You must change yourself to be better than the day before. – AUDIO NSFW
Guys, I want to talk to you about one of the most important things that you could ever do in life. Seriously, I want to talk about just something that I believe should be so fundamentally not obvious but fundamentally part of who you are. Again, I don’t know you from Adam, I don’t know whether you’re listening on iTunes, you’re listening on Google Play or listening Android or you’re just watching me on the YouTube. I don’t know where you come from. I don’t know who you are, but I have a firm belief, a real firm belief that we as creatures, we as humans, we as people, we are created to do, created to learn, created to progress, created to experience, created to try, created to do. That’s what I want to talk about.
I’ve met so many people who are just stuck in life. We could talk about you know the whole idea of finding value in that which you do right now. We could spend a lot of time talking about that and I think there’s value in helping people understand that even if you feel stuck, there is value in what you’re doing now.
I tend to not bias myself towards that too much, especially if you’re in the context of being unhappy with what you’re doing or unhappy with where you are in life. I think this is one of those gut feelings, those gut things that if you’ve been unhappy, if you’ve if you’ve been unsatisfied with life for a pretty significant amount of time, it’s time to come back to your roots. It’s time to come back to your original vanilla level one character.
It’s time for you to go back to the to the character select screen. That’s what you need to do. You need to go back to the character select screen and re-roll life even if you’re already a level 60 warrior, a level 60 paladin, or level 60 warlock or whatever. You can still reroll life. You can still re-roll life. What I want to talk to you guys today is about 7 things that I want to dive into in regards to this idea of being a self-educator and executing to learn, doing things.
I truly believe guys that the best way to learn bar none, at the end of the day, is you must execute. You must do. It is those self-educators, those that do a lot and experience a lot, they are self-educators by nature and self-educators, my friends. Self-educators are the wealthy. Self-educators are the ones who continue to grow. They never stop.
I have a sticky note here. You guys know I have sticky notes on my desk all over the place. I have sticky note here on my monitor that says “life is learning, do more self-education.” There you go guys. Life is learning, do more. Be a self-educator. You see ideas in life or a dime-a-dozen. There’s a thousand ideas. You must have maybe no idea how many ideas are pitched to me every year. It’s crazy the amount of ideas. I welcome them. I do. I welcome them because I put myself in a position to receive those and if you want to get my opinion on something, you send it to me, email me, hit me up. Let me know what your idea is.
But it’s the one that executes that is priceless. It’s the one who does. It’s the one who puts his axe to the grind. The individual takes the first step forward. It’s the people who execute. Execute that win at the end of the day. You might be thinking, wait, wait Peter. You just offered the opportunity for me to tell you my idea. Why would I tell you my idea? Come on, get over yourself! I find it’s so fascinating when men hold ideas so close to the chest, I’m like why? Who are you afraid of? Who are you keeping your ideas from? I find this absolutely fascinating because it doesn’t matter.
First off, no one is going to execute on your idea, okay? Let’s just make that abundantly clear. No one is going to execute on your idea. You know why? Because no one else has the self-assertiveness, gumption, and maybe even hardiness to do it. No, I ain’t gonna do it. No one’s gonna do your idea. You formulated this idea. You formulated this project. You formulated this side hustle that you want to do or this new change in life that you want to do. Who are you keeping it from?
Secondly, if you don’t speak your dreams to the divine matrix, if you don’t tell your dreams to the world and make your reality known, it’ll never happen. Go back to my podcast on the real laws of attraction. Go back to that podcast. Go listen to that. You got to speak your truth to the divine matrix. You got to speak your truth to the world.
I do not mind telling my best ideas to people. It doesn’t matter to me. You know why? Because of what I just said. Number one, ain’t nobody gonna do what I’m told I’m gonna do. They got priorities. They got a family. They got a job. They got a career. They got a project that they’re involved. They’re not gonna do anything with what I tell them.
Number two, if I don’t tell people that I’m gonna do this, that I’m gonna do something, that I’m gonna create something amazing, that I’m gonna try something new in my life, that I’m going to transform my life, I’m gonna pivot my life, if I don’t tell people that, I’m just a pussy. I’m not gonna do it. You have to. There’s accountability when people know. We do a better job when people are watching. We hold ourselves accountable and responsible when other people know what’s going on.
It really is do-or-die guys. I want to talk about seven things. Let’s finally get into it. That was a nice preamble. I want to talk about seven things that I have learned when it comes to the ideas of executing in life, executing to learn, being a self-educator, going and learning by doing.
