LIVE ON PURPOSE! | 25 Keys to Success

Good morning, Believe Nation! Today we're gonna talk about how you can pursue your dreams. Rule number 5 is my personal favorite, and make sure to stick around all the way to the end for some special bonus clips. As always, if someone says something that really motivates you, really inspires you, please leave it in the comments below. Put quotes around it so other people can be inspired as well. Enjoy!

All of you have some music playing, and all of you have a heroic mission. There's no accidents in this universe. We all show up here with a purpose. There's an intelligence that is a part of everything and everyone, and all of us are connected to it. And too many of us are afraid to listen to that music and march to it. You out there, I know you have a book you wanted to write. I know there's a composition you wanted to compose. I know there's a song you want to sing someplace. Maybe you want to raise horses out in Montana, or maybe you want to open up an ice cream shop on Cape Cod. Who knows what it may be? Maybe you just want to travel and see the world. Maybe you want to go into a relationship with someone, but you've been afraid to, but your heart says it's the right thing to do. All of us feel something. And in Leo Tolstoy's famous novel, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, he asks this question that would be terrifying to me. He says, as he has his accountant from Moscow lying on his deathbed contemplating the horror of this question: What if my whole life has been wrong? I've known what my music is. It's playing right now as I stand here in front of you with these cameras and in this place, and as I sit down and write my books and tell the world what I know are my truths, I feel always completely on purpose and fulfilled. And no time will I ever come to the end of my life and say, what if my whole life has been wrong? Whoever you are, whatever that music is, however distant it may sound, however strange, however weird others may interpret it to be, don't get to the end of your life and know that you're going to leave and not have it played yet. Don't die with your music still in you.

Never lose hope. That you have a single breath within your body right now and that you are alive in this moment is hope. That you can see all these people walking on the streets smiling is hope. That all these entrepreneurs are posting their art online every single day now, there is hope there. That there is a single person out in this world whose soul is still burning alive with love is hope. You know, it's so easy during these days when sometimes there's darkness, when you see all this negative media coverage, or maybe you have a series of bad days or a series of bad weeks, or your lucky break just isn't coming, or you've been fighting for that dream, you just don't sense any of that progress that you just so need to feel still enlivened and engaged and enthusiastic about something, or somebody breaks up with you, or you lose your job, or something happens with your health. Look, That's part of life is there's gonna be so many struggles and disappointments, challenges, setbacks, dark days. And part of sustaining and making through all of that is maintaining hope. And that hope isn't something that just, you know, some airy-fairy concept. It is a psychological need to believe that we can endure, a psychological need to believe that we can not only endure, but we can succeed and we can thrive and we can have our way in the world so that we can accomplish our dreams, so that we can make influence, we can make our own difference. To have hope, we have to stay persistent. Persistent. You know, to keep at it no matter what. You know, if we've got our perspective in mind, we've got our plan, we've got to be persistent to keep working towards it. You know, there were so many times that I almost stopped doing these videos. There are so many times that I thought, well, I'm not going to write another book. There's so many times I thought no one cares about my blog post, no one cares about my Facebook posts, no one cares about my YouTube show, no one No one cares about me, oh woe is me. Look, we can all sit on the couch, eat a bunch of potato chips, watch stupid television, and feel sorry for ourselves. That does not contribute to our aliveness, it does not contribute to our connection with those we love and care for, and it does not contribute to the things that we create and ultimately give to the world. So we've got to say, you know what, this is not what— what are we gonna persist at sitting and eating potato chips and watching TV? That's not gonna be good. What we have to do is persist towards our dreams. What are the 3 things you could accomplish if this day, this very day, and tomorrow, and start moving towards your dreams? Every day wake up with an intention. I'm gonna do at least 3 things to move myself forward to something that matters. At least 3 things. Everybody can do that. Just pick, what are the 3 things I'm gonna do to move my life forward this day? Who would I need to reach out to to be able to move forward? What can I read or study online to move forward? What could I do, just one simple request, one simple movement, one simple step to move forward? And persist at that over and over and over again, and that's how things change.

