Be PRESENT - Chris Evans - #Entspresso

Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is be present. Over to you, Chris Evans. You said that there's a search to be in the moment. Mm-hmm. Does that only apply to acting?

It's everything that reality looks and feels and smells and sounds like, but you know it's not. You're completely in control of that unfolding. And that's the time where I really feel the most present. And I think that's part of my addiction to acting, 'cause I struggle to find that in life. It's a bit harder when there's no script and this is just happening in a chaotic form. But the hunt for the moment, you know, the hunt to be present, that's the goal, you know what I mean? Acting is like a temporary artificial substitute that— it's like a drug.

It's great.

My goal in life is to find that, you know, to be present like that in life. It's hard.

I think it's super easy to get distracted as an entrepreneur. I think entrepreneurs get distracted all the time. It prevents you from accomplishing the big goals that you want to accomplish. I think there's a couple reasons for it. I think a lot of entrepreneurs have ADD diagnosed or not diagnosed. We just tend to like to jump around and do a whole bunch of different things. I think also part of the reason is we don't have a manager. We don't have a boss. You know, when you have a boss who's telling you what to do, who set guidelines and objectives, then you're going to do it. Otherwise, you're going to get in trouble with your manager. You might get fired. Who's going to fire you? You know, you don't fire yourself. And so you end up letting yourself down. You say you're going to do this, and then as soon as it gets hard or you lose interest in it, you jump to something else. And as a result, what a lot of entrepreneurs do is they have all these projects that are 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50% done. Look at all the things that you started and stopped. That are kind of sitting there on the sidelines and you've done nothing with. It's super common. A lot of entrepreneurs do this, but you don't get the results, you don't get the fruits unless you take it to 100%. You're not going to cash in on something that's 50% done, 20% done. And as soon as something gets hard, or as soon as we hit a roadblock, a lot of times what entrepreneurs do is they say, I'm not interested in that anymore, that's not what I want to do, I'm not passionate about that, I'm going to go and do something else. And just see if that's your habit. See how often you actually follow through all the way to completion that idea you had, or did you start it and when it got hard you stopped and moved to something else? And so the two things that I find really helped me is one, having a mission, having a vision. Like, what do I want to do? What am I here to do? I want to help a billion entrepreneurs. I want to have a big impact on this planet, and my path is by believing in entrepreneurs That's what I want to do. I wake up thinking about the impact that I want to have today on the planet. And what that does is help get me through a lot of the crap, because being an entrepreneur is not all roses. There's a lot of really bad days that a lot of people don't talk about. When I was writing my book, there were a lot of bad days. And what gets me through is I want to write this book. I wanted to inspire lots of entrepreneurs. I wanted to have an impact. And so having a clear mission, understanding the bigger picture, remembering your why and what you're doing here can help get you through that final 50% or maybe even just the final 10% that's just really hard and you need that extra little kick. The second thing that really helps me too is having a schedule. So I know what I'm doing every single day of the week. I've booked it in. One day I'm working on my YouTube channel, one day I'm working on Toronto Dance Salsa, and one day I'm doing meetings. And so I have it set up in my calendar that this is what I'm working on today. I've allocated the amount of time that I need to go off and have a big impact in that area of my, business or my life. And so those two things, remembering the why and scheduling it in, helps take those projects that maybe I would dump at 50% because I don't have anybody watching me, there's no manager holding me accountable, and allows me to follow through and finish to 100% so I can get the rewards that I'm after. So the question today is, I'm curious, how do you guys stay present? How do you guys stay focused? How do you make sure the projects that you say you're going to finish, you actually follow through and finished them? Leave it down in the comments below. I'm super curious to find out. I also want to give a quick shout out to Caitlin Gagg. Caitlin, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word. Really, really, really means a lot to me, and I hope you're enjoying the read. So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. Hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso. I wake up every morning. Espresso, keep me going.

When I'm playing football, I appreciate it. I'm nowhere else. I'm in the present. It's probably the best part about— best part about my life is that to be in the present. You talk about how do you enjoy your life, how do you find balance, right? It's to live in the present. You play to live like a kid. Like, why do kids have so much fun? Because they just care about what they're doing.

Yeah.

And if we thought about what we were doing all the time— you do that when you're on the football field. It's probably the only place that I can I can't really do that when I really truly am my authentic self. I mean, a lot of people see it, my close, close friends do. But when I'm on the football field, there's no—

it's just raw. I don't like to think too far ahead. So you haven't thought of alternatives? No, I don't like thinking too far ahead. People set, like, goals, long-distance goals and shit. That's too much for me. I already feel like I'm living it. And then I just carry on doing that, you know, carry on day by day, already living the final goal, the goal of being the world champion. I already carry myself like I'm a world champion. I already speak like I'm a world champion. And that's it. I just carry on day by day. So I'll take it as it comes. Again, like I said, you were asking me about the future. I'll let you know a little bit closer, you know what I mean? As far— all I can see right now is the gold. That's all I can see.

Your background is fairly well documented, that the things you went through which have shaped you, how much of that is really behind you, or how much do those ghosts still haunt you? The involvement in, you know, issues that got you imprisoned and tortured and the drug use and so on?

I am myself and my circumstance, I think that, like a Spanish philosopher uses to say. So who am I? I am a sum of all the experiences that I lived in my life. That said, of course, I don't look back because if I look back, I may become a statue of salt. So I try to live my life here, but it is the sum of difficult moments, good moments, well, experiences that I had in my life that brought me here in front of this camera talking to you. You don't live your life in this capitalistic sense that you accumulate knowledge as you accumulate money. No, no, no, no, no. Life is about the present moment. And you are here, you are here now, And then you have an idea or you have something, but that may be a root in your past, but you don't know. So what I try to do is to live my life as full, as intensely as I can.