How to Be More PRESENT and MINDFUL - #BelieveLife

Good morning, Believe Nation. Today we're going to talk about how you can be more present and mindful. Rule number 4 is my personal favorite, and make sure to stick around all the way to the end for my thoughts and some special bonus clips as well. Also, as people are talking, if they say something that really resonates with you, please leave it in quotes and put it in the comments down below so other people can be inspired as well. Enjoy.

When I'm playing football, I appreciate it. I'm nowhere else. I'm in the present. That'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. 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 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.

Number 1, start out learning to observe where you are. And what I mean by that is, you know, mindfulness, while we all think it's a meditative trick up here, and we'll talk about meditation, it's great, but as much as we think of mindfulness as the mind, I like to think about it too as the full activation of your senses in the moment. What that means is a lot of people, they'll walk into a restaurant, they'll see their friend, they'll walk over to their friend, they'll sit down, they'll eat a meal and everything, but they never actually looked around the restaurant. They never smelled the smells in the restaurant. They never breathed the air in the restaurant, sort of intentionally. And so they weren't really in the environment or the situation. We've learned to block out distractions so much so that we can focus. We've also learned to block out then life. So observe where you are. Bring your full senses to your next experiences. Observation of the setting, the context. Where am I right now? What's the color of the walls? What's the smell like here? What's it feel like here? What's this environment? Human beings, we do have a natural ability to pay attention to our environment. I want you to activate that again consciously. Notice where you are, and the more you do that, the more you start to feel presence in life. Second, observe how you are. What I mean by that is observe how you're interacting with the environment. Observe how are you sitting right now? How are you breathing right now? How do you feel right now? Observe that more consistently to see how am I being in this relationship right now with this person? How am I speaking to them? How do I probably sound to them? Observing self in situations starts bringing a more mindful mentality to us. It also allows us over the long term to be more intentional because you know what? The more you observe yourself, the more you start seeing things you don't like about yourself. Gosh, I don't like how I talk to her. I don't like how I'm missing my children even being in the room with me because I'm not paying attention. I don't like how I feel continually. I'm always anxious and negative. It all comes and all, all improvement from there begins by observing it, paying attention to it.

My uncle always told me something early in my life which stuck with me, which is that while you're on the journey, you have to disconnect from the end goal, you know, because if you're just focused on some end goal, then you're gonna— you might get there, but it'll be hard to progress past that because you're You're so focused on that one destination that it's like, you know, you maybe forget everything in between and maybe you could have done more in between. Just be— he always told me like, just be here right now. Live right now and do the best you can right now. Don't worry about what that end goal is. It's great to have goals. It's great to have dreams, but it's just like you get too attached to it and sometimes it could be a self-destructive thing. So I mean, I just kind of try and progress as much as I can, like right now.

Most people have good, great goals. I want to increase my income and lose weight and get out of debt and be thin and happy and healthy and have a wonderful family. But then, then they decide, but before I start, I'm going to take a vacation to a beautiful place called Someday Isle. And in my estimation, 80% of the population lives on Someday Isle. Someday I'll lose some weight, and someday I'll read that book and listen to that program and join the, the Yes Network. And someday I'll get out of debt. Someday I'll increase my income. But it's always Always someday I'll. If you want to be a great success, there's one simple rule is vote yourself off the island for life. If you decide you're going to do something, do it. You know, they've done dozens and dozens of studies over the years. They find that there's one major difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is successful people launch, they start, they get on with it, they just do it. Unsuccessful people get the same ideas and the same information, but they've always got an excuse for not starting.

You're a guru of time management and getting things done, so give us the lay of the land and then we'll do a little deep dive.

You ready?

Yes, I'm ready for this.

Your head is for having ideas, not for holding them. That's it. That's it? If you get that, you now have the key to keeping creative space in your brain to be able to have a lot more room to be a lot more creative, have a lot more fun, fulfill your life a lot better. Most people are walking around, most, 99.9999% of people are still walking around constipated psyche with all the stuff they're trying to manage, keep track of, remember, remind themselves about, or whatever. And, you know, that is so suboptimal.

My mouth is open because I just got it in that one sentence how profound that is. And I think about— you want to say basically—

say it again.

