Sacrifice, Comparison, Contentment

I'm here at the Westin Hotel in Dallas, Texas, waiting for a plane that I'm gonna be on my way to Germany. And last night when I got in, I couldn't sleep, so they told me the bar was open until 2. So I grabbed my laptop and I went down to the bar, and I was just doing some work, and I was literally the only person in there. The person. And so, like, us entrepreneurs do, we just start working, and then all of a sudden, about 100 or 200 of the craziest people that, like, you would ever hear came in. These people were loud and they were noisy. They were a little bit obnoxious. And you can tell that they were already lit. I mean, they didn't really need to be in the bar. You could tell they were somewhere where there was some alcohol. Okay. But when I turned around and noticed them, I was blown away because all the guys were in these really cool Scottish kil. Okay. Beautiful Scottish military attire. And the ladies were all decked out. I mean, the ladies were all decked out. I mean, they were beautiful. I mean, these, you know, little black dresses or ball gowns. I mean, it was go. I mean, they were gorgeous. So you had all these guys. And then I noticed that there was a lot of American military there as well, decked out in all their formal attire with all their, you know, stripes and badges on. And so I started talking with him, and I realized that, yeah, yesterday was Veterans Day. Okay. And they had been out of Veterans Day gala. And, you know, doing the thing that, you know, I'm extraordinarily grateful for, I told them, thank you. Thank you for their service. And we just. We went on and had a good time. And this one guy. I don't know if it's a good thing or not, but a guy in a dress came up and bought me a drink. Well, the dress he was in was a. Was a kilt, a Scottish kilt. And I have pictures of me in a kilt, by the way, But I didn't know if I should be flattered or nervous. But then I realized, you know, hey, I'm just gonna be thankful. So he buys me a drink, and he started talking to me about his service and his military, why they were in their Scottish gear and Scottish garb. And then just, you know, and I just started asking the questions. I'm a very curious person. I started asking him questions. And then right in the middle of that conversation, I couldn't help but notice just to the right of him, just to the right of. Was this guy that looked. He probably was, I'm gonna guess, mid-50s. And he had no eyes. Like, literally his eyes were gone. Okay? And to his right was the most gorgeous lady that you've ever seen in your life escorting him. And so after my conversation with the guy in the dress who bought me a drink, my attention turned to this other guy, and we started talking with him. And he was telling me about how he was in service, and he was driving a Jeep. A Hummer. He was driving a Hummer, and they were in Iraq, and they drove over a mine, and the mine blew up. The Jeep, like, literally just went up in the air. And there were three people in his. Let me let this plane go over. There were three people in his squadron with him and him. He was the driver, the other three people. And the other three guys died. And he lived, but he lost both of his. He lost both of his eyes. And that just. I mean, it really hit me. I mean, here I'm in a bar right in the middle of a party, and he's telling me the story, and I'm literally trying not to, like, tear up as he's telling me this story. Meanwhile, he's got this incredibly gorgeous girl who's escorting him on his right. And so as I engaged him more in conversation, he started telling me more about his story. He used three words. Actually, the couple used three words that I wrote. Wrote in here. And the first word that he said was sacrifice. He said, you know, he goes, when you truly believe in a cause, there's nothing that's going to stop you from fulfilling the cause. He goes, you'll sacrifice whatever, including your life. And the three gentlemen in his Hummer that day sacrificed their life for our freedom, and this man sacrificed his eyesight for our freedom. Well, being incredibly, you know, insensitive, I was pretty insensitive. I didn't mean to be, but I. As looking back at it as I was, I looked over after a conversation, I looked at this beautiful girl, and I said, oh, is this your daughter? And that was really insensitive because it wasn't his daughter. It was his wife. And this is one of those cases where it wasn't one of those flattering things like, oh, my gosh, I'm so glad you thought I was so young. No, he literally was, like, in his mid-50s, and she was, like, in her early to mid-20s. And so I just put that comparison together. But. But they were married, and he made a joke, and he said, yeah, he goes. I get that all the time. He goes, Everybody wants to know why a beautiful lady like that hangs out with an ugly guy like this. He goes, everybody always asks me that. He goes, everybody always says, you know, says that she's my daughter. And he goes, nobody can ever figure out why she stays with me. And he. Then he looked at her. He goes, why do you stay with me? And