As Haroon Yaya noted

I always wonder why birds stay in

the same place when they can fly
anywhere on earth
and then I ask myself the same
question
as mark twain put it the secret of
getting ahead is getting started
and that's where people get stuck
you're
literally like the bird you could fly
anywhere you want you can go
anywhere
you want to go and look I know
you've
got a litany of excuses and
all of them are valid you've got a
job you can't just leave or you don't
have a
job and you don't have the money
your family is in one place it's the
only thing that you've ever known
you only speak one language
 you've never
traveled before you don't have a
passport
you can't afford the gas money
there are a thousand
real reasons not to go
but the truth is that none of them
matter the truth is if you want to
build
something in your life then you
have to remember
what mark twain said you have to
get started because at the end of the
day that is
literally the only thing that's
holding you back you're not
moving
and once you get the simplicity of
that once you understand
that you could act right now you
could
say all the excuses you could stop
making them you could stop giving
 in to them no matter how
valid they are no matter how real
they may seem
you can finally decide that you're
going
to get up and move that you're
going to
create that momentum that you're
going
to take a step that you're going
gonna
make the demand
that you create momentum that you
get
something done that you
find an answer or as hannibal said
that
you're going to find a way or
make one if you have to carve
through
rock do it
because humans before you have
done it
 and that's the simple truth that is
the simple truth
and everything else is
everything else
is the weak voice in your mind
holding
you back
and making you a less version of
yourself so i ask you
why doesn't the bird fly wherever it
wants to go
because that's all it's known
because
that's what's safe
because that's what's comfortable
or
because it's an animal
what do you want to be if this isn't
the
life you want to live
do something about it as albert
Einstein said
try not to become a man of success
 but rather
try to become a man of value this
is something that
i think about a lot at the end of the
day success is
incredibly motivating and
accomplishing
your goals and your dreams is
something that
I wanted to do since I was a little
kid
that's been a driving force in my
life
but through all of that the times
that I
felt happiest the times that i felt
most
secure the times that my anxiety
and my
stress had been at zero
are the times where i felt like i was
being most true
to myself where i was trying to
 really
become a person of substance i
wasn't
looking for something extrinsic
i was focused inward and trying to
develop the person that i'm
becoming
that i had
some code that i was living by that
i
was really
deciding not just what outwardly
success
looks like but what does it mean to
be a
good person what does it mean to
be an
effective person what does it mean
to be
worthy of trust and those things at
the
end of the day
those things are something that
 when you
invest in
finding value in that that it takes
you
somewhere
amazing and as bruce lee said
knowledge
will give you power
but character will give you respect
and
at the end of the day i really can't
think of anything better than that i
can't think of anything
that will keep me company when
i'm alone
when there's
nothing but silence around when
all i
can hear the sounds of my own
thoughts
the only thing that is going to bring
me
or you
 comfort is respect his self-love is
knowing who you are really and
knowing
that you're true to that even when
nobody's looking and
that concept that notion of having a
guiding light a principle
something by which you steer by
that you
are always true to and then
in your moments of stress chaos
confusion
of desire that in your moments of
deepest desire
that you're still true to that that all
you think about is that north star of
being that person that you want to
be
when you let that be your guiding
light
when you stay true to
that nothing can hurt you
because nothing will be able to
 make you
feel badly about yourself
because once you know who you
are and
you're true to it
nothing else matters
as walt disney said if you can
dream it
you can do it
now what makes me laugh as i
know right
now some of the people listening
to that
they say that's they're just
limits to what humans can do
and i get that response i understand
it
i used to respond to everything like
that i used to see
only the difficulty i used to see
only
the ways in which it couldn't work
out
 and i couldn't see i was literally
blinded by
fear i was blinded by some bizarre
sense
of pride that wanted to
justify my limited existence that
didn't
want to have to face that i could be
doing more that i couldn't be more
that my life was somehow less than
what
it could be
and so i would laugh at quotes like
that
and i know right now of the chills i
know
right now there are people that are
laughing at that and all they can
think
about are the limits all they can
think
about
are the things that prove him
 wrong and
guess what he is wrong
there really are limits but if you
waste your time
focused on that you're never going
to
create the momentum that you
need to
actually make something come true
in
your life
you can build virtually anything
but if
you get
hung up on the virtual part if
you let that stop you
