Daily Motivations - THE POWER OF CHOICE

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

THE POWER OF CHOICE! Every day when you wake up, you have choices. Life is about the sum of your choices. What life will you choose? Speaker: Marcus "Elevation" Taylor Les Brown Coach Pain Lisa Nichols Nathan Harmon Dr. Jessica Houston Eric Thomas William Hollis Matthew McConaughey Tom Brady

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Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BidMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Every day when you wake up, you have choices. Life is about choices. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. You can hit the snooze button and you can stay in the bed where it's safe and it's comfortable

or you can get up and face the world. You can stare at your phone scrolling on social media endlessly or you can create habits that are going to help you become the person that you want to be. The person that you are destined to be.

The power lies in the decisions that we make every single day. Show up. Make the choices that your future self would thank you for. Don't just let life happen to you. Create the life that you want. One choice, one action, one day at a time. Because in the end, your life is nothing more than the sum of your choices.

You have the power to decide right now, today, not tomorrow. So choose wisely. Choose powerfully. Choose to live the life you deserve The greatest ability that God has given humankind above the animals is the ability to choose. A dog can't be anything but a dog. A cat can't be anything but a cat. A human being has the power to choose. We can choose. And I'm asking you you what do you see in

the future for you what brought you here today what caused you to get up what is it that you're looking for you get to choose as much as you want you get to design it any way you choose you're not sentenced to your future you have an opportunity to your future how do you want opportunity to your future. How do you want it? And if it doesn't make you a little afraid, then you ain't playing big enough. You all have your own unique rhythms and daily habits and things that you need to achieve and the things that you need to accomplish so that you look in the mirror and you feel like yes I can.

Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why fly the Atlantic? There's a choice. You have to choose for your happiness. You have to choose for your well-being. You have to choose for your family. You have to choose for your health and wellness. You have to choose for success. When I made a decision to follow my destiny, I felt it calling me. My destiny was calling me. That's one small step for man. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other thing, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills. Because that challenge is one that we're willing to accept, one we are willing to oppose, and one we intend to win. One giant leap for mankind. Most people don't reach their dream not because of failure. Most people don't live their dream not because of failure. Most people don't live their dream because they give up.

You see, it's not the failure that stops us, but that most stop at their first failure. Those who succeed don't stop at one failure. They don't stop at ten failures. They don't stop at a hundred 1,000, or a million. They say, this is my goal, and I will do whatever it takes to achieve it. I will learn the lessons from any failures. I will learn faster. I will work harder.

I will work smarter. And I will not quit until my dream is a reality that's the difference between success and failure failure is a massive part of being able to be successful you have to get comfortable with failure yet you have to actually seek failure failure is where all of the lessons are you know when you go to the gym and you work out you're actually seeking failure. You want to take your muscles to the point where you get to failure because that's where the the adaptation is. That's where growth is. Successful people fail a lot. They fail a whole lot more than they

succeed. They extract the lessons from the failure and they use that the energy and they use the wisdom to come around to the next phase of success. Gotta take a shot. You have to live at the edge of your capabilities. You gotta live where you're almost certain you're gonna fail. The reason for practice, practice is controlled failure. You're getting to your limit, getting to your limit, getting to your limit. You can't lift that. You can't do that until you get to the point that all of a sudden your body makes the adjustment and then you can do it. Failure actually helps you to recognize the areas where you need to evolve. So fail early, fail often, fail forward. Failure makes winners stronger. Failure makes winners hungrier. But it makes most give up.

It makes most feel worthless. Winners don't enjoy failure, but they would never let failure stop them. Next time you encounter failure, you got to remember every great thing on this planet is here because the Creator learned what did work, but learned more from what did not work. When we are kids, we don't stop at failure. When we first learn to ride a bike, it's failure after failure. We get knocked down time after time. But we get up and push forward until we achieve our goal of riding the bike. But then, we get old.

And most of us get weak. We are too soft to get back on the bike We come up with excuses It must not be for me No, you just soft No, you just lazy Tell yourself the truth Get back on the bike

Learn why you fail And make sure you don't fall again Make sure you are stronger for having the lesson. We used to look up in the sky and wonder at our place in the stars. I want to skip the flattery and the attaboys because I do know this. The sooner that we become less impressed with our life, with our accomplishments, with our career, with whatever that prospect is in front of us, the sooner we become less impressed and more involved with that and these things, the sooner we get a whole lot better at doing it.