I thought that was a great, great question on his behalf. Like, it was like he had never asked that before. I'm not sure. But he looked over and says, yeah, why do you stay with me? And she just, like, literally just, like, grabbed his arm. And in the most romantic way, she goes, well, look around. She goes, I got the best. She goes, I got the best. And I like, wow, you know, that was awesome. And she said, honey. She goes, there's no comparison. And I got thinking about that second word. So he talked about sacrifice. And she said, honey, there's no comparison. I've got the best. Now think about this. Here's a guy whose body is riddled with shrapnel. He's always in a lot of pain. He's got to be extraordinarily high maintenance. He doesn't have any eyes, so he can't see. She literally has to take care of him 24 7, 365. She's a beautiful lady. Could have anybody at any time, anywhere. I mean, she was definitely the prize of that couple hundred people there that night. And he was definitely the one that was beat up that night. But yet she said, look around, darlin', which is ironic in and of itself, but look around, darlin'. There's no comparison. I've got the best. Then, as she expounded on that a little bit, she used the third word, which I was fascinated by. And I wrote it down because I said, I want to talk with my crew about this today. And she goes, you know, she goes, we just learn to be content. We just learn to be content with who we are and what we got, and we stop complaining about what we don't have. And she's like, what I love about him is he never has one time ever complained about not having eyesight. Ever. She's like, he's never complained about it, and he's just extraordinarily grateful that he got to sacrifice something in order for his country to be free. And I got thinking about that. Wow, there's those words again. Sacrifice, comparison. And they're just content with who they are. They're grateful who they are, and they don't spend any time griping and complaining about who they're not or what they. Or what they don't have. And I got thinking about, as an individual, how I can learn so many things from that. Because one of the things about being an entrepreneur is it seems like we're always on a quest for more. And we are, aren't we? I mean, we're always on a quest for more. It's as if in the entrepreneurial world, we're taught, we're conditioned to not be. It's as if we're taught to always want something, that we don't have to go after it, to fight, to hustle. And there's nothing wrong with fighting. There's nothing wrong with hustle. There's nothing wrong with having a dream or a vision or a passion or a goal. There's nothing wrong with that. But I got thinking. Sometimes I wonder if we look at our present circumstances and we feel incredibly ungrateful for what we have. Therefore, that lack of gratitude is what propels us. And I think that the word that I want to put in your heart today is not the word more. Because you are enough. You have enough. Even if you're struggling, even if you're struggling to pay bills. You have breath in your lungs. You have people around you that love you. Chances are you're not homeless. You are enough. You have enough. And I don't. I want to. I want to encourage you to take that word more and be cautious with how you use it and maybe exchange it for the word better. I can be better. I can improve. Yes, I can. But I don't have to have more. We're not in a race to accumulate more stuff. We already have enough stuff. But we are in a race to make people better, to make our lives better, to offer a better environment for our children or for our loved ones. And I got thinking, and I'm going to take it off the military guy for a moment. I got thinking about us, on how I could encourage us this morning when it comes time to building our business. Like, what are some things that we can work on and we can gleam on? And one of the things I thought about is we need to process internally and create a servant's heart internally so we can look at our clients or our potential clients and we can serve them better. And it's like, if we can serve them better, we will be better. And then therefore, the result is we will have more. But if our heart and our motive is just to accumulate stuff, yeah, that's probably not going to do us a whole lot of good. But if our heart and our motive is I want to make people's lives better, you know, so I'm going to write this ebook. Not just so I can get people on my mailing list, but I'm going to write this ebook because somebody needs this and this can really help them. You see the difference in the approach? See, one is incredibly selfish. One says, I'm going to write an ebook. I'm going to have a tripwire, I'm going to have a core product, I'm going to have an upsell, and I'm going to have a high ticket offer because I want more. Because I want my business to grow, I want my list to grow, I want my bottom line to grow. Okay, so one says, I'm going to do all this so I can have more. Well, there's no sacrifice in that at all. There's none. There's no sacrifice in that. What that is, that's