Impose Your WILL Like Inky Johnson | Overcome Adversity and NEVER Quit!

Good morning, Believe Nation. Today's message is impose your will. Over to you, Inky Johnson.

You know why people quit?

People don't have pride in what they do. You know why people stop? They're selfish and it's just about them. But when you have a bigger purpose to why you're doing what you're doing, and you want to honor the sacrifices that others have made for you, it's nothing for you to keep going when you hit adversity. If every decision and choice you make is just about you, at a certain point you're going to hit something that's a lot tougher than you, and it's going to make you quit because you don't have a driving force for why you do what you do.

But when I got up to the University of Tennessee, it was simple.

It was simple for me to give everything I had.

My freshman year, I played special teams. My sophomore season, I broke the starting lineup, had a really strong sophomore season. The summer heading into my junior year, I still remember the day I was sitting in our film room, I was watching film on the California Bears. My defensive backs coach Larry Slade came in the room, he said, "Inky, I got some good news for you." I dropped the clicker, I said, "What is it?" He said, "Man, you're projected top 30 draft pick, son." He said, "All you have to do is play the next 10 football games, you're automatic multimillionaire." I went out of the room, I called my mother and my grandmother on the 3-way. I said, "After this season, there will be no more struggling." I said, "We would never miss another meal." I said, "We would never experience another Christmas where we have to stay stand on the side of the curb and just be grateful. I hung it up. First football game, I went out, played great, got an interception, shut Cal down. Second game, we're playing against Air Force, got late in the game, fourth quarter, guy dropped back, he threw the ball to a receiver coming down my sideline. Me and the guy, we went head-on. Soon as I hit the guy, I felt as if every breath in my body left. Body went completely limp, fell to the ground, I blacked out. Never happened to me before. When my eyes opened, I'll never forget, my teammates ran over, they said, "Ink, get up, let's go." I said, "I can't. I can't move." They said, "What do you mean you can't move? You're our lockdown corner, man.

We need you.

Let's go." I said, "I know, man, but this time I can't move." I flipped my head up to the sky, I said, "God," I said, "Surely nothing has happened in this moment that could alter my life." They got me over to the hospital, they took me back, they They ran CAT scans, they brought me back into my room, and all in a 15-second time frame, the doctor came running in from the opposite side. He said, "Hey, get in here, we got to rush this guy back to emergency surgery, he's about to die." I said, "What?" He said, "Son, you have busted up your clavian artery in your chest, you're bleeding internally, we have to rush you back, take the main vein out of your left leg, plug it into your chest in order to save your life." When I opened my eyes from recovery, the same doctor was over me, he said, "Son, I have some good news and some bad news for you." I said, "You got some bad news for me? You have to tell me I was about to die?

I'm still alive." How bad can it get?

I'm still here. He said, "The good news is we saved your life." I said, "Thank you, sir." He said, "The bad news is, Ink, you have nerve damage in your right shoulder." I said, "Okay, cool." He said, "But son, it's a strong possibility that you probably can never play the game of football again in your life." I said, "No way." I said, "No disrespect to you, Doc, but I've been working for this ever since I was 7 years old." I said, "No disrespect to you, Doc, but you wasn't in the park with me and my mother when I was 7 years old and she was sitting in that Buick Regal, she got done working at Wendy's.

No disrespect to you, Doc, but you didn't come up in that 2-bedroom home, 14 people sleeping on the floor.

No disrespect to you, Doc, but you done missed those meals and stayed focused and never made an excuse." I never cheated.

I never cheated. Like, my conscience still until this day won't let me— like, I can't cheat. I can't look myself in the mirror and say, "Ink, you did a good job," knowing that I cheated. You can't cheat. One of the greatest pieces of advice that my mother gave me was this: Son, whenever you start, you make sure you finish it. And the problem with the world today, people get involved with things, and if they don't like a certain person, if they don't like the process, if it's not what they thought it was, they quit. And what they don't understand about quitting, quitting becomes a habit that doesn't just affect you. Later on in life, when you get a wife and you get some kids or you get a family, it's gonna come back to hunt you. And it will one day affect them. That is why I tell you the process is more important than the product. It's not even about the outcome for me. It's about can you take pride in what you do as an individual and every night when you look in the mirror knowing that you gave everything you had to it. And we have to get to the point where we're willing to impose our will on certain things. Impose your will on it. My life totally changed and they gave me an opportunity to stop. And most people, when you give them an opportunity to stop while they're chasing something, they take advantage of it because they feel as if, "Man, why did this have to happen to me?" I felt as if, "Why not me?" This is the perfect opportunity to use this to be a blessing to somebody else. And you know what? It's not even about me, to be truthful. It's not even about me now. It's about repaying the people that invested in me and saw something in me when I couldn't see it in myself. At a certain point in life, it can't just be about you. And the moment that we understand that, and every day we wake up, we understand that life is a blessing and life is a gift. And if you were to check out today, How would you want to be remembered?

