THE POWER OF DISCIPLINE (2025) - Powerful Motivational Speeches

And in the introduction you say discipline gives us freedom

which again feels like that's typically not what people think of discipline.

We think of discipline

as taking our freedom

and making our lives

as you say more rigid

as you were saying

then like more rigid

and less less choices less optionality.

But in the introduction of your book you say discipline gives us freedom.

I think that a lot of the discussions about motivation can cause people to

believe that there's some magical state

that they need to be in before they do something.

>> Yeah.

And as I've said since day one,

it's motivation is a feeling that comes and goes.

And it doesn't matter whether it's there or not.

Discipline is infinitely more important.

So no matter how you feel,

get up and do what you're supposed to do.

That's it.

And that's discipline.

It's not motivation.

If you only did what you were supposed to do

when you were motivated to do it,

that's leaving it to chance.

But if you're disciplined, you go do what you're supposed to do.

That's the way it works.

You know, you want to be a little bit better in some way tomorrow

than you are today.

But it's not going to be in a linear path.

You have to really do the work.

Like, you have to back it with hard work.

I don't care how you perceive David Gobins.

I walk in a room now

and I know the hours

and years and decades I put in the daily guidance.

It's not on the wall.

It's not a trophy on the wall.

It's not a metal on your neck.

It is actually a feeling in your heart.

Through my journey, I figured out the one piece I was missing.

The one piece I was missing was me having the courage to face myself.

Wake up every single day thinking about how can I change my life

because what you want it hunts you every single night.

See the big dogs they won't give you the opportunity.

You going to have to take it.

I need you to tell yourself right now there is no other way.

There is no other way.

There is no other way.

Future belongs to the discipline.

>> You know what I'm saying?

and you're very undisiplined and you're emotionally undisiplined.

And if you could develop this discipline now,

you will get much further ahead at a much faster rate.

We we want to talk so soft to ourselves.

We're looking for that recovery day.

And that recovery day is everything in your life.

Everything in your life is a recovery day.

We're looking for it.

It's not coming.

It's not coming.

>> Get over that recovery day.

>> What could you do to improve yourself?

Well, let's step one step backwards.

The first question might be, why should you even bother improving yourself?

And I think the answer to

that is something like

so you don't suffer any more stupidly than you have to accept responsibility for

the catastrophe of your life.

And that way you transcend it.

And there's an unbelievably hopeful message in there.

And the message is you're actually strong enough to do that.

You just don't know it.

And you won't find out till you do it.

You can't find out till you do it.

But if you did it, you'd find out that it was true.

Bargain with the future.

Wow.

That's just what an idea that is.

You know, it's it's so unlikely.

It's a massive risk.

It's the ultimate in risks, right?

You have to be willing to lose your life in order to find it.

what you're willing to forego today's pleasure for tomorrow's advantage

and that's what sacrifice is

and I would say start where you can start you know

if if something announces itself to you

as in need of repair

that you could repair

then hey fix it you fix a hundred things like

that your life will be a lot different

if I wanted to spend 10 minutes making this room better.

What would I have to do?

And you have to ask yourself that, right?

It's not a command.

It's like a genuine question.

And things will pop out in the room

that you know you like there's a stack of papers over there that's kind

of bugging you and you know

that maybe little order there would be a good thing.

There's some rubbish behind your computer monitor

that you haven't attended to for like 6 months

and the room would be slightly better

if it was a little less dusty

and the cables weren't all tangled up the same way.

And if you allow yourself just to consider the expanse in

which you exist at

that moment,

there'll be all sorts of things that'll pop out in it

that you could just fix.

So life is brutal.

And what you have to set against that is possibility.

So, I would say if you're 16 and your life isn't so happy,

it's like look around

and see if there are opportunities

that people are granting you,

even imperfect opportunities, cuz they're going to be imperfect

that you could exploit in the proper way

and learn and grow.

But the the fundamental lesson,

the more fundamental lesson that's underneath

that is don't let what you are stop you from being what you could

be.

So imagine that there's you and there's the potential inside you.

Whatever that is, you know,

and potential is an interesting idea because it's represents something that isn't yet real.

Yet we act like it's real.

And that potential is partly what you could be

if you interacted with the world in a manner

that would gain you the most information.

If you take yourself and put yourself in a new environment,

new genes turn on in your nervous system.

They encode for new proteins.

And so you're full of biological potential

that won't be realized unless you move yourself around in the world into different

challenging circumstances and that'll turn on different circuits.

The official definition of self-discipline is the ability to control one's feelings

and overcome one's weaknesses.

Also, it's the ability to pursue what one thinks is right despite temptations to

abandon it.

See, the problem with you is you rarely exercise your self-discipline muscle.

You just go with the flow.

No backbone whatsoever.

And that's perfectly fine until you start whining

and complaining about your lack of success. whining

and complaining about your lack of progress.

Whining and complaining that you're not gaining any momentum

and you can't seem to get ahead in life.

See, self-discipline begins with the mastery of your thoughts.

If you don't control what you think, you can't control what you do.

So, don't talk to me about your failures.

Don't talk to me about your setbacks.

Don't talk to me about the lack of success you are achieving

because I'm that one.

I'm that one that will tell you the exact reason why you are failing.

You're failing because on a daily basis you failed to exercise your self-discipline muscle.

On a daily basis you fail to sacrifice.

You're failing because on a daily basis you failed to come up with a

plan.

On a daily basis you fail to get uncomfortable.

You fail to push past your limits and you fail to believe in yourself.

So this is the moment that you stop renting your problems.

This is the moment you stop renting your issues.

This is the moment that you stop renting your lack of focus.

This is the moment that you stop renting your lack of self-discipline.

It's time for you to take ownership.

It's time for you to own the fact that you're the reason.

It's time for you to own the fact

that you're the one that's exercising your lazy muscle.

It's time for you to own the fact

that you're the one that's exercising your do nothing muscle.

You're the one that's exercising your negative mindset muscle.

You're the one that's exercising your no willpower muscle.

But that's okay because so many others, including myself,

were once in the exact same place that you are right now.

