space to rebuild. Space to grow. Space to find meaning in places you never would have looked before. The first step to finding meaning in chaos is to stop fighting it. Stop trying to force it into order. Stop clinging to what was. Stop resisting the reality of what is. Chaos is part of life. It always has been, and it always will be. No matter how carefully you plan, no matter how hard you work, life will throw things at you that you didn't see coming. And that's not a failure. That's being human. When you accept the chaos, you stop wasting energy on trying to control the uncontrollable. You free yourself to focus on what matters, how you respond, what you learn, and who you become in the process. Chaos doesn't just happen randomly. It's a teacher, if you're willing to learn. Every setback, every disappointment, every challenge holds a lesson. Maybe it's teaching you resilience. Maybe it's showing you what you truly value. Maybe it's pushing you to grow in ways you wouldn't have chosen on your own. Ask yourself, what is this chaos trying to teach me? What can I learn from this experience? The answers won't always come right away. But when you start looking for the lessons, you'll begin to see that even in the messiest, most painful moments, there's something to be gained. Here's the truth. Chaos doesn't come with meaning built in. It's not going to hand you a neatly wrapped lesson or a clear sense of purpose. Meaning isn't something you find, it's something you create. In the middle of the storm, you get to decide what this moment will mean to you. You get to decide whether it will break you or build you. Whether it will be the chapter where you gave up or the chapter where you rose. Maybe the chaos in your life right now is an opportunity to let go of something that wasn't serving you. Maybe it's a chance to rediscover who you are without the labels, the expectations, the plans you thought you needed. Maybe it's the push you needed to step into a new chapter, even if you're scared of what comes next. The meaning isn't out there waiting for you, it's inside you, waiting to be created. In times of chaos, it's easy to feel powerless, like life is happening to you and there's nothing you can do about it. But even in the most uncertain times, there are things you can control. You can control your attitude, your effort, your choices. You can control how you show up, even when the world feels like it's falling apart. Trust that the chaos in your life right now is part of a bigger picture. One that you can't fully see yet, but one that's being painted nonetheless. Trust that the struggles you're facing now are shaping you into someone stronger, wiser, more resilient. Chaos thrives in the unknown, and the unknown is scary because it's unpredictable, but it's also full of possibility. When life doesn't go according to plan, it creates room for something new. Something you might not have chosen, but something that could turn out to be exactly what you needed. Let go of the need to have all the answers, embrace the uncertainty, and remember that some of the best things in life come from the moments when everything seemed to fall apart. Chaos isn't comfortable, but it's where transformation begins. It's where old patterns are broken, where new possibilities emerge, where you discover what you're truly capable of. So if you're in the middle of chaos right now, don't give up. Don't let it break you. Look for the lessons, create your own meaning, and trust that this moment, as hard as it is, is part of something bigger. You are stronger than the chaos, you are bigger than the storm, and when the dust settles, you'll see that this wasn't the end. It was the beginning of something extraordinary. Let the chaos shape you, not define you. Let it teach you, not defeat you, and let it remind you that even in the messiest moments, there is still purpose to be found. The storm may rage, but so do you.