Daily Motivations - The Lessons You Never Got From Your Father

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

The life advice you didn't know you needed, with lessons from Matthew McConaughey, Adam Savage, Simon Cowell, Walter Bond, Dry Creek Wrangler, Leif Babin, Dan Clark, and more.Instagram - @daily_motivationsorgFacebook- @daily_motivationsorg

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Hello. You're never going to believe this. Booster Juice called your name today. You can get a free smoothie or Osai Bowl. No way. I'm heading there now. Oh my gosh. You and my brother have the same name. Okay, I'm calling him next. I'm hanging up. Booster Juice names of the day is back. Two names are selected each day and if your name matches, you can get a free smoothie or an Asaibol. Watch for your name on the booster rewards app and social media. Must be an app member to qualify booster juice. Canadian porn blending since 1999. If I said I can't, my dad's teeth, it's hard to go. Excuse me? Sure you're not just having trouble?

I remember this one time I was going out to do my chores Saturday morning and mow the lawn. I couldn't get the damn lawn ward to start. checked everything could be to start and I'm going inside and I said, Dad, can you help me out? I can't get the lawnmower started and he turned around, I saw his mullers and went and he got up,

walked with me through the kitchen, through the garage, out the backyard, went to the lawnmower, messed around, pulled a couple things out about ten minutes, boom, cranked it. And while the lawnmour was running right there,

he came over to me and bent down and looked me and he goes, see, son, you were just having trouble. You need to work on being a good man. Your neighbor down the road is in a difficult place and they can't get their yard mode. The old lady across the street, the old gentleman across the street, it snows. Just take your shovel and go over and shovel their sidewalk. Just somebody at work, you watch and you look and people at work, they're going through a hard time.

Just, hey, are you all right? Anything I can do to help? Being good is proactive. It's doing something. be a dangerous man now being dangerous is not being a threat there are two different things all right and it's not about going out and lifting weights and getting a bunch of tattoos and wearing leather jackets and walking around where your chest and shoulders up hulking around saying i'm dangerous that's very rarely is that a dangerous man often the most dangerous man in the room is the quietest man in the

room. Third, be educated. Listen, you want to know how to be a man among men. You start following and reading and listening to guys like Jocko Willett, Jordan Peterson, these guys, and start learning. And start learning. Start reading. The brain is a muscle. And like any muscle, the more you work it. Pamper that special someone at Elmwood Spa, Toronto's leading day spa. For 40 years, Elmwood Spa has been the leading destination for a relaxing and pampering experience. Let them enjoy soothing water therapies, a gourmet lunch, while wrapped in a cozy robe, or a couple's massage in a private suite with a fireplace. Order your gift cards by phone or online at elmwoodspa.com.

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Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connix Ontario at 1866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. The stronger it becomes. my dad worked for a large corporation and before he retired he said to me don't work for a large company because when you're 65 or whatever they're going to retire you and you'll never hear from them again and that is exactly what happened to my dad and it was heartbreaking and he said look whatever you do

you're going to have to be patient because it's not going to happen overnight if you're want to do well, you've got to learn to be good at it. And it could take 20 years. It could take 30 years. But understand that. And I'm like, I'm fine with that. Are you, do you have a plan? You don't have to be rich now, but do you have a plan, right? Have you found means of being confident? Can you demonstrate kindness and excellence across anything? My granddad always said this. The greatest gifts in life are not in the plans. They're in the detours. There is no way, I could plan my way to being on the stage. I have failed a lot more and a lot longer than I've succeeded.

I didn't originally get the role in Top Gun than I auditioned for, and it's worked out better than I could have ever even imagined. So if you want your life to be a great story, like a great movie, if you want it filled with adventure, comedy, romance, action, thrills, when you go out there and things inevitably don't go according to plan, just remember, that's when your movie's plot is just getting interesting. that's when your protagonist is being tested.