And then we sat down

and had a heart-to-he heart conversation with ourselves.

We self assessed and took complete ownership for all of the lack of success

that we were achieving.

Then we made the decision to flip the switch

and made the necessary changes to go into the kitchen of our lives

and cook up a dish of massive success.

And we quickly realized that a key ingredient is selfdisipline.

See, self-discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.

Self-discipline is the magic power that makes you virtually unstoppable.

Self-discipline is the center of the universe for success.

Self-discipline is doing within while you're doing without.

And what that means is

when your friends are begging you to go hang out

and you say no

because you're way too busy grinding hard to put yourself in position to win

in your game of life.

I love this quote from the late great Zig Ziggler.

He says, "When you do the things you ought to do

when you ought to do them,

the day will come

when you can do the things

that you want to do

when you want to do them."

See, without selfdiscipline, success is not possible.

Period.

So, I need you to ask yourself,

do you have the strength to say no when so many others say yes?

I need you to ask yourself,

do you have the strength to keep working

when so many of your friends are playing?

I need you to ask yourself,

do you have the strength to keep going when so many others are stopping?

I need you to ask yourself,

do you have the strength to keep fighting

when so many others are throwing in the towel?

Because if you can answer yes to all of those questions,

you are well on your way to joining the 1% club.

You are well on your way to living the life of your dreams.

So now is the time for you to hit the gym of your life

and start exercising your self-discipline muscle.

No more talk, no more excuses.

From this moment forward, it's all about massive execution.

Would there be days that you don't feel like it?

Yes.

Would there be days that you want to stop?

Yes.

Would there be days that you want to give up?

Yes.

Will there be days that you want to quit?

Yes.

Listen to me.

Quitting is never an option.

So get up and do it anyway.

Because when you push yourself to do and you get started,

you will be amazed at how all of a sudden you have the energy

you need to get it done.

Sometimes you have to trick yourself and say,

"I'm just going to spend 5 minutes working on this project."

You get started and all of a sudden an hour later,

you not only complete it,

but you also feel an amazing sense of pride and accomplishment.

I want you to understand this.

You will not always be motivated to do something.

So you have to force yourself to be disciplined

because those that are undisiplined allow moods,

appetites, passions, and temptation to dominate their lives.

But that is no longer who you are

because you are now officially part of the doers club.

You are now officially part of the winners club.

You are now officially part of the champions club.

You are now officially part of the those with self-discipline club.

Because you now understand that with self-discipline all things are possible.

You now understand that great leaders always have self-discipline.

You now understand that great entrepreneurs always have self-discipline.

You now understand that great champions always have self-discipline.

You now understand that great athletes always have self-discipline

because they understand that self-discipline is about controlling your desires

and impulses while staying focused on what needs to get done to achieve your

goal.

The late great Kobe Bryant said, "I don't understand lazy people.

We don't speak the same language.

I don't understand you and I don't want to understand you.

See, Kobe understood that at the center of bringing any dream,

any goal or any success into fruition is a little thing we like to

call self-disipline.

How you will go from below average to average, from average to good,

from good to great, and from great to phenomenal.

Yes, you ordinary you.

You want to lose that weight.

You want to get that six-pack.

You want to get that job promotion.

You want to graduate from college with a bachelor's, a masters, or a PhD.

You want to start that business.

You want to make that team.

You want to become the best version of yourself.

You have to remember all success starts with self-disipline.

It starts with you.

Abraham Lincoln said, "Discipline is choosing between what you want now

and what you want most."

You only have two options.

Suffer the pain of discipline or suffer the pain of regret.

The choice is yours.

Here's the thing.

If you want your future, then keep listening.

There are going to be days where you are going to be

so inundated with responsibility

and you are going to want to completely let go of the vision of

the dream.

As bad as you want to hold it in your hand,

you're going to want to let go of it all and quit.

And I don't care if you have to listen to me 10,000 times.

If you have to listen to this in your sleep, write it down.

Read it every day until the dream becomes a reality.

This is the power of discipline.

The race is not given to the swift nor the strong,

but it is he that endures to the end.

They say that discipline is doing what you hate like you love it.

For some of you, it might be reading.

For some of you, it might be exercising.

I don't know what it is that you hate.

But do it like you love it.

And do it daily in order to understand discipline.

Discipline is revealed in our daily routines and rituals.

Discipline unfolds.

If you want your future, you have to cross the bridge of discipline.

If you want to get out of the room of ordinary,

you have to go through the door of discipline.

If you want to dig yourself out of murky, muddy water.

If you want to claw your way to the top,

you are going to have to climb the wall of discipline.

There is no other way.

I need you to tell yourself right now, there is no other way.

There is no other way.

There is no other way.

The future belongs to the discipline.

Discipline is found in our daily routine, our daily rituals.

You may use discipline on occasion, but you're not disciplined.

And there's a difference between having discipline and being disciplined.

When you have discipline, you're selective.

When you have discipline, you're conditional.

It depends on how you feel.

When you are disciplined, how you do anything is how you do everything.

And everything you do, you show up at a th000%.

Everything you do, you execute with a spirit of excellence.

That's what discipline looks like.

Seize the moment.

Lean into now.

See the power, the beauty, the brilliance, the privilege in now.

There are people who are dead and gone and they will never be back.

And if they can come back, they would kill to live your now.

So be thankful for now.

Love your now.

Number one, you are going to have to discover

or define in your head what success looks like for you.

Because success is not completely wrapped up in what your mom thinks

or what your dad thinks

or what anybody else thinks.

Success is wrapped up in this truth.

What do you believe you were destined to become?

What do you believe you were destined to do?

So, you need to get crystal clear on what that looks like for you.

Because it may not look like it did for your sister, your brother,

your mom, your auntie, your uncle.

What does it look like for you?

Define it.

Some of us don't have a defined purpose.

And this is why everything we do is random.

This is why you can waste 2 hours on the internet doing nothing.

This is why you waste time because our purpose is not defined.

Our future, we're not crystal clear on our future.

