Use this One Key to Conquer Overwhelm
Dean Graziosi delivers a motivational talk about recognizing and acting on a personal calling. Through his own early-career anecdotes and an example of his son's disciplined work, he contrasts the internal voices of doubt with resourcefulness, urging listeners to stop dabbling, go all-in, and treat challenges as opportunities rather than anchors.
Chapters
When a time shifts, there's three Fs that happen, flight or fight. But the third F is what most people do. Most people freeze. You know, it was probably 20 years ago, maybe 22 years ago. I was in real estate. I owned a collision center. I owned an auto sales, a used auto sales. And I lived in this little town in upstate New York. I was doing great for a little town. I built one of the nicest houses in there. Even though in that little town, even though I grew up and didn't have much, lived in the only trailer park in that town with my mom. And I was doing well. I had a tow truck company and then late night infomercial. I buy something off the Internet or off of tv, there was no Internet back then from Tony Robbins. And I buy personal power. And I devour that entire course. And as I devour that course, I realize that I had that calling that I was meant for more. If you guys are in this group, raise your hand if you know you're meant for more. Right? Is anybody not raised so you're not meant for more? No, I'm just kidding. A couple of you didn't raise your hand, right? And when you have that calling that you're meant for more, you can't reverse it. If you do, you just settle. And that's the worst feeling in the world. So I had this desire to go into this industry. What Tony Robbins did, he sold me information and my life shifted. He taught me to focus on solutions. He taught me to that my past was there for me. All the things that you already know you already. And you've listened to personal development. You get it now at this phase of your life. At that time, I didn't have a lot of it in my life. And it impacted me so strong in two ways. It made me shift the way I look at things, made me realize that all the crap I dealt with was for me. It could be my rocket fuel, not my anchor. But simultaneously, I wanted to go in that business. I wanted to be in the self education industry. I wanted to create courses and books and workshops. I was just obsessed with it. I wanted to do that. But who the hell was I? I wasn't Tony Robbins. I didn't have a following. I didn't have a lot of money. I'd never done that before. I had dyslexia. I wasn't the best in school. I'm not telling you to show my rags to riches. We all got our own journey. I'm telling you because there was one thing that happened. That was pivotal in my life, and I'm going to guess to say it's going to happen in yours. When I decided to say, screw it, I'm going to create a course. I'm going to shoot an infomercial. Only reason we did infomercials back then, because there was no Internet. People always say, tony Dean, why did you do infomercials? What else was there? You know, horse and carriage, carrier pigeon. There wasn't a lot of options 25 years ago. But I took a walk. I lived in this little town in upstate New York, and I took a walk, and the two voices that live in all of us were extremely loud. And one was saying, the hell are you doing? Back then, it was going to cost $250,000, which I didn't have all the money to produce an infomercial, put inventory in, buy media in advance, hire a call center. There was a lot of different things that, you know, we have lower barrier to entry now. And I'd already spent half the money. And I remember taking a walk, and one voice, loud and clear, said, you're an idiot. You're not Tony Robbins. You're not 6 foot 7. Who's going to listen to you? You don't have a following. You're going to run an infomercial. And of course, you have friends and family that magnify that right and tell you that that's true. And I had another voice that said, I don't care. I. I'm meant for more. I can do this. I will find a way. When you don't have resources, what must you be resourceful? And I said, I just have to find a way to be more resourceful than someone else. I have to look and through the lens of not what's not there, I have to look through the lens of what opportunities I have. And I must go deep on those opportunities. I have to, because I'm meant for more. I have to. And literally a millimeter away from that story is like, you're a freaking idiot. You don't know what you're doing. You don't have a following. You don't have the money. You don't have the background. And how many times in our lives has that voice stopped us from leaning into who we were meant to be? Who's had a voice or a story that's told you to play smaller, that it's going to be hard to do that we might not make it right? Who in here is a parent? Raise your hand if you're a parent. Right we're all proud of our kids and we all want our kids to be better than us, better looking than us, richer than us, happier than us. Right? That's just a natural thing in life. But this weekend, my son is a 4.0 student. I don't. He didn't get it from me, but he's a 4.0 student. And this past weekend, he had something big coming and he got invited to go sleep over a friend's house, go to the mall, and go to a football game in Phoenix, where I live. And it was a football game of the high school. He's in eighth grade that he wants to go to, and all his buddies are going. And this weekend, things changed for me of what I thought of my son. I thought he got great grades because he was natural, naturally gifted in a way that my dad is. It skipped over me and went to him. But this weekend, I watched my son skip going to the football game, and he skipped going to his buddy's house. And he spent about 20 hours in his room finishing this book that was about this thick, writing a report and working his ass off. And I watched it. I'm like, wow, my son's not just naturally gifted. He might be good or might have a good high iq. Maybe he does, maybe doesn't. But he got it done because he did the work. And the only thing I want to share with you guys is over the next couple years, you have to do the work. But this is the time it becomes the most rewarding. When a time shift shifts, there's three Fs that happen, flight or fight. But the third F is what most people do. Most people freeze. I don't care if you like the last president or hate the last president or you like the current president or hate the current president or neither. But the fact of the matter is, neither one has fixed your life. Neither one's coming in to change everything and make your business go to another level, fuel your life, and the next one won't. There's nobody coming to save us, and it's the most liberating thing in the world. So if no one's coming to save us and things are shifting, we must put on a different pair of glasses to look for opportunity in a shifting world rather than looking in our rearview mirror of what worked yesterday. Because what worked yesterday is gone. And again, back to my son. The only reason I'm telling that is he got an A plus. He's a 4.0. He's not the naturally gifted kid that doesn't have to put the work in but he realized and I was so proud of him this weekend better than I ever did he realized to get the end result he wanted he has to put the work in and he was willing to sacrifice some of you without realizing hadn't you haven't had to sacrifice a lot over the last couple years to be successful who's willing to admit that that it's been pretty damn amazing so I just want to anchor that today decide and maybe this is the weekend you go home with your spouse you go home with a friend decide is this the weekend and I know there's a bunch of badasses in here and there's some people who are okay in here and there's people that are doing great and some people who are just getting started wherever you are all I'd say is burn the boats stop dabbling go all in or do something else or whatever else you do go all in because there's nothing in life worse than dabbling and having horrible results. It.