7 WAYS TO LEARN FAST:
- You only need to know where you want to go.
You only need to know where you want to go. Where do you want to go? You don’t ever have to worry about how you’ll get there. You never have to worry about how you get there. You just need to know where you’re gonna go because if you don’t know where you’re gonna go, you’ll end up anywhere. Pick a goal. Make a goal. Create a vision for your life.
The faster you execute towards this goal, this idea, this project, the faster you learn. The faster you learn, the faster you can make better informed decisions, not based on theory, but on experience. This is the basic tenet that I taught executives and managers and teams at Fortune companies for 12 years as a consultant. This is what I told them. I said execute quickly. Sometimes, they would say why? What? Why not?
Don’t forget this, guys. In the corporate company, product and service and context—I’m giving out free consulting here guys. I used to charge $10,000 a day for this shit or more. None of your customers know what they want until they see what they don’t want. Whoa, pump the brakes, bro. Yeah, I’ll repeat it. used to tell this to executives all the time. You should have seen and heard the responses and the conversations that we had after this. None of your customers know what they want until they see what they don’t want. What they don’t want is what you just delivered to them.
Excellent! This is the law of the unknown unknowns. You just don’t know. Nobody knows. I don’t know. They don’t know. You got to show them something. So the whole idea of iterative development, the whole idea of agile and scrum, which is what I taught for 12 bloody years is the idea of execute quickly so that you can get feedback quickly that your product sucked. It’s a good thing you only spent a couple weeks on it instead of a couple months on it. That’s called cost.
Break down your work into bite-sized chunks. Break down your work in the sizes in which you can deliver quickly and learn something that you didn’t know before. Guess what? You don’t even know what you really want until you get your hands dirty and you don’t even know what you’re gonna be doing, until you get your hands dirty and have a better understanding of what your goal, your project, your hustle, your endeavor really looks like.
You might say, hey, I want to go to X. Okay, great. Start. How do I start? Start reading, watching YouTube videos, buying materials, getting an education, or contacting someone. There’s so much that you can do. You are never at a lack of resources. You’re only lacking is resourcefulness. Do you have a mind of plenty? Do you have a mind where the universe is all connected? I believe that to be true.
Do you have a mind that if you are thinking on the greater things, the higher values of your life, the higher principles of your life, you have deep desire, a goal of your heart, and you begin to work towards that goal? I promise you, the universe will respond. People will come into your life. You just have to know where you’re gonna go. Don’t ever worry about how you’re gonna get there. One step in front of the other.
- The best way to predict your future is to create it or build it for yourself overtime.
I don’t know, I’m not a soothsayer. I am NOT a soothsayer. I am NOT a fortune-teller, my friends. But I will tell you this, I know exactly where I’m going. I know exactly where I’m going. I know exactly what I’m gonna be doing for my next project. I know exactly what the end goal should look like or what the end goal could look like. In the vast spectrum of opportunities, in the vast spectrum of outcomes, I know one reality within that vast spectrum. That’s the reality that I’m holding on to.
I know where I’m gonna go. The best way to predict my future is to build it for myself. Have you created a goal? Do you have a vision for your life? Have you set out some milestones, some posts in the future? That says, hey, I could do this. I could be this. I can have this. Do you have a deep-seated desire to do something that you’ve been wanting to do for years? Maybe it’s time to pull it out of the closet, wipe off the dust, look it up and down and say wow, is this something I still want to do? Is this still a desire of my heart? Is this still something that if I were at the final leg of my life today, that I would deeply regret that I never even tried?
Write your going down. Take intentional steps daily to move towards that goal. Go back to the first podcast in the series, guys. What you think about all day is what you’ll become. What you think about all day is what you’ll become. Have that be your guiding light. Brick by brick, guys. One percent every day is the motto.
One of the first things that I do when I’ve had mentorships in the past is I draw. I draw because there’s nothing better and more powerful than a picture. I’d take a sticky note and I’d start drawing these lines and then I start drawing these lines down like a Tic-Tac-Toe board, something like this, and then I put a line at the top and then I draw a couple little squares on top of this box of sorts. Then I draw a little dude at the top so it looks like he’s standing on a wall and he’s got little bricks that he’s putting.
That’s what I draw. I draw a man on a wall. add in little bricks, one brick, day by day by day, brick by brick. The overnight successes that you have seen on the interwebs, the tubes, and the mainstream mockingbird media, the overnight successes are always overnight successes. It just took them 12 years. It took them 15 years. It took them 20 years.