Once we discover and we define what does success look like for me,

what does the future look like for me?

Once we're crystal clear on that, we got to discover.

We got to define.

We got to get dedicated.

We got to do those things that we hate like we love it.

A wise man once said, "Conquer yourself."

This is wrapped up in dedication.

We have to get dedicated.

Conquer yourself.

Once you've unlocked those daily routines, those daily rituals that you stay committed to,

the game's going to change.

The only way you're going to get dedicated is if you eliminate all distractions.

And you got to be so dedicated that every distraction gets blocked out.

You got to learn how to turn your phone off,

turn the technology off when the speech is over, when the moment is done,

when the song and the dance has ended.

You got to learn how to eliminate all distractions.

Who are you with?

That is a distraction.

Where do you go?

That is a distraction.

So there's who's and there's what's

and there's where's that are distractions in our life.

And we have to identify them and eliminate them.

This is the only way we stay dedicated.

Look, go find a mirror and look in that mirror and say motivated, dedicated,

motivated, dedicated.

So we discover, we define, we dedicate ourselves,

we do what we hate like we love it.

We conquer ourselves, we identify and eliminate all distractions.

And so now you're going to have to have some perseverance.

We talk about perseverance, we're talking about persistent.

We're talking about pressing and pushing towards something despite difficulty, despite delay, despite distractions,

despite the doubters, despite the naysayers.

This is somebody who perseveres,

who has an unwavering tenacity to achieve what it is

that they see in their head.

You got to learn to love where you are.

Disciplined people are people that have an aim.

They have a target.

But they are also a people that understand the beauty, the brilliance,

and the power of now.

You got to learn to love.

Now, when we talk about being disciplined, it is somebody that has an objective.

Yes.

It is somebody that has an endgame, a goal, an aim, a target.

But a disciplined man or woman learns to love.

Now you may not be there but you love who you are becoming.

You enjoy.

You enthusiastically engage in the everyday grind

and you love the lessons

that you're learning.

You may not be there yet.

It's still in sight.

It's still on the horizon.

But you are ecstatic

and elated about the lessons you are learning on a daily basis.

You got to love the fact that you may be a D,

a F or a C student

and you know you were designed to be an A+ student,

but you got to learn to love yourself right where you are.

You may not have it yet.

You may not see it all yet.

You may not have the full support system.

You may not even understand completely where God wants to take you.

But if you would just love your now.

This comes with gratitude, appreciation, a heart of thanksgiving for now.

Hear truth.

You will never be here again.

The age that you are, the place where you are,

the connections that you have, this very moment, we will never be here again.

Seize the moment.

If I would give you one last piece of advice, remember this last point.

Now that you're crystal clear on where you're going,

who you believe you've been destined to become,

what you believe you've been destined to do,

you need to fix your eyes on somebody who's already done it.

And so, you've got to be surrounded by a multitude of counsel

and mentors and coaches

and people that will provoke you

and agitate you to greatness.

And so if all of your friends are beneath you,

if you're the smartest person in the room, you've already lost.

If majority of your network is a distraction, you're bankrupt.

If everybody's language is you work too hard, you read too much,

you care too much, you're doing too much, it doesn't take all that.

Your relationship landscape is bankrupt, it's time to get out of debt.

It's time to get out of debt.

Eliminate distractions.

Love your now.

Now, I often tell people too,

fix the things you repeat every day

because people tend to think of those

as trivial.

You get up, you brush your teeth, you you have your breakfast, you know,

you have your routines that you go through every day.

Well, th those probably constitute 50% of your life.

And people think, well, they're mundane.

I don't need to pay attention to them.

It's like, no, no, that's exactly wrong. the things you do every day,

those are the most important things you do.

Hands down.

All you have to do is do the arithmetic.

You figure it out right away.

So, 100 adjustments to your broader domain of being.

And there's a lot less rubbish around

and a lot fewer traps for you to step into.

Once you've got your mind

and your emotions together

and once you're acting

that out,

then you can extend what you're willing to consider yourself

and start fixing up the things

that are part of your broader extent.

While you're experiencing things announce themselves

as in need of repair doesn't mean

that it's you right

then and there that should repair them.

You have to have some humility.

You don't walk up to a helicopter

that isn't working and just start tinkering away with it.

You you have to stay within your domain of competence.

But most of the time if people look at their lives,

it's very interesting thing to do.

I like the I like the idea of the room

because you can do

that at the drop of a hat.

You know, you go back to where you live and sit down and think,

okay, I'm going to make this place better for half an hour.

What should I do?

You have to ask and things will just pop up like mad.

And it's partly because your mind is a very strange thing.

As soon as you give it an aim, a genuine aim,

it'll reconfigure the world in keeping with that aim.

That that's actually how you see to begin with.

And so if you set it a task, especially,

you have to be genuine about it,

which is why you have to bring your thoughts

and emotions together and

then you have to get them in your body

so you're acting consistently.

You have to be genuine about the aim.

But once you aim, the world will reconfigure itself around that aim,

which is very strange.

And and it's it's it's technically true.

And so I think

that you can in fact decide to take on the load that's optimally meaningful

if you want.

And then you get to have your cake and eat it, too.

You're on the pathway to continual incremental improvement.

You only have to burn off a feather at a time instead of having

the whole bloody thing burst into flames.

It's a constant source of renewal.

And there's an idea that to be renewed,

you have to drink the water of life.

That that's an old mythological idea.

Chaos is water.

Water.

Water is chaos.

Water is what washes away too much order.

And to stay continually refreshed by the water of life is to take on

exactly the right amount of chaos to make sure

that your garden is properly nourished.

And I think meaning is actually the marker of that.

You don't choose your interests, they choose you.

And that's really worth thinking about too, man.

Because, you know, it's really hard to get interested in something you're not interested

in,

even if you know there's a good reason for it.

You know, you're studying for an exam, you find the material boring.

Anything will be more interesting than than the studying.

Even though you know that that's what you need to do,

you can't voluntarily grab yourself by the scruff of the neck, let's say,

and shake yourself and say, "Sit down and concentrate."

