The Burn Podcast by Ben Newman
Join Ben Newman, highly regarded Performance Coach, International Keynote Speaker and 2x WSJ Best-Seller, as he takes you into the minds of some of the highest performers in sports and business to tell their full story. The "Burn" is something we all have, but rarely do people uncover and connect to it. Ben helps people from all walks of life reach their true maximum potential.
Ben has worked with coaches and players from the last 6 Super Bowl Champion teams and currently serves as the Performance Coach for the Big 12 Champion Kansas State football team in his 9th season (3 National Championships at North Dakota State) with Head Coach Chris Klieman. Ben served 5 years as the Mental Conditioning Coach for the 18x National Champion Alabama Crimson Tide football team. Lastly, Ben also has served at his alma mater as a Performance Coach for Michigan State University’s football and basketball programs.
For the last two decades, Ben has been serving as the Peak Performance Coach for the top 1% of financial advisors globally and for Fortune 500 business executives.
Ben’s clients have included: Microsoft, United States Army, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Quicken Loans, MARS Snackfoods, AstraZeneca, Northwestern Mutual, AFA Singapore, Mass Financial Group, Frontier Companies, Wells Fargo Advisors, Great West Life Canada, Boston Medical Center, Boys & Girls Club of America, New York Life as well as thousands of executives, entrepreneurs, athletes and sales teams from around the globe.
Millions of people and some of the top performers in the world have been empowered by Ben through his books, educational content, coaching programs, podcast, and live events.
The Burn Podcast by Ben Newman
The BURN within the NFL: 14 Examples of The STANDARD
This week on #theburnpodcast we’re brining YOU a very special episode. Over the last 6 seasons of the show we’ve had some INCREDIBLE conversations with players and coaches from within the NFL.
Now that the NFL season is about to kick off we wanted to highlight some those conversations. This highlight episode is packed full of stories, lessons, and people sharing how their BURN got them TO and THROUGH some of the toughest parts of being in the National Football League.
Full episode now live on Youtube and ALL podcast platforms!
You'll hear from:
Jerry Rice: 3:40-7:29
Will Compton: 7:30-12:55
Andrew Whitworth: 12:56-15:01
Aeneas Williams: 15:02-16:24
Julius Thomas: 17:01-19:40
Ray Lewis: 19:41-22:06
Alec Ingold: 22:07-23:37
Eric Wood: 23:38-25:21
Skylar Thompson: 25:22-26:40
Taylor Lewan: 26:41- 27:35
Brandin Cooks: 27:36-28:17
LaVonte David: 28:18-29:11
Trevon Diggs: 29:12-29:51
Ted Rath: 29:52-31:47
https://www.bennewmancoaching.com
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But this week is a very special NFL episode in honor of this week's opening kickoff of the NFL season. Welcome to this week's episode of the Burn. I am Ben Newman and you know how we do this. Every single week we bring you a story of an athlete, an entertainer, a celebrity, somebody from the business world who has helped us understand that why and purpose is not enough. It's that underlying burn that ignites your why and purpose and causes you to show up on the days you don't feel like it and especially after you win. And then occasionally, we bring you special episodes which you become accustomed to, and many of you say that these are our best episodes. Sometimes it takes you back in time. Sometimes it's a one-on-one, solo episode with me, but this week is a very special NFL episode in honor of this week's opening kickoff week of the NFL season.
Speaker 1:I couldn't be any more excited to have a 12th year, a 12th opportunity, working with players and teams in the NFL, with players and teams in the NFL. When I look back over those 12 years, it has been an unbelievable blessing to be able to have some incredible conversations that have made me better, to be able to share some things I've learned on my journey that helps the players improve and embrace the mindset that it takes to attack at the highest possible level. And whether it's my work in business or in sports, I continue to find that so many of the lessons that we learn from business apply to sports or from sports to business. So it's always fun to put together special episodes, and Legacy Media and Tyler Kirk have done it again, producing an amazing, one-of-a-kind NFL kickoff episode for you, highlighting some of the amazing conversations that we've had over the 12 years of my work in the NFL. You'll notice, for those of you that are watching on video, some of these take us way back where I've still got hair, and some of them are relatively current, but each and every single one of these conversations highlights amazing things that these players embraced when connecting to their burn to help them drive continual peak performance, to stack the days and to do what it takes to not just make it through a season but to become a champion and to continue to push and challenge themselves, which is ultimately for all of us, where we find our greatest growth.
