The SECRET To Achieving Lifetime SUCCESS
3 Jan 2022 · 25 min
A podcast episode by Dean Graziosi (early January 2022) where he vulnerably recounts confronting deep personal fears—particularly around his divorce—and describes the mental, behavioral, and social practices he used to recover and thrive. He emphasizes turning "the ship into the storm," changing his social circle, meditation, journaling, gratitude, exercise, observing and reframing stories, and rebuilding congruent relationships and parenting. He frames these lessons as transferable success habits for business and life and invites listeners to a live training on January 4, 2022.
Chapters
When you anchor in the right foundation, the things we talk about, you can thrive in all areas of your life. They don't have to be restricted to just one area. Welcome to the Dean Graziosi show. All success starts right here. Whatever it is in your life, that's that obstacle, that fear, that worry, even dig up the one. Because sometimes that fear, that worry, that obstacle is so deep. It's a story that you got embedded so many years ago that you don't even realize it's guiding your. It's holding you back from your full potential. It's holding you back from you just living, roaring like a tiger rather than walking around like a lamb following everybody else. What happens is when you, when you are not facing that fear, when you're ignoring it, all of a sudden you start subconsciously being somebody different for each people. I need to be this person. I was. I wasn't genuine to my kids. Even though I'm the best. You're probably the best parent in the world too. I'm like, in my head, I'm like, I'm the best dad in the world, but I'm. Deep down, I'm lying to them. Their mom and I haven't held hands in 10 years or their whole life. They haven't seen us be affectionate, they've seen us be great co parents, but they've never seen us have intimate conversations or do date nights. Like all these lies I was telling myself, but I didn't want. I just wanted to ignore it. So here's the thing is I was somebody to my kids. I was somebody to my ex, I was somebody to my parents. I was someone to my co workers. I was all these different people. I'm trying to teach my kids to be congruent and be authentic. And I'm full of shit. Literally, I'm full of shit. Because I'm being different people. Different people because I'm afraid. I'm scared. I'm running away from the fear. I was turning my ship away from the storm, always. And going, no, no, no, I'm still killing it. Because here's the thing I said from where I started, I've got millions of dollars. I have impact. I'm changing the world. I got two amazing healthy kids that are thriving in life. I love them. Isn't that enough? That's what I think to myself, isn't that enough? Are you greedy? You want it all. You want a happy marriage too? You want love in your life? Come on. Nobody gets it all. You tell yourself all these shitty stories because you're avoiding the pain. And when my life changed is when I turned the ship. I turned the ship into the storm. I've been teaching it for all these years in business. It was time I did it in my personal life. And when I turned the ship into the storm is when the shit really happened. That's when the waves hit. That's when the waves are coming over the boat. That's when you think you're going to sink. But here's what I started to do, and this is the part I want to share with you. I started changing the people I was hanging around. I started not listening to the people who were telling me what could go wrong. And I found people who did it right. The same stuff I teach in business. Wow. Oh, my God. I wrote this in Millionaire Success Habits. But I do it in my personal life now. I'm surrounding myself with people that went through this and have thriving children. They're thriving parents. Both parents became better. Both parents were friends. I started listening to stories like that. I went and spent a day with Dr. Daniel. Amen, my dear friend. And realized he. He went through the same thing. He went through six months of hell. He's the number one psychologist, psychiatrist in the world. Scanned more brains than anyone. He went through it. I go down and spend a day with my buddy Tony Robbins. He went through it. Went through a little depression. He had to turn his ship into the storm. But on the other side is something so different. So all of a sudden, I had to find hacks because here's what I realized. I couldn't think my way through this. And again, I'm going so deep on this, guys, because I really want you to. To think about the area. And you might have nothing in your life that you have to face, but most of us do, right? So I had to find a way because I couldn't think myself through the process. I was trying to just visualize a bigger future. And I can do that in most things. But in this case, it wasn't enough. This was like a deep anchor, right? So now I start doing the research. I'm like, what can change my brain? Sometimes you need something physical to change your brain. You need to do something. So after a bunch of research, I'm going to tell you some of the stuff I did after being with Tony, who's a dear friend, and checked up on me and gave me some amazing advice. Dr. Amen. So many other loving people in my life that I reached out to people could fix it rather than people would tell me how Bad it was going to be. And I started a few things. I started meditating more. Always dabbled. But I started meditating more. I started journaling. I would recommend to everybody that you journal and talk about. You know, it doesn't have to be a big, long journal. It doesn't have to be perfect structure. Just at night, write about