Your mind will just go everywhere.

But then if you're interested in something,

and even if it's something you shouldn't be interested in,

cuz that happens all the time, then it's like you're a laser focused man.

You can pay attention forever.

You can work until you're exhausted.

You won't even notice it.

And you remember everything.

It's like okay if you can't control your interest what does your your interest

was being manipulated behind the scenes by unseen forces

that were associated with your characterological development across time

that was the manifestation of the self.

So the self is this the the potential you let's say

and the way it operates in the present is by gripping your interest

and directing it somewhere

and that's part of the instinct of self-realization.

It's a mind-boggling idea man really it's the potential

that you are has to manifest itself somehow in in the here

and now.

It has to.

And what better way than by directing your attention.

You know it's like it seems like this might be useful for you

or maybe you get attracted to this person.

Maybe you admire this person.

That happens with kids a lot.

They'll admire someone and then copy them.

And you can see that that's obviously part of their developmental progression, right?

It's a form of hero worship.

But kids are very imitative

and they hero worship at the drop of a hat.

And so they're they're entranced by the the next stage of development.

And if they see someone who embodies that,

especially if it's in this zone of proximal development,

it's some something they could achieve stretching a bit.

They find someone who embodies

that next stage of development

and then they start to imitate them

and act like them.

Well, we're adults are no different.

We're no different.

We're just we do it at a perhaps more abstract and sophisticated level.

Life isn't just about existing.

It's about thriving.

The secret weapon that transforms potential into power is discipline.

Discipline isn't glamorous or easy.

It's not a place of comfort,

but a battlefield where you confront your weaknesses

and make the choice to rise above them.

How often have you looked at your life with disappointment,

knowing you could achieve more?

How many times have you let opportunities slip away,

clinging to the comfort of the familiar because of your fear of change?

It's time to break free and embrace the power of discipline.

Discipline is the secret for those who live their lives bravely.

It's for those who rise while others sleep.

For those who see obstacles as challenges to conquer, not excuses to embrace.

Success isn't about being the most talented.

It's about embracing the power of discipline and using it to your full advantage.

Discipline isn't about perfection.

It's about relentless pursuit.

Shatter your self-imposed limits and discover your true power.

You want to achieve greatness.

You need to embrace the power of discipline to get there.

No one else can climb your mountain for you.

It's your strength and discipline that will propel you upward.

Take control.

Lead your own journey.

Quick fixes are illusions.

True success demands consistent effort and perseverance.

The easy path is often the most treacherous.

Embrace the hard path.

It's the road to true power.

Life is unfair, but each of us is the architect of our destiny.

Choose the path of responsibility, hard work, and sacrifice.

This is the path to true freedom.

Every freedom has a price.

And that price is discipline.

It's the root of all good things applied to every aspect of life.

From waking up early to achieving your greatest goals.

Discipline is training every day to become stronger, faster, smarter,

all to lead to the ultimate version of yourself.

It's a mindset shift,

a commitment to control your life so others won't be able to.

Without training, there's no growth.

The same goes for discipline.

Practice it daily.

If you lack discipline, you won't achieve much.

But if you embrace it, your life will transform.

Consistency.

It compels us to act in harmony with our values,

cultivating a life of purpose.

Consistency allows us to incorporate our lives to be better functional

and give our lives the peace we deserve.

Through discipline, we navigate distractions and remain centered on our true objectives.

Our focus leads us to what we want to do for the rest of

our lives.

To be focused is to have a deeper understanding of ourselves, our values,

our goals, our very being.

To be focused is to be one with ourselves.

To be unfocused is to live our lives in chaos and misery.

We cannot blame the obstacles in our paths for us not reaching our full

potential.

It is a challenge, not an excuse to stop.

Through the failures, mistakes, and errors,

we build ourselves up to handle whatever life throws at us.

Growth is continuous.

It's not a one-time event, but a lifestyle.

Train your mind and body.

Apply basic principles consistently and watch your life change.

It's about doing the right things repeatedly.

Wake up on time.

Stick to your routines.

Prepare your meals.

Follow your habits.

Complete your tasks.

Face your fears with discipline.

Choose the hard path, the uphill struggle.

That's where true power lies.

Make discipline your ally.

Unleash your inner power and conquer every challenge life throws at you.

If you have discipline, you will attain freedom.

Train, study, work, practice.

Train, study, work, practice.

Train, study, work, practice.

Standing there lost and not doing anything is just waiting to die,

waiting to starve to death.

Don't let that happen.

Your excuses will destroy you

and take everything that you ever wanted from you

if you let them.

When your excuses make you feel a little bit better about the fact

that you didn't execute on what you needed to execute on,

then they can make you feel better, but they're not helping you.

If you want freedom in your life, you have to have discipline.

Start now.

Go do something that's hard.

Go try and accomplish something that's hard.

You may win.

You may lose.

You may succeed.

You may fail.

I'll tell you what, you'll be better if you don't accept that challenge.

If you don't step up and step into that cold water,

this is not a good move.

Don't do that.

Don't do that.

Just get up, move towards that challenge, whatever that challenge is.

Move towards that challenge and go attack it.

You have to start moving forward.

You have to start start taking steps in order to improve your vision,

improve your perspective, change your perspective, make some kind of progress.

And worst case scenario, you figure out that you walk the wrong direction.

Okay, now you can go walk in the other direction.

You what you learn to do is, okay, I'm going to go forward.

I'm not going to quit.

So, I'm going to go forward.

Bring it on.

And I think if there's anything that you learn,

it's to keep pushing through things that suck.

Is today the day where you make excuses?

Or is today the day you make a decision?

Is today the day you get distracted

or is today the day you get laser focused

and do great work?

Is today the day you get stressed, doubt yourself, you feel anxiety, frustration, anger,

or is today the day you dominate your day by taking control?

The easiest choice to make is to go down the road most traveled.

The challenging choice to make is to tread a new path.

The question is, are you ready to go down the path to your greatness?

Every day, every day, there is always an opportunity to build, to create,

to advance, to make progress. and you're either moving forwards or you're going backwards.

