The WORK ETHIC of these A-LIST Celebrities Will BLOW Your Mind

A lot of the times, my biggest competitor is my mind. It's our biggest competitor is really ourselves. Cynicism is always going to try to get you. And it's your job to navigate around that cynicism. How? Because they're like nipping dogs at your feet. They're not important. There's another gear that kicks in where when you push yourself beyond what you think is capable, you suddenly realize how capable you are and you're able to just keep pushing and cranking and something magic happens. It's like almost like in your brain something happens that just takes you to another level of what you thought was even possible for you. Sometimes it's not even about what choice we make. Just make a choice and commit to it and go and dive in. Because we can look up and days, weeks, months, years can go by and you can go I've been tiptoeing around here not committing to anything for so damn long. I'm missing out. I started swimming at the age of three. Um it was kind of just a convenient babysitter putting me into sports, you know, while my parents both worked and worked long hours. So then after school program, going swimming or gymnastics or basketball or whatever sport it was in the season really became um it was it was my babysitter, but then it became my way of life and my great passion for so many reasons. Um and uh I you know, it's to me it's like being a part of sports is like the air you breathe or the water you drink. It's I couldn't live without it. It it informed who I am in so many ways and I love that you started the conversation with this because I feel like sports gives you a type of work ethic that you carry into your life. And especially for young girls because we're so objectified and trivialized that you realize when you're working in team sports what your body is actually made for. And um and you have to train your body and you have to work your body hard and you have to mind over matter, get into that part later, but also as young girls working together for a common goal and supporting one another in their strengths and picking each other up. You learn how to support other women. And so um there are so many things. Um you learn how to persevere um through all types of adversity, through pain and through what losses. You know, I've never seen a loss as um a negative because it's such an opportunity to grow. Um and I know this is a very long-winded answer to your question, but um without sports as a young person, um without um the ability to learn myself again physically and mentally, I don't I would definitely be a different person than I am today. Yeah, that that I completely understand. When you approach the body to get to the mind, to me that's when like really interesting things happen. I've always told people there's two ways to get to the mind. The mind to me is ultimately the game that we're playing. You can go directly to the mind, which I would say works for very, very few people. Another way to get to the mind is through the body. So, whether that's um learning that you can get stronger, learning that you can get faster, that you can improve your skill set, it it becomes much easier to believe that change is possible, um which gives you the energy that you need to push when something gets difficult. Like, "Oh, I've seen this with the body, and now if I can believe that the mind works in the same way, um then I can tackle a pursuit like you've done with acting, which I I have to imagine people would rank as one of the sort of most impossible to to get into. It just seems so insurmountable, the odds of coming from, you know, a trailer park in Bellingham, Washington, to having a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I mean, it's like it's the classic story. What I'd love to know is when does your mom begin whispering in your ear this notion that you can become what you want. It's just going to be really hard. Is that as soon as you started swimming? Was it later? Like when does that become a thing? It was as early as I can remember. Um I think my mom First of all, I know the best gift you can give a child is to tell them they can do anything they want as long as they work hard enough. It gives you that gift of believing in yourself. Um and I I don't even remember at what age she told me. I It was just kind of a common mantra. Um and it was really can't was the bad four-letter word in our house. And I love that. And it was also I remember my gymnastics coach, we had a big sign on our wall in big block level letters up on the wall that said can't means won't and won't means push-ups. And so kind of from all all areas, from my home life to my sport life, it was the common mantra. And I just tried to carry that into my I do carry it into my life all the time now. And instead of saying I can't, I try and find a way to persevere. And And a lot of the times my biggest competitor is my mind. It's our biggest competitor is really ourselves. And, um, I'm I'm competitive because I'm a Leo and I I like a challenge. Um, but really I think overcoming that obstacle of your mind is the number one thing to tackle in in in pursuing your dreams and your goals. One thing I'm very curious, I actually don't know how you're going to answer this. So, I've I've heard that you're very competitive, um, and not just with yourself, with other people. What do you think about that? Do you think it's important or maybe useful to be competitive with others as well or do you think, "No, no, no, you should keep it entirely aimed at yourself?" Well, one thing I'd like to say is that I think for a long time people use the word competitive as a negative, especially when it was, um, you know, towards a a female. Um, it was if men were competitive, was deemed a good