It's like we've forgotten who we are now. Explorers, pioneers, not caretakers. Now why do you pursue things that scare you? Why seek the role that's hard? Because it costs me something. Because it costs. It comes with a price. It's not really a risk unless you can lose the fight. I feel more alive in them.

I have an experience in the making of them. I'm nervous every day I come to work. I hear the things you can't get away with in this world are the things you can't. Life is not easy. It is not. Don't try to make it that way. Life's not fair. It never was. It isn't now and it won't ever be. Do not fall into the trap, the entitlement trap, of feeling like you're a victim. are not get over it get on and yes most things are more rewarding when you break a sweat to get them I Feel like when I nail a day and I knock and I know I did I feel like yes

I get I have a measure at the end of the day like you set out to do something you prepared for it You had intention and you did it that gives me gratification that makes me feel gives me significance that gives me confidence to be brave have courage and when you do you get stronger you get more aware you get more respectful of yourself and that which you fear I want to talk about our opponent this afternoon the bigger faster stronger more experienced and on paper they're you fear. I want to talk about our opponent this afternoon. They're bigger, faster, stronger, more experienced, and on paper, they're just better. And they know it too. I want to tell you something that they don't know. They don't know your heart. Well, it's because heading out there is what I feel like I was born to do.

And it excites me. Just because you can? Nah, come on. It's not a good enough reason to do something. Even when it means having more. Be discerning. Choose it because you

want it. Do it because you want it Do it because you want to It's on you It's on you People tell me all the time It's hard to get wealthy It's hard to grind It's hard to be focused How do you even do these speeches?

It's hard to stay motivated It's hard to stay broke It's hard to stay motivated it's hard to stay broke it's hard to stay depressed it's hard to stay governed by anxiety it's hard to be inconsistent it's hard not to have daily disciplines it's hard not to believe in yourself it's hard to be broke it's hard to be poor it's hard it's all hard so choose your heart you either go work for it you're gonna sit there and let life knock you down and dare you to get back up. It's hard to practice perseverance. It's hard to be an introvert. It's hard to be an extrovert.

Singleness can be difficult. Marriage can be difficult. Raising your children on your own can be difficult. It's hard to wake up early. It's hard to wake up early. It's hard to wake up late, but there's a reward on the other side of waking up early. If you wake up late, you've lost too much daylight. What somebody else did before you woke up, now you only have a fraction of the day to get it done. There's a reward on the other side of one pain, and there is regret on the other side of the other pain and if you're going to win the reward you're going to have to persevere you're going to need endurance you're going to need to be consistent and on the other end of the pendulum there is the pain of regret where you did nothing

because you were afraid you would make a mistake the pain of regret will hurt you so choose your heart Make a decision I want the pain of finishing something I want the pain of persevering give me the pain of forgiving my haters Give me the pain of forgiving people that tried to kill me give me the pain of forgiving my haters. Give me the pain of forgiving people that tried to kill me. Give me the pain of letting it go. Give me the pain of growth. Give me the pain of acquiring new skill sets and talents.

Give me the pain of managing my time well. Give me the pain of waking up early. Give me the pain of praying when I didn't feel like it. Forgiving when I didn't feel like it. Letting go. Give me the pain. I'll take that pain. Because on the other side of that pain, there is a reward.

Every single day of my life, I'll take reward over regrets. Will you keep sleeping on your potential or will you wake up and make it happen? Choose your pain today. The anguish, the irritation, the frustration that you feel today will be your strength to leap walls tomorrow, to leap hurdles tomorrow, to champion the day tomorrow. So you gotta turn your pain into progress. You gotta learn how to turn your pain into power.

You can't start where I am now, you gotta start where I started. I want you to live the life you were meant to live. You hear me? Not the life that was given to you. What do you want? This is what we're supposed to be doing today. Do me a favor. Don't holler at me until you do it. So you have an opportunity of a lifetime.