the day, write about the win. Write about the thing that worried you the most. What I did, I was literally writing the win I would have for the day. At night, I was sitting in my bed, literally. Picture this, guys. You know me, you know what I've done. You know, all the great stuff. I get to jump on private planes and fly to Japan and China and Australia and speak on stage with Tony Robbins with 15,000 people. All this amazing stuff. Then I go home at night, and I'm living in the guest room, and I'm sitting in there with a lamp on. Picture this with my journal, trying to get my shit straight. It's real. As real as I can get. And I'm journaling the wins I had for the day and the things that affected my life that day. And all of a sudden, the journaling, you know what it did? It allowed me to see the things that steered me in the wrong direction, allowed me to see the things that. That were, like, I go back three, four, five weeks in my journal, like, oh, my God, I can't believe I let that derail me. And I started seeing a pattern of the things that derailed me and the things that gave me confidence and courage to go to another level. And I started doing more of those and less of this. I mean, I was, like, starting all over again. And you might have to experience this. When it comes to success, you might have the same fears I do about starting your new business because of old fears, old challenges, old experiences, right? So the reason I'm doing it. So I start journaling and. And then I start. Every single night, every single day, every night, every morning in my journal, I'm writing just three things I'm grateful for. Little things. And I'd write down, the dog was amazing today, playing outside. She's such a cute dog. My son smiled at me after being grumpy, or I got to watch a baseball game or watch my daughter pitch. I start writing these down, and I'm, like, finding myself again. As crazy as this sounds now listen again, so many of you have had ten times worse experiences. I'm not trying to say poor me, no, this was my journey. I'm doing this to inspire you to Turn your ship towards the storm, right? So I started gratitude. I started journaling exercise. What I realized, too, when I got hit, when this hit me the hardest, I stayed away from exercise. I'm like, I can't even think about exercise right now. When simultaneously, when you exercise, more oxygen goes to the brain, your endorphins are released. I needed exercise. I started exercising again on a regular basis. And then I started doing what I'm doing right now. I started talking about it. For the first eight, nine months, I didn't tell anyone. This was my thing. I felt like a failure. I'm like, how can I do so much right in my life and I'm doing this wrong. I started talking about it. I started expressing it. I started to say it out loud. I started to not be embarrassed by it. I started to lean into it. I started not thinking as a failure. Started thinking I could only be a failure if I screw this up and don't learn. And I also like anything else. I stopped letting unqualified people give me even a hint of what was right and what was wrong. I won't listen. In fact, I want to tell you something. Where I'm at now, there were some friends in my life that told me, amen, stay in the marriage. It doesn't work. It doesn't matter, because you'll be so sad. Your kids will be messed up. And when they saw me go through it and I'm going to talk where I am now, they're back and like, oh, my God, you're so brave. I want to fix my marriage. I need to fix it. Like, instead of just ignoring, I want to fix. Like, they were saying it because they were in pain. And it was such, like, a flashlight and a magnifying glass on everything. Because I realized the people that gave me shitty advice is because they were miserable, because they were afraid to face their fear. And then since I did, all of a sudden they're like, oh, my God, Dean, please tell me how you did it. Tell me how you got through it. And I was like, wow, I teach people this all the time, but now I get to see it from firsthand because it's been so long since I've been in the business side, but so many people who tell you, you can't start your own business, it won't work. You're not qualified. It's because they're afraid, because they're scared and they're projecting their fears onto you. Then here's the best part. I started to. I started observing my thinking. Now I Teach this all the time. I do it in business. All I observe my thoughts non stop. But now I'm observing my thoughts for the things that take me down the wrong path rather than the right path. I started detecting shit, thinking immediately and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm not going down that road. That road leads me to anxiety and fear. I won't be a good dad. I won't be a good. I won't impact the world. I won't be a good example. No, I'm not going down that road. I'm going down this road. I started to catch myself when I was just. When I was like the triggers that would put me in the wrong direction. And then all of a sudden with that combo of all those things, I started redrafting my story. You know, I tell everybody all the time what lives between you and the life you desire besides the obstacle. The obstacle sometime could simply be the story you tell yourself. If you tell yourself, I could make more money if I had money to invest in my. If somebody gave me money to invest in my company, I could do it. If I lived in a different area, I could do it if I had a different spouse, I could do it if I had different parents, I could do it if I lived in a different area, if I had a different education, if I was smarter, faster, richer, wasn't stuck