Speaker 1:It's not when things are going well, it's when we have challenge and adversity, where oftentimes you need that burn the most. So what did we do? Once again, we went back to the archives in the six seasons of the Burn to find some of our favorite episodes with some NFL legends, current NFL greats, nfl Hall of Famers, to help you attack your next level. Lock in to this week's episode. Make sure you grab a pen and paper, because there are going to be some keys, some takeaways, some thoughts, some disciplines, some principles that are going to help you not only connect to your burn but start attacking your days differently.
Speaker 2:Jackson Mississippi, a three bedroom apartment. I had one camera guy to come out and film the draft and I had no idea I was going to get drafted by the greatest franchise ever. I get the call from the greatest coach, bill Wall, saying we're going to make you the 16th player in the first round to the San Francisco 49ers. They had just won the Super Bowl at Stanford against the Miami Dolphins and I thought about, oh my God, I just, you know, I'm going to get a chance to mingle with Montana, dwight Clark, all of these great players, you know, eddie DiBarlo, the owner of the San Francisco 49ers, all of that, and it was a standard with the San Francisco 49ers, all of that, and it was a standard with the San Francisco 49ers. That's the first thing they told me when I got to the Niners.
Speaker 2:The way we practice, the way we prepare, do all of those things, the way we travel, a professional on the football field, off the football field, you had to conduct yourself in a very professional way. So I go into that locker room and I'm sitting and I'm like a little kid in a candy store. Guys, I'm serious because I'm looking at some of the greatest players to ever play the game Hall of Famers. And I said to myself I remember the second I went into the locker room I said I got to prove myself, I got to earn it. So during practice I would catch a five-yard slant, 95 yards. Every ball that I caught I finished to the end zone.
Speaker 2:So these veterans, they're looking at me like what is up with this rookie? We're going to be out here forever if he continues to run to the end zone. But all of a sudden everybody else started doing the same thing. That's how you build a team, a championship team, because now you've got guys in position downfield that could help a Roger Craig or, you know, help a Dwight Clark score a touchdown. So you know that was major for me.
Speaker 2:I mean to be in that locker room with some of the greatest players to ever play the game and coming from a small, predominant black school and getting drafted in the first round by the greatest coach ever, and I'm going to give you guys a little backstory on that. So San Francisco, they were in New Orleans to play the Saints and they fly in that that Friday and Bill Walsh, the head coach, was flicking the channels and he noticed me that Saturday running across the television, running away from the opponent making catches. So he goes back to the scouting department of the San Francisco 49ers and say, hey, we need to look at that guy from Mississippi Valley State University.
Speaker 4:Can you believe?
Speaker 3:that, wow, that's what.
Speaker 4:I said, I said, I said seriously, can you believe?
Speaker 2:that Wow that's what I said. I said seriously, that's how it happened. So you know, it's like all I remember is my, you know, my mother would tell me back in the day, and I would just run during the summer and in Mississippi it was like 110 degrees, 120. And I would run like around 12 o'clock and just you know, and she would always ask me she said, son, why are you doing this? Because at that time I was not playing sports or anything, but I guess I was almost like Forrest Gump a little bit.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying little Forrest Gump, I was running. Yeah, yeah, you know, and I didn't know the reason why I was running, but I guess I was running. And I didn't know the reason why I was running, but I guess I was preparing myself for the NFL.
Speaker 6:I have my guy, Ben Newman here, who is a speaker, he's an author, he's somebody that was a mentor of mine in core years of my NFL life, Basically the start of it from rookie year, I mean heavy into, you know, going into like year seven. We've obviously always been like family since then. But, um, having this kind of conversation and talking about it just to have it in the vault and kind of reflect on one day when I'm old and gray and when Rue gets older and you get to kind of she gets to see her old man at 33 retiring, here's where it's like it gets a little weirdly emotional. But yeah, that's why it was important for me to have you on and kind of talk about it all.
Speaker 1:I know we're going to get into it and it's going to make both of us emotional right away, but the stories that your mom would tell have taken you to the camps.
Speaker 6:You want to start from the mom angle, right out of the gate.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's just it's one of the connections that we had was a family connection, like it's one of the things I respected so much. Like you wanted to honor your family, you wanted to be an example for your brothers, you wanted to be able to do this and provide this and an example for kids in Bonterra, and it was always bigger than will and as much as, like you, you wanted to have that Jersey on, you wanted to make a roster. So many of our conversations that we'll get into it was always bigger than you and I always respected that about you and how you showed up and wanting to give back and wanting to speak and wanting to build something beyond the game of football and you've done it, but you always put action behind it.