attribute and characteristic, and for women it was kind of a negative. And I was told my whole life, "Well, you're really competitive." And I took it poorly because clearly it was, I think, meant as that. Until I started realizing what a great thing. It means that I'm always trying to improve myself. And even if that's not what that person meant, I feel like when I look back, for instance, when I was swimming or that one kid in school or two kids or three kids or 10 kids um, that were better at something than you, it's so important to try and work towards pushing yourself. It gave you something to work towards. And so, I was constantly observing what they were doing that made them able to be faster or, um, whatever it was it that what that I was trying to achieve. And that is so important to, um, um, to to see it, um, to respect it, and to work towards it. Um, I always go to that. When I was training for Million Dollar Baby, I was thinking of that the runner who finally broke the 4-minute mile, and I remember thinking that after he was able to do that, how many people did it just shortly after. It's because they saw someone do something that was deemed no longer impossible, and they said, "I can do it." And so, that is super important to be competitive with other people, because they're the ones that push us out of our comfort zone that we didn't even know we were living in. Hillary, I agree with that so aggressively, and yet it I I have said things like that in the past, and it gets a pretty controversial response. Like, people, um, they don't like the idea of competing with other people, but like you, I feel exactly the same that I'm I'm not wishing them bad. I don't think less of myself if I can't win. I want to play against the best of the best, and see like how good this can be, and fall in love with the process of like pushing myself. And like just how far can I take this? And to me, that exhilaration of allowing yourself to be competitive, to really try to win, um, in an honorable way, in in an exciting way, in in in a way that fills arenas with people that want to see that level of like human performance. That to me is like the juice of how far you can push the human animal. Exactly. And if you think about it from that aspect, it's about respect. It's about respecting the person that is doing something that you want to achieve. That's beautiful. And that's what makes the world better. Because if we all stayed in that comfort zone and said, "Oh, let's not compete with each other to be a better at whatever it is," then no one would ever grow, and no one would find vaccines that help save lives, or go to missions to Mars or whatever it may be. And that to me is the most inspiring about human beings are the people who are constantly breaking through the status quo. They blow all of our minds. Like you said, they fill arenas. And I think the negative naysayers are really probably just a little bit jealous, and they're not going to like to hear that. Hey guys, hope you enjoyed the episode brought to you by our sponsors at BlueBlocks. Go to blueblocks.com/impacttheory for 15% off your order or just use discount code impacttheory at checkout. All right, enjoy the episode. I believe that because of my family's commitment to the purity of of the arts, we we always we just didn't ever want to be caught not being professional and not being good at what we were doing, ever. That was more of a shame to our group as a family unit than it was anything else. Even in fooling around, improvising at home, or creating humorous sketch or skits, and you know, you you you either own that idea or you don't, and uh we just had to. That was our survival mechanism was to be as good as we could at what we were doing, you know. Or don't do it. There's a side to you though that I it's going to be hard to put into words, but I'm going to try, and then I will get to a question at the end of this, so bear with me. Sure. Go ahead. So, seeing you on Oprah, I've seen enough Oprah to to get a sense of like where she is with you, and she was so effusive with how much she loved you and just felt like there was something special and she had a connection to you. Countless actors have said very similar things that that you lift the set up, that that you have this playfulness, this spirit about you. Um dude, 40 plus years in the industry, I literally expect you to be cynical. And so the fact that you aren't, I don't buy as accidental. So I'm curious like what you've done, how you've stayed. You've had ups, you've had downs in your life outside of this. You've had loss, like heartbreaking loss. And yet literally sitting across from you, where I like to think you couldn't fake me out, I can feel the like you actually love what you do. And and I I mean that in a big way. You the way you were you were kind. When you were changing the lighting, you were [ __ ] up like holding signs and saying like is this working? It's not like you were just telling other people to do it. Like there is a you're you're involved in your own life. I don't I don't have better for you. there's a joy of creating and that's free. Whether you write or play music or act, you know, that's free. The joy and you can splurge on that joy. Uh everybody can. You just have to give yourself permission. It's like Wizard of Oz, you know, you click your heels. You always can go home or you can always create something. You know, if we were if it was just the two of us and you know, we finished talking and I said, you know, let's draw some pictures, man, or let's you know, let's make a little movie or you know, we could find something to do that might heighten the uh awareness of being alive. Um cynicism is always going to try to get you. And it's your job to navigate around that cynicism. How? Because