Using Discipline & Spirit to Win
In the absence of discipline you must leverage the spirit. What are we speaking of when we talk about discipline and spirit in terms of achieving your goals? Discipline is is rare as human beings are woefully inconsistent. Discipline is about consistency. Human beings are very lazy, prone to taking days off.
Discipline = Do It (i.e. morning exercise, late night work etc.) even when I do not feel the energy. Discipline accepts no excuses. I’m going to jog even though I forgot my gym clothes. I am going to exercise in business attire and I don’t care what anyone thinks because this is what is required in my life.
Discipline = habits that you exercise regularly, thoughtlessly. You don’t have to think about am I going to do it? It is a given because you’ve made a commitment to yourself. Discipline. Discipline doesn’t care about your emotions, doesn’t care who died in your family, doesn’t care if you’re sick. Discipline is you being a machine.
MANTRA: If I won’t die, give it a try.
Spirit is that greater force that moves us, the emotions. Spirit, ambition. I want to be a great man. Jealousy, I want to be better than that guy. These are my inferiors. I will not live less than they are. I will not have them try buying a nicer car. They will not lay their head in a nicer bed. Jealousy. Or I’m looking at that guy he has more than I have. I can’t let that happen.
Anger: You know what? No more! I’m pissed off that I don’t have the money for my Maybach right now. I am irate that I cannot afford to break ground on the campus I want to build!
Those are the elements of spirit:
- Ambition
- Jealousy
- Anger
The emotions that move us, motivate us, and light up the spirit. Yes, you can do a lot of things off of spirit. You know, I’ve been in long distance runs, I’ve been in foot races and beat people from Spirit just running next to them while I knew I was out of shape, looking at them like I’m not going to allow this guy beat me; I rather die and let this guy beat me. Spirit is something you must engage. Discipline I’d rather rely on.
My younger brother is now bigger than I am; significantly bigger. I remember I was at home one day and he had disrespected me and I told him, “Larry, you’re bigger than me. But I will beat the brakes off of you, I promise you. Before you make any move, please, know I will blow your brains out before I let you win.” At all cost this hierarchy will endure. Always engage fighting spirit.
You have to commit to yourself. I’m going earn a dollar every day. Every day your money machine should be going, which is to say that the weekend doesn’t matter, the holiday doesn’t matter. There’s no weekend. There’s no holiday. There’s only hustle day. Every day is hustle day. There’s no Monday, no Sunday. It’s hustle day. Let’s get to work. Now, as I said, goals are reviewed three times, the morning, midday and the evening. I like to rewrite them because as you make progress on the goal, they become a little bit more sharper, a little bit more clear. And when you rewrite them, it’s, you know, it’s going back through that process in your mind, I find that reading and writing and exercise are like forms of prayer. Get your mind focused. You must submit to your goals. You must submit to your goals, giving everything to your goals lest they won’t be achieved. This is to say, you must be serious. You must be consumed by them. Obsessed. Whatever it takes. You see, if you’re not willing to give the goal whatever it takes, you generally will not win. And that’s why you see. I have intensity when I go about things. You must take emotions into the affair. Activate spirit. Now you went to sleep after you wrote down your goals. In my world, that gives you the right to wake up. I truly believe everyone should have a reason to wake up. If you don’t have a reason to wake up, you shouldn’t wake up. I repeat, if you don’t have a reason to wake up, you shouldn’t wake up. Wake up and breathe up all this good air when you don’t plan to do anything with it. The more intense you are about your chief aim, the easier it is to escape non-essential thoughts. Non-essential experiences, non-essential people. I see them all over the place. I call them average people, also known as losers. Losers.
