3 WAYS to OVERCOME TEMPTATION that LEADS TO SUFFERING AND UNWISE DECISIONS! – 050

Don’t invite suffering. – AUDIO NSFW

Have you ever been tempted before? Of course, you have! Of course, you have been tempted before. You’ve been tempted before, haven’t you? I mean I bet you can harken back to many different situations in your life in which you were tempted and I think we can all agree here that at the other end of that temptation was ruin. Wasn’t it ruined at the other end of that temptation? You know one of the craziest things about temptation is that temptation is always attractive. Isn’t temptation always attractive? 

I can give you examples. Temptation is never ugly. It’s it never looks bad. It’s like feasting on tons of great food. It looks great. It looks attractive. We have this place that we love to go as a family. We love it so much that we have renamed it. It’s called Food Heaven. At Food Heaven, it is unlimited top-shelf meats. I mean we can’t go to Food Heaven too many times because it is just too much temptation. I know that’s it’s not a great example, but it’s a true example for millions of people every day. Food is a great temptation. It looks great but the calories are killing us. 

What about the temptation of a financial deal? A too good to be true, you’re not gonna lose anything, you’re only gonna win, get those gains, guys? Have you ever been scammed before? I’ve been scammed before online. In my past, I’ve purchased too good to be true little get-rich-quick schemes in my naive youth. I got sucked into it. 

What about this? What about the attractive woman? What about the bubbly and an overly bubbly and an attractive woman on the other end of that business deal? She’s just a little too friendly. She’s just a little bit too touchy and after the business deal was done, she lingered just a little bit too long around you. You ever been there before? 

Temptation only leads to unwise decisions and ruins on the other end of it. On the other end of the spectrum of temptation is ruin, guys. I wrote this down here as a definition for me. Temptation is a desire enticing you to make an unwise decision. That is the context of today’s conversation. You have many choices to make throughout the day. You have many options throughout the day. You have all these decisions to make and not all of them come under the guise or come under the context of temptation, which is a negative thing. Temptation is a desire enticing you to make an unwise decision. But don’t miss this guys, it’s a desire that just conjured up in you, that is already in you. 

Temptation isn’t bad. Temptation isn’t bad. If we use a religious term, temptation isn’t a sin in and of itself. But what temptation can do is it reveals an internal desire that may just get you in to trouble in life. Isn’t that the case? Temptation in and of itself isn’t bad, but it can reveal an internal desire in you, something that’s innate in you, that may just get you in trouble in life considering the circumstances in which the temptation is today. 

Wise men see temptation coming a mile away. They’ve seen the script. They’ve seen the footage. They know what happens at the end of this story mostly because of their vast amount of experience being tempted in their youth and their younger years and failing that test over and over. Wise men see that temptation coming. They know what’s gonna happen. They’ve gone through these behaviors before.

Brother/sister, man, I could tell you how many times I’ve been in tempting situations where I’m like hmm, I’ve smelled this before. I get this. And being hopefully, the wise individual that I am, I either do one of two things. I prepare to overcome it because I’m stuck in this situation and I have to push through it and persevere through it or I remove myself. 

One of the things and one of the reasons why this kind of sparked in my mind is my overall disdain for social media. You guys have heard and plenty of times in these podcasts and in these series how much I hate and despise social media for its effects on humans. Now, social media like temptation isn’t bad. It’s not it’s not bad in and of itself. The problem with social media is it reveals issues flaws in our character, immature aspects of our humanity desires in us and they take those desires to the wrong levels. 

Social media has often been blamed for infidelity. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. You ever see or ever hear or ever read of an article or someone talking that social media is to be blamed for infidelity? Social media should be blamed for people cheating on each other. That is 100% bullshit. You know why? Because social media isn’t the problem. Let me tell you the problem guys. 

Social media is not the problem. Acting single on social media when you’re not single is the fucking problem. You see, men and women are fucking weak. You’re weak. You’re weak. You’re in a relationship. While you’re in that relationship, you know what you’re doing? I’m gonna look at this from a high level. It’s gonna sound really cheesy and really bad but that’s by design. 