they're like nipping dogs at your feet. They're not important. Cynicism is valueless in my book. I have no time for it. I will be patient with it to a degree. And then I have no patience for it. And I would love for you to have actually witnessed me on phones trying to make something happen and eliminate all the naysayers on the phone. Let's say seven Well, you know this from being in business. Seven people are on the on the phone and three of them are lawyers, and two of them are managers, and three of them are agents, and I can like radar, who are the people that are not for this? And and I detect it. Whatever the person's name is, could you please remove yourself from this phone conversation because if you stay on, we're not going to make this deal. You get down to the people that want the show to go on the road, you got a deal. You have to get rid of the people who don't want to play the same game as you do. Dude, go go harder on that. So, one of the number one questions I get asked is, okay, so in in sort of my space, whatever that is, you hear a lot that you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Okay, so you say that enough, which I actually really believe, I also think it extends to ideas, but you get people saying, okay, but there's people in my life, they're not lucky enough that it's an attorney or in a manager or somebody, it's their mom, it's their cousin, it's whatever, their boss, their manager, and they have that person in their life, and they can't just get rid of them. Do you have methods for dealing with them? handle them. And you have to go if you love brother, or sister, mother, father, friend, a business associate, whatever degree you are committed to them, and you don't want to uh do that, they're different than just a professional person that's assumed a a being that's in your group, then it's easy to eliminate if they're not wanting you to survive. But if you have people that you deeply love, and you can't feel comfortable about that, you find a way, and it's artful. You have to find a way of handling each of them, so everybody goes away feeling happy and not antagonized about your displeasure with them. So, you know, I could make up examples, but you know, if you have someone who, you know, let's say I'm creating this idea, but some parent that doesn't want their kid to play the violin, okay, and they're antagonistic, you know, you've got to be an accountant. You've got to be an accountant. You go, "Okay, Dad, I love you, but if I become an accountant, I'm becoming what you want me to be, and I have a good chance at having a not so happy life." Let me ask you a question. Do you know the difference between someone who crushes big goals in their life year in and year out and someone who can't seem to get ahead? What is up, my friends? Tom Bilyeu here. In my opinion, there are seven strategies that you must use in order to achieve any goal. The more of them that you can take action on, the greater the chance that you'll achieve your goal. I say that the difference between someone who is an overachiever and someone who fails to hit their goals is that the overachiever does everything they can possibly do to be successful. I said a second ago that there are seven strategies you must use to hit any goal. I'll be teaching them later this month on a live workshop called how to make any goal stick. Great news is it's a process, it can be taught, and you can deploy it in your own life. You can register for this workshop by going to this link. I'll tell you though right now quickly what they are. First, extreme clarity and focus. The average person fails to achieve their goals not because they didn't put in effort, but because they don't actually know what it is that they're trying to accomplish. They're not focused on exactly what they want. Second, massive excitement and motivation. There are two things that motivate us, pleasure and pain. Most people don't properly leverage pain and negative emotions, which means that they're only half as motivated as they could be, or at least they're only using half of the tools of somebody else that finds their way to success. Third is desire. Fourth is massive pressure, and this goes back to that idea of negative emotions. If you use it the right way, fear of failure can actually be a very useful thing. Fifth, coming up with the right strategy. Sixth, avoiding the trap of overthinking rather than taking fast, aggressive action. And finally, evaluating your progress, building grit, and adjusting your course. That loop is critical. In fact, that last part is what I call the physics of progress. If you fail to do that, you will never make progress. All right, these are the seven steps that I'm going to walk through in much greater detail on my live workshop how to make any goal stick. So, go to the link on your screen or click the button below to register. All right, my friend. I will see you soon. Take care and be legendary. Peace. Even if I fail at being a violinist, at least I failed on my own terms, and I failed doing something I loved. So, you got to let up on me, Dad, or brother, or sister, or whatever that character is that has a counter-intention to you. You have to get with them and get real and say, "Look, it's my life. It's not your life, and this is how I need to do it." You see? So, there's ways of handling, you know, I gave The first example I gave you was a high-end example because you're trying to close a deal. Mhm. But, there's many examples whether someone wants to be a baseball player, but their parents want them to be a football player. It doesn't even matter if it's of the wrong sport. You see? It's not your sport. Mhm. You know? And I've watched people do this my whole life. I've watched them you know, you're Wow, you got to