in a bad job. What stands between you and your next level of life is the story. The story that I had that was driving me mad, driving me to have anxiety, driving me to have fear, driving me to have emotions I've never had in my life was a really shit story. If I leave my kids, I'm going to do what my parents did to me. I'm going to screw their life up and I'm going to miss them so bad. I'll never be the same. That was my story. How about if I just tell you that? What if I said that to you? I say it out loud right now? Do you know eight months ago I couldn't even said that story out loud. I'd probably go into an. A year ago, I'd go into an anxiety attack, literally. I'd be like. Because that story was so powerful. You know what that story is? It's a piece of shit. Screw that story right now. That story is just ridiculous. It's a freaking lie. That story cost me torment and just hardship. And that story can go F itself because it's so not true. And then all of a sudden when the story changed and I said, listen, the fact of the Matter is I wish that my marriage worked out. I wish that it was me. But it didn't. So now that I'm here, I can't go back and fix time. I definitely made some massive mistakes, but I can't go back and undo time. I can't reverse the clock. So my new story is that I'm going to build a next level relationship with my kids. They're going to thrive. That parents screws up kids, not divorce. That. I see my kids literally every day. They live. I bought them a house three miles down the road. My ex and I are better friends now than we've ever been. We talk regularly, we talk about the kids. I can, I mean, we go meet for dinners, we go to the games and meet there. Everything that I thought and all the people around me told me could never happen happened literally. My ex and I are better friends than we've ever been. We're better parents than we've ever been. And here's the great part is I know £10,000 came off her shoulders. So do mine. So did mine. I. I know our kids feel it. I mean, literally. I left this morning to go see my kids. I stopped over there, said hi to them at their house. And when I left, my son gave me a kiss and he's like, dad, I love you. Do I see you tonight? My son and I's relationship has gone to another level. I see them literally as much, if not more I did because I used to work extra time. And here's what I know. I also made a conscious decision that if I don't as much quantity of time with my kids when I have it, the quality is going to double. I'm going to 10 times the quality and the connection and putting my phone down and looking in their eyes. And I'm consciously aware of it. I know I'm a better man. I'm on the other side of that. And the stuff I want to share with you guys is where I'm at now. Okay? It was a year ago where I had anxiety so bad I wouldn't want to get on a plane. I had anxiety that I didn't want to get in elevators. I was getting in elevators and I was looking for the escape hatch and the emergency button. If I didn't see the escape hatch, I'd get off and walk up 20 stories. I honestly thought that's where I was stuck without telling you, without telling friends, without telling the world. And my buddies, Tony Robbins, Daniel, Amen. And people that you don't know said, I know it feels terrible. But the only way to the better version of you is to turn your ship. You're avoiding it. You say you're not. Your terminology says you're avoiding it. Your physiology says you're avoiding it. Your actions say you're avoiding it. Your anxiety is a voice telling you, hey, do something. We have to face this shit. We can't just let it go anymore. The cork came off the bottle. There was no other way. And as reluctant as I was because I thought I had this figured, I thought I could think through it and I couldn't, as reluctant as I was, I took my ship and I turned it into the storm. And I thank God that I did. Where I'm at now is I'm at the other side of it. And I have never felt like I feel now. I know the next 10 years of life with my kids, it's going to be amazing. I'm going to create a process. I'm going to create the best divorce situation that ever happened in the history of the world. I have zero other story. There's no what ifs anymore. Screw what ifs. Burn the boats. You want to take the island, you burn the boats. I have no other. There's no other exception. And I replaced my relationship with my ex. To worry about ego and what's fair and keeping score with love. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. There were some things while we were going through the divorce that I didn't think was fair. I'm like, it's okay. That's what you think. I did it with love. The hell with ego. The hell with keeping points. Those things transformed everything and bonded us as friends, bonded us as co parents. And now I have. What I want most is no anxiety. And here's the other thing too, and this is the most transparent thing I could possibly say. I was not congruent in my life. Every area of my life was solid. There was nothing. I have two business partnerships ready for this. I have two business partnerships. And I appreciate all the comments, guys. I haven't looked over here once. I promise I'm going to read all of them. I always do. If you have any comments, let me know. But here's what I want to tell you. I have two business partnerships. Both of them, we've done over a half a billion dollars together. I would guess that's about the number. Maybe one's 400 million, one's 600 million, but two business partnerships, close to a billion dollars. You know what the contract was that we had with each other? It Was like, no, it was this. It was a handshake. Zero contracts with both of