if you immediately go to the things
that
ultimately limit you and hold you
back
that is where you're gonna stay
forever because if you argue for
your
 limitations guess what my friend
they become yours and
congratulations
you now get to live in that box you
get
to live in that self-defined prison
but if like teddy roosevelt said
instead
of that
you keep your eyes on the stars and
your
feet on the ground and you don't
act
like somebody who can't see that
sure
there are limits
there are edges to this universe but
you're looking
not at that you're looking at how do
you
really
execute you're dreaming big and
you're
 remembering that your feet
ultimately is that contact point it is
where the rubber meets the road it
is that moment of doing
and so if instead of rejecting it
because your feet must
stay planted on the ground
remember that
in keeping your feet on the ground
that's the moment of action that's
the
moment of doing something about
it
that's the moment of seeing the
possibilities and then
moving doing something
making it real so right now give up
on
those
weird mental mechanisms that
make you
actually want to fight for the things
that aren't possible to get people to
 believe in it to get people to
understand
why you've chosen to stand still
instead of that convince yourself
that
you should be moving
and go do what you know you're
destined
to do
[Music]
here's the hard truth about getting
great
[Music]
it takes time and dedication it takes
a
willingness to
accept that you're not yet good
enough
it takes the ability
to stare at the places that you know
that you're weak to really look at
those
things and not let it
 affect your sense of self-esteem
and not
let it affect your sense of self-
worth
so that you can still
get the momentum going but you
have to
understand that in the beginning
we're all terrible and as henry
cartier-bresson said
your first 10 000 photographs are
your
worst
and so the thing that really makes
great
art are the people that continue to
push
and the people that continue to
work
and face how inadequate they are
and
really
understand that at the end of the
 day
greatness is a craft
greatness is a process greatness
is a habit greatness is the little
things that you do
every day over time going out
every day
unafraid of whether or not this is
one
of the ten
thousand terrible things that you're
going to do it's being unafraid to
make
those mistakes
is being unafraid that you're not yet
great and as marianne radmaker
said
courage doesn't always roar
sometimes
courage is the quiet voice at the
end of
the day saying
i will try again tomorrow and that's
 it
if you want to be great that's what
you
have to do you've got to get up
again
tomorrow
you've got to be willing to face
another
day you've got to be willing to
accept
that you've got to get through the
bad
ideas
before you can get to the good
you've
got to understand that you have to
start
as an apprentice
you have to start as a person going
and
getting t and you have to accept
that that's the job that you should
be
playing that you should be working
for
somebody else you should be
looking up
to somebody else's seeing
what they can teach you because
what you
know
is that you're there to learn what
you
know is that you're there to get
through
the 10
000 bad photographs that you need
to get
through to ultimately achieve
greatness
and if you make the catastrophic
error
that so
many make to try to tell the world
that
you're extraordinary today
 to try to get the world to follow
you
and look up to you and think that
you're
something
today because the people that
really win
are the ones that invest today the
ones
that
listen today the ones that spend
every
ounce of their
energy amassing mastery getting
better every day working their
asses off
to improve their skill set to
relentlessly look at the things that
they're not doing well
to understand that they have to
break
themselves down and get rid of all
of
 their ego before they can really
find greatness those are the people
that
we remember
so if you want to be remembered if
you
want to achieve
real greatness you just need to have
the
courage to show up
every day and take another swing
take another photo try another task
do something that scares you and
do
those little things
over and over and over
until you win
greatness is the most demanding
mistress
you're
ever going to encounter and i
understand
the advice that i'm about to give
 you
is not for everyone most people
should turn this off but if you're
going
to stick with me if you're going to
listen to what i have to say it's
because you want something
tremendous in
your life
you want to stand out from
everyone else
you want to do something
more than other people think is
possible
you literally
want to stand outside the norm and
if
that's
the case for you then understand
that as albert einstein said only one
who devotes himself to a cause
with his
whole
 strength and soul can be a true
master
for this reason mastery demands
all of a person if you want to
get great if you really want to make
a
skill set your own if you want to be
able to do something and at the end
of
the day
if you want to transform the world
if
you want to make grand changes if
you
want to do
all of that all the empty words
that people spout all the time
let me tell you the only thing that's
going to separate you from all the
other
blowhards who are just talking
words
and will never do anything
is to give yourself over completely
to
let that obsession