be a professional uh football player for 6 months. Why didn't that work out? Well, cuz I never liked I wanted to be a baseball player. Well, what what happened? They said, "Well, my dad wanted me to become a football player, and I was really going on his wishes." So, then you go, "Mhm." So, if you had to redo history, you'd say, "Would I have told Dad at that time, look, you know, you I'm just enjoying this more than that. Can you let up on me?" So, there's any all these interesting increments of how you give yourself permission and navigate around people that are counter your intentions. You know, and then sometimes it doesn't matter. Sometimes you go, "I don't really care which way I do this or that." And you acquiesce to just keeping peace and and good good roads goodwill and and it doesn't matter so much. Other times it matters a lot. Cuz it's your personal destiny. Speaking of people being contrary to your wishes, was anybody weird about you dropping out of high school to pursue acting? Uh only my dad for a minute. And then when he saw that I could make a living at it, he let it go like a hot potato. All he cared about was that I could survive in life. And he wasn't sure without a diploma that I could. And I was saying in my mind I was saying, "I'm not a scholar. So, therefore, I'm going to do luggage handling at LaGuardia or I'm going to become a what I do best, act, sing, and dance." So, Dad, let me get I'm I'm 16. I'm chomping at the bit. Let me out of the stable. My mother, she had no problem with it. She said, "Let him go. Thank God he's got a target he what he wants to achieve. He's already got a manager and agent. Let him go." You know, and finally, I made a deal with him and I said, "Well, again, keeping the peace, I said, "What if I just took the year off and and possibly even did home school so I didn't miss any, you know, credit." He said, "Good." That lasted about a month, you know, I would send in my assignments, you know, and then I started to make money and then he started to see how well I could do. Uh so, he was more, you know, he's pretty six kids, working class, he wanted to make sure I was going to be okay. So, his was much more pragmatic. Mine was much more, "No, I want to put my bets on my abilities that you guys have let me so beautifully have and nurtured since I was born, you know? You know, my parents would sit there, you know, in those days everybody smoked. He had a cigar, my mother had a cigarette, glass of wine, and they would watch me for 3 hours, lip-sync records, and improvise, and imitate people, and whatever. And they would look, "He's something, isn't he, Bo? You know, he I I look at I Can you believe how They made me feel like I was God's gift to the arts." So, it's like really, Dad, you you encouraged all this love of my performing, and now I want to do it. He just wanted me to be protected by a diploma. I don't know how much that diploma was going to protect me, you know, when you're auditioning for a Terrence Malick Right. You seem to have done okay without it. Yeah, I would say. The the jury's in. It worked out. All right, my friends, let's talk about blue blocks. Blue blocker glasses have been a game-changer in my life. If you're someone like me who is sensitive to artificial lighting and extra sensitive to artificial blue light from a cell phone or a computer screen, then you need to try blue blocker lenses. They are going to improve your sleep. And now, there's a company called BLUblox who is elevating blue blockers in a whole new way with stylish and scientifically-based blue light blocking glasses. BLUblox offers high-quality blue blocker glasses designed for any time of the day, for any lighting situation with three specific lens styles, daytime, nighttime, and color therapy. There's the blue light daywear computer glasses that filter harmful artificial blue light across the whole blue light spectrum. These are anti-glare lenses that can help prevent headaches, macular degeneration, and digital eye strain. The Summer Glow Mood Boost Therapy Glasses block 100% of light in the high-energy portion of the blue spectrum and can assist with migraines and anxiety. These are great if you work under intense artificial lighting during the day or if you're extra sensitive to artificial blue light. After the sun goes down, Sleep Plus blue blocker glasses are perfect to wear 2 to 3 hours before bed, which I do religiously. They can help with insomnia, jet lag management, and body clock alignment for a peaceful night's sleep. Blue Blocks is all about science, quality, and style. Their products are made under optics laboratory conditions in Australia and come in prescription, non-prescription, and readers. And Blue Blocks ships all over the world for free. Blue Blocks is offering a special discount exclusive for Impact Theory listeners. Go to blueblocks.com/impacttheory for 15% off your order or use discount code impacttheory at checkout. Once again, that's blueblocks, which is b l u b l o x dot com forwardslashimpacttheory for 15% off your order or use the discount code impacttheory at checkout. All right, my friends. Give these a shot. I use them all the time. Take care and be legendary. Talk to me about the power of doing the work, of work ethic. Why does it matter? It does. It You know, it's interesting. It sometimes it happens without it, but I don't think it sustains without it. Um and what I learned is you know, it's like even with um Shazam. Like I decided 2 years prior that I wanted to be a superhero. I was like, I want to be a superhero. I want that to happen. So, I'm just going to start training for it. And so, I started training, I started learning Taekwondo, I started learning um Capoeira, and I just started training with the trainer like five, sometimes six days a