How to BREAK Through Limitations in 9 Minutes

Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is "Give It Your All." Over to you, Jeremy Lin. I wake up every morning. Espresso keeps me going. I wake up every morning.

It's easy to dream big. There's the initial excitement, raw passion, high hopes, and you put in everything you have to pursue your dream. But inevitably, The hits will come. You get knocked down, you get back up. You get knocked down again and get back up. But the criticism keeps coming. The hard work doesn't seem to be paying off. One unmet expectation after another leads to disappointment, discouragement, and even worse, doubt. Maybe they're right. Maybe I'll never be who I thought I would be. So what will I do? I'll work harder than I ever have before. I'll work on my weaknesses and refine my strengths. Give more even after I thought I gave it my all.

Chances are you're gonna quit too soon. Chances are you're gonna stop just as you're about to make your big breakthrough. Chances are you're gonna regret not saying yes and not continuing continuing on. I've told this story a number of times, but the toughest decision I ever had to make in my life was when I was in university. I had to decide between the high-paying job I thought I always wanted and my business that was sucking, that I was making $300 a month at, and I couldn't get the momentum that I was looking for. And the easy, safe, practical thing to do would have been to take the job, but I felt like I didn't give my all to my business, and I needed to give it a little bit more time. Just so that I would know. Just so that I would know if this thing would work or not. And so I decided to take a year off. While some of my friends are off doing, you know, traveling the world and going off and exploring, I said, "You know what? I'm going to take one year and I'm going to give everything I have to this business. I'm going to see if I can make it work. And it may not work. The odds are that it's not going to work. Most businesses don't work." And up until that point, everything that I've done had shown that my business was not working. But I still felt like I had more gas in the tank. I still felt like even though I gave it a lot, I had not given it my all, and I needed to know. I needed to know. I could deal with it not working out and me walking away knowing that that's it, I gave it everything I had. There was nothing else that I left on the table there. That was the best that I could have done. If I did that and it didn't work, I'm good. But if I didn't do it, if you don't give it your all, if you don't push yourself to the absolute max and it doesn't work out, You will forever look back and think, "Maybe it coulda worked." That's the rest of your life that you're dealing with. And I don't want that to be your story. I don't want you to look back on your life and regret not having done more, not having pushed harder, because that pain is for the rest of your life. That pain is immense, it's huge, versus the short-term pain of whatever you have to do right now to give it your all, to push a little harder, right? To push through those extra hours, to push through those extra sets, to push through that extra work is painful. It sucks, but it's nothing compared to the lifetime of pain and regret that is ahead of you if you don't give it your all. So if you're on the verge of quitting something— a relationship, a business, a partnership, a customer— if you're on the verge of quitting something, Maybe the answer is to quit, but I would ask yourself, "Am I gonna regret walking away from this? Did I give this situation everything I had so that I'm confident that walking away is the right thing to do?" It's not just the easy thing to do, it's the right thing to do because you gave it your all. Don't quit too soon. Don't quit just before you make your big breakthrough. Quit after you've given it your all. So the question today, today is I'm curious, what percentage out of 100, where it's giving everything you've got, 100%, out of that, where do you fall? What are you giving to your business right now? Be honest. It's great to say 110%, you can't go over 100%. 100% is the max. You're not playing at your max. Be honest, where are you right now, percentage-wise? I'm curious to find out. Leave it down in the comments below. I'm gonna join in the discussion. I also wanna give a quick shout out to Nasser Lyon. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, "Your One Word." I really, really, really appreciate your support. Thank you guys so much for watching. I believe in you. I 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. <LYRICS>I wake up every morning, espresso keep me going.</LYRICS> Hey, Believe Nation! Thank you so much for watching. If you want to learn more about this subject, get a little bit deeper on it, I'm going to share some extra bonus clips that I hope you'll enjoy. How do you want to be remembered as a football player, as a person over these last 22 years and everything that you've achieved?

As someone who did what, achieved what? What's most important to you? I just want people to see me as a hard-working footballer, someone that's passionate about the game and someone that every time I stepped on the pitch I've given everything that I have because that's how I feel going into games at the end of my career. That's how I look back on it and hope people will see me because I think over the years it's been, you know, my life and my career. People have obviously looked at certain other things that have gone on throughout my career and I think Sometimes that's overshadowed what I've done on the pitch or what I've achieved on the pitch. And that's, as much as I say that that doesn't hurt me, of course it does. You know, I'm, at the end of the day, I'm a footballer that has played for some of the biggest clubs in the world, played with some of the best players in the world, played under some of the biggest and best managers and achieved almost everything in football. And I think Of course it hurts when people, not question it, but think about other things. And to come to the end of my career now and look back and say, you know, I've achieved everything with every club that I've played for, played for my country 115 times, been runner-up twice World Player of the Year to two amazing footballers. I'm very proud of that.

I love how for this record you had fans actually do little videos and they talked about what they were brave enough to do in life. So for you, what was the moment you realized you're brave enough to kind of just do this full-time and just go right after your passion? Ooh, um, you know, I think it's once I discovered YouTube. I mean, I had already been going for it with full force, you know, and, uh, but I was kind of wondering if I had what it took to make it, and I was really discouraged at times because everywhere I went I just get being told like, "No, you're not good enough." Like, you know, and that can be really discouraging. And so even though I was going for it, I was kind of like in the back of my mind just really scared, like, "Am I gonna make it? I don't know." And then when I finally discovered YouTube and I put up my first video, I just felt so empowered and so excited because I was like, "Whoa! Finally something's working." And that's when I was like, "I'm gonna, you know, I don't know how this is gonna work out, but I'm gonna chase this with everything I've got, and that's when I was like, boom.

So success is not based on genetics. It's not based on how nice this car is. It's not based on how pretty my face is, how small my nose may need to look, or whether or not I'm the right complexion. I have an 8-inch scar down the side of my face, but I have a camera in front of me more often than not. Which just means that, you know, if you work hard and your work is recognized, you know, the sky's the limit. So for all those people out there that think they ugly and everything, I'mma hold it down for you. But more importantly, you know, you can still be a success. And for all those people that think, well, I'm too short, well, I'mma hold it down for you. And more importantly, you can still be a success. Find the things that are that you're excited about and that you can give your all and you can work really hard towards attaining it. String those days of efficiency, efficient action together, and success can happen, even for you.