If you want to make breakthroughs

and move through the resistance

that you're probably always going to have,

but moving through it in a way that you make progress, you become more.

It's now time for you to listen to your future self.

A great life, it doesn't happen by chance.

It happens by design.

So every day where you feel

that resistance and you have the thoughts of I could do it later,

recognize that within that moment,

you have the ability to use the power to take action.

The challenge is to just get started.

Not now, but right now.

So today, look at all the things that you could do and ask yourself,

do you want to win?

You see, to win is to know what's important.

Now, say it with me.

Bring it on.

Bring on the resistance.

Bring on the challenge.

and allow yourself to have the feeling of elation

when you've got started

and you've done something

that you said that you were going to do.

And the more you do this, the better you will feel,

the more adept and the stronger you will become at moving through the resistance

that we all face.

What's the greatest thing that you will ever do?

Just get started.

You see, how you do anything is how you do everything.

And the fact is, it all comes down to one thing.

That one thing is choice.

And what's the easiest choice to make?

Well, the easiest choice to make is to choose what you've chosen before.

If you always do what you've always done,

then you'll always get what you've always got.

Ultimately, your attention is your superpower.

Your attention to focus on now what needs to be done.

And this is the difference between success and failure.

If life was a garden,

then what sort of state is the garden of your life in?

Because the natural state of the garden is decay.

And if you don't look after the garden, then you know what happens, right?

It gets out of control.

You have weeds and then there can be a lot of work to do.

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.

The second best time is now.

But I would say it's not now, it's right now.

It's really all about just playing the game.

Playing the game of life and making progress.

And maybe now it's time to wake up and realize the ultimate choice.

The choice of who are you listening to?

And I don't mean my voice.

I mean the voices in your head.

And I actually said the voices because maybe there's more than one.

When you woke up this morning, these voices started.

Did you hear that voice that said, "Stay here.

It's lovely.

It's it's warm.

It's comfortable."

Or did you hear that other voice that said, "Hey, come on.

Let's get up.

Let's go."

Which one are you listening to?

It's the same challenge for most of us.

It's who we're listening to.

And I'd like to introduce you to someone.

It's the voice of your future self.

And you could think of me like a lawyer who's come from your future

self to say,

"Hey, your future self is talking to you."

It's just maybe you haven't really been paying attention.

Most people today are actually living a future they don't want.

It's called a default future.

And what's the hardest thing to do to create a new future?

It's to build a compelling relationship to your future self and just get started.

But I know sometimes with the things we've got to do,

they might seem really big.

So just doing it might seem like, well, there's just too much to do.

But the real key is to just get started

because our brain will always favor what is easier.

Our brains tend to focus on taking the easy path.

Anything that grows comes up against resistance.

So the resistance that we have to start work,

the resistance that we have to start engaging in activities

that will create the futures

that we want always require us to move through resistance.

And right now, I'd like you to imagine

that you go on a journey

and in the distance in the horizon,

you see someone and you think, "That person looks familiar to me."

And as you walk closer to that person, you realize, "Hang on,

hang on a second.

That's me."

It is you, but it's you in the future.

And as you get closer to your future self,

imagine that that future self opens his arms up

and gives you a really big hug

and you realize the possibilities

that exist for you to become your future self.

Is today the day where you get distracted

or is this the day you just get started?

Well, I think it's important to note

that the Stokes are talking about self-discipline,

right?

So, discipline is not, you know,

the marine sergeant telling everyone else what to do, how to be, right?

The Stoics are talking about the virtue of self-discipline,

which is you have your standards

that you selected for yourself

that you are living up to.

It's not a weapon that you wield against other people, right?

And I think so often

when we hear discipline we think disciplinarian right someone who's really strict.

One of the beautiful lines in meditations marks realist says um remember tolerant with

others strict with yourself

and actually that that itself demands

so much more discipline right to be like uh I never accept being late

for me or for other people right I work hard I judge people

that are not in shape right I expect long hours from everyone

that works for me you know there's

that sort of rigid strict form of discipline I have found in my own

journey,

my own life that it actually requires more discipline to go.

This is what I expect of myself and this is how I'm wired.

This is how I operate best.

And then I understand that other people, not only do I not control them,

but they have different proclivities, different ways of living, different ways of being.

And that my job is to figure out how to adapt myself to them

instead of forcing them to be like me.

>> Exactly.

>> You know, I mean, that's kind of how I look at it.

It's just the numbers.

Like, nobody's perfect all the time.

Nobody's great all the time.

>> Uh, but people will remember you for your greatness

when they get to witness it.

>> Absolutely.

>> And I think that's something that, you know,

people have to understand like no matter how good you get,

you're still going to have days that are bad.

>> Yeah.

And I think that's the advice

that I would have focused on there

because I didn't really figure

that out until I was about 36 years old.

I would have sat myself down

and had to talk about my own discipline

and what it meant to be disciplined in all areas >> cuz you weren't

as disciplined.

>> No, I was at that time at 33 I was 330 lbs.

You know, I I a lot of I was drinking all the time,

partying all the time.

I thought it was cool to be the wild guy, you know,

and you know what I'm saying?

>> Wild man.

>> Yeah.

And that's how that I was always that way growing up.

And um you know I wish I would have had someone

that sat me down

and said,

"Hey, bro, you know that's not as cool as you think it is."

You know what I'm saying?

And you're very undisiplined and you're emotionally undisiplined.

And if you could develop this discipline now,

you will get much further ahead at a much faster rate.

Discipline once you learn it can be applied to all areas.

And so that's the thing

that I wish I would have understood at a younger age

that had I had the skills to not only be disciplined in a physical

now you know I struggle with my physique like it wasn't like I had

never been in shape before I had just become undisiplined >> right >>

and >> you know I think

if I had understood at 33 what

that could actually do for me I would have bought it hook line

and sinker and dedicated my entire life to gone. for sure.

The the amount of progress

that has happened in my life in all areas from the time I started

figuring that out to now of I got 20 years worth of results in

like 4 and 1/2 years.