Anything that you're going through right now, um, if you wanna take a big scary leap and you wanna start a new career or perhaps start a business, anything that you might consider a failure is really just a necessary step on your journey to success. So no matter what you're facing right now, no matter what's getting you so scared, there's only one question that you need to ask and answer to find the courage to make that big leap, and the question is this: What's the worst thing that can happen? So not just by saying yes, but what's the worst thing that could happen if you said no? So, for example, a few years ago I asked my really dear friend Laura to come speak at one of our live events. Now this was a big opportunity for her, but I know it was kind of stressful, and I said, you know what, this is big. This is big, so take a few days, think about it, because once you say yes, you're gonna be locked in. So first she had to ask herself, well, what's the worst thing that could happen if I said yes? So for her, it was the stress, it was wishing that she never committed, which she wished she never committed, but it was also this fear that she was gonna completely freeze up on stage, that she was gonna mess up horribly and completely ruin her reputation, which she did not. Now on the flip side, she had to ask herself, what's the worst thing that could happen if she said no? So you gotta guess. That Laura really wanted to grow her business and her brand. And if she said no to this opportunity, she'd have to face herself in the mirror every single day and say, "Nice going, bonehead. You had the perfect opportunity to grow your business and you turned it down." So now it's your turn. I want you to ask yourself, what's the worst possible thing that could happen if you said yes and you'd fail miserably? So don't just think about this loosely. I want you to get really specific and tease out every single scenario that could possibly go wrong and how you'd deal with it if it did. What most of us discover is that no matter what the worst-case scenario is, we can actually handle it. But don't forget, you gotta go on the flip side too and ask yourself, what's the worst thing that can happen if you decide to do nothing and keep your life exactly as it is? Are your regrets gonna start to pile up like pancakes? Are you gonna turn into some miserable, self-loathing Sadsack, I really want you to tease this one out and get all the scenarios on the table and then take a look. What do you got? What's the worst of the worst? Going for it or not going for it?

Allow yourself to dream. Allow yourself to imagine and fantasize about all your career goals and the kind of life you would really like to live. Think about the amount of money you would like to earn and have in your bank account. All self-made millionaires begin with a dream of something wonderful and different from what they have today. You know the song that says, "You have to have a dream if you want to make a dream come true." It's true for you and for everyone else as well. So imagine that you have no limitations on what you can be or have or do in life. Just for the moment, imagine that you have all the time and all the money and all the education and all the experience and all the friends and all the contacts and all the resources and everything else you need to achieve anything you want in life. You have no limits. If your potential were completely unlimited, what kind of a life would you want to create for yourself and your family? Practice back from the future thinking. This is a powerful technique practiced continually by high-performing men and women. This way of thinking has an amazing effect on your mind and then on your behavior. Here's how it works. Project yourself forward 5 years. Imagine that 5 years have passed and that your life is now perfect in every respect. What does it look like? What are you doing? Where are you working? How much money are you earning? How much do you have in the bank? What kind of a lifestyle are you enjoying? Create a vision for yourself for the long-term future. The more clear your vision is of health and happiness and prosperity, the faster you move toward it and the faster it moves toward you. When you create a clear mental picture of where you are going in life and you set clear career goals You become more positive and more motivated and more determined to make it a reality. You trigger your natural creativity, and you come up with idea after idea to help make your vision come true. You see, you always tend to move in the direction of your dominant career goals and dreams and images and visions. The very act of allowing yourself to dream big dreams actually raises your self-esteem and causes you to like and respect yourself more. Dreaming big dreams improves your self-concept and increases your level of self-confidence. It increases your personal level of self-respect and happiness. There's something about dreams and visions that is exciting, and it stimulates you to do better than you've ever done before. So here's a great question for you to ask and answer over and over again: What one great thing would I dare to dream if I knew I could not fail? What one great thing would you dare to dream if you could not fail? If you were absolutely guaranteed of success in any one goal in life, large or small, short-term or long-term, what would it be? Whatever it is, write it down and begin imagining that you've achieved this one great goal already. Then look back to where you are today. What would you have done to get to where you want to go? What would you have changed in your life if you had achieved those goals? What would you have started up or stopped doing completely? Who would you be with if your life was perfect? Who would you no longer be with? If your life were perfect in every respect, what would it look like? Whatever it is that you would do differently to achieve that wonderful vision of your future life, take the first steps today.