week for like 2 years straight. And then it just happened, you know? And it was interesting because I fully expected it to happen, but I think sometimes we are more comfortable hoping and praying than than when it actually happens. Um and so, I just learned very early that for the things that I'm wanting and believing, I just have to do everything possible that's within my power. And there's some things that aren't within my power, and that's where I trust God. But what is it within my power? It's rather it's getting the proper sleep, rather it's learning your lines, rather it's researching the character, rather it's watching movies for reference, rather it's picking up a subject matter as a person to study, or um working out, or eating healthy, or you know, whatever it is that you need that's going to make you better at what you want to do. It's doing every single bit of that that you can possibly do and and going above, you know, not just doing just enough to get by, but going above. And um and then after that, it's like if it's supposed to happen, it will happen. And chances are if you do the work, it likely will happen. Talk to me about going above. This is an area for me that I think is where all the juice happens. Yeah. People either do enough, as you say, or they really go above and beyond. And the way that I explain it to people is your job, whatever you're trying to be great at, your job is to leave other people in awe. And nothing else will do, because that's the nature of the human animal. The only thing that they're um going to remember is something that really hits them and really leaves them with that moment of like, "Whoa!" Yeah. How has that served you, and how do you get to that level? Um mental toughness. As my my trainer, Mike T, would say, you know, when we we first started working out for the first year he would always say there's going to be a point in time where that mental toughness kicks in and I didn't know what he meant. And what it meant was when you've done everything that you can do and you really have put in the work, there's another gear that kicks in where when you push yourself beyond what you think is capable, you suddenly realize how capable you are and you're able to just keep pushing and cranking and something magic happens. It's like almost like in your brain something happens that just takes you to another level of what you thought was even possible for you. Um rather it's physically, emotionally, spiritually, whatever it is, there's another gear that we can tap into when we push ourselves more than we think we can. Um and I don't mean push yourself and make yourself get hurt, but I mean just like, you know, pushing past um pushing past everything, pushing past your fears, pushing past what you think you're capable of, pushing past um what people say you can do. And I do think that is where the magic happens and and I think that's when you feel your strongest and you begin to start to uncover um that there's more there than you even realize. Um and that's just the start. That's just when you start to uncover, you know. Do you know David Goggins? No. Oh my god, I think you would love him to death. So he when he was born he said he believed that he was the weakest man God ever created. Wow. And he was abused just the abuse was crazy. Wow. And he grew up as the um only African-American in a neighborhood entirely of white people and they were like uh like 20 miles or something from one of the uh major um chapters of the KKK. So he grows up there spray painting horrific stuff on his car, on his binders, everything and just realizes nobody's coming to save me. And he says one day he just decided he was going to become the toughest man alive. And so he ends up doing the most ridiculous training ever. He goes through He's only person to make it through four different elite special ops training. So, he does Delta Force. Wow. Um he does SEAL training. He does Buds um Hell Week three times, gets through it twice. Just crazy. They're Air Force Rangers and just like transforms himself body and mind. And he said, "In all of that, in being pushed like that well past his comfort zone like you're talking about, he clicks into that point where he realizes exactly what you were saying, that you're capable of so much more than you think." And so, he said, "When you're like broken you can't go another step." He said, "You're only 40% of the way to your actual capacity." Right. Right. like that always gave me the chills. And it's just that most people don't end up ever pushing themselves like that. So, how do you get yourself psyched enough? Cuz to tap into that zone that you're talking about, like your body, your mind is screaming, "Stop. Yeah. Go in the opposite direction." So, how do you get yourself there? Well, first of all, that just inspired me to go even further. Um to me, it's just um that there's got to be more, you know? And I don't I don't know how I necessarily tap into it. It's just I start to feel that when my mind and my body is screaming, if I push just a little bit further, and then when I push further, I realize that I can push just a little bit further, and I just keep going as far as I can. And once I know that I can get to this level, the next opportunity I have, I start pushing past that next level. And um I don't know. I guess it's I don't want things to be the same. I want to continue to go to the next level. I don't ever want to get comfortable and say, "This is good. This is enough." I want to be um satisfied and thankful with this is good and this is enough, but I don't want to get comfortable in the sense of like, I know that I can access more. And I again, I want to access everything that there is for me to get until there's nothing left, you know? Dude, I love that so