I need you to take it serious. Let's go to work. When you get the opportunity, from day one, you get hungry day one one and you stay home and so I'm telling you you hang around the right people they will give you dreams for yourself that you didn't have for yourself you are nothing but the sum total of the people that you're closest to you can start from wherever and get to wherever you want to get to that's what I'm asking you to do what fuels you the reason why you so lazy is not because you don't have the ability.

You're so lazy because your dream is so small. Don't be upset by the results you didn't get from the work you did not do. I didn't get the results because I didn't do the work. Like if somebody gets you an out, take it. Like I don't care how hard it is, how how difficult if you have somebody that's willing to rock With you hold your hand in the process Encourage you motivate you inspire you like stop saying I'm not good enough stop saying my family We don't do this like stop with the excuses and take the opportunity that's given to you shoot the dog on shot you wide open

Take the shot. So do me a favor. Let it destroy you. So let the dream destroy you, tear you down, redefine you, build you back up, make you stronger. So I need you to do me a huge favor. I just need you to be real.

Man, it's crazy, but, you know, I had a couple things in my life that I wanted to accomplish, and I didn't get them done. You know, and I know it's not too late, but I kind of, like, got to that point where it's like, you know, I just can't do it. Like, I put forth a valiant effort, and I just can't do it. And so he was like, oh, what was one of them? And I was like, what you just said, 100 miles, I wanted to't do it. Like I put forth a valiant effort and I just can't do it. And so he was like, oh, what was one of them? And I was like, what you just said, 100 miles, I want to run a marathon. And he was like, oh, okay, cool.

You really want to run a marathon? And I was like, in my mind, yeah. You know? So he was like, no, no, no, you for real? I said, bro, I'm not as for real as I can be about something that I want to do but that I didn't do. You know, so he was like, oh, okay. Ma, I just finished speaking.

And so I was like, let me check Tim out. And so right after it was over, so he was like, all right, well, if you want to run a marathon, come on. And I was like, what? He was like, come on, let's go get started. We'll do it together. And I was like, okay, He was like, come on, let's go get started. We'll do it together. And I was like, okay, bro, like right now? He was like, well, if you want to do it, when would be the best time to do it?

And I was like, okay, I guess now. You can't run a marathon with someone who's never run a marathon. You know what I'm saying? Like you have a better chance of running a marathon with somebody who ran a marathon. Like who really has the mindset. Like they ran it so they know what it takes.

How many people in your immediate environment, those people who are in your sacred circle, represent people who are on the same mission as you? Or do you have a bunch of people on your list who are not on the same mission as you? Or do you have a bunch of people on your list

who are not on the same mission as you and those individuals are pulling you down? I have cut off the people who are not on the same mission with me and I've surrounded myself with people who have the same values, who have the same mindset and people who want to accomplish

what I want to accomplish. And we go to sleep and wake up talking about the dream. We go to sleep and wake up talking about the dream. We go to sleep and wake up talking about the dream. We go to sleep, wake up, talk about what we did when we first started. Talk about where we are, examining what we did right, what we did wrong. Listen to me, you got to eat the dream. You have to sleep the dream.

You have to dream the dream. You have to see it when nobody else sees it you have to feel it when it's not tangible you have to believe it when you cannot see it you've got to be possessed with the dream and every single day you've got to wake up and put forth effort because some days you're not gonna feel like getting up but the dream is going to push you. You wake up every single morning and you go after it. When you wake up, nothing is going to come to you. Nobody is going to give you anything.

I still have to work. And when the sun comes up, I still have to get to running. So you've got to ask yourself, you've got to ask yourself, what's your why? What motivates you? What pushes you? What drives you? And if that thing is eternal, if nobody has to call you, if nobody has to prod you, if nobody has to reward you, if nobody has to give you anything, if you are self-motivated

and self-regulated, you can have it, you can be it, you can have it you can be it you can do it everything you ever wanted son you're right there not only will you have what other people don't have you'll do what other people can't do in order for you to be able to do what you need to do like a Tony Robbins there's some things that you don't have in your arson that if you can just admit you don't have it in your arson then you can go get it but until you admit that you don't have in your arson that if you can just admit you don't have it in your arson, then you can go get it. But until you admit that you don't have it, you'll never be able to do it. If you know why you're doing something, it's easier to do it.

