Welcome back to The Hard Truth Podcast.
Today, I’m going to be talking about you have one chance to live life.
And I’m going to give you seven key points that I’ve used in business, and also through my personal life in order to have success.
I want you to stay tuned to all these seven points as at the end here, I’m going to introduce you to a millionaire that can help you become a millionaire and be successful in all areas of your life.
You have one chance to live life.
A lot of people don’t understand that, and they don’t treat life as special as they need to.
So I’m excited for these seven points.
If you are in a situation where you can write these down, write them down.
If not, go back and watch the YouTube channel, take some notes, and evaluate what you are doing on a daily basis, and apply these seven points for you can live the best life that you have to live.
Number one, refuse to live a defeated life.
You were born to do great things.
One of my favorite quotes, average is the enemy, success is your responsibility, and change can take place in an instant when you are willing to make the switch.
See, this quote is so special to me because I found myself in my 30s, early 30s, you know, challenged with a financial situation again, and it almost felt like my world was crashing down on me, and it was not my fault.
And I made the decision that day at 32 year old, and I said, you know what, I’m gonna own the situation I’m in, and starting today, I’m gonna flip that switch, and I’m gonna change the course of my life.
A lot of you listening today, you are going through challenges, you’re going through different situations in life, and you’re wanting to cast blame, and guys, I’m telling you, the secret is for you to own responsibility, flip the switch.
Now, does that mean if you’re wanting to change your life, and you flip the switch instantly, everything is gonna change for the good in your life?
Absolutely not.
But you cannot choose to be defeated in life, and you have to achieve what it is that you wanna achieve in life through daily, consistent change of action.
Number two, success can be yours, regardless of your present situation or circumstances.
Another quote from Booker T.
Washington that I really love, character not circumstances makes the man.
Character not circumstances makes the man.
The point I wanna bring across to this is, as I talk a lot about your current circumstances, it’s easy for us to think that we are not as valuable as what we once was.
If bad things are happening in our life, and I’ll never forget one time on stage, I took a $100 bill, and I raised this $100 bill in the audience, and there was about 5,000 people I was speaking to.
And I raised it up, and I said, would anybody want to have this $100 bill?
And absolutely all 5,000 people raised their hand and said, I want it, I want it, I want it.
They thought I was just gonna give it to them.
Well, I took this $100 bill, and I put it down on the ground, I rolled it up, I stepped on it.
I did not actually spit on it, but I acted like I was gonna spit on it.
I rubbed it back together, crinkled it up, all these different things.
And then I raised that $100 bill up again.
And I said, does anybody else still want this $100 bill, regardless of me spitting on it, crumbling up, stepping on it, all of those different things.
And still all 5,000 people wanted that $100 bill.
The point I’m bringing to you is, as the quote says, character not circumstances make the man.
So it’s the character within you that determines who you are.
You could go through circumstances in life, and you could have someone spit on you.
You could have somebody crumble you up.
You could have someone talk negative about you.
All these different things.
But here’s the point.
You have to love you, and you are still valuable.
You have valuable possession, or excuse me, you have value in life.
Just like that $100 bill was the same value, whether I was holding it up, and it was a crisp, clean piece of paper, or if I crumbled it up, and I spit on it, and threw it on the ground.
Don’t worry about your circumstances, what’s happened in the past.
You are still a valuable human being that God made you to be special.
Number three is tap into the discipline, the perseverance, and the mindset of determination to create a new future for yourself.
And this is something a lot of people struggle with.
They don’t understand how to tap into that discipline.
Some of the things that I teach my kids is I tell them, I’m like, discipline is like a muscle, okay?
So if we go to the gym and we’re lifting weights, we keep putting that muscle under tension, we keep putting that muscle under stress, and then we feed that muscle what we need from a protein standpoint, all the macro standpoint, we give it good sleep, then it’s gonna grow.
It’s gonna continue to become stronger.
Discipline is the same way.
If I tell myself in the morning, I’m gonna get up at five o’clock and hit the gym, then you know what?
If I’m sleepy and I still do it, then the next morning, if I’m sleepy and I still do it, then guess what?
It’s gonna become easier because that discipline muscle is gonna continue to grow.
Here’s a tip that’s always helped me.
If your morning is hard, your day will be easy, okay?
So, that’s the reason I love the cold plunge.
A lot of people have heard the stories of the cold plunge.
Before I purchased a cold plunge, I used a cold shower.
And I love the cold shower, I love the cold plunge, because I’m doing something extremely hard.
Therefore, when hard things come to me later in the day, I’ve already accomplished something hard, so it become easier.
So cold showers, cold plunge, working out, eating good foods, getting smarter, feed the mind.
And why is this important?
Because there’s chosen and unchosen suffering.
I’ll say that again.
There is chosen and unchosen suffering, and unchosen is going to happen.
The stronger I am mentally and physically, the easier it is to get through these moments.
So that is the reason for having that disciplined muscle become so much stronger, is because when those unchosen moments that come into your life that you was not expecting, you’re strong enough to get through these moments.
I’m going to let you, so I’m going to share with you a story that I heard actually Warren Buffett tell this story.