That's when the writers are working overtime to give the audience some nail-biting drama. Enjoy things not going according to plan. If you knew the ending, it wouldn't be worth the watch. No good story happens from things going right. What advice would you give to someone who is unsure about what to do in life? I would start asking you questions,

asking you to investigate yourself for the things that you like doing. for the things that you can't stop thinking about, for the kind of fiction or nonfiction that you read, the areas of the world that fascinate you or irritate you. Each one of us is sitting here in these, you know, roughly ambulatory engines of our bodies and looking out. Pamper that special someone at Elmwood Spa,

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will give away a free product that week. I love this. It's as crazy as the Kalani upside down sign at the Berry store. Even crazier? Our price is upside down too. Don't miss out at Kalani Kitchen and Bath. And each of us latches on to different stuff about the world that moves us in different ways.

And I think that there is value in investigating those parts of your point of view. We look down now to 16-year-olds and say, where are you going to go to college? What are you going to do for the rest of your life? And it's like, they're not fully baked yet. How do they know? Give them a break. Just say, look, I think, After high school, take a year off, take two years off, join the Peace Corps, travel, go figure things out, or just enjoy yourself.

For the first time in their lives, they're adults, and they don't have to be somewhere. They're not told to be somewhere. Get used to that freedom. Even at the age of about seven or eight, you know, in our neighborhood, go around to people's houses, knock on their door and say, can I, can I wash your car? Can I mow the lawn? Because my mum and dad said, if we pay for the holiday, you've got to earn your spending money.

So I'm like, fine. But I used to love it. If you got 10 quid for like washing a car, I mean, it was like, bingo. It was the best feeling. The things that always stuck in my mind. And it was quite an old thing to say to a 12-year-old. He said,

everyone in life Simon has a sign on their head and it says make me feel important and I want to think about that I'm thinking sign on their hair or I have no idea what that means why do you say that maybe he's had a couple of drinks and then I forget when I realized what it meant but boy did that stick in my mind which was if you want to do one in life it's going to be a team effort and make sure you recognize every single person on that team. And so if I walk into a room, I instantly, I think pretty much from the point I understood it,

is that I can walk into a room and I can see, I see everything in one moment. I see the person who's opening the door. I see the person who's doing a particular job. So in other words, I see the room always as a team. And you did that the minute you walked into this room

because there was, what, 10 people here from the person I opened the door, the person I got the coffee, the people, you know, take care of the cameras. And you, and this is rare. And obviously, I've done 300 of these conversations. You went around to every single person in this room and took an interest in every single person, which is, it's not typical.

First game with my senior year, I break my foot. I come back in six weeks and I break my foot a second time. In my mind, my college career was over. and my NBA dreams were dead. I have it seven points a game. I got to offer the $75,000 job because one of our season ticket holders like me. Now I'm going to close with this.

Right before I took the job, my daddy called me on the phone. He would always ask the right questions at the right time. He said, you had a tough year, son. What's next? I said, Daddy, I'm going to be a hospital administrator, $75,000 job. He said, not bad, son. But can I ask you a question? Do you believe you're an NBA player? Dad, don't start that, Dad.

Come on, Dad. Come on, Dad. I only having seven points a game, Dad. We're not like these other black families that just lead basketball, Dad. We're educated, Dad. We're not dependent on basketball, Dad. We're balanced, Dad.

We're educated, Dad. I got a $75,000 job, Dad. Do you believe, son? Go for it, someone. Go for it. He said, you know, my dad always told me you only get one name, invest in it accordingly. Just like you only get one name. Like you can change your companies, you can go bankrupt but like your name stays with you.

That can either be an asset or can be a liability. Yeah. And why not? Have a brand power into itself. Pamper that special someone at Elmwood Spa, Toronto's leading day spa. For 40 years, Elmwood Spa has been the leading destination for a relaxing and pampering experience. Let them enjoy soothing water therapies, a gourmet lunch, wrapped in a cozy robe or a couple's massage in a private suite with a fireplace.