When you don't know why you're doing it, it's hard. Or when the reason that you have to get up is not as strong as the reason why you need to stay in the bed it's gonna be tough I've got dreams I have goals there are things that I want to accomplish I'm not satisfied like I don't sleep well at night the bigger your dream is the more effort you're gonna have to put in I look around at other people who are living a certain way who are driving a certain way who are experienced a lot in ET I want that and and I've robbed myself I have not

been true to myself I've not done the things I need to do there's absolutely nothing you can't have nothing you can have you want, but listen to me very closely. You cannot, you will not have anything if you're not willing to put in sweat, blood, and tears. If you think you're going to pay any other fare, you're twisted. I wake up every single day. I know what I got to do. I know where I got to be. I know what my gift is. I know what my purpose is. And I just need money to house all this he has a dream and a goal and he'll do whatever it takes and I need you to understand that the bigger your dream is the earlier you have to get up what's that thing you keep

thinking about I'm telling you to dream your dream cuz I want you to sell it I want you to taste it I want you to feel it. I want you to taste it. I want you to know how close. I want you just like when the weather is changing, you can feel it. I want you to be able to feel when you're getting closer to it and closer to it. But more importantly, I want you to know when you dream your dream that there are other people who are dreaming the exact same dream. What if you're not the only one that wants what you want? When you said to yourself, this is what I want to accomplish,

you're not the only person that wants to accomplish it. And now I ask you this question, what do you do when 1,000 other people want exactly what you want? I want you to know something, that the bigger your dream is, I want you to understand the harder to bigger your dream is I want you to understand the heart of the grind Everybody wants to be number one. Everybody wants to be the best everybody wants to succeed Everybody wants to have to be and do what they feel they've been called to do

I'm walking out of here next level Consider this your wake-up call what most people fail to realize is that pain is inevitable and it is unavoidable there is no path in life without pain whatever it is that you're going after whoever it is that you've been destined to become, you cannot have it. You will not become it without pain. You will face challenges and difficulties and giants, regardless if you are single, if you are married, if you are a stay-at-home mom, a stay-at-home father, if you are an entrepreneur, if you're working a nine-to-five, if you're an educator, if you are an athlete, if you are a to bleed like this, if I'm going to cry like this, let me cry because I'm in the best shape of my life. Let me cry because I'm conditioned to weather the uphill war. Let me cry because I'm building my relationship. I'm building my business.

I'm building my legacy. Let me cry because it hurt, but there is a reward on the other end of my pain. Let me cry tears because I passed the test. Because I gave it everything I had. Choose your heart. Everything in life comes with hardship. Make a decision. At some juncture, you will encounter pain. And the moment that you get

Acquainted with pain you get acquainted with hardship You realize that no matter what you do no matter how much you study no matter how much you plan You will not be able to avoid a measure of pain Okay, what it is losing weight I don't care what it is a new eating paradigm a new relationship paradigm new thoughts new behaviors it doesn't matter what you're after what you're looking to become if you don't go to the gym it's gonna hurt you if you go to the gym it's gonna hurt you your muscles are gonna tear but on the other side of that pain there was a reward

there isn't any regrets you won't regret taking care tear. But on the other side of that pain, there is a reward. There isn't any regret. You won't regret taking care of your body. On the other side of making those healthy decisions, there is a reward. It's the reward of discipline. It's the reward of longevity. It's the reward of influence. It's the reward of power.

Do you want results? Do you want a reward? Or do you want regrets? The decision of power. Do you want results? Do you want a reward? Or do you want regrets? The decision is yours. It's all hard, so choose your heart. Pain is inevitable and it is unavoidable. Pick your pain everybody's got a plan until life knocks them out because we weren't ready for

the pain and when the pain came we did not process it processing pain is a skill set you've got to acquire it's's a type of currency. If you want the future, if you want next level, if you want tomorrow, if you want to manifest, if you want this thing, I don't care what it is, then you're going to have to get acquainted with pain.

The pain of discipline, the pain of growth, the pain of learning, the pain of giving, the pain of forgiving. It all hurts. So pick your pain. Choose your heart.

