The SECRET To Achieving SUCCESS & ABUNDANCE In Life IS THIS... | Dean Graziosi

There's a million people telling you how to get rich overnight, change your life, fix your relationships, go to another level. Abundance, joy, happiness. But does any of that work? Welcome to the Dean Grazios Show. All success starts right here. Welcome to the Dean Grazios Show. And this is a really special edition because it's our 500th podcast. Listen, if you're here, just real quick. This is the podcast where we go upstream and share the foundation for success. There's a million people telling you how to get rich overnight, change your life, fix your relationships, go to another level. Abundance, joy, happiness. But does any of that work? If we fall back into old habits, if we feel like we're imposters and we play small, if we let the uncertainty of this crazy world make us back up and hesitate, Right? And he who hesitates, loses. Right? And who wants to be left behind? So thank you for being here for this very special 500th edition to the Dean Graziosi Show. And today, I wanted to make this about you guys. We ran a little challenge on my Instagram. If you're not following me, you should eengraziosi on Instagram. And we said, hey, in these crazy, uncertain, shifting times, if you had one question to ask me that I could hopefully serve, deliver, give back to you, what would it be? And we picked five out of five, literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of great questions. But my team picked the five that we thought most related to you. If you're here right now, again, thank you for being a part of us. Thank you for making us. I think right now we're number 22 in entrepreneurship in the entire world, and we've been hovering there for almost a year. That's because of you. And, you know, we don't charge anything for this podcast. I don't do sponsorships. I do this for you. So if you like this episode, if you like any of the episodes, you drop a comment and then also screenshot it, tell a friend, post it on Instagram, tell people to go to deanspodcast.com again. We don't even get sponsorship money. I don't charge for this. I do this because this is what the world needs. And I love sharing the things that we learn in this evolution. Again, if this is the first time you're here, I've been blessed to have and start over 13 companies had more success than I could have ever imagined possible, starting with nothing. And I've been. I've had my back against the wall. I've had great success. And then I failed. Miserably so no matter where you are in your life right now, I bet you I've been there. And I also know what it's like to want more and have envy when others seem to be figuring it out and you haven't. And that's why I love this podcast. It's not a magical money machine. There's no way to get rich overnight. What it is is giving you the foundation that if you can anchor that into your soul, then you can become unstoppable and live the life you're meant to live. And that's why we're here. So let's get right to it. We had five. We had hundreds and hundreds of great questions, but my team picked five. And the first one comes in from Justin. Justin's name is Hulk Gray on Instagram, and he says, from your experience, what is the number one thing above all that you must do in order to achieve the next level of happiness and abundance in your life? You know, that's that question. As I saw that question, there's a million answers come to me at once. But I have to say this for you, Justin, and for everyone is in times of uncertainty, in times when we're kind of playing defense in life, trying to figure out where things are going, what other people are doing, we can tend to forget what a compelling future would look like for us, right? If you don't have a target, right? Fuzzy targets don't get hit, but most people don't have a target. We're just trying to avoid the potholes and pitfalls of life, right? You're trying to make it through day. You're trying not to fall backwards. And what happens is, as we're trying not to fall backwards, what is that saying? If we're not climbing, we're sliding, we're slowly drifting back, or we're staying flat and life seems to be passing you by, right, Justin? It's like I want more. It's like the train going down the tracks and you see it and you go to grab it, then all of a sudden, you see it go over the hill, right? And what happens in those cases is I believe we forget what it's like to set that intention, set that compelling future. So what I'd love to share with you is what does success look like for you, Justin? Everybody listening. What does success look like for you? And remember something that you thought was going to be the ultimate, the success of all success, maybe a year ago or a decade ago might be completely different than what it is right now. I have to Tell you I have to share this a little bit in my own life. Success in my 20s, remember not remember. You might not know this, but I didn't come from money. My parents were married nine times when I was a kid. I moved nine times. By the time I was 18 years old, I did live in a trailer park with my mom. I did live in a bathroom with my dad for almost a year when we didn't have enough, when he couldn't heat the whole house, we had enough to plug in a little space heater in the bathroom. Like I've been to all I've been through that, right? So I have to tell you, in my 20s, 20s, success meant to me that I could like be free, like have money. My father and mother were choked by money. They