You’re in a relationship with someone else and you know what you’re doing, you’re on your phone smashing like buttons, swiping up or swiping left or swiping right or whatever you swipe and spending time focusing on pictures of people that you don’t even know. Why are you doing that? What why do I see so many memes and so many jokes of girls coming in and seeing their boyfriends hearting other hot girls on Instagram or TikTok or Twitter or Snapchat or whatever other systems you guys use. I’m like why is that a meme? Why is that a thing? 

It’s because these men are weak. These men are weak. You’re with a girl. Focus on her. Give her your all. Why you hearting other bikini clad women on fucking social media? What’s your problem, dude? You immature fuck! What’s your dysfunction? What’s your major malfunction? Are you not getting the love? Are you getting the validity you need? Are you not receiving the feel-good that you need because you’ve been programmed by the mainstream media that you need to feel good all the time and your needs are more important than anyone else’s? 

This slays me guys. It slays me that social media is blamed for infidelity when social media cannot be blamed for infidelity. It’s a weak man. It’s a weak woman on the other side of social media who act single when they’re not. 

Temptation in my book—and I have a small book—only leads to bad. How can we prepare? How can we overcome temptation in the trials of will? I’ll tell you. You must your emotions. If you want to go back, you can search for Master Your Emotions in a podcast and listen to that. But a temptation always requires a situation. It requires a situation to be in. You have an innate desire. You have innate needs, innate feelings, and those feelings aren’t wrong. The temptations aren’t wrong. It’s just when the temptation and the situation in those feelings all come together and it tempts you. It tempts you to do stupid shit. 

For example, shitty business deals. When I say shitty business deals, what I’m really talking about is like get-rich-quick scams and these types of things. What about the temptation to cheat on your taxes, the temptation to cheat on expense reports? I don’t know why that’s coming off of my mind. It’s probably because I still have shit in my spine making me think about my consulting life of old. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked with guys who not even well-intentioned. They’re just stating a matter of fact that they just not cheat, but they don’t do their expense reports. 

I worked with a lot of it consultants. They don’t do their expense reports right. They expense something that shouldn’t be expensed. Of course, are they ever going to be caught? No. No one’s ever gonna be caught when you’re doing expense reports as a consultant. For me, it mattered. For me, it mattered to be aboveboard. For me, it mattered to make sure that I was filling out everything correctly, that I wasn’t billing for work I didn’t do. Maybe that’s just a moral and ethical conundrum. Maybe that’s just something for me because I’m puritanical in nature. I don’t know. I mean like expense reports, business deals, taxes.

Cutting corners in business is a temptation. Doing the shitty thing, not having good quality with your service or your products, cutting corners is a temptation. What about being honest? Just fucking being honest to people. The temptation to just exaggerate a little bit. The temptation to not tell the whole truth or the temptation to lie by omission or just not talk about it. 

What about peer temptation? Man, I could go all the way back, all the way to middle school and high school, guys. Man, I could tell you the peer temptations I had. If you’re listening to this and nearing the age group of middle school, high school or college, you know exactly what I’m talking about. I’ve talked about this before and I don’t mind saying again, but guys show me your friends and I’ll show you your future. Whoever you have fucking hanging out with is going to be your future. That’s going to be your future. 

Let me take a side tangent for a second here. If you’re like me, you’re always moving to the next level. If you’re always moving to the next level, then I’m gonna say something that might sound counterintuitive, but guess what? For me, it’s been a truism. It’s been a truth. Every time I move to the next level, I find a new set of friends. Sometimes I move through these levels fast in life. You say, well, what does fast mean? Well, maybe within a year, I will have completely changed the friends that surround me because I’m moving up. If you’re not moving up too, why should I allow you to stagnate me? That’s a temptation. 

I don’t know why you hang out with them. Does it make you feel good? Did they improve your life? Are they just a waste of time? Are they just a time bandit that you found, that hey, you know what hanging out with this guy, doesn’t hurt anything except when you look at it objectively, you just burn three hours doing nothing but talking about and watching Netflix in the background. Like what the fuck is that all about? 

Peer temptation to do stupid shit. I could tell you stories for days. I’m not even gonna go there. I did so much stupid shit in middle school, high school, college. College? I really figured shit out, but it was middle school and high school for me. 

