Wake Up Early and Start Your Day Right

0:00Huh, spring is back. The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming, and it's finally the time of year when we start opening our windows and patio doors again. If yours are sticking, drafty, or just showing their age, spring is the perfect time for an upgrade. Window World, America's exterior remodeler, offers beautiful energy-efficient windows and patio doors designed to make your home more comfortable year-round. And with special financing available, upgrading your home may be easier than you think. Let the sun shine in this spring. Get your free quote today at windowworld.com slash podcast. At Strayer University, we help students like you go from, will I? To why not? For over 130 years, we've been innovating higher education to make it more affordable, accessible, and attainable. So you can reach your goals. Go from thinking, can I? To yes, I can. And keep striving. Visit Strayer.edu to learn more. Strayer University is certified to operate in Virginia by Chevin as many campuses, including at 2121 15th Street North in Arlington, Virginia.

1:01This is a simple reminder. One that I personally cling to often, and who knows, may just be exactly what you need right now. The reminder to keep going. To simply pick your head up and carry on. Here's the reality. Life is peaks in its valleys. And for the most part, we know this. But what we forget is that sometimes the space between peaks is long enough that we may not remember why we're walking. We may lose faith in the next summit. When right now hurts to the extent that it becomes forever in our minds, we must remember why it is we move forward. And that we are capable of the journey. The path you're walking is no one else's. It is yours. Your prize position.

2:02What if it's weight-ingled? You get to stumble through the unknown, push through the chaos, and come out the other side stronger. You don't have to. You get to. But please, with all the strength you have, remember that your view is waiting. Don't let a temporary pain become a permanent mistake. It happens to so many. And I'm asking you to not let it be you. It's funny. People so often talk about statistics. The percentage that make it. The fraction of a percentage who obtain glory. But upon hearing this, they look at the statistic the same way they do a jar of marbles. Okay, one red 99 blue. Therefore, my chances of getting a red are 1%.

3:03And while life is jam-packed with variables and unfortunately void of guarantees, these things are not the same. Life is not a jar of marbles. If 1% of the population can compete in an Iron Man, this isn't because of chance. It's because that 1% A deemed themselves worthy. B changed their lifestyle accordingly. C found time to get the workouts in. D continued through the hurt, the pain, the body breaking down. E invested in recovery. And you get the idea. With all those checkpoints. What's the likelihood that the average person would hit one of them and decide, you know what? I don't want this enough. It's incredibly high. And that's why few people do incredible things. But that's not reflective of a scratch-off lottery ticket.

4:03That's a mere question of how bad one wants it. So perhaps the framing for things like this should change from only 1% can do X to only 1% was willing to do what it took to get there. There is a tremendous difference. Which brings me back to the path you're walking, the discomfort you're in, the pain you're feeling, the anxiety of a lapsed time, void a result or recognition. See, there's a time when being screamed at to simply shut up and keep going is valuable. And I'm telling you, there are days when I need that. Just go. Perfect. But this is a little different. I want to give you here a perspective shift you can keep in your back pocket for the rest of your life. When you feel you're at a breaking point, when you want to give up.

5:05I want you to say to yourself, someone else was once at this point. Others are at this point now. And most because of this discomfort that I'm feeling in this moment would turn around. In fact, most will turn around. So what type of statistic do I want to be? See, pain is not a punishment. It's a filter. It separates those who want it from those who merely enjoyed the idea of it. I believe it was Robin Sharma who said, if you want, but only the 5% have. You need to be willing to do. It's like, think of everything in life as a series of trade-offs. If you want comfort now, listen, who am I to say you're wrong? You do you. But I want you to understand the repercussions. I want to make it clear comfort doesn't become greatness.

6:09So when choosing your comfort now, you're forfeiting excellence and all the things associated with it. You are settling into that 99% category. Not because of luck, but because of a decision you made. On the other hand, if you can forego comfort now, you put yourself in position to delay that gratification and live a life so spectacular down the road that it's beyond comprehension. When it hurts, it is life placing you at a checkpoint. When you're so unsure about what's next that your visceral reaction is fear, that's the world placing before you an opportunity to obtain that which you've never had. Refrain difficulty. It is the price associated with the best things life has to offer. That's all.

7:15And listen, when I say I've wandered through the desert between those peaks of victory, I'm not exaggerating. Extractions of years. And I'm a pretty practical person, right? My lizard brain often cries out, enough is enough. There are easier ways. This is pointless, useless, all in vain. But I think of that fork in the road. The aforementioned scenario. Others have stood right here, are standing right here, and will stand right here until the end of time. Right at this spot. And this spot has killed so many dreams. The spot has stopped so many people who wanted it, maybe even wanted it badly, but not badly enough. And now, as I stand here, I am going to be one of the few who choose differently.