Because at some juncture in life, at some corner you're going to turn. You're going to encounter pain. And you've got to process that pain well. Hear me when I say it. Pain is unavoidable. It's hard to let go of the past. It's hard to give sometimes of your time, your talent, and your treasure. It's hard to balance work life. It's hard to acquire new skills. It's hard to be stagnant. It's hard to be a workhorse. It's hard to be lazy. It's hard to learn how to manage and cultivate relationships. It's hard to be lazy. It's hard to learn how to manage and cultivate relationships.

It's hard to learn from your experiences. It's hard to turn your mess into your message. It's all hard. It's hard to hold on. It's hard to let go. But there's a reward on the other end of many of these hardships. You better choose reward or regret. There is always reward and regret attached to every decision that you make. Hope.

Hold on. Pain ends. Pain does have an expiration date. And when that pain ends, another one will surface, but you will be strong enough because you endured the current pain well. Everybody wants resurrection, but nobody wants the pain of dying to themselves. There's a pain that hurts you, and there's a pain that changes you. So today, all I want you to do is make a decision to choose your heart. No one's good at everything.

I mean, that's just not the way life works. What you know is very limited and what you don't know is limitless. Those who stay will be champions. War number 12, the greatest of all time, right here in Tom Brady. If I want to be the best, I got to beat the best. Man, if I want to be good, I got to wake up in the morning and I got to do the extra work.

And I got to show up when other guys aren't. And I've got to learn. I've got to continue to be open to learning. But I had to take it to a new level that the other guys wouldn't. Nothing was given to me. So I'm going to go out there and compete as hard as I can. And I'm going to treat practice like a game. And I'm going to gain the respect of my teammates every day through my work ethic. I'm going to work hard in the weight room. I'm going to work hard in the film room. I'm going to work hard to be a good student. Whatever they asked me to do, that's what I'm

going to do to the best of my ability. I never once in my life ever said I wanted to be the best of all time. I'm just a story like everybody else. I wanted to be the best I could be, period. And I said, be proud of the man in the glass. Be proud of that man that wakes up every day and does the best he should do with his priorities. We're all talented at certain things, but we can really continue to improve our weaknesses if we're humble enough to identify them

and we can build on our strengths. Focus on what you can control. Focus on what you're getting, not what anyone else is getting. Whenever you get an opportunity, you take advantage of it. You treat it like it's the Super Bowl. You treat it like it's game day. Go out there and treat practice like no one else does. And you have an opportunity every day to surround yourself with people to help you grow.

You know, I always said we play for the name on the front of our jersey was a Patriots or the Bucs or, and I played for the name on the back of the jersey, which was my family and the people that encouraged me. I was so blessed to have this discipline over a really long period of time. It was a lot of tough competition. But I was never, I would say, like a prodigy. I wasn't like the kid where you see Tiger Woods swinging on the Johnny Carson show at two or three years old. And his swing looks as good as it did at three years old as it did, you know, as he, as he grew older or, you know, certain players that, that had this unbelievable, uh, prodigy aspect to themselves. I saw myself as

someone who probably had some other traits that maybe were hard to identify, but that were really sustainable over time, which was, I would say, work ethic and discipline. There was this discipline that I had that even as 13, 14, 15 years old, where all these other boys were, I went to an all-boy school in the Bay Area, and I remember showing up my first day of freshman year. I didn't have much hair under my arms or anything like that. I was like, and these other kids came in shaving. I'm like, what the hell is this? I didn't know how to put the pads on in my pants when I tried out for freshman football.

I mean, I had never played until that point, except in the street. So these kids came out there, they had, you know, helmets and shoulder pads that they had worn for four years. I went on the field and I was like, I'm going to get killed out here. You know, and my freshman year, I didn't even play. I was the backup quarterback on a team that went 0-8. I couldn't get on the field and we never won a game anyway. I mean, it's one thing to be the starting quarterback and to lose. If they don't even think you're good enough to be a starting quarterback on a team that's 0-8, you must really suck. So naturally I was like, oh cool, I'll continue to, you know, work on my skill. A lot of it was even going into my second year in high school, there were workouts in the morning at 6 a.m. before school. And I was like,

okay, I can get up at 6 a.m. and I can go do these rope drills where you'd run through the ropes. You see a lot of people do that. There were these hills that we would run up. And there was probably less than 10 people there, but I was probably one of the three that were there almost every single day to try to continue to push myself to grow in these maybe physical areas that I was really behind a lot of other people. And I went in there, competed really hard my third year, and I lost the starting job to Brian Greasy. So I go into my fourth year and I was like, now's my time. I worked hard to compete my first three years. Going into my fourth year,