selfishness. When I'm doing something so I can have more, that doesn't make you stop and think about, like, how can I help someone better? See, because when you help someone better, then you're going to put good content in that ebook because it's going to help them. You're not just going to throw something together just so you can have it. And you're going to bait and switch them. Hey, take this free little ebook, give me your email address. And then that ebook doesn't help them. No, you're really going to put something in there that's going to help them. When you create a video series, okay, you're not just going to throw a video series in because you're trying to move them down to video 4 Where you can sell them. But you're really going to ask yourself the question, what do I have here? And what do I have here that can help somebody for real? What can I say that's going to make a positive momentum shift in somebody's life? And see, when you think about them now, all of a sudden your content becomes different. It becomes something that really, really, really helps. And it's not one of these things that I'm going to leave it vague and I'm going to leave a void so they can eventually pay me. No, we're really going to help people because we're thinking about them. See, when I get the focus off of me and I put the focus on them, I can really understand that. Hey, I need to help them. I need to help their business grow. I need to help their family be better. I need to be able to help their finances or whatever it is, whatever realm that you work in. If I'm thinking about them, I'm going to think about better, not more. See, more is all about me. Better is all about them. I need to help them be better. Therefore my stuff is going to be going to be better. Then when we create like a core product, like an online course or one on one coaching or whatever it is that we do, we're really thinking about them and we're going to give them everything that we have. See that guy on that Hummer that day in the military in the middle of Iraq? He was giving us everything he has. He wasn't holding anything back. He knew that he had the potential of giving the ultimate sacrifice, which would be his life. He ran over a mine. The mine blew up. His freaking jeep, his Hummer. Three people in his squadron that day lost their life. Lost their life. But it didn't stop him from being willing to give it up, from sacrificing. Why? Because he wasn't thinking about him, he was thinking about us. And he says, I got to do it better. I don't want to accumulate more. I want to do it better. He came home from the United States, his. My fiance at the time didn't have to marry him. She's a beautiful lady. He obviously lost his physical appearance. I mean, he had no hair, he was burnt everywhere, he had no eyes, he could hardly walk, his body ached in pain. She's a beautiful, beautiful lady. She literally could have any guy in the entire world. She's stunningly gorgeous. But she says, no, it's not about me, it's about us. And I don't want more, I want better. And I got thinking about that. Like, man, we've got to be able to learn this because, well, life principles. This is going to help us in all aspects of life, whether it be our relationships or whether it be our business or whether it be the way we parent or whatever. Are you trying to accumulate more or are you trying to be better? And so I wrote something down I want to share with you. I don't know if you can see my little notes here, but here's what I think is the key to getting better and not trying to accumulate more. We need to kill comparisons and cultivate gratitude. This was my takeaway from that meeting last night. We need to kill comparisons and cultivate gratitude. Kill comparisons, cultivate gratitude. See, in. I don't know what business you're in, but I know in my business there's a lot of people who play the comparison game. And you know, in fact, if pretty easy for people to jump on a live like this and show you their toys, right? Show you their Lamborghinis and their Ferraris and their Corvettes or their private jets or their boats or their 10,000 square foot homes or their trophy wives or whatever it is that they show, right? Because there's a comparison mentality in what we do. Everybody's comparing it. You go into the main rooms that we're part of and people are showing you their list with like, you know, hey, I had 10,000 opt ins last night. And it's like we're in this comparison game and we're always comparing and I think we've got to, we got to lose that, you know, we got to lose that thing. And so I said, you know, you gotta, you gotta kill it. You gotta kill comparisons because in the end you are enough, right? And then you have to cultivate gratitude. And something that I found myself reminiscing on this morning, just as I got up and was doing a little bit of meditation this morning, devotion was. I started just making a list of things that I'm incredibly grateful for. Like, it's really easy to be ungrateful, but what is it that I'm grateful for? And you know, I find myself, a lot of times when I set personal goals, I find myself