Right now, you can do anything, you can be anything. And yes, obstacles will come along. But once again, we are living in a whole new world. Some people are making a living of just making videos. One of my favorite YouTubers, Jenna Marbles.

Genius.

Just a short video every single week, but she's creating abundance. What about Michelle Phan, right? Makeup. She started way back in the day, but now she's created something for herself. And once again, there's, there's always going to be obstacles. Right, this ain't Paradise Island out here, right? You're in the jungle. In the jungle, you don't know what to expect. There's all kinds of creatures. So you gotta ask yourself, am I surrounding myself with people that actually are encouraging me to follow my vision and my dream, or am I surrounding myself with what Kanye West calls These are the dream killers, right?

It's hard changing your life. It was hard when just over 3 years ago in the Penobscot Building in Detroit, Michigan, where I was operating my business and I fell on some hard times and I was sleeping in my office. It was hard coming into the lobby and the security said, 'Scuse me, Mr. Brown, can we see you for a moment?' And I said, "Yes." And I walked up to the counter and he gave me an envelope. And he said, "Would you mind reading it here?" And I opened the envelope and the envelope was from management that said, "This is an office tower. It's not a hotel. Please do not sleep in your office." And I said, "Excuse me, sir." I said, "I just work long hours in creating my business. I'm an entrepreneur." And right now things are bad for me, but they're not going to be this way always. And I just asked for the opportunity to continue to operate like I'm doing. I'm not trying to make this my home. And it was hard coming through the lobby, and sometimes they would laugh. There's a guy talking about becoming successful, and look at him, he's bathing in the bathroom upstairs on the 21st floor. Floor. He sleeps on the floor, him and two other dreamers up there. Look at him. It was hard, ladies and gentlemen, coming to speak to people, and I was facing financial difficulties in my own life. I was behind on my bills and my dreams, and I'm saying to them, you can live your dream. It was hard, ladies and gentlemen. It was very difficult to pick myself up each day believing that I could do it. There were times that I doubted myself. I said, God, why? Why is this happening to me? I'm just trying to take care of my children and my mother. I'm not trying to steal or rob from anybody. Why does this have to happen to me? It was very hard. And here's what I want to say to you, for those of you that have experienced some hardships: don't give up on your dream. No one could have convinced me by holding on, by continuing to push forward, by continuing to run toward my dream, that one day I would have my own talk show. It's a long shot, ladies and gentlemen, from Liberty City, an abandoned building on a floor, never knowing my mother or father. It's a long shot being here with you today in this dome. In Atlanta. It's a long shot. No college training, labeled educable mentally retarded, but I kept running toward my dream. Don't stop. Don't stop. Don't stop running toward your dream.