them, neither one of us. I never had an argument, never had nothing. Because I say what I do, I do what I say. And so did they. Congruent easy. No fights. They're still my dearest friends. One of them, we stopped our relationship. His dream car was a 68 Camaro convertible. I spent 70 grand and bought it for him. Like, that's what I had. And in every area with my. The people who work with me, my team, they know what I say is what I do. I'm a man. I'm congruent in all areas of myself. I'm congruent with my message. I'm speaking now from the heart, you know, the person I am. I don't use scripts. I don't use teleprompters. I didn't use any of that. But I was full of shit at home because my relationship sucked. And I didn't tell it to my kids. I didn't tell it to the world. So I had this ugly thing that I was hiding. I didn't even realize that it was in there, like, burning a hole in me and like, making me, like, toxic. I get to talk about. You have no idea. I have goosebumps right now. I get to be me. I am more congruent right now than I've ever been in my entire life. I have nothing to hide. I have nothing. I get to be just me and work on me. I can't tell you how freeing that is. If you're stuck in a job right now that you feel you have to for certainty because there's some shit ass story that says you're screwed if you don't. I'm not saying quit your job today. Find a way to love your job and thrive while simultaneously you're working on your side hustle and you're doing it for you. If you're in a shitty relationship that's dragging you down, do what Tony Robbins says and take the next 90 days and pretend it's the beginning, the first 90 days of your relationship. Tony says if you treated people at the end of relationship like you did at the beginning of the relationship, there'd be no end. So try that for the next 90 days. Give it your all. Don't, don't keep score. Don't let your ego get in. Just be the best version of you. Be a mirror. Let them see who you want in them by being that person. Don't, don't tally it up. Do those things and see where you are. 90 days. In 90 days, if it's worse and you truly were that person, then you got to make a decision on how you can fix it. Or maybe it's got to end. But I'm telling you, I think this might be the most important training that I've ever shared because I didn't realize there was a piece of me holding back. I've generated over a billion dollars in my life. Did I keep all that money? No, absolutely not. But my companies and my brands have. But still, there was a part of me that wasn't that. Next level. When people say, you can't have it all, screw that. You can't have it all. You can't. Somebody said, well, I'm out of shape, but I'm a really good dad, or my relationship sucks, but I work out like, no. When you anchor in the right foundation, the things we talk about, you can thrive in all areas of your life. They don't have to be restricted to just one area. You can do it all. And I believe more than anything that one of the things that will hold you back is not facing that obstacle. So if you want to be so brave right now, share with everybody in here. We have only our inner circle members in here, Only part of our. The people I mentor every month share in here right now something in your life that you've been afraid to face, that maybe you have a little inspiration today or a process on how you're going to face it. I have some more stuff I want to share, but I'd love to see if you guys are brave enough to share with this group. Maybe something you've never shared before that you need to fix, change, or face. Maybe you could share that right now. I want to share. I have a dear friend that was there for me every single week. I talked to her. Her name is Annie. I talked to her every single week while I was going through this. And she's just incredible. And this is what she does for a living. And she said something I thought was really powerful. I want you to think about that. Like, think of what we do in life as mapping out new terrain, right? So think of our life as like the Earth and we're explorers, right? And some people take one path. They go to work every day. They do the same thing, same couple of friends they do. And that's. And they're okay with this one straight line path. They don't see any of the world. They just. They do this. They go do their thing and they come back. That's one version. And there's some people who say, this path that everybody says is great, this path that everybody says, this is the security, this is the safety. This is how life is supposed to be. It's like, screw that. And they wander off the path, right? If you're here with us today, you're here with me today. You're part of the inner circle. That means that you're someone who's wandered off the path. Congratulations. The path sucks. The path is what everybody else is. Does the path that. And if you're. If somebody's on it and they're miserable, they want you to be on the path with them when they see you straying, like, no, no, no, get back on here. It's not safe out there. No, it's not safe on the path. We have one life. We got to squeeze every bit of juice out of this life. You don't want to look back at the end of your life being 100 years old, be in the hospital and go, wow, I walk the same path every day. I'm so glad I played it safe. No, screw that. No one says that shit at the end, you're like, why didn't I step off the path? Why didn't I go for more? Why didn't I tap into my. Why didn't I go after being an artist artist? Go after real estate investing, go after doing my own online business, go after the fitness world, go in the coaching world, go sing. Why? Why didn't I do it? Because someone told you