worked their tails off not to have much, right? So success meant to me that I had freedom to do what I want. And you know what that meant. Sometimes I lived in New York, upstate New York, sometimes on a Thursday I'd fly to Miami for the weekend and I'd party for a weekend. I'd go. Nothing I would do in a million years right now, but I'd go and get bottle service and have fun and stay up till six o' clock in the morning and just laugh and joke because my childhood was so serious that like I thought I was being successful then. Right now I think that's like the biggest waste of time in history. But different era, you know, in my 30s, success meant to me building a foundation, retiring, both my parents giving back to the world and building a momentum, like to show the world what I was made of. When people question me, I'm like, this is what I'm going to be like. Each decade of my life it was different. Right now I'm 51 as I'm recording this. And what success means to me is pretty darn simple. I want to be there for my family. I love being. I have almost 12, almost 14 year old and I have a 6 month old and I want to be a dad that doesn't look back and have regrets. So today I dropped my kids off at school. Today at 3, I'll be there outside waving to pick them up. Like every time my kids are with me, I have 50% custody of the, of the older kids. I get them half the time I pick them up from school, I drop them off from school, I drive them to practice, whatever I need to do tonight. This weekend we're making homemade pasta together. Together, like I'm a little boring because family first. I'm in the greatest relationship my life. Maybe I screwed up in the past, made mistakes, I learned from it. And now I'm with my wife. We've been married, you know, married over a year, but together for years. I fall more in love with her every day because I'm consciously working on it. I'm not taking it for granted. I treat her this week like the first week I met her, when I had butterflies. I recreate those butterflies. But that took work, that took energy, that took. That's success to me. Giving back, doing things like this podcast, going on Instagram every single day and trying to help people go faster, making an impact on those that need it. Because I wish someone was there for me. That drives me. Being a leader in my team and being a leader that brings everybody together. Not a boss, but a leader. My team is my family. And wanting to grow as a human every day. Right? So I'm kind of boring because success means to me being a good dad, a good husband, a good leader, and giving back, like, that's it. Everything else outside of that doesn't really fall on my lap and I say no to it now. I didn't mean to go so deep on me, but I really know what success means to me and I want to give back. I want to impact more of the world. I have a compelling future that gets me out of bed. Listen, I'm in a place in my life right now. If I wanted to cash out on everything I have, I really don't have to work anymore. That sounds like I'm being a jerk. I'm not being. I don't have Lambos and do all that crazy stuff, but I feel blessed. My 13 different companies, I own hundreds of houses around and units around the country. Like. But I get up every day on fire because I know I have a compelling future. I want to be a good dad. I want to be a good husband. I want to be a good leader. I want to impact. I say it twice. I want to impact others. I want to give back. Last year, this year, I donated more to charity than ever before in my entire life. Ever before. Right? That drives me. It gets me out of bed. So, Justin, long answer to a short story. I could have gone in a lot of different directions is know what success means to you. Define it. Like, stop what you're doing right now. After you're done listening, stop what you're doing. What does success look like for me? If it was the best year of my life and it was a year from now, I was looking backwards what does that mean? Not who you used to be, not who you might be. Who do you want to be right now? And then craft that compelling future and focus on it every single day. All right, second question comes from Matthias. Matthias says, what are the key ways for monitoring my energy during this pandemic in order to keep my focus in my life journey? That's really a great, great, great question. One is if you know where you are. Right, Matthias? I hope I said that right, Matthias, if you know where you are, make sure you know where you want to go. Right? Kind of extending on the last question is if it was the best year of your life, if one year from that was the best year of your life, and you look back, what would have had to happen for it to be the best year of your life? And then you have to decide, what are the things that can move the needle? Right? Like, not like. Listen, when craziness happens, we can tend to get distracted by social media. I found myself being distracted by social media, and I never have in my life. And I work from home and I'm really disciplined, but sometimes it happens and I catch myself. I'm like, no, that doesn't serve my bigger future. It doesn't serve where I want to go. And this definitely is not moving the needle to be the man I want the husband, I want the father, I want the leader. I want the impact I want to make it does it. So it's got to go right. And I wrote down something that I think is really important, Matthias, is train yourself. Everybody listen to this, right? I picked these questions because I hope they apply to