Why You Need to Empower Yourself | Impact Quotes

as John Henrik Clark said powerful people cannot afford to educate the people that they oppress because once you were truly educated you will not ask for power you will take it I have the chills right now and I want everyone listening to this to really think about that power is not given it is assumed if you want something in your life you've got to become capable of taking it and that's the whole point behind getting educated don't think about education is flipping through a bunch of books getting educated is about gaining knowledge knowledge that has utility knowledge that can be put to use in service of something but you've got to know what that in service of is what are you trying to do why are you trying to educate yourself and are you waiting are you asking politely if you can be educated or are you grabbing the things that you need in order to learn and insisting of your self insisting of yourself that you gain that knowledge that you begin to empower yourself that you build yourself into someone who cannot be conquered and as Walt Whitman said I live to be the ruler of life not a slave to meet life as a powerful Conqueror and nothing exterior to me will ever take command of me now if you're gonna live by those words you are going to have to empower yourself you are going to have to become capable of something tomorrow that you are not capable of today and the only way to do that is to educate yourself but don't get trapped in other people's definition of education education is not sitting blindly in the classroom education is not simply working your way through Wikipedia education is about understanding what you're trying to accomplish and getting the knowledge that you need in order to bend reality to your will and this is the thing that drives me crazy about how people approach at the end of the day knowledge skills they are designed to have real-world impact they are designed to give you the ability to do something that influences this world they are designed to make you capable of something that you weren't capable of before when it is blind learning when you think it's to impress your parents or to get an a on the test or to make your manager at work happy you have already lost the point of knowledge is to make sure that you can close your eyes and envision a world open your eyes and then make that world come true the point of knowledge is to control your own life never forget that as vaclav havel said work for something because it is good not just because it stands a chance to succeed this is something that I think a lot of people misunderstand they think that the goal of their life is to identify something that'll work to identify something that has the odds stacked in its favor rather than to think about what matters what's important because if something is important if it speaks to you if it's going to give resonance to your life then it's worth doing even if it's something that is almost guaranteed to fail when something matters enough regardless of the odds it's worth engaging with because even in the pursuit you can find meaning and as humans one of the things that we hunger for most is purpose and meaning but you can't have that purpose in meaning without the thing that you're pursuing be something that you believe to be worthwhile so don't worry about whether or not it succeeds ask only about whether or not it's going to light you on fire asked only if in those dark moments that it will give you that sense of mattering to this world that even in the failure do you learn something about yourself do you see the truth that you matter and that even as a single person even as one individual you can echo through this world but that will never happen by pursuing something small that will never happen by pursuing something simply because it can win it will only happen by pursuing something that matters and in that if you pursue something it matters and you're able to get to the point where you can see it across the finish line or at least advance it and make it a step closer to becoming real in that we realize how societies really are transformed in that and trying the big the impossible dreaming that thing that nobody else is even willing to talk about in dreaming that it is the crazy ones who are able to change the world because the crazy ones allowed themselves to believe they allowed themselves to believe that against all the odds a world that does not yet exist could actually exist and as Ralph Marcin said welcomed those big sticky complicated problems in them are your most powerful opportunities and that's it the big problems the ones that matter the things that will give you purpose and meaning in your life they're going to be hard but if you can look at the hard things and show up and push every day and keep striving and when you fall down pick yourself back up and focus only on one thing not whether or not you're going to win but whether or not it that you played if you do that every sacrifice in your life will be worth it and if not nothing you gain will have mattered this Frederic Nietzsche said many are stubborn and pursued the path they have chosen few in pursuit of the goal and that's one of the things that really trips people up at the end of the day a path is an option it's one of the ways forward but it's the thing that you're doing right now today so people get really focused on that they make their happiness built around that they think about that as the thing but as the old saying goes don't confuse the finger with the moon that it's pointing at that's where you've got to be really careful at the end of the day the goal is the thing that you're trying to achieve the goal is what you're trying to get the path is irrelevant the path is really your best guess it's the thing you think is going to work but if you become my optically focused on that if you think that the path really is the end thing if you think the finger actually is the moon then you miss the objective to which you're fighting for then you're not gonna have the energy to keep pushing when things get really hard because you're going to have mistaken the way of getting there with the destination itself and I think that people a lot of times throw hate on having a destination on building