staying on the path was smart. Screw that. Get off the path. But if you think about that and you're mapping out terrain. So just think, if we're explorers, if we're on the path, we get to explore new territory. I'm going to read some of these guys. We get to explore new territory. But when you explore new territory, you've kind of mapped out that terrain. Now, if you go off the path and you find a cliff, you can mark that. If you find paradise, you could mark that. If you find water, you mark that. You find mountains, you mark that. You find the ocean, you mark it. And all of a sudden, you start exploring. For me, going through this process, I mapped out a whole new bunch of terrain. I mapped out. I mapped. Listen, can I tell you something? I feel absolutely, positively bulletproof because I face the biggest fear of my life. There's nothing that can get me. Let me just tell you something. I drive down the road and somebody cuts me off. I wave to them, I order chicken for dinner. They bring Me, steak well done. I eat the steak well done and say thank you. Because the little shit doesn't matter anymore. If you want another level of life, get bigger problems and solve bigger problems. Literally solve bigger problems, problems, and watch your life go to another level. Watch the little shit fall away. The stuff that used to bug you, be like, why did I let that bug me? Get a deeper set of problems and solve that shit. And when you're done with that, solve the next one. And when you're done with that, solve the next one. Instead of solving $100 problems. You know what my wish for you is? Solve million dollar problems. They're the same amount of stress. If you need a hundred bucks to pay the bill or you need a million, I assure you it's the same stress. So why not add more zeros? Why not? See, I truly believe that the more terrain you map, you can revisit paradise. You know where the danger is. You know where the quicksand is. You know where the anxiety, the stress and the worry is. If you map it out, you can go there, conquer it, and just cross it off the map and never go back there. But if you stay on the path, you just say, oh, it's dangerous out there. And you live that same. You're here with me because you want a big life. You want your full potential. You don't want my life. You don't want everybody else's life. You want the best version of you life. And I hope today by being this transparent that you get to see that it's. That turning your ship towards the storm to face it is really the only way. And a year ago, I'm not sure I believed it because it hurt so bad. So I really appreciate you guys hearing my story, and I hope that through the challenge that I went through, that it inspired you to face your biggest fears. Because I know there'll be nothing that can stop you once you face it. In 2021. Has your world felt completely upside down? Well, if it has, you're not alone. Hey, it's Dean Graziosi. And let's just say it like it is. The outside world is absolutely out of control. It is chaotic, and I don't see it getting better. In fact, I truly see it getting worse. I truly see winter, an economic winter coming. We have separation. We have resignation. We have uncertainty. We have cancellations and shutdowns. In a time like this, our inner game can get fearful. We could place ball, sit on our hands, and. And we can let 2022 be a repeat of 2021. And I'm guessing if you're watching me, that's not what you want. We must own the inner control. We must master the inner game. And we have to start off 2022. Ready to make this the year of your life, the year you thrive, that you tap into your full potential. Your family needs you. The world needs you. And you can't let imposter syndrome or fear and uncertainty stop you. Hey, it's Dean Graziosi, and it's a pleasure to meet you. If it's our first time, I'm blessed to be a multiple New York Times bestselling author. I've started over 13 companies. I'm married to the love of my life. I love being a dad. I'm not bragging I've messed up many times in the past. But what's allowed me to have success is mastering in here, mastering new habits and new strategies, new success tactics that make all the difference in the world, that you could see where the world is going. So I could play offense, not defense, where I can crush imposter syndrome and I can work on solutions so I'm not left behind. In fact, this video is to invite you to a special training I'm going to be doing on January 4th. About three to four hours long. Not kind of free, totally free, limited space. But I'm going to set up my year for the best year of my Life. I want 2022 to be a whole other level. And I want to join you to come with me to see. It's not about me. Year's resolutions, how do they work out for you? It's not about just setting goals and you want something that never happened. It's about creating a process that becomes your reality. And I'm going to pull back the curtain and show you how I do it. It's a crazy year. You need this next level. So if you're ready to break through uncertainty, if you're ready not to wait for anybody else to fix it because no one's coming to save you and you'd like to join me, click the link below and go. Reserve your spot before it fills up. January 4th, with about three or four hours long, it's totally free. And we're going to set you up for the best year of your life. You're going to see how I do it. We'll be right here. I'll get to see your beautiful faces. But it's only happening once. It's live. Reserve a spot below, grab a friend, show up, and we'll see you on January 4th, Sam.
More from Dean
Mental Strategies of 8 Insanely Successful Female Entrepreneurs | Own Your Future Mashup Episode