What about relationship temptation? Obviously, be fucking faithful. I don’t even understand why people get into relationships and have already the intention that there’s gonna be some side chick or side man or something like that. I never really understood and I’ve had deep, long discussions with individuals in my past and sitting down for like hours talking with them about why I just don’t understand that. 

I just don’t understand why infidelity is a thing. Why is this fun? Why is it worth ruining your life? Let me break it down guys. When it comes to infidelity and relationships and the temptation to be unfaithful to your spouse, partner, girlfriend/boyfriend, whatever, most suffering in life comes through the means of relationships. If you like never get into a relationship, your suffering is dramatically reduced. It’s minimized because it’s only through the variable nature of humanity and humans because humans are fucking variable and you can never predict human behavior. 

The only reason we suffer in life in so many ways is because of relationships. Knowing this truth, why would you want to invite more suffering just because you get a little bit of poontang? I don’t understand men and their 3rd small ass leg. I don’t get it! I really don’t get it guys. Maybe someone in the comments, you can let me know what I’m missing here. But I’m telling you, I have had deep conversations with men who have gone through infidelity, who’ve gone through cheating scenarios. It either was their fault or their spouses fault. I’ve had conversations on both sides and still don’t get it. I never get it. 

What about the temptation to be wealthy, to be rich, get-rich-quick schemes, the allure of affluence, the allure of big houses, nice cars, freedom, power, prestige. Isn’t that temptation? The problem with money temptations is it creates idols in life. I’ll tell you the answer to this temptation. It’s generosity. Be generous with your time and your money. Give money away and maybe 

I should probably do a segment on this podcast in the future about this. But I will tell you that the more money you give away, the richer you become. It doesn’t make sense. If you just listen to what I just said, it doesn’t make sense from outward appearance, but I’m gonna tell you. The more that you give away, the more wealthy you become, at least, that’s been my experience. 

What is the answer to temptation? Remember temptation is a desire enticing you to make an unwise decision. A temptation requires a situation where your innate desires are already there but those innate desires if you are to choose generally lead to destruction. What is the answer to temptation? I’m gonna give you the answers. 

1. Intentional pre-planning. 

A discipline to pre-plan because of your youth, your elementary, middle school, high school, and maybe even college years, you have made so many shitty emotional decisions because of your naiveté, your ignorance in your youth. You made shitty decisions. You went out way too late. You got drunk. You got high. You slept over. You did stupid stuff. 

Hey, you know what? I’m not blaming you. I’m right there in the same boat as you, but you have learned, my friends. You have learned intentional pre-planning to decide, to always do the right thing even if it’s hard. 

Now this might not resonate with a lot of you guys, but I’m telling you this is what I communicate to my children all the time. I tell my kids this all the time. One of the goals of good living is to always tell the truth even if it hurts, to always do the right thing even if it hurts because only when you do the right thing:

• You will never have to think about it ever again. 
• You will always have a good night’s sleep.

There’s nothing weighing on your soul. I can’t tell you that how much that this adage, this idea, this principle in my life of intentional pre-planning to decide to always do the right thing and always be honest has saved me suffering, so much suffering because I never have to have a good memory. 

Ask my wife. I have a terrible memory, which is fantastic and it works excruciatingly well with someone like me because I can’t remember jack shit, guys. I can’t remember. I make a bad liar because if I say something, I don’t remember if I said it. For someone like me having short-term memory loss issues, just plan for it. Plan to do the right thing. Plan to say the truthful thing. I promise you, that life will be a life of prosperity. It’ll be a life of peace. Man, that’s so important. A life of peace where you’re not worried about what you done did yesterday, what you done said yesterday. You never have to worry about what you said. You could always sleep at night because you don’t have to remember anything. 

1. Avoid compromising situations.

Need I explain this? You have lived long enough on this plane of an earth that we have. You have lived long enough in this life to know of the patterns of temptation. The overly bubbly woman at that business deal who’s hanging out just a little bit too long—you know what that means! Don’t play stupid with me. I can’t believe how many times I’ve talked with men who’ve gone through infidelity and it’s their fucking fault. They have excuses after excuses after excuses after excuses. Brother, sack the fuck up. You’re responsible. You’re weak-minded. You are a weak man.

