“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can not hurt me” how many times have you heard that? I feel like I heard that hundreds of times growing up. I was huge for a kid. I was always taller than everyone my age, not only was I tall, but I sure was fat. In third grade, I was five foot three inches tall, and one hundred forty-five pounds. Since no one my age was one hundred forty-five pounds I was labeled fat. I mean, I wasn’t skinny or normal, so they were right. From then on out I let them label me as such and did nothing about it. A little bullying here and a little bullying there, but it was what it was because I had heard it all before. In no way shape or form can I or will I compare me to anyone. I am completely different from everyone around me, as they are completely different from me. David Goggins had to have had the worst childhood I have ever heard of. Makes me seem like my life wasn’t so bad. And it wasn’t. My mom loved me and loves me so much. She provided so much for me while she went without me all the time. Just like most mothers, and just like David’s mother. With that being said, words don’t hurt me, but they fire me up.
You can say whatever you want to me and it will not hurt my poor little feelings, but it will fire me up. Depending on what you say will fire me up and inspire me to pivot into being better. And so far since the second day of listening to this book, I have not skipped a day of going to the gym and eating healthy. As a result, I have lost 20 pounds. Gosh, it feels good! One other thing. I haven’t taken a nap either. Normally I take a nap every day, and I set the timer for 8 minutes to sleep during the middle of the beautiful day I have been given. How could I be so tired when I slept a full night’s rest? It’s because my blood had bad circulation, and I ate like crap. Eat like crap, feel like crap, and of course, live like crap. DG talks about motivation being Bullshit. And it is. One day you’re motivated, and the next day you are not. You have to dig into your inner soul and create your motivation. There is a guy named Naval Ravikant. Naval has this theory about the four different types of luck. I’ll include a link for you to check this out. But in this, he talks about creating your own luck. I believe you have to create your own motivation. Only you can do it. You have to think about creating constant motivation. No one else can do it for you. YOU have to get out of bed as soon as you wake up to hit the gym. YOU have to stop eating donuts, and Reese’s stix every time you go to the gas station. YOU have to drink water, and not sugar water Gatorade. YOU and only YOU. No one else. Take EXTREME OWNERSHIP of your situation, and don’t leave anything up to chance.
Don’t leave anything up to chance.
I found this section interesting because not the only time I have heard this from someone. I have heard this many times. My mom, football coach, and I read Grant Cardon’s book “the 10X rule”. Although they are labeled just a little bit differently they all come together nicely. If you were told you only had one more day to live. Ahhh shoot Let’s say one more week. All you have left is seven days, and six nights left. What are you gonna do? One I guarantee you don’t sleep in on one of those days, two, I guarantee you don’t let one rainy day stop you from doing ANYTHING. You only got seven left. What are you gonna do? You’re gonna do everything you should have been doing when you thought you had endless time. I don’t believe in leaving anything up to chance. While touring on the road we make day sheets. This shows our schedule for the day, along with how many miles we will be driving, hotels, and its distance from the venue. Fifty-one percent of people claim to be late because of traffic. Traffic is an unpredictable thing with traveling. So while making the day sheet, you always add buffer time in case you run into the dreaded thing no one likes called traffic. This buffer helps you not leave anything up to chance. It puts you in control of the situation. What’s the harm? Nothing. If anything you are early to work. You arrive at the venue early. This allows you to set up more efficiently and allows you to take control of your situation ultimately leaving nothing up to chance. So moral the story BE EARLY.
Just like the chorus of the Oliver tree song in “Life goes on” life does go on. You will fail! But that is a part of life. Looking at these failures can mold you into being an uncommon person that fails less. Once you fail, learn from these failures and life lessons. Be accountable and take ownership of finding the route cause applying Kaizen. You only stay down if you choose to stay down. You must get up and get back at it. A prime example is Rocky Balboa. “It ain’t about how hard you’re hit, it’s about how you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward.” This is true. Get hit, get back up. Fail, get back up! Lose a race, race again. Gain weight, diet, and exercise harder. They don’t want you to win, so you have to work hard to win. When I was young, I heard James Stewart say he doesn’t quit till he sees the checkered flag. He applied that to motocross and supercross racing, but if you step back and think about it. You can easily apply that to life. Life is a wild thing. We don’t know when we are going to die. Death is our checkered flag. And our death date is out of our control. It is decided by our creator and the universe. Death is our checkered flag, Don’t stop until then. Times will be tough. But as Tom Hanks says “this too shall pass” thank you for chiming in. Please read or listen to this book. I will attach links at the bottom of the blog for you to check out my references. Don’t wait to be Uncommon because you already are!
Peace and Blessings