let that thing that you love
completely
consume you
and in that your only chance
to really become great lies
[Music]
as friends kafka said don't bend
don't
water down
don't try to make it logical rather
follow your most
intense obsessions mercilessly
can you do that can you become
mercilessly obsessed
can you let something occupy you
to
where all
logic and reason is gone out the
window
and the only thing that matters
 is whether or not you accomplish
will
you hold yourself accountable to
metrics
will you look at the world and see
am i
actually
making change are you prepared to
hold
yourself to that standard because if
you
are
there is nothing you can't do if
you're willing to take that
responsibility on
to transform yourself as a human
being
if you
give your self over
to getting great
if you give yourself over to that
obsession if you feed it
like you would feed a beast if you
 feed
it like you would feed a fire that
can
wipe out an entire mountainside
then you've got a chance but it's
got to
burn within you like that you've
got to
feed it like that
you've got to feed its skills you've
got
to get better
every day you've got to constantly
wake
up
and understand exactly what it is
you're
building towards that and build
towards
it with a relentlessness
that other people think is mania
that
other people can see
 only madness in what you do
and if you can push yourself to that
level
then the world will bend to your
will
as naval ravicant said the only way
to
truly learn something
is by doing it yes listen to guidance
but don't wait that is such
a powerful idea and i know right
now
you're listening to this because you
want motivation you want to be
inspired
but my greatest
fear is that you'll get
motivated you'll get inspired and
that'll just be a declining arc for a
few minutes after you listen to this
video that ends with you doing
nothing and what i want what i
really
hope for and the reason that i give
myself over to making these so
completely
as i know some percentage of you
on the
other side of this will
ultimately be prepared to take that
first step
you will realize that the only thing
that matters is action and you will
take
that action
and it's in that action that your
potential greatness
waits and as martin luther king said
take the first step in faith
you don't have to see the whole
staircase just take the first step
you've just got to believe that you
can
learn
you don't have to believe that
you're
already capable of doing what you
want
you don't have to believe that you
can
already build that thing that you
dream
you don't have to believe that you
already are extraordinary you
simply have to believe that if you
take
that first step
you put yourself on a journey not
of
execution you put yourself on a
journey
of
learning so that you can execute
and
that
when you understand that
difference
that's when you really will be on
that
 path to greatness and that is the
thing
that i want for everybody listening
to
this
please understand the only thing
you
need to know is that you have to
take
the first
step whatever the vision is that you
have for your life you absolutely
can
make it come true
and the process is very simple the
process is about learning the
process is
about growing
and getting better it's about
recognizing what you're not good
at
it's about recognizing what you
have to
 learn it's about taking
that first step on faith
faith that you can get better not on
faith that you're great
on faith that you can become the
greatest of all time
and once you have that faith once
you
know that simply being a human
being
puts you in this rare category of
creature that can
get better through pressure through
pain
through difficulty through
failure those are the things that are
going to be the building blocks of
your
success but in order
to begin on that road in order to
have
your first glorious failure you must
first
 take that first step
so please don't waste your time
being
motivated or inspired spend every
second of your time moving
forward
[Music]
that's how you're going to get
where you
want to go
as daniel ping said people fail to
achieve
mastery not because they aren't
talented
but because they aren't disciplined
the
wonderful news about the human
condition
is you can get good at anything that
you
set your mind to it's just not going
to
be easy
and it's not going to be fast but the
willingness to put in that work
is what's going to separate you
from
everybody else and i'm begging
you to
see yourself
right now today as average
as no better than anyone else but i
beg you with more force than i
know how
to convey with this language to see
yourself as malleable
to see yourself as capable of
becoming
anything
you want to become to become
truly
extraordinary if you can find
within
yourself the discipline
to stick with it long enough and as
steve martin said perseverance
 is a great substitute for talent
everybody wants to talk about
who's
talented
everybody looks at the person with
innate talent as if they have
something
magical
but to me it's a gift it's a handout
it's a freebie it hasn't been earned
and
no matter what it is
it's only the beginning even
somebody
that has talent even if you get an
early
win
if you let somebody outwork you if
you
let somebody who has more
perseverance
more grit than you then they are
going
 to outperform you on a long
enough
timeline
the only thing i can guarantee is
you
will be out worked by somebody
unless you pour your heart and
soul into