Your head's for having ideas, not for holding them.

Your head is for having ideas, not for holding them.

I'm guessing that's getting retweeted around the world right now. That "I need cat food" should pop into your head once. If it pops in twice, you're not handling you're appropriate engagement with your cat or its food.

Right?

I mean, why have an idea twice? It just— the reason you do and the reason things pop into your head for the most part is simply because you're not yet appropriately engaged with whatever that thing is and it's got you as opposed to you got it. So interesting that you have to learn the skill and what I just discovered and developed and really recognized, I didn't make it up, this is nothing new. Sure, this is humanity. Well, yeah, what I did was make explicit what we implicitly do to get things done. But the truth is that you actually have to use your mind to get stuff off your mind. So a lot of people now, well, I want to have a clear head, go home, you know, or drink or something to clear your head. As opposed to, wait a minute, why is this on my mind? And what do I need to do to get it off my mind? And that actually requires thinking. Those are two very important questions. I know that's bad news for everybody listening to this. Thinking is required so that your brain can actually think.

Think less, feel more. That is how to live moment to moment. You see, the problem is you think you have time. Yeah, you do have a lot of time, but your time is running out. It's been running out. So what are you going to do about it? To live moment to moment, you gotta ask yourself, what am I doing in this moment? Some people say, gosh, Ralph, why do you make videos on a Sunday, on a Monday, on a Tuesday, on a Wednesday, on a Thursday, on a Friday, on a Saturday, every day? Are you an alien? Can I get a hello there? Because I live moment to moment. You see, the secret of success is to never rest on your laurels. Some people say, oh, great job, Ralph, great video. I say, which one? I'm too busy in the here and now creating. I ain't got time to look back. Ain't nobody got time for that. We're moving forward, we're elevating, we're having a great time. So once again, to live moment to moment, occupy the present, but most of all Breathe in that good-ass prana. Have a beautiful day.

So my take on this is I think that entrepreneurs are the most powerful people in the world. Not just about money, not just about having strength, which it is too, but power in terms of the ability to influence change. The ability to look at something that we want to change, that we are not happy with in the world, and instead of just complaining about it, we want to go go out and do something about it. That's what entrepreneurs do. Entrepreneurs are going to solve all of the major problems of the world because that's what we do. And if you want to tap into that power, if you want to be the game changer, if you want to solve those big problems, then you have to learn how to be present, stop getting distracted, and stop playing small. Stop checking your Facebook post because you got one extra like in the past hour and it makes you feel good. Stop looking at your email and pulling out your phone every time a new notification comes in. These distractions are preventing you from doing your life's work. Stop playing small. What am I doing right now? I'm making this video for you. What am I thinking about right now? Making this video for you. What do I hope to accomplish? I hope that by watching this video, something sparks in here that helps you play a bigger game, that makes you realize that you're getting distracted too much and, and you're playing a smaller game. You're not doing the thing you should be doing. That's my sincere hope. Do I accomplish that? Maybe. If not, I need to work harder. I got to focus more. I got to get better at what I'm doing. But what I'm not doing— I'm not thinking about what am I gonna eat for dinner tonight. I'm not thinking about last night's game and how we won or lost. I'm not thinking about my Instagram feed and seeing if I got a couple extra comments in the past 15 minutes. Because when I do that, then I'm not making a great video for you. If I'm checked out and thinking of something else, then I'm not in the task that I'm doing right now. And that means I would be playing small. Small. Me not being present, me not trying to reach my potential is unacceptable. I'd like you to take an audit of your day and look at how many hours in your day is actually being spent being massively productive. Massively productive. How many hours in your day? It's not that you need to sleep less, it's just in the hours that you are awake, you need to work harder. You need to be more productive. And that frustrates me because you have insane talent, because you have these ideas, and you have an and you want to do something good and you want to have a big impact and you're sitting on it. You're wasting your time. You're checking your Facebook and doing all these other things that are getting in the way of you doing something great. Stop playing small. So I'd like you to make a commitment. I want you to make a commitment. I want you to say to yourself, I'm going to stop playing small and start being present. I'm going to stop playing small and start being present. I'm going to stop playing small and start being present. Do that for the next 30 days and the results will astound you. Finally, you'll be playing at a level that you're capable of. You'll be doing things that you know you could do but never actually reached. Stop playing small. Start being present. Believe. So thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because Mahendran asked me to. So if there's a topic you'd like me to cover in the next edition of Believe Life, leave it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'm also curious, what point did you learn from this that you're really going to take home and apply to your life or to your business to help you stay more present? Leave it in the comments, I'm curious to find out. Finally, I want to give a quick shout out to Roberto Blake. Roberto, thank you so much for one, being in my book. Your one word is one of the stories that I told in the book. I appreciate you sharing your awesome story, but also for recently making a video of you with the book and sharing it with your audience. I really, really, really appreciate it, man.