Speaker 6:It's cool to look back on you coming into my life. My rookie year was so for context, context like I really got into the mental psychology of sports going into my senior year wrecked in college at Nebraska. Rex Burkhead always carried himself in such a way that was so confident and he it always. Everything seemed like it was water off his back, like if he got coached hard because we were coached by Bo Pelini. I mean he was a motherfucker, he'd motherfuck you and I know when you're young going through that, there's a lot of times where you're like, oh, you can't miss this tackling space or you don't want to mess up, you play not to mess up, you play not to messed up. And then, as I learned in that book called the Mental Edge by Kenneth Baum, is we use our brains so much as a disadvantage because we just naturally think like if we think about failure, that failure will come to us in some certain way. But I talk about that book because I asked Rex like, hey, do you have anything going in going into our senior year? And he hands me this beat up book, the Mental Edge, and he's like read this. And I read it and my mind was blown away from it. It kind of helped. That's what helped set all my vision and goals for pro day when I didn't get invited to the combine. So just set all my vision and goals for pro day when I didn't get invited to the combine. So I always love the idea of the mental psychology of sport.
Speaker 6:And after OTAs and mini camp with the Redskins my rookie year, um, yeah, one of one of my buddies connected us on Twitter and yeah, in your bio you're talking about speaker, author, all this stuff. And. And you DM like, hey, hope all is well If you ever want to get together when you're in Missouri, would love to. And here I am reading your DM thinking like, oh, this would be awesome, I can work with somebody versus reading it out of a book. I can work with somebody one-on-one on all this mental stuff. Because, again, like I was at the bottom of the, you're at the bottom of every fucking depth chart like special teams, third string, you know linebacker in the linebacker room Seven with London Fletcher Hall of Famers yeah linebacker room was we were seven deep and you had London Fletcher, perry, riley, keenan Robinson at that time, brian Keel.
Speaker 6:You had all these guys and then even another undrafted rookie ahead of me in my spot being an undrafted rookie, and I was seven out of those. You know I was basically there's three teams and then I got to rotate in with the threes every now and then.
Speaker 1:But you know you're like at the bottom and you're just thinking like, yeah, there's no way I'm going to make this fucking team ever in a million years and, essentially, once we got together after those OTAs, it's the first question that I asked you, so you know what's on your mind.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And if you remember, you look at me and you're just like well, you know, if things don't work out with the Redskins, there's 31 other teams. And I was like man, I got his ass, like I knew it and I just I'll never forget. Just we're sitting across from each other in the booth and I look over at you I say, hey, man, like what if you forget about the 31 other teams? And every day you wake up and you look yourself in the mirror and say I'm a linebacker with the Washington Redskins and you like your eyes got big, like I thought you were going to jump over and you don't want to tackle me. And you're like that's what I'm going to start doing. I'm gonna start saying it every day. And then that next day you literally texted me.
Speaker 1:I was pulling into a restaurant called Bristol. I mean, these are things like where our relationship is so special. I remember every detail. I'm pulling into Bristol wearing the damn suit again, because I'm still a financial advisor and I'm pulling in and I get this text message hey, do you drink coffee? I'm like what the hell kind of do I drink coffee? What kind of a text message is. I just met you yesterday. I'm like, yes, I drink coffee, having no idea where this is going to go. You then say great, post-workout drink coffee, whey protein and honey. I'm looking at my phone, like what? Like where is this going? I said sounds great, I'll try it. And you responded back that's what a linebacker with the washington redskins drinks.
Speaker 7:and I thought, holy shit the moments I'll remember of, like my legacy, will be days that I stayed after and picked up the locker room and guys don't even know it like I picked up their cleats and picked up their stuff and put it away and felt like, hey, I want to make sure the equipment managers know Like I love you guys. Man, it ain't right for our locker room to look like this, like they see that that equipment room goes. Man, big Whit picked up the whole locker room for us. Dude, that's cool as crap. Like I feel important, he did that for us. I want to, like I'll think of the moments that, like you know, the ops team or somebody that I like took them once or took gave them all a gift certificate at the end of the year to just tell them how much they meant to me. Or the training staff taking them to dinner, taking them on trips in the off season, like things to just make people feel important and special and like you don't just take them for granted To me.