getting great if you don't take days
off
if you
put yourself into it as if your life
depended on it when you act like
that
then you've got a chance to be
great
and as robert horey said pressure
can
bust pipes
but it can also make diamonds
you've got
to want that pressure
you've got to want things to be
 hard you
can't seek out the easy life
you can't just hope and pray that
you
can uncover inside of you some
talent
that's laid dormant that you didn't
know
about that's gonna let things be
easy
for you
don't want the easy want the hard
want
the pressure want the thing that's
going
to turn you into something
[Music]
because when it's easy you don't
work
for it
when it's easy you don't push when
it's
easy you get surpassed by the
 person who
has to give it their all who's
prepared
to do blood sweat and tears in
order to
become
that thing that they want to be so
badly
because they are
so angry that they were never
given
anything and with that chip on
their
shoulder they're determined to
become
anything that they set their mind to
so whether you have talent whether
you
don't
the only thing that matters is will
you
persevere
will you stick with it long enough
 to
get great
as thomas edison said our greatest
weakness lies in giving up
the most certain way to succeed is
to
always try
one more time
i know there are going to be a
million
times in your life where you want
to
give up where you
absolutely ache with the desire to
quit
where
nothing sits inside of your gut
other
than the certainty that you are
going to
fail that you are not
good enough to push forward but
that is
 to fundamentally misunderstand
the
nature of a failure the nature of a
failure is not to tell you who you
are
the nature of a failure is to tell you
a
way that didn't work it's to inform
it's
to
educate you it's to test you it's to be
a gut check to find out if you
believe
in yourself enough to push forward
even when the world seems to be
telling
you not to
and as brian tracy said attempt the
impossible
in order to improve your work
think
about that for a second
attempt the impossible just to get
 better to try the things that you
know are going to fail things that
the
world is going to tell you simply
cannot
be
but even if it violates the laws of
physics if there's something in that
attempt that you're going to learn
you owe it to yourself you have a
moral obligation
to try because all
of the people that will lie in your
wake
are the people that didn't try
simply because they didn't believe
that
they could do it
you have to be willing to look at
the
world you have to be willing to
see things that you yourself think
are
 impossible and try
because in that you will stretch
yourself you have to be willing to
look
inward at the state of your current
skill set and say
i'm going to play outside of that i'm
not going to play word safe
i'm going to play where it hurts i'm
going to play where i feel clumsy
i'm
going to play only in the areas that
make me feel stupid because
in that i know that the way that the
brain responds is through
adaptation
but i have to stress myself
you can't ever lose sight of that the
only way that the human animal
adapts is
through stress
you have to be willing to break
things
 in order to build something new
so if you want to push the
boundaries if
you want to see just how far you
can go
if you want to succeed
at the highest level if you want to
play
on a global scale you
have got to be willing to try the
impossible because right now
the things that you need to do are
impossible for you
but they won't remain that way
forever
and as aristotle said pleasure in the
job
puts perfection in the work this
doesn't
have to be a tale of always being
terrified
everybody myself included
screaming at
you telling you that you need to go
do
something great the part they're
leaving
out is
why the should you care
you should care because it's the
greatest joy you should only
listen to this if it's leading you
down
a path that makes you feel more
alive
and that's the point
the point is to get in touch with
something that makes you feel
great but
not
to let yourself starve or be stopped
by a fear that you'll fail by a fear
that it can't be done
have fun have the guts to enjoy
yourself
have the guts to go
 out and attempt something
audacious and
terrifying knowing that
all along if you're doing it right
you're gonna have a good time so
all of
this
going balls out trying to prove
something to yourself trying to do
something amazing
never lose sight that it's to build a
better life
never lose sight of the fact that
you're
doing it
to create the person that you want
to be
never
lose sight of the fact that it should
be
fun
as kurt vonnegut one of the
greatest
 authors
in modern times said when i write
i feel like an armless legless man
with
a crayon in his mouth
but he still did it and that's the kind
of thing that you're going to hear
from
the greats you're not going to hear
that it was easy you're not going to
hear that they felt suave and cool
even the greatest of all time have
that
awkwardness that clumsiness
they're
never quite as good as they want to
be
but what i want you to understand
is
even though kurt vonnegut said
those
words
he wrote tons of books
 that changed people's lives that
changed
the landscape of literature because
despite
the fact that he felt awkward and
clumsy
he kept doing it and doing it and
forcing himself to move forward
to take one step after another even
when
the process
was not exactly rewarding he