First of all, I'm in the book Your One Word by my good friend Evan Carmichael. You guys probably know who Evan is if you're watching this channel. He has one of the best channels for entrepreneurship and motivation out there.

So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever Your one word is much love. We'll see you soon.

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, carrying 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.

If you're an Olympic athlete or something like that, you get to the high— you also have to peak at the time it's an Olympic year. You know, you could be the fastest runner in the world and it's an off year. And so, you know, by the time you get to the Olympics 3 years later, you know, you aren't anymore. So there's a lot of luck involved in things in the world. I never lived my life thinking about my next job because I was always in the last job I could have as far as I could tell. And I think it's a huge advantage for you to live in the moment and not to be seething too much. I mean, obviously you plan, even though your plans never work out. But to, if you want, you know, the secret is to do a great job with what you're doing. And, you know, what you should do is you should perform as if you were in your next job, but not seethe with the ambition to get there and project that. You'll make people nervous as hell and you'll kill yourself. I'll give you an example. You know, when I was in high school, you know, I went to, you know, because you heard all those advisory boards, went to Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Now when I went to the college, from the high school I came from, it never dawned on me that I'd get into that kind of an Ivy League. It just didn't happen. But I applied. And I never thought about it after really I applied, 'cause it just wasn't on my scope. And so when I got a letter that I got, I didn't have any anxiety to it. And when I got that letter, I just was ecstatic and like this, and then my mind opened up. But it was just like a great experience. Even the process of that was great. When I was in college and I applied to law school, I went down to the mailbox every day. I knew the consequences of it. I was with a bunch of people who also wanted it and were vying for it. And I was torturing myself over it. I was imagining, what if I do get it? What if I don't get it? What are the consequences of getting it or not? And I tell you, it affected my life and affected the functionality. That's a difference. I tell you, if you could approach every opportunity like I did the college one, you'll be better and you'll be happier. And if you live the life tormented about what are my prospects for the next one, when life is random and you have to be, and there's some chance involved in things, you're going to be tortured.

I've had, I've had seasons where I've had the worst surgeries ever, you know. I've been through— I had 7 surgeries, you know. And, and that alone, you know, you ask yourself time and time again, how do you bounce back from that year in and year out? But I've always used it as, you know, taking that time to strengthen myself. I never knew I was going to play 17 years. You know, who could have ever thought that? You don't— you don't say when you come into the league, you don't say, you know what, I'm gonna play 17 years. And you don't even think of it that way. You just say, I take it year by year. And that's what I— what I try to tell kids: don't move to next year too fast, just like don't go to tomorrow too fast. Deal with today, deal with right now. You know, we'd be in the locker room and we at practice, and I'm like, listen, put the phones down because these moments gonna go too fast. And when they go on, they're you know. So before you look up, you're in 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, if you make it that long, you know, because most of them don't, you know. Just like you spoke about earlier, most of these young babies never see 5 years, never see 7 years, never less a 10-year career, you know. So you, you try to prepare them to understand what the moment actually feels like. And that's why I think, honestly, why my career lasts so long, because I always lived in the moment. Like, Nothing else mattered to me. And I was selfish at times because even towards my family, nothing else mattered when it came to that. When it came to that, I was dialed in. It's a heck of a blessing to be here now. I'm walking, I'm healthy, you see.

But still making an impact.

Absolutely.

Right.

Absolutely. So, you know, I just tell people, I don't know how long Whoever's gonna play. But I will say, enjoy every moment. Don't rush too fast. You know, let your years take care of your years, but go year by year, go day by day, go hour by hour, go minute by minute.