towards some big goal of having some grand thing that they're chasing but as Einstein said if you want to live a happy life tie it to a goal not two people not two things and the reason that he said that people and things they change you've got no control over them at the end of the day the only thing that you really control is yourself at the end of the day the only thing that you can hope for is to be going after something that has a meaning something that has purpose something that really gives you a reason for being that directs your actions that becomes the filter by which you judge everything that really becomes the center the gravitational center of your own universe but it's the goal so what is it that you really want you have to identify that to meet everything in life everything in life starts with the goal and then work your way backwards don't allow yourself to get caught up in other people and putting up happiness and somebody else in finding purpose in something else and trying to obtain it the beans have it be something that we're trying to accomplish have it be something that you're trying to once you're on the path to becoming then you can find real you've got two choices in life choice one you can become somebody else choice - you can become yourself now I really wish that there was only one choice but in truth there's not in most people choose to try to become someone else because it's a road map its points in the direction you see someone you respond to something you admire them you want to be like them and in that process you've made your decision in that process you decided to become somebody else you have mistaken the finger for the moon instead you need to understand that being inspired by somebody does not mean to become that person to become that which inspires you it is to understand fundamentally what is it about that thing that excites you what is it what is its essence and when you can find its essence then you can find out how it would apply to you becoming you and as Zen she says flower does not think about competing with the flower next to it it just blooms and that's really your job is to see the outside world to see the flower next to you to understand the amazing things that are happening all around you all of the incredible people and the essence of what they have and what it is that they've done to bring inside yourself and find out what does that look like when it's me not what do I look like when I'm and once you understand the difference between that then you can really begin to be something unique you can become that thing that you were meant to be that thing that makes you feel alive and whole and that's it that's the secret you're just trying to be something not that's just inspiring to other people I think you actually want to wake up every day and be and that's the [ __ ] thing about it there's no escaping you whatever you become a lie the truth somebody else yourself whatever it is there's been every day of your life there and as Albert Einstein said everybody's a genius but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live it's whole life believing that it's stupid and that's what confuses people people believe that they're done because they're not finding their path they're not defining things based on what excites them and what they want to live with every day they're just looking to what the outside world says is good and I think it's incredible but there are other people doing things that are so extraordinary that we aspire to be like that but you have to understand the difference between being like someone and trying to actually be so if what inspires you is that somebody works hard work hard if what inspires you is that somebody gets up every time they fail to get up every time you fail if what you like is that they're themselves with all their weird eccentricities and quirks then be true to your eccentricities and quirks but don't try to embody their eccentricities and quarks that's the surest way to become the fish that thinks it's stupid because it's being judged by trying to climb a tree so with Scott Belsky said when 99% of the people doubt your idea you're either gravely wrong or about to make history and that's the terrifying part you're not gonna know you're not gonna know the difference but if you're chasing somebody else's path if your whole game is emulation if your whole game is to mimic that which inspires you you will never find the thing that's real about you and look I don't know about you but I can be wrong I can be gravely wrong I can have people think me an idiot and try something and fail as long as it was true to me because then the lesson that I'm gonna learn is going to apply it's gonna take me an ever step closer to actually being the person that I want to become that I want to live with every day I can't be if I don't understand who I want to be so look inward identify your path identify what excites you and go after it as if your life depends on it because in truth it does all right listen and listen well because no truer words are ever gonna be [ __ ] spoken you can do anything you want without limitation whatever it is that you decide you want to make come true in your life you can do that it is gonna take an inhuman amount of work you're gonna have to be prepared to break yourself in half you are going to have to learn more than anyone has ever learned you're gonna have to push yourself harder than anyone has ever asked you to push yourself before you're gonna go way beyond your breaking point you're gonna run until you vomit you're gonna study until you fall asleep you're going to push and push and push and then you're gonna push some [ __ ] more and when you hit the limit you're gonna push again beyond that you're gonna force yourself to an adaptation response and why because it's Malcolm X said the future belongs to those who prepare for it today so if you don't put the work in today if you don't do the unending back-breaking work of developing yourself into something greater the world is gonna pass you by the people that are going to own it are gonna be the ones that did that work and the one promise that I can make you right now is that somebody somebody out there is out working somebody right now is doing the things times somebody right now