everybody. Train yourself to be disturbed within action. Be disturbed within action. If I don't get done what I'm supposed to get done, I am disturbed because I know if I'm not climbing, I'm sliding. Remember, it's not the end we're all looking for. It's the journey. I know you've heard that a million times, but I promise you, at 51, where I've been through all different phases, it is the journey that can light us up. So enjoy the process. No stealing it from my dear friend Tony Robbins. Life happens for us, not to us. Everything that's happened up to you to this point in life, I'm sorry if it was hard. I'm sorry if it was disappointing. I'm sorry if people took advantage of you. I'm sorry if people let you down. But what if God, the universe, whatever you believe in, designed that you so you could be here at this moment, ready to absorb. Ready to explode in a new way to your next level. To define what your compelling future is. Define what success means to you. To only work on the things that move the needle in your life. Be disturbed with inaction. Make a list, check off the things you do. And pat yourself on the back for your accomplishments. Listen, there is no magical money machine. There's no way to get rich, happy, skinny and ripped. You want to get in great shape. You got to work out. You want to feel good, got to eat right. You want to have the love of your life. Got to obsess on it and figure out how to do that. Want to make more money, you got to do the right things. So if you want to leave your life the way it is, stay the way you are. Allow yourself to be distracted or be disturbed within action and making sure you're working on the needle movers. All right, the next one is Bridger or Bridger. I don't even know. I'm so bad with names. B R I D G E R. My team has already reached out to you. So it says if you could face. If you could FaceTime. Oh, this is a great question. If you could FaceTime your 20 year old self for 60 to 90 seconds, what would you say? Oh my God. Okay, ready? I should have thought about this in advance. I didn't realize it said 60 to 90 seconds. I would probably say, watch your thoughts. They're not always yours. And in most cases they lie to you. Watch your thoughts, they're not always yours. And be careful because they lie to you. And what does that mean? We are not the product of our outside circumstances. We're not. Depending on what age you are, you already know this to be true. Your 20s, you might question me. 30s, you're on your way there. 40s, 50s, 60s and above, you know what I'm talking about. We are not the product. We don't have emotion. Like nothing is reality. The circumstances aren't the reality. Our emotions, our decisions, our thoughts about the circumstance are our reality. If we think that Covid has ruined our lives, if we think that nothing will be the same again, that's your reality. If you think life happens for me, this is going to make me stronger. I'm going to find a new way. As the universe shifts, so do businesses. I'm going to find the business that that's growing, not the one that's sinking. I'm going to make my own destiny. I'm not going to believe the people around me. I have more to give the world. God Gave me everything I needed. Together we can do this. Depending on what you think is what you get. Henry Ford said, if you think you can, you can. If you think you can't, you won't. Right? So that would be the. If I had 20 year old self on FaceTime when I was 20, there was no FaceTime. But if we're going backwards, that's what I would say is watch your thoughts. The second part is they're not always yours. You might have thoughts that were your parents and though they love you dearly, if they're not living the life you want to live or they're living a different life, then their thoughts aren't aligning with yours. So if they're stuck in your teacher's thoughts or a professor's thoughts or an ex's thoughts are lingering in there, they might be conflicting with where you want to go, you go to go. And this old thought says we can't do that. You're an imposter. You're broke, you didn't go to school, all these things, right? So watch your thoughts. Most of them in a lot of cases aren't yours and they lie to you. I don't think you're good enough. I think you're an imposter. We don't have the money. It takes money to make money. This country's set up for rich people only. Like all of those things are bs. Call the BS out, Google it. Find somebody just like you who's done amazing things and realize it's not true. Okay, Danielle, Danielle said, do you have dean? You have so many businesses and passion projects while you're engaged in your family. So many people who have one job or one business struggle. My question is how do you find a work life balance and do you ensure your employees get the same? What a great question, Danielle. I'm glad my team picked this because I saw that question come in a lot and no, it's not easy, but it's worth it. And I'll tell you how I do. How I do it is. I said this at the beginning with Justin's question, but I'm going to reiterate it here is I'm a little boring. From outside world, I'm a little boring. You would think, man, when you finally become successful, you're going to do all these things and I get to do so many great things, Danielle. But I really do know what's important in my life and I said it before my family, my wife and my children growing as a human, my team, my health is really important, right? And making an impact on others. Now, everything outside of that, I