>> Amazing.

>> You know what I'm saying?

And so that's the impact of taking true control over your existence is

that it greatly accelerates everything else.

I could have saved myself probably twothirds of the success journey

that I was on just from the

that I know now

that I didn't know

then.

But more importantly, I could have saved myself tons of mental agony

because I could have reassured

that,

hey, look, this is just the way it goes

and this is just this is just part of the deal

and you signed up for this.

>> And nobody ever tells you those things.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, >> okay, so how how does my day look like?

So, I wake up early in the morning.

I wake up at 4:00 in the morning.

The reason why 4:00 in the morning, man,

it's a struggle waking up at 4:00 in the morning.

It's not, you know, it's not easy and I still want to be challenged.

So, uh, you know, now it's just it's going to happen.

So, the monster, the laziness in me, it's not there anymore.

You know, um, when I say that, the light, the laziness,

we all have it.

The procrastinator, right?

the guy who doesn't want to do The alarm goes off at 4:00 in

the morning.

You're like, "Ugh, my my my leg's kind of hurting this morning.

Maybe I shouldn't run."

That guy, see that guy in me,

he's gone because he knows that it doesn't work.

The thing is, it's it's going to happen.

So, when you say, "What is my discipline?

I I done it for so long.

I've been doing it since I was nine. discipline is your lifestyle.

What is your lifestyle, man?

Like, okay, so I could teach you to go to the gym

and you and I,

we can get totally jacked in the gym, right?

And then and you and I,

we have a good 2hour sessions in the gym.

We burned it down

and you go home

and you drink a milkshake

and eat like crap.

Well, that is the thing

that separates the achievements on the other side of it,

right?

If it was easy, everyone would do it. if it was e easy,

everyone would achieve it.

So, this is one of the things that I I try and rely on.

So, I ruptured my Achilles a couple of years ago.

That sucked.

I wouldn't advise it as a as an injury.

The discomfort that you feel and the pain, the um fear of it rerupturing,

which is the number one thing you don't want it to to have happen.

The thing that I went back to in my mind was this is why

I'm here. the discomfort

that I was feeling,

the effort, the pain, the sweat.

This is why you're here was the reminder.

It's like, look, this is the reason why the rerupture rate is uh 5

to 10%.

Because people don't want to do this thing.

People don't want to do the thing because it hurts,

because it takes half an hour every single day for nearly 12 months.

It's a full 12-month recovery.

That's why this is why you're here.

And I think that you're right.

I think that the selection is people deep down know

that picking up heavy things physically,

psychologically, existentially, culturally is good for us.

And I think that that's why it's attractive.

Life is one big mind game.

>> Yeah.

>> And you're playing it with yourself.

Is it true?

I don't care.

It got me through the hardest training.

Starting out broken >> where most people quit.

I had just started.

>> Wow.

>> And when you take that mindset and you learn to flip that around,

that's what made me powerful.

>> God put me in a very interesting spot of life where he made

hell my teacher.

>> He made hell my teacher.

And a lot of people don't understand that.

So I'm trying to give people a different thought process of life where failure,

hell, disappointment, discomfort is a great learning tool.

And many people don't understand

that and a lot of people won't won't even understand this interview

when we get done with it.

>> But it's these few moments in life that you have.

Like for me, I always talk about it.

Rocky won round 14.

That one twom minute

and 13 second clip of Rocky getting up

when Apollo knocked him down.

>> That one clip

when I was going through a very bad time in my life,

I saw what I wanted to be.

And it wasn't a guy that won.

It wasn't a guy that won everything he did.

It was a guy that kept getting up after being knocked down.

So I realized if that 2 minutes and 13 seconds changed my life.

So I was I saw something

that I needed to be >> in the world I was living in.

>> Millions of people live in a very comfortable place.

That's fine.

Don't listen to me.

A lot of people are looking for that 2 minutes and 13 seconds.

M.

>> So again, I would love to be able to, you know,

give you this profound anchor that people need to have, but it's like, oh,

do do you want to do this or not?

Do you actually want to do this or not?

Cuz if you actually want to do it, what's going to stop you?

Nothing.

And if you don't really want to do it, what's going to stop you?

Just about anything that comes up.

Just about any obstacle that gets in your way becomes an excuse.

It becomes a reason.

It becomes a rationale for not proceeding down that path.

And and and this is interesting too.

You when you talk to people

that went to SEAL training

that didn't make it,

most of the time it's some reason.

There's a medical reason.

There's a family problem.

There's very few people that look at you and say, "Oh,

I quit cuz it sucked." which is what, by the way,

which is what happens to the vast majority of people.

They don't usually say that.

And even in their mind, they probably don't believe it.

They probably believe, well, you know,

it was my leg and once my leg was hurting,

I knew I was going to have a hard time on the runs

and since I wasn't going to be able to make the runs,

I just that's why I quit.

But it wasn't really quitting.

It was cuz my leg.

So, it's it's it's like I said,

it's a very it's a very strange

and and and and really kind of a a mystical thing.

Excuses.

You're talking there about people making excuses.

What have you come to learn about the nature of excuses

and if they are our friends,

our enemies, if they're ever useful?

>> Your excuses will destroy you

and take everything that you ever wanted from you

if you let them.

>> Doesn't sound like a friend.

>> No, it's definitely not a friend.

So when you when your excuses make you feel a little bit better about

the fact that you didn't execute on what you needed to execute on,

then they can make you feel better, but they're not helping you.

They're not helping you at all.

>> Is that what you when you think about extreme ownership?

Is are excuses the opposite?

Excuses and blame.

Is that the opposite of extreme ownership?

>> That is the opposite of extreme ownership.

Extreme extreme ownership is this went wrong.

This failed, didn't accomplish this.

And it's not the fault of my boss.

It's not the fault of my girlfriend.

It's not the fault of my parents.

It's not the fault of the weather.

It's my fault.

And I'm going to take ownership of it.

And I'm going to fix it.

That's what extreme ownership is.

And this is a very difficult thing to do because it hurts.