Order your gift cards by phone or online at elmwoodspa.com. That's elmwoodspa.com. Colani Kitchen and Bath can help you? Are you giving away a free faucet this week? Yes, we're giving away a free house of roll faucet or shower kit. What's the catch? No catch. You don't need to buy anything. Just follow us on social media and watch for an announcement of which of our seven stores

will give away a free product that week. I love this. It's as crazy as the Kalani upside down sign at the Berry store. Even crazier? Our price is upside down too. Don't miss out at Kalani Kitchen and Bath. What I would say to a 20-year-old is to learn from people who have enough life experiences to be humble, right? So when you're humble enough to recognize that you don't even know what you don't know,

if you'd ask young Lieutenant Lafabin and the Charlie Battoon commander I've been through steel training I've been through a deployment to Iraq so I had some some you know combat experience and when we were going through our workup cycle and tasking a bruiser if you'd ask me

if I was going to get in a terrible friendly fire situation with other U.S. forces would that happen? If you'd ask me that before we deployed to Ramadi in 2006 I'd have said hell no that happens to losers who don't know how to plan,

who don't know how to train, who don't know how to prepare their team. And if you read the book Extreme Ownership, that is Chapter 1. That's Chapter 1, the very first major operation that we were a part of. So what we recognize is just how easily something like that can happen.

And in fact, it's going to happen if you don't take extreme measures to mitigate the risk of it happening every time. So I think you've got to humble yourself, realize that there's a lot that you may be, you don't even know that you don't even know that you don't know at this point. If they don't have what you want, don't listen to what they say.

There's no greater waste of time than justifying your actions to people who have a life you don't want. That was a message to my younger self. When you have the friends who are telling you, oh, must be nice, or you think you're better than us, or, oh, so we can't drink anymore, that's when you can be like, yeah, then what? Well, then we wouldn't be friends. You're not going to be friends with them eventually anyways, I promise you.

Anyone who says that's who you're not going to be friends with, if you want to ultimately become the person you want to become, they're only going to reject you harder and harder until eventually you have nothing to share about. And the only thing that you'll talk about is the past, which, by the way, one of the great leading indicators of, at least in my opinion, of a great way to know when to cut a friend is when they only talk about your past. What would you tell your 20-year-old self? When I think back on the last 20, 25, 30 years, the things I do regret are how I treated people.

is, you know, treat people well. Because it's the one thing that, sort of, I would say, still haunts me. It made lots of mistakes in my life, lots of things. But the way we treat people, I think, is really the one thing we can do. Because here's the thing I know that when you treat people well, it has an amazing ripple effect in the positive direction. And when you treat people badly, it's exactly the opposite. It's not just that you're treating that person badly,

but there's a ripple effect associated with that. It took me five years. years and I honestly five years and I was standing there and I was going through everything that I had overcome and achieved my model hospital and graduate through university with a distinction I'm a fully trained safety professional my speaking business is taking off and I looked back five years later back to when I was suicidal I looked back and I'm like I didn't see this outcome not at all but at that time I didn't see any outcome right

So I say work with the change. And I can promise you it will take you places you never imagine possible. We expect instant gratification. There is no one that goes through trauma or hardship or life circumstances where time is not a solution. You need to allow the time to happen. You can't expect everything to change on the dime. It's not going to. And you need to work with it.

So work with it and let that time happen. And I guarantee you if you work with it and let the time happen, you will go five years into it, look back and go, I didn't see this outcome. I think young men need to know that, hey, it's okay for you to sit down and to read and have a cigar and to chill and to think. Because I guarantee if you're in the wait room pumping out all these reps and running on the machine and then you're going into the cubicle and you're flip open a computer and you're not thinking, you're learning you're taking in, but you're not meditating.

on stuff and you're not you're not thinking but that can be taken so far that young men are made to feel guilty for just pamper that special someone at elmwood spa toronto's leading day spa for 40 years elmwood spa has been the leading destination for a relaxing and pampering experience let them enjoy soothing water therapies a gourmet lunch while wrapped in a cozy robe or a couple's massage in a private suite with a fireplace. Order your gift cards by phone or online at elmwoodspa.com. That's elmwoodspa.com. Colani Kitchen and Bath can help you?