I got a great opportunity to play. And they recruited a kid named Drew Henson. And I was like, the competition is relentless. At first, I was looking at the guys ahead of me. Now I got to be looking down at the guys behind me too. And going into my fourth year, my teammates named me team captain. And I won the starting job. We had a good year. We finished 10 and three, you know, beat everyone out. And then I showed up and coach Carr says, well, you're going to compete with Drew Henson to be the starter going into your fifth year. And I was like, you gotta be kidding me. You want me to compete? That's what we're going to do. I competed really hard again in my fifth year took it to a new level thought about my conditioning

my strength thought about how I was doing my making my decisions off the field I was starting to play really good and I thought you know I'm gonna I'm gonna have a chance coach Carr called me and he said well Tom this is what we do going to do. You're going to start. Drew, you're going to play the second quarter. And I'm going to decide at halftime who plays the rest of the year. Coach Carr said, the platoon's off. Tom's playing the rest of the year. We didn't lose a game the rest of the season.

It was a tough battle for me. It was a tough go. It was tough in high school. It was really tough in college. So of course course now i'm going to the nfl draft and i'm like all these pro coaches must have seen how good i was man i'm gonna be a second round pick round one two and here we go six round pick 199 and i was like all right'm going to make all those other teams pay. Like I said, I wasn't the prodigy. I learned about work ethic.

I learned about resilience. I learned about gaining the trust and the respect of my teammates and coaches to name me captain. I learned about how to dig deep within myself a long way from home without a ton of support. I was so motivated to be the best I could be that it wasn't I wasn't motivated to be the starter. I wasn't motivated to win the Super Bowl. I just was motivated to give my best, do the best with the opportunity I got, and to never let my teammates down. All those experiences that we think are the hardest things in our life end up being the best experience in our life because if you approach it with humility and you look inward they become the best opportunities for growth and learning

so those people could say man i want to exercise for one day i want to be more hydrated for one day well can you do it for a week well that's more discipline right can you do it for a month that's more discipline can you do it for a year that's even more discipline how disciplined are you to maintain that routine over a period of time? And I think that will determine your level of success. Fame didn't motivate me. I didn't give a about any of it. I always took less money because I wanted a good team around me. I didn't care about going to all these different places and doing those things. I just wanted to be my best. I wanted to go out there and the team believed in me. I didn't want to let them down. If I want to be the best,

I got to beat the best. We remember the stuff we earn, the stuff we experience more than what the teacher tells us or what someone gives us for free. We just do. We broke a proverbial sweat on it, whether it's mental or physical or whatever. We built it. We understand. We felt how we got it, how we achieved it, how we got what we wanted.

Those stick with us. Whether we forget them intellectually, they were written in our lineage and they build resilience and they build a healthy, true optimism going forward to know that, oh, no, I've worked for something before and achieved it. Delayed gratification. Oh, there are choices I can make today for myself that will pay me back later in life. And I've got friends, and trust me,

I've done it myself, you know, that lose a job and then get another, but won't take it because it's less salary than maybe the one they had before. And all of a sudden find themselves three, four, five, six, seven, eight years, a decade later going, they're still stuck. They didn't do anything. They're still saying like, no, I'm going to find that thing. And I'm going like, you missed a decade, man. Just go do that one that you love to do that maybe was going to pay you less because you'd at least been building something through the day. And who knows what that would have led to. Maybe that would have led to something where you're getting paid five times more than you were

doing something else you love even more. So sometimes it's not even about what choice we make. Just make a choice and commit to it and go and dive in. So while we're here and they're going to run across the Jumbotron, let's make it a place where we break a sweat, where we believe, where we enjoy the process of succeeding in the places and ways that we are fashioned to, where we don't have to look over our shoulder because we're too busy doing what we're good at, voluntarily keeping our own counsel because we want to,

traveling towards immortal finish lines. We write our own book, overcoming our fears. We make friends with ourselves. And that is the place that I'm talking about. From the soles of your feet, with every ounce of blood you've got in your body, lay it on the line until the final whistle blows. And if you do that,

if you do that, we cannot lose. So turn the page. Get off the ride. You are the author of the book of your life knowing who we are is hard it's hard give yourself a break eliminate who you are not first and you're going to find yourself where you need to be and the oscar goes to matthew mcconaughey i had a very important person in my life come to me and say,

who's your hero? And I said, I don't know, I've got to think about that. Give me a couple of weeks. I come back two weeks later, this person comes up and says, who's your hero? I said, I thought about it. You know who it is? I said, it's me in 10 years.