Because when you look around at your life

and you look around at your job

and your financial situation

and your relationship and your physical health

and when you look at all those things

and all the problems

that you may have with those things

and you say,

"The reason I have all those problems is because of me."

That can hurt.

That can sting.

And a lot of times our ego rejects

that and makes excuses

and lies and then we don't have to change anything

and then nothing changes.

So if you lack the discipline to exercise and eat healthy,

you will end up being a slave to disease.

If you lack the discipline to work hard, save your money,

you will end up a slave to finances.

If you lack the discipline to manage your time correctly,

you will end up with no free time.

If you have self-discipline,

if you have the discipline to save your money

and work hard and invest your money properly,

if you have the discipline to manage your time correctly

and not waste a bunch of time,

if you have the discipline to exercise and eat healthy,

you will end up with freedom.

You've got to be aggressive to make things happen.

I mean, if you don't if you're not aggressive with things, they don't happen.

They don't move.

So, you're always learning and growing.

And I was always learning until the day I retired.

And people can actually confront the fact

that this is all

because of me and this is it hurts

but is also unbelievably empowering

because if these problems are

because of me and I'm capable of fixing these problems.

So even though extreme ownership hurts and is painful,

it's also liberating because now you have control over your fate

and over your destiny.

And that is a glorious thing.

I'm not saying take your emotions out of the calculus,

but they have to be one component of your calculus, not the whole equation.

The equation has to include emotions, yes.

Logic, yes.

Future, yes. goals, yes.

Family, yes.

Work, yes.

Finances, yes.

All those things have to be in the calculus.

Emotions has to be a part of the that calculus.

You can't pull them out of there or they'll bite you.

But you can't make them the overwhelming denominator of everything

that you do or it's going to be problematic.

Extreme ownership is this went wrong, this failed, didn't accomplish this.

And it's not the fault of my boss.

It's not the fault of my girlfriend.

It's not the fault of my parents.

It's not the fault of the weather.

It's my fault.

And I'm going to take ownership of it and I'm going to fix it.

That's what extreme ownership is.

And this is a very difficult thing to do because it hurts.

Because when you look around at your life

and you look around at your job

and your financial situation

and your relationship and your physical health

and when you look at all those things

and all the problems

that you may have with those things

and you say the reason I have all those problems is

because of me.

That can hurt.

That can sting.

And a lot of times our ego rejects

that and makes excuses

and lies and then we don't have to change anything

and then nothing changes.

So again, I would love to be able to, you know,

give you this profound anchor that people need to have, but it's like, oh,

do do you want to do this or not?

Which is what I think a lot of it boils down to.

Do you actually want to do this or not?

Do you actually want to do this or not?

Cuz if you actually want to do it, what's going to stop you?

Nothing.

And if you don't really want to do it, what's going to stop you?

Just about anything that comes up.

Just about any obstacle that gets in your way becomes an excuse.

It becomes a reason.

It becomes a rationale for not proceeding down that path.

If I want to have influence over you, what do I have to do?

I actually have to allow you to influence me.

How do I get you to trust me?

I have to put trust in you.

The one of the worst situations you can be in is

when you think that the little moves

that you're making,

no one can see them.

>> Mhm.

>> And it's so obvious to everybody else.

Everybody else that's watching can see exactly what you're doing.

You think, "Oh, they can't.

They can't see the maneuvers that I'm making to take care of myself."

No, they see.

Everybody sees.

And it ends up destroying you.

I have to open my mind up and allow you to influence me.

If I just stick with my own ideas,

you're you're you close your mind as well.

If I have a closed mind, you're going to close my mind.

Um, if I want you to care about me,

what do I have to do?

>> I have to care about you.

And by the way, in my opinion, these are the components of a relationship,

right?

>> Yes.

Yes, definitely.

>> If we listen to each other,

we have If we don't listen to each other, we don't have a relationship.

>> Yeah.

>> If we don't respect each other, we don't have a relationship.

If we're not influenced by each other, we don't have a relationship.

So if we don't care about each other, obviously we don't have relationship.

So when you want to build relationship, what do you have to do?

You have to listen to the other person.

By the way, this applies to your employees, it applies to your kids.

It applies to your your spouse.

It applies to everyone.

If you want them to listen to you, you have to listen to them.

And you you can't just, you know,

I'll stop talking as I prepare my counter for what you're saying right now.

It's like I'm literally going to listen to what you have to say

and try and open up my mind

and open up my perspective

so that I understand your world

as as well as I possibly can.

I'm going to integrate

that into what my thoughts are

and we're going to come to an understanding.

We're going to move forward with a better solution.

So the idea of barking orders,

the military or any organization can be run through authoritarian dictatorship.

Look, you can make it work for a little while,

but it's not a long-term solution.

And that's what you got to watch out for.

Castle out the noise.

Track and level up the most important areas of your life

while listening to your favorite motivational speeches.

Download Mindset today. the bigger your goals are

and the more outrageous they are

then the people will always say this is crazy this will never happen

so you know we we have heard all the naysayers

and everything like that

and uh you just cannot pay any attention to

that because it's just the way it is I always feel like

if I can see it

and therefore I can believe it

then I can achieve it

so let me tell you something visual utilizing your goal

and going after it makes it fun.

You got to have a purpose.

No matter what you do in life, you got to have a purpose.

So the the the the training of the body extremely important.

The training of the mind extremely important.

This is why I say to people, I say you got to educate yourself.

You got to read something every day.

You got to learn a new language.

You got to just always improve

and look at what can you do to improve your business

or your life in general.

So when someone says no this is a stupid idea you in your mind

you don't have to say it

but in your mind just say to yourself you you do you know there

are certain things that we need to do

that is supposed to be a routine uh that's supposed to be kind of

part of your daily schedule without you having to think about it

and uh so that's basically my my kind of routine

and I'm a big believer in

that people should just realize

that I'm not going to have any sympathy for any of those things.

You know, when someone says difficult

because there's a lot of things in life

that are difficult.