Are you giving away a free faucet this week? Yes, we're giving away a free house of roll faucet or shower kit. What's the cat? No catch. You don't need to buy anything. Just follow us on social media and watch for an announcement of which of our seven stores will give away a free product that week. I love this.

It's as crazy as the. Kalani upside down sign at the Berry store. Even crazier, our price is upside down too. Don't miss out at Kalani Kitchen and Bath. Setting down and thinking and relaxing. And I understand that there was a tendency in this country. We had a lot of young men that were not raised with dads. They weren't raised to work, you know, and so it's sitting on the couch playing the stupid Xbox, you know.

not growing up learning to work. So that pendulum went too far this way. So now you've got guys who, in order to counteract that, they swung the pendulum too far this way. And a balanced man needs to be somewhere in the middle. He needs to be able to work, to do what needs to be done, to improve himself. And he also needs to sit around by the fire in the backyard

and have a cigar and read some Kipling and just stay balanced. There needs to be balanced. What advice would you give to your younger self? The advice I would give to my 20-year-old self would be to work, work harder. You know, even when it feels like the work isn't matter, it will know. You know, delayed does not mean denied.

I know young man that you want things. Keep putting the work. It's all about the work. Have faith and trust that the seeds that you plant today will grow into the tree that you want it to be. I know the reason I didn't have a long-for-bar. It was because I didn't do it before. I had chances when I was at San Jose State to stay the summer at San Jose, work out, get a job up there, and continue to train in a very structured and secluded environment.

But I chose to go back to Southern California, where the beach was, where my dad was, where the drugs were, the parties. So by choosing to do that and not being disciplined enough, not being focused enough, slow down. Don't grow up too fast. My 18-year-old self, I wouldn't say he was reckless. I wouldn't say he was the most responsible person. Pamper that special someone at Elmwood Spa, Toronto's leading day spa. For 40 years, Elmwood Spa has been the leading destination for a relaxing and pampering experience.

Let them enjoy soothing water therapies, a gourmet lunch, while wrapped in a cozy robe, or a couple's massage in a private suite with a fireplace. Order your gift cards by phone or online at elmwoodspa.com. That's elmwoodspa.com. Colani Kitchen and Bath can help you? Are you giving away a free faucet this week? Yes, we're giving away a free House of Roll Fawcett or Shower Kit. What's the cat? No catch. You don't need to buy anything.

Just follow us on social media and watch for an announcement of which of our seven stores will give away a free product that week. I love this. It's as crazy as the Kalani upside down sign at the Berry store. Even crazier? Our price is upside down too. Don't miss out at Kalani Kitchen and Bath. But I would tell him, slow down. Be patient and let it happen when it needs to. happen. Everything has a season. Okay. Society's

a little different these days, but people like want, they want the now. It's like working out. I want to look like this now. I want this right now. No, be patient. And would your 18-year-old self listen? Yes and no. That's the hard one, yeah. Yes and no. I can honestly

tell you, because there's that stubborn side, I got this, I know what I'm doing. And then there's the other guy. Yeah. You know, hey, you know, I need to take you to So I would tell my 21st, self, do the work now. Work when you're tired, work when you're exhausted, work when you don't see results. But it's all like money in the bank.

And that interest of the work will compound and you'll get what you want. Colani Kitchen and Bath can help you? Are you giving away a free faucet this week? Yes, we're giving away a free house of roll faucet or shower kit. What's the cat? No catch. You don't need to buy anything. Just follow us on social media.

And watch for an announcement of which of our seven stores will give away a free product that week. I love this. It's as crazy as the Kalani upside-down sign at the Berry store. Even crazier? Our price is upside-down, too. Don't miss out at Kalani Kitchen and Bath.