8:21Not because I'm special, but because I can, because I'm capable of deciding it so, and so are you. I'll leave you with this, when it hurts. Do not run. Don't misinterpret the situation as the universe striking you down. Don't see the pain as a stop sign. See it for what it truly is. The chance to live a life beyond your wildest imagination. A gift. An opportunity. The reason that you will ultimately stand amongst the one percent who decided you know what I can't see the future. I can't see around this corner, but today, here, now, I will push through.

9:25The other day, I was sitting in Miami traffic, looking out the window, and it dawned on me. How interesting that human beings haven't solved for this. Like, this is a major annoyance in a lot of people's lives. Now, we put human beings on a rocket ship. We've navigated them beyond the Earth's atmosphere. We've landed them on the moon. But still, are unable to effectively get around between four and seven p.m. on weekdays. It's just kind of interesting to realize. Now, there are very practical reasons for this, sure. Not to mention people studying and invested in the problem. And I think most know where they, I'm not even saying one is more valuable than another. This is merely a thought experiment. We get the results where we place our attention.

10:29We valued going to the moon because of this, humans walks on the literal moon. And we're so used to this having happened that it's shock value isn't quite there, right? But for a species who 100 years ago is traveling by horse and buggy, that's pretty impressive. Now, I just think it's a cool reminder that where we place our focus is where we'll get our positive results. We can change everything if we place a spotlight on it. That begs the question, where are you placing your spotlight? As John Maxwell said, nobody ever went up a hill on accident. There was intentionality, which gave life to focus and action, planning, growth. We only evolve or we shine that spotlight, or as I've said in previous episodes or videos, what you water grows.

11:33I've certainly spent my fair share of time angry, annoyed by things that have, by no coincidence, given zero effort to fixing. And when you do nothing to solve a problem, all you can cling to is the ability to complain about it. If you're not putting energy and resources there, you most likely won't win. Some of the best advice I got from a friend a few years back was to highlight the things that matter to you and measure them, because this allows you to be aware, to be intentional with your action. It's deciding which handful of things are going to be your, quote unquote, moon landing, and then watching over them like they are precious. Now, let's say a goal of yours to increase your net worth. If you're looking at your bank account every day, you're much more likely to make better monetary decisions than someone who keeps their finances in the dark, because they hate thinking about it.

12:33There are deliberate actions that must take place to bring about that change. When I look at, say, YouTube, I tend to know a substantial amount about my metrics, because I really care about the channel and its growth and its impact. I watch it and I monitor it. Things dip, I need to know why, if they took a sudden upswing and they're great, I need to know why. If success on a platform is my metaphorical moon landing, I'm locked into every up and down. I have to understand what's going on, so I can make the necessary adjustments to grow. And then when the growth happens after time has elapsed, I can think, in my own little world, that was space trouble. I was driving that metaphorical horse and buggy not all that long ago, but I stayed locked in. And this may seem simple, and it is.

13:33But for what it's worth, my biggest breakthroughs always tend to be. I've exhausted a lot of energy, and in some cases even paid a decent amount of money to learn the simple things. Nothing is that complicated. We just think it is. Which is why we do nothing and then complain about the delta between the real and the ideal. But I'm here to tell you that if you decide on a few things that matter to you, and then measure their progress, allocate the energy to moving along with them, where you'll be in months or years from now will astound you. It will be breathtaking. But you have to be willing to peel back the curtain and immerse yourself in it, prove to yourself that sure it might feel big and complex. But once you give something that time and attention, it becomes clear pretty quickly how simple it all is.

14:34What's one thing you can do every day, in each meaningful category in your life, that will get you closer to where you want to be? If you watch over that process and you adjust along the way, the amount of opportunity available, the amount of change you'll create, is unbelievable. And someday to others, on the outside looking in, your progress will seem out of this world larger than life. It will appear a moon landing. But you'll know it wasn't the miraculous. It was just a simple decision to give it time and attention. You watered it, and so, it grew. Someone once told me that no one further along than you will ever try and bring you down.

15:49That it's the people who see you pursuing your dream and are reminded that they've given up on theirs that usually make the most noise. And knowing this essentially invalidates all criticism. Who cares? It's the metaphorical dog nipping at your ankles. One, it's to be expected and two, often best ignored. The question is, are you able to separate it out? Spring is back. The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming, and it's finally the time of year when we start opening our windows and patio doors again. If yours are sticking, drafty, or just showing their age, spring is the perfect time for an upgrade. Window World, America's exterior remodeler offers beautiful energy efficient windows and patio doors designed to make your home more comfortable year round. And with special financing available, upgrading your home may be easier than you think. Let the sunshine in this spring. Get your free quote today at windowworld.com slash podcast.

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