I watched Instagram video that literally had me so close to tears, I had to make sure that I just sucked it up. It was power lifter. I think he was doing the clean and jerk, lifting weights on a barbell straight up from the ground over his head, has to hold it there for a set amount of time. I think that’s called the clean and jerk. I think he was from was Jamaica. I don’t remember. But dude this video had me torn the fuck up, guys.
This guy was the brick-by-brick. They had his first video of the Olympics 2004. Couldn’t make it. Didn’t do it. I think he placed like 5th or something like that. Then they cut to the next scene 2008. He goes up for both of his tries and both times, his hand slips out. Disqualified. Didn’t even place. Can you imagine working your entire life for that one event? Four years between the Olympics, guys, and in the moment in which you have trained every bloody day for four years straight, your hand slips both times and you don’t even get the opportunity to show what you’re made of.
Lord Jesus! That had me done, guys. They showed a clip of him weeping in the back and kind of bringing tears to me right now just thinking about it. Then they cut to 2012. He’s back at it again, four more years of hard ass work, and he placed2nd. You could see there was a relief after he finished throwing that weight down. You could see there’s a relief, but there was like a wince. There was relief over the body, but there was like a wince in his face and you could see it. Oh so close and you know that wince was?
He’s not there yet. Second place brother, sister, all these years, four years, second place? Maybe it’s because I’m not an Olympian and I just don’t have that model of life and I don’t see life that way and I’m not competitive in that way, but I’d be satisfied obviously because I’m a simple creature. I’m a simple man.
Next scene guys. They cut to him in 2016. Another fucking four years. He does it. He lifts his best lift ever and he gets gold. He gets gold. What he does is he kneels in front of this barbell and he just weeps, He’s crying out to the divine matrix.
Now you might say, okay, 2004-2016, 12 years, brother, you missed 8 or missing probably 10 more, over 20 years. Why? Because for him to get to his first Olympics in 2004, brother, probably had to train for another 12 years before you could even get there, okay? So we’re talking about 12 years to train for your first Olympics and then 12 more years to finally get the gold. We’re talking over 24 years, guys.
Are you willing to wait? Let me say that differently. Are you willing to persevere brick by brick for a 24-year yield, for a 24-year harvest? Are you willing to do that? Is that worth it? I would have to say, if I could interview that man, I would. You know what I would ask him? I would ask him a very simple question. Was it worth it? Was it worth it?
I have no doubt in my mind. He will give me the answer of yes. And then he will qualify in a way that is probably far beyond my dreams because I have no idea what that would take, what that would do. The longest stint that I ever went was consulting 12 years and then I retired. Another 12 years? Brother, a bullet in my mouth out the back of my brain if I had to do another 12 years of that nonsense.
The best way to predict your future is to build it over time brick by brick just like this Olympian.
- The consequences of a poor decision are nothing.
The consequences of a poor decision when it comes to executing, to learn being a self-educator in life, mean nothing in light of eternity. They are insignificant, completely nothing. Did you get that? The consequences of a poor decision mean absolutely nothing. They are completely insignificant in the light of eternity. Are you open to fail? Go fail. Dare to fail. Do it. Do it. Failure is the only place in which we actually learn anything. Do you remember the last time you succeeded at something? What did you do? What did you do in the last time that you had a big win and you had a big success in life? What did you do?
Did you sit down in front of your fireplace with a single malt and retrospect how awesome you were? No you didn’t. You just celebrated because you awesome, you the shiznit, you did it. When you succeed, you just move on. I did it. I challenged myself. It is only through failures guys that we truly become introspective. We don’t want that pain again. We don’t want that suffering to hurt. We need to learn. We need to adjust. We need to pivot. We need to change which is why failure is the best teacher. Failure in life is the best teacher.
Let’s be honest, how many of you guys read a book on how to ride a bike before you rode a bike. None of you guys. None of us. We just got on the bike and if you had a supportive loving father or mother. After you fell off, they’d say, get back on. My daddy would be like suck it up son.
You might need to change. You might need to change your behavior. You might have to open your mind and your heart to the opportunity to fail. I’ll give you the answer. It’s never your surrounding circumstance. It’s never the surrounding circumstance of your life. It’s you. You have to change. You want life to change? You have to change first. Life ain’t gonna change for you. Life is too busy doing life. People are too busy doing them. They’re not doing you. You’re the only one doing you.If you want life to change, you first have to change.
I was talking to a friend the other day about this actually. I’ll give you the full context. He’d gotten off work a little bit early and on certain days we have pizza on the quad at my kid’s school. So he came by and had pizza on the quad with me and we ended up walking pretty much the entire school grounds just talking chatting and talking about what’s going on.