It's bigger than you.

So first off, this is an amazingly powerful clip. I had never heard of Inky before doing the research for this video, and so whoever of you guys in Believe Nation suggested that we do him, I am grateful. Thank you so much. I'm expecting a powerhouse of a top 10 coming on Inky. My quick thoughts on this is I'm a big believer in the army of one. And that's where I will will something into existence. And so when I'm starting off a new project that I'm passionate about, that I want to see come to life, that I have this idea that maybe other people think is crazy, I'm going to will it into existence. I am going to make it happen. And at the start, I'll involve people and say, hey, do you want to join me? What do you think? Do you want to be a part of this? Try to build up a team. And if they come on board, amazing, and we'll build this thing together. And if they don't, If they don't like it, they don't see how they can fit, they don't want to help out, I will be an army of one and will it into existence. I will make it happen. And as we get a little more success, then I can afford to hire somebody to come on and help me if you don't want to join me and partner up at the beginning. That's okay. You saying no, you telling me how stupid something is, you telling me how it's not going to work does not impact my willingness to go out and do it. And I think that's where most people fall short. You are living your life too much from the expectations and beliefs of other people. Whether that's your family, your friends, people around you, your parents, whoever, doctors. You're living your life according to the opinions and beliefs of other people instead of setting a standard so high for yourself that it doesn't matter what the people underneath think. If you set your standards for up here and everybody else expects you to play here, then even when you fall short, you're harder on yourself than anybody else can be on you. You know, if I'm late for a meeting that might upset somebody, you know, that person that I'm meeting, I'm way harder on myself than they are ever going to be because I hate being late for a meeting. There's a new potential instructor I'm looking at for my dance studio and She really badly wants to become an instructor, and she's on her path, and she's learning and growing and developing the skills to be able to do that. And she goes home and she tells her family, "Hey, I want to be an instructor here. I think I can make an impact." And her sister, the first thing that she tells her, her sister tells her that she can't do it. Her sister tells her that she's not good enough, that who is she to think that she can be an instructor and teach dance? And for a lot of people, that's the end, right? For a lot of people, They give up. They quit. They're done because your sister thinks you can't do it, therefore you think you can't do it, and so you stop. And in life, along the path to any goal that you're trying to accomplish, you're going to hit tons of roadblocks. Tons of roadblocks. The challenge is the process of overcoming those. And if you don't believe in what you've got, you're always going to be subject to the opinions of other people. If you quit on your dance dream because your sister says you're not good enough, then you're always just living up to your sister's expectations for what you can do as opposed to what you want to do. And it sucks not to get your sister's support or your parents' support or your best friend's support, but it doesn't matter. You don't need their support to be you. You don't need their support to be the greatest version of yourself. You don't need their support to go and build your dreams. Their opinion of you does not impact your self-confidence, does not have an impact on your self-worth. If you guys love my videos, that's amazing. If you guys hate my videos, I don't care. Can I take feedback on how to make them better? 100%. But if you don't like me, the way I talk, the way I look, the what I'm doing, doesn't matter to me. If you're constantly living your life by the opinions of other people, you're never going to go out and live your dreams. And so it's great to involve people, it's great to get expert opinions, it's great to tell friends and family, and if they're supportive and understanding and can give you resources and knowledge and mentorship and advice and guidance, amazing. And if they can't, If they're either apathetic and they don't care about it, or worse, they're negative and just trash your idea, it doesn't matter. You're going to will it into existence. You're going to be an army of one because this is your dream, and you can't blame anybody else for you not chasing your dream. If you don't go out and hit it, it's not your sister's fault, it's not your mom's fault, it's not your best friend's fault. It's your fault. So own it. Be an army of one and will it into existence. So the question of the day today is, I'm curious, what have you had to will into existence? Something that everybody told you was crazy, would never work, you have no shot, and you just made it happen. I want to hear your story. Share it. Leave it down in the comments below. I also want to give a quick shout out to Kamiata Jardine. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word. I really, really, really, really appreciate it. 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, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso.

I wake up every morning, espresso keep me going.