is doing the work of failing and getting up and getting better and pushing themselves and triggering that glorious adaptation response that makes humans the apex predator someone right now they're putting in that work and if you don't the future is gonna belong to them and as Martin Luther King jr. said you can't fly than one if you can't run then walk if you can't walk then crawl but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward it's not okay to make excuses it's not gonna slow people down it's not okay to ask the world to stop so that you can step out front it's not okay to expect little of yourself and demand great rewards the only thing that's okay is to be in line with the way that the world really works and if you want to be great you've got to become capable of greatness you've got to develop your skill set you've got to take what you have now that's crawling than [ __ ] crawl but you drag yourself ever forward to a vision of yourself that is so clear and so specific that nothing could knock you off your path because you my friends know exactly where you're going you're willing to pay whatever price it takes to get there and no matter what anybody says no matter how many [ __ ] hecklers come for you no matter how many people try to flow dirt on you try to stop you try to knock you down no matter how many [ __ ] people come for you at night while you sleep you you'll rise and you will keep pushing forward and you will get better every day and no matter how many times people chop at you knock you down knock you off the path you can get back on you will crawl soon you can walk you will walk till you run and until you fly and that my friends is the only path forward so if you want a [ __ ] future that makes you happy if you want to warm that you're excited about get your ass out there and earn it as ernest hemingway noted the world breaks everyone and afterward many are stronger in the broken places but my question is why isn't everyone to me it comes down to the strategies that you use there really isn't anything objectively good or bad there isn't anything that happens to you that can't be overcome there isn't anything that could happen to you anything that when you turn inward you can't find a reason to overcome you can't find a way to put those pieces back together and that becomes your job it becomes literally up to you whether you're going to sit and wallow and woe is me because what happened happened and there's no way to take it back but how you respond what you bring to that table whether you meet fire with fire whether you meet that adversity with falling apart becoming weaker in the areas that broke or you bind them and mend them and it becomes like a well that literally makes you stronger is a choice and it's a choice only you get to make but as Stephen Hawking said when you complain nobody wants to help you there are many things in your life do you have every reason to complain about you have every reason to be upset by the things that have happened to you the most sinister thing about excuses is they're valid there's a million reasons why you should be able to give up there's a million reasons why you shouldn't need to try that thing that broke you you should be allowed to just sit on the ground and here's the thing that's your right you have every reason to do it and maybe people won't even think less of you but here's the truth you either become weaker or stronger in the places that broke and that's a choice of how you react moving forward the great news is the best thing that you could do to become stronger is love yourself and as Kamal Ravi Kahn said loving yourself is a practice people think that it's something that's gonna feel right that it's gonna feel natural that you're just gonna turn inward and there it is this spark of love and joy for yourself inside yourself and the truth is that's just not the human experience that's not the way that it works there's gonna be a voice inside your head and it's going to blame you it's gonna say that it's your fault and no matter how many times people on the outside tell you that that is not true that this thing happened to you that it isn't you it doesn't define you there will be a voice that's going to tell you that it does and that's where you have to fall back on process that's where you have to realize that you literally have to practice loving yourself and that it's okay that no matter what happened there is absolutely nothing that invalidates that you're worthy of your own love but you've got to practice it you've got to be willing to do it you've got to be willing to put in the reps you've got to know that it's not gonna feel right but you've got to know on the other side of that is a vision of your life where you actually do love yourself because you took the time to say it you took the time to practice it you took the time to sit there and feel stupid and say that you love yourself and sometimes just putting in the work is what you need to do to get strong so put in the work as Daniel ping said people fail to achieve mastery not because they aren't talented but because they are disciplined the wonderful news about the human condition is you can get good at anything that you set your mind to it's just not going to be easy and it's not gonna be fast but the willingness to put in that work is what's going to separate you from everybody else and I'm begging you to see yourself right now today as average as know better than anyone else but I beg you with more force than I know how to convey with this language to see yourself as malleable to see yourself as capable of becoming anything you want to become to become truly extraordinary if you can find within yourself the discipline to stick with it long enough and as Steve Martin said perseverance is a great substitute for talent everybody wants to talk about who's talented everybody looks at the person with innate talent as if they have something magical but to me it's a gift it's a handout it's a freebie it hasn't been earned and no matter what it is it's only the beginning even somebody that has talent even if you get an early win if you let somebody outwork you if you let somebody was more perseverance more grit than you than they are going to outperform you on a long enough timeline the only thing I