really do say no. Because at the end of the day, remember, Danielle, we all have 24 hours in a day. But I am always obsessing on what I could say no to. Always. And, you know, there's some things I would guarantee if you're listening right now or watching right now. There are some things that you do out of a hypnotic rhythm of life. It's something your parents did, it's something your ex did. It's something the person you're married to or with in a relationship, your partner does. It's a friend that used to be fun in your life, but now they're kind of a drain, but you still do it. There are things like a hypnotic rhythm, like I said, that you do on a regular basis that don't serve you, they don't serve God, they don't serve your family. They don't serve a person that's in better shape, healthier, have better thoughts. And I've just gotten really good, Danielle, over time. And it took a long time to get here. I say no to mostly everything. I get invited to do the coolest things. And I feel really fortunate. And I thought when I got to this space in my life where I could do anything I want, when I want to do it, that I'd be doing different things. But I know what's important to me. So everything else, most everything else gets a no. So what I would say, how do you balance it? Is. I would. And I'll tell everybody this, if you know anything about me, if you heard me before, you know, I say this a lot. I would audit your time this week. Like, your life is worth it. Your next level is worth it. Your happiness is worth it. Your family is worth it, your income is worth it. That I would audit your entire week, like literally by the hour. I would get my journal, another journal, a piece of paper, and notes in your phone. And every hour, write down the things that you've done. And at the end of the week, I would analyze it, take two hours and go through and go, oh, my God, I can't believe I still do that. Oh, my God. I took a one hour phone call and all it was is negative. When I got done, I felt like my battery was drained. Why do I take those calls? Or, oh, my God, I went to check my Instagram account and I was online for two and a half hours. Check your phone and see how much searching you're doing, right? Check the people that you're hanging around with, check the activities, check the Netflix, right? All of a sudden you're going to find, I promise you I've done this. You're going to find 3 to 10 or 12 hours a week that you're like, that doesn't serve me. That doesn't serve my family. That doesn't serve my happiness, my health, my income, God, the universe. And it's just got to go. So I have to tell you, Danielle, sometimes I mess it up. Sometimes I'll go two months and I realize I got sucked into work big time because I'm working on a project or launching something, or Tony and I are doing something and I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I just went through this in the last couple weeks. Whoa, whoa. My family's sacrificing a little. Got to say no. And I just start analyzing what's got to go because I know it's important to me. I kind of started this off my family, the impact I make me as a human, my kids, my wife, my team, if they're getting neglected, my bigger future, if it's getting neglected, time to say no. And guys, again, if you're liking this podcast again, doing this for you guys, make sure you share it with a friend. Let's make this the most listened to, most downloaded podcast I've ever done. If you like it, if you don't like it, then you go. But I'm hoping if you're here that you're getting something out of it. Remember, take what serves you and throw the rest away. Take what serves you and throw the rest away. We don't do sponsors. I just want to deliver value to you. Usually in under a half hour, every single week, three times a week. This is episode 500. So share with a friend, take a screenshot, or tell them to go to Dean's podcast. Okay, the last question, the last question from Cinda. Cinda said, can someone who is entering their senior years, or perhaps already a senior and retired or with very little income, compete in the knowledge broker industry, filled with 20 and 30 year olds, and make the most of a startup business at this stage of life when there are not years and years left to enjoy the process and make the mistakes? Okay, Cinda, I see why my team picked that. What a great question. Now, the knowledge industry is basically the industry I'm in. Tony Robinson is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. That really just means for those of you, it's sharing what you know, sharing your experience, sharing a skill, a hobby, a passion or a mess that you went through and now you can help people avoid that mess. So whether that's a workshop, a course, a training, a book, that's the knowledge industry. And Cinda is asking about that. And here's what I want to say. Hell no. Cinda, you have more years on this earth, you have more life experience. There's so many people you know before someone asked, and it was a great question, what would you do if you could spend time with your 20 year old self? Do you know how many 20, 30, 40 year old selves of you who are just starting off in experiences that you've already been through? You have forgotten more than most people in their 20s and 30s have learned yet. And that's what that industry, I don't care what industry. This could be any industry. We're just happy Cindy asked about this one. But you forgot more than they know. If you extract what you know, in fact, you should feel