One of the things that we were talking about is how really no one ever thinks about you. No one cares about you really in everyday activities. It’s never you versus them. It’s always you versus you. You have to change. No one is going to help you to achieve your dreams. No one gives two shits about you like that. It’s just you. No one’s ever gonna help you achieve dreams, the goals that you have in life. You must change yourself to be better than the day before. That’s the only measuring yard you ever have to have. You must change yourself to be better than the day before. One step, one brick.
There are no poor decisions in the light of eternity. There are some big consequences that can happen from poor decisions, but in the light of eternity and frankly, in the span of your life on this planet, on this plane that we live in, it’s not that big of a deal. Let’s be honest, if I’m talking to your subconscious, if I’m talking to your soul right now, you’ve been through worse. Haven’t you? You’ve been through worse. Come on?!
Whatever we’re about to charge into, whatever you’re about to start, it’s not the worst that you’ve ever been. The only mountain that you ever need to conquer is yourself. It’s you versus you at the end of the day. Learn to be mentally tough. Tough people last. Tough times never last. Let me say that again. That was great. Learn to be mentally tough. Tough people last. Tough times don’t last. But tough people do.
Managing failure is more important than managing success. You don’t manage success. You celebrate success. How you manage failure is your ability. As every public speaker in the world has said, to get back up on your feet and keep on going. The consequences of a poor decision are nothing. They’re completely insignificant in the light of eternity.
- Get ruthless.
Get ruthless about trying something different. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting the same results. Get ruthless about trying something new. It opens up the synapses in the brain. It allows you to begin to reprogram yourself to new behaviors and new experiences. You begin to see on a different level. You can now see opportunities where they weren’t before. Get ruthless about trying something new. It opens up pathways not only in your brain, but it’ll open some pathways in your life.
You open up new doors when you try new things because you automatically smash yourself against new experiences, new people, new situations, new emotions that stretches you. You can leverage that experience however it is to the application of work that you’re doing today and your future as well.
Everything that you learn in life it’s cumulative, guys. It all comes together. Nothing is wasted here. So get ruthless about it. Overcome your fear. Come on, guys. We are all afraid. I’ll be the first to admit it. Hand raised, scouts honor, we are all afraid. We are. Use fear to galvanize your actions.
You know what fear really stands for? You’ve heard this before. False expectations appearing real. Let me say that again. What is fear? False expectations appearing real. Fear is only in your mind. Fear is only in your mind. Fear is only in your mind. Fear is only in your mind. Just because you haven’t experienced something before doesn’t mean that you have to fear it. It means that you have an opportunity to open up your mind, your heart, and your experiences, and these appendages in this body to something new. I tell you, there’s growth there. There’s always growth there.
- Don’t go the road alone.
Don’t ever go the road alone. I’ve talked about this so many times. It’s easy, It’s easy. It’s easy to remember. Don’t go the road alone. Have a beginner’s mindset. Seek out those who have gone before you who can help. Go back to my episode on the value of mentors. Let people know about what you’re doing. Email your friends, your family, your network. Let them know that you’re doing something different. I promise you, you will receive support. You know why you will receive support? Because people will be envious. People will be wanting. People will be curious. Even if they’re aren’t happy for you because frankly, they’re not happy because they’re ashamed that they haven’t done shit with their lives.
You will receive support and you know why you will receive support? Because there’s many people who are ashamed that they haven’t done shit in their lives and they’re rooting for you because they do not have the willpower to change. They don’t have the gumption to change. They do not have the assertiveness to change. They don’t have enough courage to change. Go back to my podcast on the value of courage. Go back to that one. Listen to that.
So many people don’t have it. Don’t go the road alone. Let people know what you are doing. Trust me, in the next 50 years, by the time that you are dead, will you care that they thought that the decision you were making was stupid? You won’t care because you’ll be dead. You won’t care. In the light of eternity guys, we have the opportunity to live such a powerful, full, amazing life, but so much of us are slaves to ourselves. We’re just wasting the life opportunity.
- Shoot for the moon always.
Shoot for the moon. I’ve said this before. Shoot for the moon. If you don’t make it to the moon, at least you land among the stars. Set goals that you can’t achieve in this lifetime. Set goals that transcend time. Set goals you can’t achieve in this lifetime. Make them grand. Make it so large, it’s so big, someone would look at you. If you were to explain it to them, they’d look at you and say oh my fuck! How is that possible? You’ll look at them and say I don’t know, but imma try.