Avoid compromising situations. Why do you put yourself in situations in which your morals, your ethics, your principles, and your values will be on the chopping block? If you continue to compromise your morals, your values, your principles, you become nothing. You know what happens when you become nothing? You’re no good to anyone. You’re no good to anyone. You don’t stand for anything. 

Here’s a little tidbit. Do you want to know one of the secrets of creating content online? Be yourself. Be yourself. Be completely yourself. Be truthful. Be honest. Be who you are. And if you’re like me, you’ll find that you have a very small, very small ring of influence because the shit that I talk about is not fun, it’s life-changing, it’s helpful, it’s not entertaining, which is why I have such a small audience. 

Avoid compromising situations, guys. I remove social media. I removed myself from compromising situations with other women. Do I have to make it clear? I fucking love my wife. She’s hot as shit and I have two beautiful kids. Why would I want to up something that I have worked so hard for and fought so hard for? No one in the world will ever understand what I have laid on the altar of sacrifice to make this family work. For what? For poontang? For a little bit of titillation? Men are so stupid. Women are stupid too. We’re all stupid sometimes. 

Avoid compromising situations. Life is just easier when you don’t enter into the belly of the beast and find that the only thing out there is going to be suffering at the end of that decision. 

1. Optics. 

Your eyes you heard this before? Your eyes are the windows to your soul. You’ve heard this before. Your eyes take you to places. You eyes make your wander. Do not feast. Please don’t miss this, guys. Do not feast on things that you cannot have. Do not feast your eyes on things that you cannot have. I can tell you, when I’m at the gym—and I’m highly observant and guys—sitting there with their fuckin’ phones two inches from their fuckin’ face between sets and they’re swiping up and they’re smashing a like button on hot bikini babes and hot workout babe’s, I look at them, I say you were sad. You’re a sad man. 

That between each set of working out, you have to fill up your brain with fantasies and feast your eyes on things that you can’t have. Why are you doing that? Why are you wasting time on that shit? I could tell you stories for days of these types of situations. If you’re out there, I bet you’ve been in that situation too. Have I been in that situation? Better believe it, guys. Am I over it? Yeah because that shit doesn’t improve my life. Remember, social media and all that stuff, none of it is real. None of it is real. 

Please don’t miss this. Whatever you watch, it’s going to affect your life. It’s just nature of the beast. You watch fake news all day? Your worldview is gonna be fucked up. You watch these news channels all day? You’re gonna believe the world’s on fire and then everyone hates each other. That’s because your eyes tell you that. 

You spend your eyes glazed to a mobile phone looking at things that you can’t have, feasting on things that you want but you can’t have or maybe feasting on things that you want and you can’t afford which creates moral and ethical situations to cut corners so you can get more money, so that you can get that thing. Please, it’s such a slippery slope. Guard your eyes. I know I’m sounding like I’m some sort of crazy person here, but seriously, guard your eyes. 

This is why we don’t have cable. This is why we don’t have TV because I want to be programmed in into negative thought patterns and the bad juju and negative energy. Guys, your eyes are so important, which is one eye in many ways and have you guys not stare at me. I want you guys to just listen. And if you want to stare, you can stare at the cool car stuff that’s going on. 

What is the answer to temptation? 

1. Intentional pre-planning and do the right thing. 
2. Avoid compromising situations. 
3. Divert your eyes. Your eyes are gonna take you places that you want to go. 

That’s all I got to say about that. 

Here’s an example and I’ll roll out with this as I was thinking about examples of temptation. Well, there’s a story about a guy who’s tempted. His name is Jesus. You probably know this story. He went out to the desert. He was tempted by it the devil. You know what allowed him to get through all of that? Focus. Focus on the truth. Focus on what he knew to be true. He stayed the course. He stuck true to his morals. He was intentionally planning to do the right thing. 

He couldn’t avoid the temptation, but what did he do? He made sure that he did the right thing and he focused on the truth and stayed the course. If he could do it, maybe you can too. Here’s the question for you guys today. What temptations are you struggling with and how can you overcome them? 

I already know! Do the right thing. Do the right thing. Don’t invite suffering. That’s my plea. That really is my plea today, guys. Just don’t invite suffering. Don’t invite more suffering. Focus on your goals. Focus on your dreams, focus on building something. Temptation is always gonna be there and it’s only gonna steal, rob, and destroy for you. Crush it today guys. Crush it.