guilty if you don't share what you know. Cinda, pick that thing that lights you up. Pick that experience you went through, that skill you have, from parenting to a million things, 4,500 different niches just in our one Facebook group alone. And here's something else I want to tell you. Hell no, you're not too old. Hell, you've had. Hell yes, you've had so many experiences in life that could allow you to go faster. And the last thing I want to say is there's a book called Shoe Dog about the founder of Nike. And I love the book, it's just such a killer book. And at the end, the founder of Nike talks about his wish list, his bucket list. And he said, I know this sounds cliche, but I wanted to get to 100,000 a year when he was in his garage. And then a million and 10 million, 100 million a billion. Like he builds, like he had millions of ups and downs and falls. And the bank took their money and the credit card company shut him down. And the government said no more imports. So many times they should have went out of business. And he thought they were the stressful moments. He's like, while I was in it, we're figuring out how to get, you know, new shipping and find the money and borrow money and having creditors in different sides of the building so they wouldn't see each other and realize he owed everybody money. He goes, I thought they were the tough times. He goes, but now you asked me my wish list, my wish list, my bucket list is if I could, I wish I could go back there. Because that was the Fun times. That's when I was alive. That's when I was trying to figure things out that were broken. That's when we came together and we. We solve big problems. He's like, now I have the billions, I'm giving it all away to charity, and things are kind of smooth, and I miss those days. So there is no destination. Cinda, the journey is really it. And I know everybody's been telling us that since we were little, but you're probably old enough to realize that what I'm saying is the truth. The journey is all of it. Life gave you a path, God, the universe, whatever you believe in. And you could take those capabilities and go, I probably missed it and regret it. I'll tell you right now, you'll regret it. Jump back in, get enthused. Know that the journey. Do you have time? Yes. Because the fun is the ride. The fun is not the destination. So get in there and know that you have an unfair advantage. Those kids might know Facebook better, but that's teachable. But they don't know life better. They don't know issues better. And so many of them need you guys. In a crazy time like this, I want to end with this. When uncertainty happens, like the pandemic, like the crazy election, this is happening right before the election here in the United States with racial tensions like this, 2020 heading towards the end of the year, this has been a crazy year. And when things like that happen, our subconscious really wants us to play small, to protect ourselves. And what we do is we play not to lose. I want you to write this down for me. If you take nothing else from this podcast, take this. So many of us, without realizing, are playing not to lose. Now, let me just ask you if you are playing soccer or hockey, if you are playing not to lose in hockey and you are the goalie, could you just go into the goal and just try to stop people from scoring on you? That's playing not to lose. Eventually, somebody's going to score. The but you can never win the game, and you can't win the game of life because you're never going down the field to try to score in the other goal. You cannot win by playing the game not to lose. You must play the game to win. You must play offense. You must take uncomfortable action. You must take imperfect action. You must take courageous action towards you. 2.0. It's the reason I'm so passionate about this podcast. It's the reason that I want to go upstream and anchor in a foundation for success, because these are the exact things I wish someone told me or taught me. You got to realize something. The little things aren't the big things. As my buddy Randy Garn says, the little things are everything. So the things that I shared today, these great questions, you're like, oh, yeah, I've heard that stuff before, but are you doing it in your life? You're looking for that next level of abundance, joy, income, happiness, but you're looking for the quick fix in so many cases. I'm not saying you like you're doing something wrong, because I know my brain wants to default to it, too. But the little things. Like I shared today are actually the things that will anchor in the foundation so you can make 2021 the year of your life. Isn't it time? Isn't it your time? Play to win. Watch out that you're not playing to lose. You know, playing not to lose. And get out there and play offense. Take that uncomfortable action. Gain capabilities. Listen to this podcast, my last podcast. Do what it takes to grow, to gain the unfair advantage, and then do what most people don't. Move forward, implement, integrate, and make it real. I'm Dean Graziosi. Thank you for joining here on our 500th podcast. And again, let's make this the biggest one ever. There's no sponsor. There's no nothing other than please share this screenshot. It tell a friend and let's blow this up and help people gain the capabilities to go to the next level. What's up? What's up? Hey, before you go, you need to watch these next few videos. They're absolute game changes. Hurry up and click right over here and watch them and I'll see you there.