And you have to ask yourself the question right off the top, you know,

are you going to be one of those guys

that are going to go

and back off every time something is difficult?

Or do you want to be one of those guys that says, "Look,

it doesn't matter if it's easy or difficult or most difficult.

I'm going to go and crush through it.

That's me.

That's the person that I want to be

and I'm going to prove it to myself

and I'm going to prove it to the rest of the world."

So yeah, there are certain things that are difficult.

This is difficult for people to have a routine

but they just have to go

and do that and they should just work on it where they go

and say do something very simple.

I'm going to go

and get up every morning at let's say an hour early before they normally

get up and just work on

that and then the next time they work on it

and say okay I'm going to get up early

and I'm going to go

and make my coffee

or my tea or whatever

and I'm going to read papers even

though maybe I haven't read the paper yet in the last 10 years.

Just add that to your

and don't even ask about it should I

or should I not.

That's the key thing about the routine is

that you don't ask yourself should I

or shouldn't I.

You just do it.

Now let me get right away to the first rule of success.

The first rule of success is to have a vision.

You see, if you don't have a vision of where you go

and if you don't have a goal where you go,

you drift around and you never end up anywhere.

It's like you can have the best ship in the world.

You can have the best airplane in the world.

If the pilot or the captain doesn't know where to go,

it would just drift around.

It would not end up anywhere or most likely in the wrong place.

So, I was very fortunate that I stumbled on my vision.

I mean, as you know,

I was born in 1947 in Austria after the Second World War,

and I didn't really like Austria when I grew up.

I couldn't wait to get out of there.

I couldn't see myself becoming a farmer

or a worker in a factory

or anything like that.

Even though my parents wanted me to stay there and have a normal life,

my father wanted me to become a police officer like he was.

My mother wanted me just to stay there

and marry a girl in the name of Heidi hopefully

and to have a bunch of kids

and run around like the fun trap family in the sound of music.

But that was their vision, not mine.

Because when you have a goal, when you have a vision, everything becomes easy.

Because remember that in America for instance

when you study you will see the percentage of people

that like their jobs 74% hate their job in America.

Now there is not much different when you come to Europe.

The majority of people don't like what they're doing

because they're really not doing it

because they didn't have a goal

and they followed this goal.

They just aimlessly drift around

and then all of a sudden there's a job opening.

So they get that job because you have to work.

But then when you work, it's a chore.

It's work.

It's not fun.

So if you think about only a quarter of the people really enjoy what

they're doing in life.

That is unbelievable if you think about it.

So I felt so blessed that I knew what I was doing.

It's like a medical student

that studies and knows he wants to become a doctor.

You know where to go.

Don't listen to the naysayers.

Everything I ever did,

the thing that they heard out of people's mouth was that's impossible.

That can't be done.

Or no.

I remember when I want to be a bodybuilding champion,

including my parents and everyone else around me said this is impossible.

Why don't I become a ski champion?

That's what they do in Austria.

Or a bicycle champion or do some track and field.

You can't be a bodybuilding champion.

That is exactly what I heard.

And of course, I proved to the people that it can be done.

So whenever someone said to me it can't be done,

I heard it can be done.

When they said no, I heard yes.

And when they said it's impossible,

I heard it is possible because I am a strong believer.

I'm a strong believer what Nelson Mandela said

that everything is always impossible until someone does it.

Well, I'm going to be the one.

I said to myself,

I'm going to do it and I'm going to show it to them.

Maybe it has never been done before.

That's perfectly fine with me.

But I'm going to do it.

Work your off.

There is no magic out there.

And it drives me crazy

when people say that I don't have enough time to go to the gym

for 45 minutes a day

and work out or to do something for 45 minutes to an hour a

day to improve.

If it is physically improve or if it is mentally to improve.

Imagine you read one hour a day about history.

How much you will learn after 365 hours in one year.

Think about if you study about the history of musicians, of composers,

how much you would know.

Imagine if you will work on a business on some business

that you want to develop every day for an hour.

Imagine how further along you will go and get.

So it drives me nuts

because we have when people say we don't have the time.

We have 24 hours a day.

We sleep 6 hours a day.

So it gives you still 18 hours.

Now there's someone shaking their head out here in front.

They say probably I don't sleep 6 hours, I sleep 8 hours, right?

Or just sleep faster.

So we have 18 hours a day.

The average person works around 8 to 10 hours.

So let's assume it's 10 hours.

So we have 8 hours left.

Then you travel around an hour a day, maybe 2 hours a day.

So now you have still 6 hours left.

So what do you do with the 6 hours?

We do it in 6 hours.

Then we eat a little bit.

Then we smoo a little bit,

talk a little bit to people and all that stuff.

But you can see how much time there is available

if you organize your day.

So you got to work hard.

Bottom line is and why I like to do those seminars

or those lectures uh

or those motivational speeches

or whatever you may call it is

because you can pump up people

and you can really give them this extra push

that they need.

Give them encouragement uh give them kind of get them into a positive thinking

mode and all of those things

because I know that I'm a product of exactly

that.

I remember that when I was 15 years old

and picking up this magazine

and reading about Rage Park,

I was so pumped up.

I went home and all of the things

that I hated at home

and all of the things

that I hated in school all of a sudden disappeared

because now I had a purpose.

Now I knew where I was going.

I read it in the magazine.

I said, "This is what Re Park did."

Oh yeah.

He came from a poor place, leadeds.

It was a factory town. that was dirty and polluted and everything like this.

That's where he grew up.

That's kind of the way I grew up here.

And you know, I followed his footsteps and it worked.

And so this is why it is

so when he just just through a magazine has this kind of a power

over me.

Imagine now if we go there and tell people life, you can do it.

You can do it.

You can be the greatest.

Do it. go for it.

Get the chop out, you know.

I mean, it's like you pump people up.

And so, this is why I like doing it

because uh I feel like I'm a product of a lot of encouragement from

so many people.

So, I want to do the same

because remember in the end we I always say we're not judged by how

much we make,

but we're judged by how much we give back.

How much do we give?

So, that's I want to give something back.

Oh, yeah.