And I hope this resonates to you.
He said, okay, I’m going to give you a car.
Now I’m going to let you pick out whatever car it is that you want.
And I’m going to hand deliver this car to you.
Now listen and follow.
This is a point that I’m trying to make on the importance of discipline and taking care of yourself and getting yourself in a situation that you can handle any circumstance that gets through you.
He said, but here’s the catch.
You can only pick the car that is going to last you the rest of your life.
And so I love this story because you have one body and one mind to take care of.
That’s the only thing that you have.
So all these people, it’s so funny on social media when you see someone that is very physically fit, the people that is overweight, not taking care of themselves, they want to make fun of those people.
And they want to criticize those people.
And I’m sitting there thinking, oh my God, you got one body and one mind, and you can’t have the discipline to get up every morning, do a cold shower, hit the gym, eat the foods you need to, feed the mind what you need to, and you have one body.
Every one of you that’s listening today, that if I said I’ll let you pick out any car that you want, you would say, yes, give me that car.
And you would probably rattle off exactly what it is that you want.
Well, you have that one body, you have that one mind.
The question is, are you going to give it what it needs in order to last you a good quality of life and to be able to have it for the rest of your life?
Number four, affirm to yourself that no excuse is acceptable to keep you from achieving your goal.
I see so many people, I hear all these excuses.
I did a video on Facebook or Instagram, actually both of them, and this was probably about three months ago.
And before I got into Cold Plunge, I talked about the fact of I got up early, I did my journal, I studied, I went to the gym, I ate my breakfast, I ate four eggs every morning and a protein shake.
I went to the gym and I come back and got into Cold Plunge.
And I bet you we had 25 or 30 comments saying something similar to this.
A must be nice being able to have enough money where you can work out and all these different things.
They didn’t know that I was up at 430 in the morning.
They didn’t know, but all they want to do is make excuses.
Well, it must be nice.
He don’t have to work at 9 to 5.
No, I work about 16 hours a day.
And so all these excuses that we make in our life, all that does is keep ourselves from having the success that we want to have.
Another point, learn to choose delayed gratification over instant gratification.
This is something I’ve drilled into my boys with today’s society.
They want to put success on a credit card.
They want success now, but they want to charge it to a credit card and not have to pay for it till later.
They want to be able to play college sports but not eat the right foods and do the workouts.
Us as adults, we want that raise and promotion, but we’re not reading the books.
We’re not studying.
We’re not becoming a person, a physical example of when we walk in for that interview, someone says, man, if he has the discipline to look like that or she has the discipline to look like that, that’s the person that I want on my team.
You have to choose delayed gratification over instant gratification.
Quick stat, less than 5% of the people go to the gym every day.
Why?
Because you put yourself through adversity.
That’s the way you become better.
And without immediate results, you putting yourself through daily adversity, without immediate results, a lot of times that becomes discouraging.
You’re not going to be able to go to the gym right now and work out for an hour and a half like I do every day and come home, take your shirt off, and see instant results.
It’s a delayed gratification, and most people want the instant gratification.
Always choose delayed gratification over instant gratification.
Progress equals happiness.
It’s better to be good consistently instead of being great occasionally.
So consistently, consistently go into the gym, eating the right things, feeding the mind.
It’s better to be good consistently than a great every once in a while.
That is something that you need to remember so much times, so many times we’re only worried about, man, remember that one time I was really great at this, you remember that one time I was great at this.
Guys, that’s not what’s gonna have you success long term in life.
It’s about being good consistently.
Point number five, surround yourself with top achievers who are focused and hungry to accomplish more.
Experience more and to do more with their lives.
We have all heard this, but I don’t think a lot of people let this sink in and really grasp the concept of the five people you hang around, you will be the sixth.
I’ve actually worked with a few high school students recently.
And they’re like, well, I don’t drink, but my buddies do.
And I look every one of them and I say, you will be the next one that does.
If you are an adult and you’re not pushing yourself in life, physically, financially, relationships wise, all those different things, you’re hanging around the slugs that just want to watch football and drink beer all day, or the women that just want to hang out at happy hour all day.
I guarantee you, your life is going to adapt to what these other five women are or men are.
You have to be conscious of that.
You be the one, guys, that says, I’m gonna be different and choose excellence on a daily basis.
Number six, say to yourself, as you greet each new day, I am going to the next level today.
This is a mindset.
Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.
What you learn and believe, that’s what happens to you.
I love telling stories, and you’re going to hopefully follow this podcast for a long time.
And I love sharing stories because to me, it gives a good, easy way for me to relate with you and to show you what’s possible through real life stories.
And one of the stories that really come to my mind this morning as I was training, when I’m talking about whatever it is that you believe you can achieve, there’s a story of a gentleman that comes from a small, little bitty town.
And he did not have a very good upbringing.
Financially, his family struggled.
He was one of those D, F, sometimes a C students.
He never wanted to go to school.
He went to school just enough to make his mom happy.
And he went one day, and the counselor said, next week, and we’ll just call him Johnny, we’re going to be taking the SAT score.
And Johnny’s like, man, how can I get out of this?