believed in
something
he knew that what he was trying to
do
would ultimately
get better he knew that if he
wanted to
accomplish
something great that he had to push
through the awkwardness and
that is the very trick to getting
 great
you just have to do it you have to
go
you have to take that first step you
have to push you have to drive you
have
to strive
every time to get a little bit better
you have to strive
not to fall prey to your own doubts
and
insecurities
and as joe namath said if you aren't
going all the way why
go at all but it's doing that in face
of
the fear it's doing that
in face of the difficulties it isn't
only because someone is great that
they
say you should either do it
all the way to play hard or go home
they're not saying it because the
 process is in and of itself
rewarding
they're saying it because there is
something that they're trying to
accomplish that demands it
that they're prepared to play on a
world
stage and once you know
why you're doing what you're
doing once
something sits at the core of your
being
and despite how difficult painful
awkward it may be to push
forward you push forward
no matter what the odds
and as hannibal said one of the
greatest
military leaders
of all time i will either find a way
or i'll make one and he said that as
he
was getting elephants across the
 alps
now when you think of the
difficulties
that you face in trying to do what
you're trying to accomplish
think about that man amassing an
army
and getting elephants to climb a
mountain
and saying not this is impossible
but
rather
if there's not already a way present
i
will make one
and when you can look at that
when you
can look at your own inadequacies
when
you can accept that you are not
yet good enough but you know that
you'll
put in the work to get there you
 know
that you'll learn the things you
need to
learn
that you will push and you will
practice
and you will shape yourself
into someone capable of doing it
you
have to literally
carve your own path out of the
stone
granite of a mountainside you will
do that because that's what your
goals
demand
and when you're prepared to do
whatever
your goals demand you will
accomplish
whatever you set your mind to
as ernest hemingway noted the
world
 breaks
everyone and afterward many are
stronger
in the broken places
but my question is why isn't
everyone
to me it comes down to the
strategies
that you use
there really isn't anything
objectively
good or bad there isn't anything
that
happens to you
that can't be overcome there isn't
anything
that could happen to you anything
that
when you turn inward you can't
find a
reason to overcome you can't find a
way
to put those pieces back together
 and
that becomes your
job it becomes literally up to you
whether you're going to sit and
wallow and woe
is me because what happened
happened and
there's no way to take it back but
how you respond what you
bring to that table whether you
meet
fire with fire whether you
meet that adversity with falling
apart
becoming weaker in the areas that
broke or you
bind them and mend them and it
becomes like a well that literally
makes you stronger is a choice and
it's a choice
only you get to make
but as stephen hawking said when
you
 complain
nobody wants to help you there are
many things in your life do you
have
every reason to complain about
you have
every reason to be upset by the
things
that have happened to you
the most sinister thing about
excuses
is they're valid there's a million
reasons why you should be able to
give
up there's a million reasons why
you shouldn't need to try
that thing that broke you you
should be
allowed to just sit on the ground
and
here's the thing that's your right
you have every reason to do it and
maybe
people won't even think less of you
but here's the truth you either
become
weaker or stronger in the places
that broke
and that's a choice of how you
react moving forward
the great news is the best thing that
you could do to become stronger
is love yourself and as Kamal
Ravikant said
loving yourself is a practice people
think that it's something that's
going
to feel right that it's going to feel
natural that you're just going to
turn
inward and there it is the spark of
love and joy
for yourself inside yourself but the
truth is that's just not the human
experience
that's not the way that it works
 there's
gonna be a voice inside your head
and it's going to
blame you it's gonna say that it's
your fault and no matter
how many times people on the
outside
tell you that that is not true that this
thing
happened to you that it isn't you it
doesn't define you
there will be a voice that's going to
tell you that it does
and that's where you have to fall
back
on process that's where you have to
realize that you literally
have to practice loving yourself
and that it's okay
that no matter what happened there
is absolutely nothing that
invalidates that you're worthy of
your own love
but you've got to practice it you've
got
to be willing to do it you've got to
be willing to put in the reps you've
got to know that it's not going to
feel right
but you've got to know on the other
side of that
is a vision of your life where you
actually
do love yourself because you took
the time to say it you took the time
to practice it you took the time to
sit there and feel stupid
and say that you love yourself and
sometimes just putting in the work
is what you need to do to get
strong so put in the work

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