much. Like that is the driving force in my life is to be at the same time to be like I love my life. I'm way grateful, but it's me versus me. And I want to see like how much more can I do? So when people ask me like what's the purpose of life? For me the answer is very simple. How much of my potential can I turn into actual skills? Like how much of this can I ring out where I'm I'm now able to do something today that I wasn't able to do yesterday because I was very disciplined and I came and I showed up every day and I pushed myself and I got to the point where I didn't think I could give any more and I pushed a little more and then the next time I come back and I'm like, "Hey, remember where you were and you didn't think you could do any more and now you did a bit more." Yeah. And that like continual push of something about that I really respond to people that have that hunger. Um and my question to all of them is how do you stay hungry when you've been as successful as you've been? I mean you're your credits alone, if all you do is look at what you've done in the entertainment industry which truly is only a part of what you've done, but even if I just look at that, it's already insane. You could rest and say, "Well, I've done it. I've had number one box office hits. I've acted with some of the biggest names on the planet." It's like you're a part of franchises that are going to be remembered. So it's like how do you stay hungry? I feel like I'm just starting. I don't know. Something about it I just feel I feel like I've been doing it forever and I feel like I'm just getting started and I don't know why I feel that way. I just am excited about what's next and I don't think but I do think there is truth to like you know, we often think well, if I just accomplish this this that and the other then you know, that'll be good and then you get there and I think everybody pretty much always realizes is that once you get there you're like, "Oh man. Okay, well, if I just accomplish this this this this that then I'll feel you know." And I think that um sometimes it's an endless cycle in a negative way for some people um because they think once they accomplish those things they'll be happy and then sometimes it's a positive cycle for people because it's just about continuing to elevate. Um for me, I don't know. I just feel like there's so much I want to do that I haven't done yet. Um and there's so many um so many different things to tap into that I haven't even begun to scratch the surface. Part of it is don't worry. Don't give a damn about the aware. Don't get objective. Don't hop out of yourself and say, "How am I being received?" Early. The best work I've done, and I am very aware of that, but then the best work I've done in my career is when my head's down in the process and it is completely a subjective experience, and I don't give a damn what you think about it or what anyone else thinks about it. And I sure as hell don't give a damn about the result because I'm in it. And I'm so in it that the last day of shooting they yell, "Wrap." And I go, "Okay, I'll see y'all tomorrow morning for the tomorrow's work." And they go, "No. It It's over. Like we finished film shooting. Wrap. There is no tomorrow." Then I'm like become objective for the first time. So in many ways, and I think especially today, not just in in acting a career, but in all of our careers, athletes, uh everything is with so much room to be objective, what do we on our phone? There's a jumbotron, immediate response when we put something out. We may be becoming too objective or measuring too aware, giving too much credence to awareness of oh, how am I perceived? You know, kids these days, it's what they put out, how it's received. If it's got enough thumbs up, they have a good day. If it's got enough thumbs down, they have a bad day. So their entire our being and our attitude and how we feel about ourselves is more reliant We're letting it be more reliant on what other people think about us today than ever before. I say leaning to the subjective, I don't give a damn about what anyone else thinks. I'm done it but but I'm going to chase down and do what's truest to me. And then it's time to pop out sometimes and read your reviews or have a look at the jumbotron or watch that watch that performance on playback. It's okay but but but if you're thinking about the result or thinking of in the third person too early, I don't believe you do near as good or true of a job in the first person subjectively that you could do. Why do you pursue things that scare you? Why seek the role that's hard? Because it cost me something. Cuz it cost. It comes with a price. It's It's a bit of that line. Don't pick a fight can't It's not really a fight unless you can lose it. It's not really you know, don't It's not really a risk unless you can lose the fight. I feel more alive in them. I have an experience in the making of them. I'm nervous every day I come to work. I feel like when I nail a day and I knock it and I know I did, I feel like yes. I get I I have a measure at the end of the day of like you set out to do something. You prepared for it. You had intention and you did it. And maybe even became found some magic in the day. That I sleep good knowing that I accomplished that day in building the architecture of a character's arc through a story. And then if I could put the whole thing together and it comes out the whole one old performance turns out to be a beautiful song, an original song of that character, then I'm like yes. And I know that I was highly responsible for that. I was not solely responsible, but the most responsible for that. And that gives me pleasure. That gives me gratification. That makes me feel gives me significance. That gives me confidence. If I don't pull it