can guarantee is you will be out work by somebody unless you pour your heart and soul into getting great if you don't take days off if you put yourself into it as if your life depended on it when you act like that then you've got a chance to be great and as Robert Horry said pressure can bust pipes but it can also make diamonds you've got to want that pressure you've got to want things to be hard you can't seek out the easy life you can't just hope and pray that you can uncover inside of you some talent that's lay dormant that you didn't know about that's gonna let things be easy for you don't want the easy want the hard want the pressure want the thing that's going to turn you into something because when it's easy you don't work for it when it's easy you don't push when it's easy you get surpassed by the person who has to give it their all who's prepared to do blood sweat and tears in order to become that thing that they want to be so badly because they are so [ __ ] angry that they were never given anything and with that chip on their shoulder they're determined to become anything that they set their mind to so whether you have talent whether you don't the only thing that matters is will you persevere will you stick with it long enough to get great [Music] as Thomas Jefferson said he who knows best knows just how little he knows this has been one of the most surreal things about my experience as an entrepreneur is that the better I get at it the more that I do the more I feel lost the more I feel like there's too much for me to possibly know and understand and in that is my power that's literally the source of my power because I understand that my journey is one of learning I understand that as navall Ravi Kant said the genuine love for reading itself when cultivated is a superpower the means of learning are abundant it's the desire to learn that scarce but if you have that desire if you cultivate that desire to learn if you accept that you're in this big world that is far too big for you to understand every piece of it but in recognizing that you don't understand it all and putting yourself on this quest to learn obsessively to get better to fall in love with the actual process of gaining knowledge if you stay hungry for that at all times and you don't calcify your thoughts into Dogma but rather stay fresh stay naive stay hungry and foolish to really learn and grow then you actually obtain power and this is the part I want people to understand look past the words and hear what I'm really saying as you take on the knowledge as you're learning one thing after another after another those skills have practical application and it is that practical application born of understanding how little you really know that allows you to become far more powerful than the people that think they know because when they think they know they stop throwing and they think they know they tell supply when they think they know their thoughts get brittle like bone and break [Music] you think you know nothing you think you have to learn everything you're really just trying to figure out if something works if it gets you the result then those skills become real they become tested by what you're doing they are boundless because you're always trying to find that next thing you're never self-satisfied you never self-congratulatory you're simply asking where do I want to go what skills do I need to acquire to get there and knowing that each one of those that you get brick by brick by brick builds a real path to where you want to go so fall in love with the idea that you know nothing fall in love with the idea that learning is a superpower fall in love with that hunger want that want to get better every day never never be tricked by the desire to be self satisfied you never will be tricked by the desire to be great today never fool yourself into thinking who you are today is who you can become I don't care how far you've come I don't care how many accomplishments are in your rear view mirror if you fall prey to that your past will always be bigger than your future and there's one mandate that I make of myself and anyone else that wants to be around me your future must always be bigger than your past and the only way for that to be true is to love how little you really know and to love how much you can learn if you just keep going as Oprah Winfrey said what you dwell on is what you become once you understand that humans are the ultimate adaptation machine and you understand that the brain actually builds faster and better connections between the things that you think on you will begin to understand that it is incredibly important to be thoughtful about what you think about it's incredibly important to pick a direction that you want to grow and to decide who you want to become and then make that the center of your focus your thoughts your time your energy and if you look inward or if you look outward and you don't like what you see remember what Jim Rohn said if you don't like how things are change it you're not a tree and that's the beauty that's the beautiful thing about being a human we are so plastic and we can change so dramatically we are so good at adapting that we forget that's literally what we do but if you can take control of that process if you can grab a hold of it and make it your own if you can make it your daily obsession to make the most of your potential to pick a very specific direction to pick an end goal and end state and end identity and work your way backwards find out the steps that you're going to need to take to get there to execute and have the willingness to put in the work to have the willingness to be both the sculptor and the clay to understand that the suffering that comes with that of changing yourself of making yourself into something great is a suffering well working it's a suffering that you should embrace it's a suffering that you should run towards because in that suffering you can become anything you want so start to dwell on that dwell on a vision of you being great dwell on a vision of you accomplishing your goals dwell on a vision of you having done this amazing thing that you want to do dwell on an image of you being willing to sweat and bend yourself in half and break if need to and bleed when necessary to become the vision