What do losers do? They talk without purpose. What do losers do? They have infinite amount of time. You see them in Starbucks waiting in line. What do losers do? They go through life distracted by anything that will reach out for their attention. I’ll give you an example. And mind you, the people you keep around you are really important. Who’s with the young lady? And it was about 4:00 AM in the morning. And she I hit her up. I said, hey, I want to go hang up some posters, some promo posters. She says, OK, now go pick her up. It’s 4:00 AM we’re going around hanging up promo posters. At one point, we’re on the Las Vegas Strip hanging up a promo poster gorilla marketing. And there’s three women who come upon us. Three females, I should say, not women. Two of them were dikes. So anyways, we’re putting up the posters and one of them comes up behind us. I said, oh, what’s that about now my drug got like 6 posters. I need to go put up all these posters before, you know, people start moving about the strip where they’re at 4:00 AM, basically a time when no one should be out. The only people who are out are degenerates. People were leaving the after hours club, people who have no purpose. But I’m there with purpose. I’m doing promo. I’m putting up posters. So the woman asked this and I turn around. I give her a short response as I have business to conduct. The lady I’m with engages her in conversation. And eventually says, “Oh, you should ask him.” No, you shouldn’t ask me because what I’m doing right now is I’m putting up promo posters. I’m not having conversation. That’s not on my To Do List. Right now, and more importantly, these individuals are not within the target demographic that I’m reaching out to with this product or service. So this conversation is irrelevant. But yet she wanted to stay and have that long ass conversation. Why? Because her life has no purpose. She has time for everything. I only have time for those things that are relevant. Ironically, when I ended the conversation politely, these lesbians become agitated. “Oh, you don’t wanna talk to nobody. You too good to talk?”
Yes! I am too good to have a conversation with you, drunkard.You’re walking around at 4:00 AM, dirt drunk, having conversations with strangers. Why? Because you have nothing on your To Do List. Yes, I’m far too good. We shouldn’t even be breathing the same damn kind of air. There should be some premium air that I breathe. And you should be breathing out Walmart Air.
I remember when I was a child, they often ask, well, what do you want to be when you grow up? And there was an expectation that you would name a job? I would like to be a lawyer, accountant, things like this. However. I never really wanted a job. I wanted to be wealthy and I wanted to be respected. I wanted to be a luminary. One who inspires, which is not a job, must be wealthy, respected, a luminary. I did not know that that could be an answer, for I was speaking to persons who were teachers, public school teachers, or. You know my relatives, you know your aunt. Your uncle asks you something. What do you want to be when you grow up? And there are people without vision. And so, me being a child, I said what was sensible, based on what I knew, which was I wouldn’t be a lawyer without really knowing what that means. So. I’m thankful I didn’t become a lawyer because I make a lot more money than lawyers and have a lot more free time, and that’s of greater value to me. But I say that to say your goal must be meaningful. And most of the things we say are not what we really want. I said I wanted to be a lawyer, but that’s not what I really wanted. I really wanted to be wealthy to be respected and to be illuminary. That’s what I really wanted. You have to go on a journey within yourself to find out what you really want. And when you find that out, then your path will be lit, then your step will be fast, then your mind will be determined. But until you can do that. No, you will be moving slowly. You will be careless. You will be distracted. Find out what you really want and then don’t compromise on it. Because when it’s something that you really want, you can hold it in your mind over time. You see, the human being is woefully inconsistent, easily distracted, and you know, we’re like a little fearful animal most of the time. First, to hold something in our mind, it really has to be exciting and attainable, has to be something you can actually achieve. If it’s not exciting and attainable, it will not stay in your mind. It’s hard to hold things in the mind over time, which is why I say limit that goal to 14 days so you can have a Sprint so you can Sprint towards your goal consistently. And there are psychological drivers you can utilize to get to where you want to be.
Peak performers are intense. The first time I gave my pitch for my startup technology company to a very successful entrepreneur. He was my mentor man’s worth $80 million and I gave him my pitch and he said, “my 6 year old daughter can give a better pitch than that”. And he meant every word of it. Now mind you, this is after I’ve won every single pitch contest I’d ever been it. Standards are different. He wanted to see intensity. I’m sitting across from him in two desk chairs in an office. He wanted me to talk to him like he was an audience not in person which is to say, he wanted me to exercise intensity, to behave like I was there on a stage, even though I wasn’t. He wanted me to imagine, to get into character. That makes sense.