Speaker 7:I hope that my legacy will be when people were with me in an organization or they had a chance to be a part of things with me. They'll go. You know, one guy that I know, appreciated what I did for a living like this dude. He appreciated me. And I think when you make other people feel better about themselves and better about their value to who they are to you, then that spreads to other people, because then they go and do the same thing to people around them. It makes them take notice of what that meant to them and then they do it to others and then, before you know it, just like a bad cold that infects the whole building and everybody in that building now has a demeanor and an attitude and a culture of man.
Speaker 7:I want to make sure that people around me feel better about who they are and why I appreciate them. And when you start to have that, you are the ultimate burn, because nobody wants a piece of that fire. Because when you're firing, an organization goes from three guys that are really special they're just good football players and can be good on a football field to a hundred people that love each other, care for each other and are going to do anything they can to fight for one another. That's one big ass fire you don't want to be part of and to me that's what the ultimate goal was and I hope that that's what my legacy ends up being is that everywhere I was, it was about the people I got an opportunity to do stuff with.
Speaker 8:But so many times. Just as social media one of the disadvantages is, many times people read into postings as a perfect life versus. I wish we would post more of the process to the perceived perfect life, because there's none. The burn that comes to me to answer that question, then, is the burn to not quit. Success is the ability to bear pain, not be a pain.
Speaker 8:I wish I could tell you it's been 27 years of bliss. It's been great. It has not. I wish I could tell you raising the four the three girls and the son has been easy, has been great. There has been challenging times and the biggest passion point burn. Right now. That's coming to me to make sure anybody that's listening before I go into any of the 55 interceptions all those things to be great in life that God has called all of us to be great at something. Great in life that God has called all of us to be great at something. There is a level of understanding that there is a burn to stay in it, to not quit, to understand that every part of it is a part of helping develop you, to become the person you are supposed to be at each phase of your life.
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Speaker 1:We're talking about mental health. We're talking about the struggles mentally it's not this forbidden thing to talk about and I think the perspective that you bring from being a player, not somebody who just showed up to a couple training camps. You had an amazing career and then now to go get your doctorate and to do what you're doing. I can't wait to see where you take this. But what I always think about and what I want all of our listeners to hear is where does that kind of a burn come from? Because I'm not sharing anything private here, but you made plenty of money. You didn't have to go back and get a doctorate. You didn't have to do these things. You have a 2,000-hour internship coming up. You didn't have to subject yourself to that. So you have to have a burn for life to be great for people. Where does that come from for you, julius?
Speaker 10:Yeah, you know I like to say it and I hope everybody can appreciate the way that I say this because it works in my mind. Maybe it's not the most politically correct right, but I always say it because I'm a little black kid from Stockton California, because when I grew up I did the same thing everybody else did I threw rocks at my friends, I kicked cans down the street, I hopped on my scooter and I always wondered what life would be like when I grew up. And my heart, my heart, my compassion for others it comes from faith. Right At an early age, thank goodness to my parents, they put me in a Christian school and I got to spend time understanding and learning about the Lord. And when you read and you study scripture and you get to learn about these messengers and prophets and people of faith that have come to care for the world, you pick up a little bit of that. So I think those are those two things that really define me right.
Speaker 10:That really define me right, like my heart and how I care about people, came from faith, and my drive and my ambition to continue to prove people wrong and to continue to achieve the things that I'm after it came from the fact that you know I wasn't like a top 100 kid in eighth grade. I was playing basketball at the end of the bench in freshman year, because you know I wanted to go to college one day. And that drive year. Because you know I wanted to go to college one day. And that drive and saying, you know I need people to believe in what I'm after. I'm hungry to achieve the things that come into my head as visions and once they show up and I ask myself are you aligned with it? So when we talk about it, I immediately start taking action. And that action comes from this fire inside of me. I don't know if it was just born into me, I don't know if I developed it, but I've always had this desire to achieve and that's really what sustained me through the challenges that life throws at you.
Speaker 11:It's kind of one of my favorite subjects. When you talk about mental toughness, you know a lot of people think that a lot of us are born with mental toughness. Absolutely not. Mental toughness is what's developed over years of honestly getting tired of listening to what everybody else is saying or the situation that may be in front of you. Your imagination dictates your consistency to chase a different you every day. When you talk about mental toughness, I want to be clear. There's a lot of people who feel pain and the first time you feel it you stop. But true, great ones and people who have figured out not how to own mental toughness but how to deal with it is that when we feel pain we actually chase it. We go back to it. I want to feel what that failure feels like. I want to know that I have the ability to change my life at any point, that I get ready. Someone is sitting in the audience right now and someone is watching this and you're asking the question is he talking to me? I'm talking directly to you.