writing down like, you know, I want to make this much money or I want to impact this many people, or I want to travel to this many countries. And I really haven't ever stopped and just said, what am I incredibly grateful for? So I pulled out a piece of paper and I just started writing down the things that I'm grateful for and the people that I'm grateful for. And what I found was that it was so fulfilling. Like, literally it brought tears to my eyes this morning. And I'm sorry for being a little bit of a SAP, but it is Sunday morning in Texas and it's a beautiful overcast day. And I had this incredible event last night that I was at and it just really got me thinking about life. You know, nobody's asking me to sacrifice my life for anything. You know, my life was really easy. But I literally brought tears to my eyes this morning as I started writing down. And I just, I couldn't stop because it was like. As I started writing and I started writing people's names and I started writing things and I started writing, you know, property that I own and situations that I find myself and health that I have and knowledge and wisdom that's been given to me. I just found myself in a situation where I could not stop writing. I just kept writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing. And I just bullet points so much that my hand started hurting and it was cramping. I'm like, oh, my gosh, I have to stop. But I couldn't because it was like something just kept triggering and things in me just kept firing about things that I'm grateful for. And what I found myself was I found myself with a yellow sheet of paper four columns wide, just full of stuff that I'm incredibly grateful for. And I just. I got thinking about that. I got to share that with my tribe today. That you are enough. I want you to pursue better, not necessarily pursue more. I want you to remember that anything worth having is worth sacrifice. But sometimes you have to be content with who you are, where you have who you are and where you are. You need to learn to be content with who you are because you are enough. And be content with the people that you see and be content with the people that you hang out with. Be content with your friends. Sometimes you need to be content with your car or with your house. Okay? It runs. The roof doesn't leak. Be content. And then you need to stop comparison. Stop comparing yourself to everything and everyone. And so here's my thought for the day. I want you to kill comparisons and cultivate gratitude. Kill comparisons and cultivate gratitude. So, hey, if I was to give you a homework assignment today, what I would say is, take some time right now. Grab a pencil and piece of paper and just write down everything that you're grateful for. And what you're going to find is as you write that out, your heart's going to be overwhelmed with all the amazing things that you have in your life because you have so much. And you'll be overwhelmed with that. And let the names and the people and the jobs and the income and the property or whatever it is you write down. Let all of that be fuel for you to move forward and to get better, not necessarily accumulate more. So, hey, love you guys. I'm coming to you from Dallas this morning, and I'm having an incredible, incredible time this morning. Just. It was so fun, too. Like, I woke up this morning and. And they put my bill under the door, you know, and they had a little card in there for me to get. Free buffet. This buffet is $18. So I went down there and, oh, my gosh, it was incredible. So they got a little $18 gift card. And I'm like, you know, this is something I'm grateful for. It's food. Amazing, amazing, amazing food. And so. But it's the little things in life, it's the little gift cards that you get when you're not expecting it that sometimes can make the world of difference. But hey, it's Sunday morning. I don't know what you guys are doing today. Many of you guys are getting ready for football. Some of you guys are at church or coming back from church, getting ready to go to church. But as that plane flies overhead, it reminds me that I'm getting ready to. I'm getting ready to jump on another airplane and I'm off to a crazy trip. I'm going to Germany. I'll be there a week and then I'll be in India for four days and then I'll be in New York for a while. I may get down to Washington D.C. and then gonna get down to Miami and then finally make my way back back to Phoenix. It looks like I'll be gone for about 19 days. And I'm incredibly grateful for literally students and clients all around the world. I'm not, you know, I can't say that I'm too happy about being gone from my kids for 19 days, but I'm incredibly grateful for the power of the Internet so I can stay connected with them each and every day. But guys, I gotta roll. Do me a favor, put something in the comments here. One thing that you're grateful for, just one thing. I love to see it and would love to see your heart. God bless you guys. Have an incredible Sunday. And don't forget, guys, to me, the key to our success today is kill comparisons. Cultivate gratitude. God bless.