So I turned 25 10 years later. That same person comes to me and goes, so are you a hero? And I was like, not even close. No, no, no. She said, why? I said, because my hero is me at 35. So you see, every day, every No, no, no. She said, why? I said, because my hero is me at 35. So you see, every day, every week, every month, and every year of my life, my hero is always 10 years away.

I'm never going to be my hero. I'm not going to attain that. I know I'm not. And that's just fine with me because that keeps me with somebody to keep on chasing. So to any of us, whatever those things are, whatever it is we look up to, whatever it is we look forward to, and whoever it is we're chasing, to that I say amen. To that I say all right, all right, all right. And to that I say just keep living, huh. Thank you. Nobody has ever choked. I have. You know what I'm talking about, fumbling at the goal line, stuck your foot in your mouth once you got to the microphone, had a brain freeze on the exam that you were totally prepared for, forgot the punchline to

a joke in front of 4,000 graduating students at the University of Houston commencement? Or maybe you've had that feeling of, oh my God, life just cannot get any better than this moment. And ask yourself, do I deserve this? Now, what happens when we get that feeling? Tense up. We have this sort of outer body experience where we are literally seeing ourself in the third person and we realize that the moment just got bigger than us. You ever felt that way? I have. And it's because we have created a fictitious ceiling, a roof, to our expectations of ourselves. A limit where we think it's all too good to be true. But it's not.

And it's not our right to say or believe it is. We shouldn't create these restrictions on ourselves. A blue ribbon, a statue, a score, a great idea, the love of our life Are you for it bliss? Who are we to think that we don't deserve or haven't earned these gifts when we get them? It's not alright But if we stay in process, all right within ourselves in the joy of the doing We will never choke at the finish line Why? Because we will never choke at the finish line why because we aren't thinking of the finish line because we're not looking at the clock we're not watching ourselves on the jumbotron performing the very act that

we're in the middle of no we're in process the approach is the destination and we are never finished Bo Jackson Jackson, what did he do? He used to run over the goal line, through the end zone, and up the tunnel. The greatest snipers and marksmen in the world, they don't aim at the target. They aim on the other side of the target. We do our best when our destinations are beyond the measurement. When our reach continually exceeds our grasp and when we have immortal Finish lines and when we do this the race is never over journey has no port

The adventure never ends because we are always on the way So do this Do this and let them let somebody else come up and tap you on the shoulder and say hey You school Let them run up and tap you on the shoulder and say, hey, you scored. Let them run up and tap you on the shoulder and say, man, you won. Let them come tell you, you can go home now. Let them say, I love you too. Let them say, thank you.

Take the lid off the man-made roofs that we put above ourselves and always play like an underdog. Here we go. Responsibility of freedom and the freedom in responsibility. Life's more than just straight Saturdays with as much cake as you want to eat. It just is. You will see how long you last doing that. If you really do it, you won't last that long. Responsibility is appreciation of a past. It's building of a lineage. It's investing in ourselves. It's investing in something we started to build yesterday that we want to take into tomorrow. There's a response that gives us freedom. So to actually have true freedom, we have to be more responsible for certain things,

for ourselves, who we are. Constantly investigating and interrogating our better selves to say, I'm gonna be a little bit better at this tomorrow. Knowing that we never land. We never, there's no ta-da moment. And that is one thing I think we all gotta watch because we all are so result-oriented.

But there's no ta-da moment. We're always chasing yet. And if we can get comfortable and understand and laugh and be ready to work hard at the fact that we're all just achieving our way to the unachievable. And that's as good as it gets. And that's pretty damn awesome. Thank you. Good luck. You just eat living.