Speaker 11:Great people always choose to keep getting back up. Great people they find ways. Forget what the world says, dude. Forget what the expectation of what you think everybody else wants you to be or become and understand that mental toughness it's a lifestyle. A lot of people talk about poverty and growing up the way I grew up as sometimes a disadvantage, and it is in many ways, but it taught me something that if I'm going to do anything, it's going to start here, but it's going to be triggered from your heart to want to change, to want to make something that that you believe is impossible possible. But mental toughness every day we have a choice to get better and nobody stays the same, so if you're not getting better, you're getting worse that's a hell of a question.
Speaker 9:Um, draft day was one of the worst days of my life. Right, it was that, that day of 32 executives and head coaches telling you you're not good enough for our investment, and that was bone shattering for me as a 22 year old kid with all the hopes and dreams and the plans of being an NFL player. Like you were saying, the big thing for me, right there, on that path of uncertainty the path of you know I was. I was at a fork in the road in my life. It was go to Oracle and start selling software for the rest of my life. Or it was take this path of Lisa, of most resistance of all all the issues that could possibly happen least, or of most resistance of all all the issues that could possibly happen of all of this. You know, failure, that that could possibly happen, and try this undrafted route.
Speaker 9:And that moment where you know I was able to, I know I talk about this. You know, when my dad, you know, sat me down the next morning after this draft day I'm going to head out to Alameda, california he's like are you ready to go take a job? Are you ready for that? And it wasn't handed to me, it wasn't given. And there was a moment there where I was able to internalize this burn, this feeling of inside of me where there was no more trying to find some sort of validation from anybody else. No coach, no general manager, no teammate could tell me oh, you're great, you're, you're good enough.
Speaker 1:No, it was like internalized now so many times people say to me like what is my burn? I don't know what my burn is. So eric has some of those deep emotional adversity driven burns, right From watching what his brother endured, right To his connection with God now his family. But what I also heard your short-term burn was I will be a number one draft pick, and so you can have a short-term goal that becomes a burn because, remember, the burn is what ignites the why and the purpose to drive action, and that's what it did for you, which I think is powerful. I wanted to highlight that because we get emails and DMs and people saying I don't know what my burn is. Well then, have a short-term goal, but then, if you pay attention to what Eric said, you reset it. You said okay, now what's next? And I know that what's next mentality is everything to you right.
Speaker 12:Yeah, and I know that what's next mentality is everything to you right. Yeah, and I'll say this real quick on the short-term and long-term burden, because you hit the nail on the head, because I'll often encourage guys, whether they're in college or whether they're a businessman man, make the background of your phone I know how long you're looking at your phone each day Make the background of your phone something that is going to ignite you, and sometimes that's a short-term goal. Heck, it might be a Rolex that you want to buy and that's the goal that you're going to. When you have this many sales, that's what I'm going to get.
Speaker 12:Okay, that might be your short-term burn, your short-term goal, but as I would run sprints in college, I would always say this before a conditioning session your brother didn't even have a chance to walk. How are you gonna complain about running? I don't care how hot it is, how cold it is, like your brother couldn't even walk and you're gonna sit here and complain about running. You get to run. You don't have to run. Today, you get the opportunity to run to wear the Louisville Cardinal uniform. You get to do that. Well then, I have a little different mindset heading into that workout.
Speaker 13:Gotta keep fighting, and I don't.
Speaker 13:I wrote a first person um story a couple years ago at k-state and the title of it was keep surviving.
Speaker 13:And you know, it's not always about obviously I'm, I'm a winner, we're all winners, we want to win, we want to compete, but there is some, there's some point in time in life where you just got to survive and advance a little bit, you know, and get through the process and and that's what, that's what I did.
Speaker 13:I mean, after I hurt my shoulder, I was in the training room every single day and happened to start over a little bit throwing a football and I mean it's literally starting from square one, and that was so terrifying to me because there's so many thoughts of is it going to be the same? You know what is this going to look like? I've never I never faced any severe injury ever in my life until then. This is the first time I faced it. But I connected with people who I knew in my life, who had faced some severe injuries, and I put a plan together of how am I going to attack this and when those thoughts come to mind, of doubt and second guessing, I'm stopping in that moment and I'm erasing those thoughts.
Speaker 1:Think about the little things. You meet your wife. You go make three Pro Bowls, but she shook you up a little bit, getting you to think differently. So tell us about that garden.