Set goals that can transcend time. Don’t set time limits on goals. Don’t compare to other people and their goals. I was reading this article. I wish I remembered the author, but I was reading this article and it had me in stitches, guys. It had me laughing so hard. It was just only in the first like two paragraphs. Basically talking about how you shouldn’t compare yourselves to others. In the first couple of paragraph, did you think you’re supposed to own a car by now? Do you think you’re supposed to be married? Do you think you’re supposed to have kids by now? You have all these expectations. And then there’s one line and it’s in bold and it says something to the effect of like well, none of that shit panned out, did it?
I just was dying laughing because it’s so true. We have these false expectations. These fears. False expectations appearing real. We have these expectations on ourselves. We look at our neighbors. We look at the fucking social media which is basically just the highlight reel of people’s lives, which by the way please, if you have social media. Please be happy in life, not just appear happy on social.
It’s amazing how many people that I meet then I see their social and they’re like whoa he was a jubilant motherfucker. He was a vibrant motherfucker online. You look like sunshine and rainbows. And when I get to meet them, they’re dying inside. No, don’t be like that.
Shit, didn’t work out the way you planned? So what? Who you running against? Who you running against? There’s 7 billion people. There’s always gonna be someone better than you. There’s always gonna be something more advanced than you. There’s always gonna be someone more wealthy, more rich, more whatever, everything than you .Focus on you. Shoot for the moon. Make goals that are ridiculous. Don’t compare to others. Don’t set expectations based on social media or other people.
- Motivation can come in two forms: Inspiration or Desperation
Motivation can come in two forms: inspiration or desperation. Let me say that again. This is powerful. Last one, guys. Motivation can come in two forms: inspiration or desperation. But here’s what I know about inspiration. Inspiration rarely comes. Inspiration rarely comes. The muse ain’t real guys. She never shows the fuck up when she needs to. Your inspiration? Gah, it ain’t happening. It ain’t coming.
Most of the time, she ain’t even up when you’re up, okay? The muse never comes when you want it. Do I love inspiration? Abso-fucking-lutely! I love inspiration. But I’ll tell you guys, most days, actually six out of seven days, there ain’t no inspiration. There’s only perspiration because I would choose perspiration over desperation.
Motivation can come in two forms: inspiration or desperation. I choose the other, the adoption three, perspiration. Brick by brick, guys. Execute to learn. Continue to do in life. That’s what I truly believe we were put here on earth for. To do, to experience, to try, to see, to feel, to taste, to touch, to experience this world fully. We don’t live that long. There’s so much of the world that you can experience. So many different people you can meet.
Foods guys! Foods! How many different foods have you not tried? I’ve said this before in another pod podcast, but I’m a repeat it now because it’s so important. Think of your favorite food in the whole wide world. Think of it. You got it? You’re salivating? Your favorite food sucks. Your favorite food sucks in comparison to something else out there in the world. I guaran-fucking-tee it because I have travelled the world, my friends. I have seen the world.
I’m telling you guys, I know that even with the tastiest food that I know that’s out there, there’s even more. There are taste experiences guys that I have never had and they’re better than what I’ve had. I know it. I’ve travelled enough to know that this pattern is true.
Motivation can only come in two forms: inspiration or desperation. The muse never comes. I’d hate for you to be motivated by desperation. So I choose the brick by brick which is perspiration. Choose perspiration.
Continue to move forward, guys. Hell is a video. I know what hell is guys. I know what hell is. It’s my last note here. Hell is a video of your life with no risks, no passion, on repeat. That’s what hell is. When you’re long and gone and you’re dead, maybe you’ll end up in hell. I don’t know. Maybe you’re living in hell right now. Hell is a video. I truly believe in tongue-in-cheek whatever.
I could see a version of hell that I’m literally planted in front of a large ass screen TV, 3D, real life, 3D stuff trapped in a room for all eternity and this huge TV showing my life without risks and passion on fucking repeat. Could you imagine the mental anguish you will suffer because you will watch every bloody second at every bloody minute of your life and you’ll wonder why didn’t I? Why didn’t I? What could have happened? Why didn’t I take the chance? Why didn’t I speak up? Why didn’t I do it? Why didn’t I ask her?
What video of your life are you going to play? Thanks guys. I really enjoyed this one. You got to execute to learn. You gotta keep going, keep pushing. Don’t stop. 24 years, guys, 24 years are you willing to perspire? Are you willing to persevere for it? Share this, guys. I’ll I see you guys behind-the-scenes on the YEN.io Things You Didn’t Learn In School podcast .