off and I do have a day where I'm like no you didn't, McConaughey." And it was my fault. I still I would rather with these kind of roles, I can look in the mirror and go, "So, guess who's responsible not pulling it off?" You, McConaughey. In the same way when I go, "Guess who's responsible for pulling it off?" I like knowing who. You. And and and and and it was also again work that challenged the vitality of my life. Drama dramatic roles allow you the actor to have as high of a ceiling or as low of a basement from love to hate, from happiness to pain as that particular actor wants to bring to it. That's what's inherently beautiful about dramas. Okay, you're the part. You're playing the role. How does How would How is Are you going to emulate that person through yourself? Um that is a vital thing. That I feel that makes me sweat. That makes me sleep better at the end of the day. That gives me a sense of accomplishment. I'm like, "Yes, I did what I intended to do. I prepared for it. Was ready." Oh, the day didn't go how I thought it was going to go, but I I called audibles along the way and rolled and still told the truth on my man, the character. That gratification feels good. I mean, you said you actually seriously considered going back and teaching fourth grade or becoming a high school football coach. And so when people think about Matthew McConaughey, "Oh, yeah, I remember he used to act, but now he's a fourth grade teacher." It for you to step into that space and be like I I didn't need to leave that space because I was okay being the high school teacher or the fourth grade teacher. I didn't need to leave, you know, the wrestling match because I was okay losing the wrestling match. It's just like accepting those challenges is why you've survived for so long in a business that eats people up faster than the NFL. Well, how many times do we think is our first thought? Oh, well, if I did that, if I became the fourth grade teacher, that would be a demotion or a demotive move in my life. No, it wouldn't have been. It would not have been. I'm I'm I didn't have to do it now in hindsight, but that would not have been a demotion. I would have found certain value that was going to fill my soul in that role in that role that I was not finding doing the work I was doing in in Hollywood. So, it would not have been a demotion. It may have been perceived as one, but I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I you know, that lose a job and then get another one, but won't take it cuz it's less salary than maybe the one they had before. And all of a sudden find themselves 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 years, a decade later going, "They're still stuck. They they didn't do anything. They're still saying like, 'No, I'm going to find that thing.'" And I'm going like, "You missed a decade, man." Just go do that one that that you love to do that maybe was going to pay you less because you would at least been building something through the day. And who knows what that would have led to? Maybe that would have led to something where you're getting paid five times more than you were doing something else you love even more. Uh so, a lot of times I say this in the in in the book. Sometimes it's not even about what choice we make. Just make a choice and commit to it and go and dive in because we can look up. Limbo sucks. We're all in limbo now with COVID. Limbo sucks, but sometimes you just go, "I I I don't know what to do. I'm just going to do this one. And I'm just going to do it. And if I do this to the best of my ability, sometimes that lends Somebody sees us do that." And they come up and they go, "You're actually more qualified. You're overqualified for this job. You should be doing that." And you're like, "Yeah, that's what I really like to do." They'll see it. But put ourself in a position, right? Because you can look up and days, weeks, months, years can go by and you can go, "I've been tiptoeing around here not committing to anything for so damn long, I'm missing out." What's up, everybody? Tom Bilyeu here. Quick question for you. How many times have you sat down in your life to write out a list of goals and said to yourself, "For real this time, I'm going to make every single one of these happen and I will not quit. If you're like most people, you set a lot of goals, but you don't achieve all of them. In fact, you may not have achieved any of them. Great news is, I don't care if you are the highest achiever in the world, or if 2021 has beaten you down hard. What I know for a fact is that humans are wired to adapt, and no matter how difficult the previous year or years have been, you can find your path to fulfillment and achieving your goals. Look, my friend, trust me, learning how to stick to your goals and achieve them again and again is a skill, and you can learn it. You can master it, and when you do, it will serve you for life. Great news is, it's a process like anything else. 2021 has been hard for a lot of people, so I'm going to be going live later this month to host a workshop on exactly how to run that process called how to make any goal stick. Now, you can go to this link, or click the button on your screen, and get free access to this live training. And when you register, I'll send you a bonus class from Impact Theory University to get you started. All right, see you soon over at the live workshop, and until then, my friend, be legendary. Take care. Yeah, you talk about us being in limbo right now, and I know your obsession is values, values in your own life, values to pass on to your kids, values for us as a society um to take away. And you gave a commencement speech at your alma mater that I thought was awesome. And it felt a bit like a dry run for the book, cuz so many of the themes