Speaker 3:Well, I think when people want to be successful, they say you need to be obsessed with things, and I think that's absolutely true. Anything that is worth fighting for you need to be obsessed about. But it's also about being obsessed from a more diverse standpoint. So it's not just focusing. I need to focus so much on being successful in football. I need to make sure my weights are here. I can lift this, I can run this far. It's also being obsessed about being a good person, being a good father, being a good husband and being a good friend. And the more you water all those plants we talk about the garden, you water all these plants and if you exclude one, well, that dying plant's going to hurt the rest of those plants in your garden. So it's important to make sure you stay in and stay on those checks and balances and making sure that you know everything's being watered and taken care of in every part of your life.
Speaker 5:For me, it's funny I used to be able to go to my brother's football games before I was legally able to play football in Pop Warner, and I remember being on the sideline with my dad Like I just couldn't wait to get out there. He's like no, you got to wait your turn, you got to wait your turn and I'm like man, I can play, I can play.
Speaker 5:And then it wasn't until 9 and I was able to play, and you know he was gone by then. But you know, from that moment on and when I started playing football, a lot of the memories of me being on the sideline with him racing across the street to the garage was like okay, I always wanted to play, but now it's a different meaning. The love of the game became even deeper because of those memories that I have with my father.
Speaker 14:Remember that last thing. You always say you know legacy, carry on your mom's legacy. And I take that to heart every time. And you know her last name is David. We have the same last name and I gotta know, every time I walk out the door I carry her last name. I gotta, I gotta be able to, you know, represent it the right way. Every time I wake up in the morning, I walk out my door before I actually leave the house. It's a picture and like right before I get to the door of her where I kiss it, and you know, just thank God and I just remember her. Before I get to the door of her where I kiss it, and you know, just thank God and I just remember her before I walk out the door to know that I'm wearing her last name and I gotta, I gotta try to honor that.
Speaker 14:Honor that the best way I can, because she did so much for me in my life and it was so much that I want to do for her. Even though she's not here, I'm still doing what I can for her because you know, she raised me the right way and it's a lot of stuff that I have to accomplish. Also, simple fact, what you know she put me in the position to do.
Speaker 15:But I never dreamed this big when I was a kid. I never thought of one day I'm going to be a draftee in the NFL, until I got to like to like element like fourth grade, fourth, fifth grade. We used to have assignments and stuff and it'd have your career.
Speaker 15:What do you want to be? I'll put NFL, what do you want? And I'd get in trouble. My teacher would be like come on, let's pick something realistic. You're not going to go to NFL. Like, no, it's a very slim chance you're going to go to NFL. She always would tell me that and I always chance you want to go to nfl, like she always told me that. And you know I always ignored it, like always.
Speaker 16:I never paid attention to it, still wrote nfl in my paper but I'll say this it's been over a decade and I'm sitting here in the nfl and I'm extremely fortunate, extremely blessed to have this position. I've worked with some of the greatest coaches in the history of this league and I've been around some of the greatest players in the history of this league. None of that would have been possible, not even remotely possible, without being able to hinge on the fact that I could be mentally tough when needed. Am I as good as I need to be? Absolutely not. So what's my next challenge? The challenge never ends.
Speaker 16:If I can't lock in and focus on my daily process now to be a better father, to be a better husband, to be a better employee, to be better in every area of my life, then that's ultimately a failure. How am I going to do that? I'm not going to look for the next 30 years down the line. I'm going to focus on today, right now. What can I do to get better? I take the toe test every morning when I wake up, when my alarm goes off. I don't want to hit snooze. You hit snooze. That's the first loss of the day. Get out of bed when you hit the ground. Take the toe test. You make a decision Once your feet touch the ground. Are you going to be great today? Are you going to lock into the process? Are you going to make mistakes? Of course I make mistakes every day, we all do. Are you going to be able to overcome those, look past them and then self-motivate yourself, stay disciplined and then get back on the horse so that you can ride into the next opportunity, because they are just that.
Speaker 16:There are opportunities. Are there obstacles in this world? Are there challenges? Yes, this is a dark world sometimes. It's not always. Oh man, that guy's just done so great. I bet he never had a bad day in his life. We all have bad days. The single most important fact don't let bad days multiply. One day, one hour, one situation. Don't let it transcend into the next one. Never allow yourself to be defeated by the same opponent twice. That opponent can be depression. That opponent can be any type of dependency that you have. It could be a gambling addiction. It could be a substance abuse addiction. There are so many different things in this life that can sidetrack you or take you down. They're all opportunities.