of yourself you always knew you could become dwell on that and nothing can stop as epictetus said he is a wise man who does not grieve for things which he has not but rejoices for those which he has and that's gratitude isn't it it's the very base decision that we all have to make are you grateful for the things you have in your life or are you always wanting more and trust me I get it I understand people that strive for more I understand people that want something bigger and better but at the same time if you allow yourself to only think about what you don't have to only be striving for something more that that obsession will begin to overtake you it will begin to corrode you but ultimately it's a choice ultimately at any time right now in this moment you can stop and think about what you have you can put your attention on the things you're grateful for and watch what it does watch what it does in that instance the way that it changes you the way that it changes your chemistry your feelings in a moment can shift from negative and dark to beautiful with nothing else changing around you nothing but you deciding that you're gonna focus on the things you're grateful for nothing but deciding that there are things in your life to be grateful for and that is a decision no matter what is happening in your life at any moment right now in the depths of a depression in something going on terribly in your life you can choose right now to think about the things you're grateful for the breeze a smile from somebody kind a stranger who holds open a door for you anything but it's a choice and as Einstein said there are only two ways to live your life one is as though nothing is a miracle the other is as though everything is a miracle and what choice are you making what are you choosing to focus on right now do you let gratitude fill you up or not and here's the critical part and I want you to listen to this really well whatever you decide whether you decide we live in a of miracles or whether we decide to live in a world devoid of miracles you were choosing one thing to the exclusion of the other and when you focus on something that you're grateful for when you look at those little moments in your life and choose to see them as grand miracles even when it is only a gentle hand on your shoulder even then it's only a kiss from somebody who you kissed a thousand times before even when it is only holding the hand of somebody who needed their hand held even when it's something that simple [Music] it really is a miracle that it really is something that can fill you it really is something that will change your chemistry bring a connection between two people allow you to see a grander Vista or even just open a window and look out at the world and realize that you're alive that this is all a miracle that none of this is guaranteed that every breath you take could be your last and in that you can choose to cherish what you have in that you can decide to focus on that you have a breath to take and even when it's something that simple when you train your mind to do that when you train yourself to decide to see the beauty in that that nobody can ever take it away from you and matter where you are no matter what's going on in your life you'll be able to rise up and feel the beauty that is being alive so take a minute at the worst times in your life and focus on the things you're grateful for I want you to burn into your nervous system the following statement because it is a fundamental truth of the human condition it is literally the base line physics of what it means to be a person as Earl Nightingale said we become what we think about and that's an idea that I want you to hold firmly in your mind that's something that I really want you to internalize I really want you to stop right now whatever you're doing I want you to stop lean into this video and listen to what I'm saying you will become what you think about really think about that for a second as if it wasn't just a phrase as if it's more than just words as if it were a truth about how the brain works because it is you're going to become the thing that you think about and I know that you're dwelling on a lot of negative [ __ ] I know that you're carrying a lot of baggage with you and I know that as you think about how things might go wrong that you believe you believe to the core of your being that you're just planning for the hard times but the truth is you're going to become those things that you fear you're going to become the things that you dread if you're thinking about all the things you've done wrong in the past you are going to simply continue that cycle but if on the other hand and let this be true let this ring in your ears with the weight of everything that I carry if I've ever added an ounce of value to you if anything I have ever said it seems remotely true believe that these are the most important words I'm ever going to save you if you begin to focus on positive things if you begin to focus on your capabilities if you begin to focus on a potential that you have if you really dig in build those skills drive towards something beautiful something amazing something that leaves you in oven you want to create that you want to become the vessel for that then you will you will become that thing because you will take those steps because you become what you think about and as Mark Twain said 20 years from now you'll be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do so if you don't take those steps if you don't focus on those things if you don't manifest what you want to become if you don't believe in it if you don't see how real it can be if you can't picture the version of yourself that you want to become and even though people have told you that it's not possible for you that the things you did in the past are never going to allow you to do that but you're not smart enough if you let that creep into your mind and that's what's gonna happen but if you can see that vision if you can allow yourself to believe it then you're going to take the steps that you need to execute against that and if you go out there and do those things you won't regret it but you will regret it if you don't so get out right now and build the person you want to be so you can have the life you want to have [Music] you