carry into Green Lights. Yeah. But man, really, really truly, first of all, the book is amazing, and I I really mean that. The commencement speech was amazing. Some of the the values that you talked on, um I think are so powerful, especially right now. Uh the world isn't fair, it's never going to be. Life isn't easy, don't want it to be, which I thought was really interesting. You're going to have to earn your way forward, and that we should want it that way. Um what are some values, whether those or others, that you think people um um will get more out of their own life if they embrace? That there's a responsibility to freedom and that there is freedom in responsibility. You know, and that earn your way there. We remember the stuff we earn, the stuff we experience more than what the teacher tells us or what someone gives us for free. We just do. We broke a proverbial sweat on it, whether it's mental or physical or whatever. We we we we built it. We We understand. We felt how we got it, how we achieved it, how we got what we wanted. Those stick with us. Whether we forget them intellectually, they were written in our lineage and they build resilience and they and and and they build a healthy, true optimism going forward to know that oh no, I've I've I've worked for something before and achieved it. Delayed gratification. Oh, there are choices I can make today for myself that will pay me back later in life. Mailbox money, as we call it in the entertainment industry. Um R O I. There are specific personal choices we can make and they're worth considering. Look, I'm all for hedonism. I'm all for immediate gratification, too. Sometimes it's like, yes, dude, it's Halloween. Eat all the candy you want. Go for it. It's not going to become a habit day-to-day. There's certain nights where you're like, hey guys, tonight we're going to blow it out. The walls are padded and we got nothing We're off work on Monday. Let's go, you know? I mean, certain times say that's okay. But there's, you know, where is the selfish choice, the the self-flesh choice? Where is what we want actually what we need? Where is what we need actually what we want? Where is the best choice for me, the best choice for we? Where's the best choice for we, the best choice for me? That's the place, I believe, the hunt talk about honey holes. That's the real place to go forward in trying to find um tee ourselves up for those green lights in the future. And all the and I the simple things. Let me bring it down to a really simple one. You drink coffee? I do. Do you prepare your coffee, put it in the filter, and pour the water in the coffee maker the night before? Not for myself, but ironically I do for my wife. Because you're teeing her up for what? A green light the next morning. Correct. She doesn't come in and go, "Where's that filter?" She can just come in and go, press the button. You're giving her a gift to her future self. You're making something easier for her. It's a very simple thing, but it's a great little simple metaphor. So, there are choices we make. If you're going to say right now, "I'm going to lie, cheat, and steal to get what I want, and I got it." I got an immediate green light for me. That's a battery-powered green light. That's not a solar-powered green light. Why? Because now everywhere I go, I got to look over my shoulder to see if someone's there that I lied, cheated, and stole from. And while I'm doing that, I'm stealing whose time? My time. Now I'm not freedom. I'm not free. I don't have the freedom. I didn't create freedom in my future because I chose to be a make an irresponsible act that I left crumbs. I've now got reasons to look over my shoulder. And the more things we do to create in our in our future that we got to look over our shoulder, the more of our most precious thing we have in our lives, time, that we're stealing from ourselves. So, it's not puritanical. It's just like it's actually self-serving. It's a very selfish choice. Um and and I'm a fan of the word selfish. I've read it help redefine it. Um but I believe that there are selfish choices we can make that are the most selfless. That there are selfless choices that we can make that are the most selfish choices. Those two are not a contradiction, and we see them that way. Um responsibility of freedom and the freedom in responsibility. Life's more than just straight Saturdays with as much cake as you want to eat. Just is. You will see how long you last doing that. If you really do it, you won't last that long. Um, there there we we we responsibility is is appreciation of a past. It's building of a lineage. It's investing in ourselves. It's investing in something we started to build yesterday that we want to take into tomorrow. There's a response That gives us freedom. So, to actually have true freedom, we have to take certain we have to be responsible more responsible for certain things for ourselves, who we are. Constantly investigating, interrogating our better selves. To say, "I'm going to be a little bit better at this tomorrow." Knowing that we never land. We never We never There's no There's no tada moment. And that is one thing I think we all got to watch cuz we all are so result-oriented. Oh, if I keep doing this, I'm going to get to that place of pure enlightenment. I'm going to go, "Tada!" [ __ ] No, you don't. Can it be the small ascension of evolution? Yes. But there's no tada moment. We're always chasing yet. And if we can get comfortable and understand and laugh at the and and and be ready to work hard the fact that we're all just If we could just say, "We're all just achieving our way to the unachievable." And that's as good as it gets. And that's pretty damn awesome. That's the honey hole. It's the third time I've said that in this talk, but I love that word.