Because all of his friends, all the people around him made fun of him because he made Ds and Fs and sometimes a C.
But Johnny couldn’t get out of it.
He went and took this SAT.
And Johnny took the SAT, and a 1600 is a perfect score.
And Johnny made a 1580 on his SAT.
Now, keep listening to this story.
Johnny, when he got that 1580, of course, first thing that happened is his mom accused him of cheating.
He said, Mom, I promise.
He said, I tried to cheat, but I looked over and everybody had different answers to different questions than me, and I couldn’t see the papers.
And he goes, I promise you, I’ll take a lie detector test.
I did not cheat.
Well, what happened to Johnny is when he achieved that 1580 score, Johnny believed that he can be special.
So Johnny started never missing school.
Johnny started applying himself.
Johnny started doing all these things that he needed to do to be a good student.
Johnny ended up getting accepted to a prestigious school on the East Coast.
Johnny ended up having really good grades in college.
Johnny ended up having a real successful career.
And 10 years later, Johnny gets a letter in the mail from the SAT school department and says, we made a mistake on your SAT score, and you actually got, and I don’t remember exactly, but like 600 on the score.
Now, why do I tell this story?
It’s because Johnny believed once he got that 1580 score that he can achieve.
And so I’m telling you today, I don’t know what you would make on a SAT score.
Lord knows I don’t want to take a SAT, but I’ll tell you this.
If you will believe every morning when you wake up that I am going to the next level, you can achieve greatness in your life.
Number seven, this is what I told you I was going to do.
I’m going to introduce you to a man or a woman that can help you become a multi-millionaire if that’s what you want to do, the best in your relationships, the best in your communications, your all the areas of life, physical and everything.
And that person is you.
See, you got one life to live, and you are the person that decides what success that you have in your life.
The last story I want to share is it brings everything together.
It’s a true story about a guy that worked for this carpenter that actually he was a carpenter, excuse me, and he worked for this home builder.
And this home builder was just very grateful that his carpenter was so good to him for 30-something years.
He’d give him a project to say build this home.
He never had to worry about anything.
This carpenter never, ever cut any corners, done exactly what he was supposed to do, built this house to the best five-star quality you can build a house.
So the carpenter wanted to retire.
He’d come to the guy that owned the company, and he said, I’ve been with you for 30-something years.
I’m going to retire.
I just got through finishing this last house, and I feel like it’s best for me, my wife, to spend time together.
Obviously, the guy that owned the company was devastated, but he had a request.
He said, carpenter, I want to ask one favor of you.
I want you to build one more home for me.
And the carpenter said, you know what?
I really don’t know if I can.
I don’t know if I have the energy anymore.
I don’t know if I have the strength.
But let me go home and talk to my wife, and I’ll get back with you tomorrow.
So he went home and talked to his wife.
The wife said, well, how did the meeting go?
He said, well, I went and told him, and you know what?
I can’t believe the audacity for him to ask me, you know, to build one more house.
He pretty much kind of put pressure on me to build one more house, and I don’t feel comfortable doing it.
But it’s one of those things.
Honey, I’m going to do it.
I don’t want to burn the relationship.
That’s his only request.
And so I’m going to just do it.
But you know, usually it takes me six months to build a home.
I’m going to do this one even faster.
I’ve got some leftover materials.
I’m going to speed through this house, and I’m going to just get it done.
And now remember, that’s not how the carpenter had performed his 35 years.
He had always did everything to the best.
No leftover materials.
Everything is perfect.
But you know what?
He just wanted to rush through the project.
So that’s what he did.
He rushed through the project, put on this front door that he had left over here, put on these windows that maybe wouldn’t have been perfect, but he’d made them work.
All these different things.
And then he comes back to his carpet or to the owner of the company.
And he said, I’ve completed the project.
Thank you for 30-something years of employing me.
I hope you’re happy with the way I handle myself.
And the owner of that company pulled out some keys to that house that the carpenter just got through building.
And he said, thank you for your service.
This last home that you built, I wanted to be able to pay for this home and have you build it for yourself and your wife as a retirement home.
Here’s the keys.
Thank you for your service.
Now, the carpenter immediately in his mind is thinking, man, if I would have known that this was going to be my house, if I would have known that this is what my wife and I are going to live the retirement years for, I wouldn’t have put on that cheap front door.
I wouldn’t have used those extra windows and just made them work.
I would have put in a better floor.
I would have did the plumbing better.
I would have did the electric better.
And the point that I want to make today is, guys, you have, you have an ability to live your life in the house that you build.
And every day matters.
You have one chance to live life.
So today, are you going to decide that I will refuse to live a defeated life?
I understand that success can be mine regardless of my present, current situation or circumstances.
Can you tap into the discipline, the perseverance and the mindset of determination to create a new future for yourself?
And are you going to affirm to yourself that no excuse is acceptable and surround yourself with top achievers who believe like you believe?
And are you going to say to yourself every day, I’m taking it to the next level?
Thank you guys for listening.
Share this with your friends and family, that if you think that they want to really capitalize on living life to the fullest, like my social media pages, jeremyfouts.com, the YouTube.
Thank you guys for listening to The Hard Truth Podcast.