So my quick take on pursuing your dreams, I think one, it's important that you're taking consistent action. I think a lot of people just have a dream, but they never actually do anything about it, and they see it as this next big step that I have to take. Like, I'm here, I want to be here, I have to take this giant leap forward, and that only happens when I get an investor or get my lucky break or you know, whatever big thing happens, where really what ends up happening is a lot of tiny little things happen to— when you look back, lead to this big thing. Where a lot of people are not doing the little work, the daily consistent work. If you're doing this thing that you want to pursue once a week, it's not enough. You have to do it daily. You have to figure out a way to find 30 to 60 minutes every single day to make this this thing happen. If you already have a business and you want to go in a different direction, you want to do something much bigger, same thing. 30 to 60 minutes every single day working on that craft, working on that new thing, starting to build momentum, starting to hone your skills, starting to make some contacts. You have to be committed to it and find the time, because if you don't, then the rest of your life is going to get away from you. Everybody else has an agenda for your time— your family, your customers, the people around you, your friends, the government. Like everybody has an agenda for your time. And until you're protective of your time, until you say, this time is for me, this is my dream time, this is where I'm going to spend my energy making sure I'm doing the things that help me go forward. Until you block that time off and set up those boundaries around it, then everybody's going to constantly beat you up for your time. You're going to feel like you don't have enough time. And so most people let their dreams just stay dreams. Because they don't block off dedicated time every single day to pursue it, to work on it, and to recognize that taking a small step is important. Taking a small step today and a small step the next day and a small step the next day will over time lead to big steps forward in your business. It doesn't just happen overnight. You're not just going to get some lucky angel investment phone call that comes to you out of the blue. You have to work at it and that sucks. But if it's your dream, And if it's important enough, then you'll enjoy the process enough to actually make sure that you're doing that every single day. Stop letting your dreams just be dreams. Turn them into action consistently. So thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because Wombat Philosophy asked me to. So if there's a topic you'd like me to cover in the next edition of Believe Life, leave it down in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know what did you think of this video? What was your favorite part? What did you learn most from it? What was the single biggest lesson that you took from watching this video? Leave it down in the comments. I'm gonna join in the discussion. Thank you again for watching. Have an amazing day. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.

Man, what happened to Pops when he started a business? He failed. What happened to Mom and Dad? They got a divorce.

What happened to us? We lived 6 different places.

Was it fun? Hell no, it wasn't fun.

What happened in high school to you? Did you play baseball? Did you play high school basketball? Did you get picked up for football? Did you date the girl you like?

What was your GPA?

Who were you in high school?

Who were you afterwards?

What makes you think you're gonna make it in life?

Man, you gotta stop selling this stuff to this guy, man.

Stop it. It's getting old. Go get that job that you let go of paying you $12 an hour and part-time get a degree. Stop taking these damn risks. We're not meant to do something big with our lives.

Simple as that.

Are we done?

I'm done.

I'm good. Okay, good. Pat, I want you to know this voice is never going away. This voice is always going to be there, no matter how much money you're going to make. It's always going to be there. The great thing about it is though, every morning you wake up, you have a choice on which voice to listen to. But I want you to think about it a completely different thing right now. Let's just say you do nothing. Let's just say you buy into your fears. Let's just say you buy into every single thing you're worried about. Let's just say you don't make any decisions to go after your dreams. Fast forward 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, 40 years from now. Let's just say your funeral's around the corner. You have 50 people there, 100 people there, maybe 200 people show up. These are your friends, family, and people that love you. So you'll be loved for one generation, remembered for 2 generations, and forgotten after that. Is that truly the life you want to live? Is that really what you want to do? I don't know if that's the life you really want to live. You see, what I've noticed is no matter what you ever do, you'll have a lot of lonely times. You can lie to your family, you can lie to your friends, you can fool the world into realizing that why you didn't win was because of some challenge that you had to face, but there is one person you can never lie to, and that is the man in the mirror. You can never lie to the man in the mirror, never. For the rest of your life, the man in the mirror is going to look back at you and say, "You did not choose to go after your dreams." And you have to be okay with that. Now, what I would like to encourage you to do is to make the right choice. I encourage you to face your fears and pursue your dreams. Go pursue the dreams that matter the most to you. You only got one shot at this thing here. And if it works out, man, it's gonna feel so good for you. And if it doesn't, at least you had the courage to make that decision. I hope you make the right choice. I trust you will.

I guess what it all boils down to, you know, at the end of the day, it's how bad do you want it, how hard are you willing to work for it, and what are you willing to sacrifice to get it. You don't have to sacrifice your integrity. You don't have to sacrifice who you are as a human being, the principles, the values that are instilled in you by your mentors or your family. You may have to sacrifice some sleep. The successful people in this room lost a lot of sleep. Oh yeah, they're tired now. Look at them bags under their eyes.

Oh God, when's he gonna finish?

Jesus.

Oh my God. I love the kids, but God. But you know, That's really what it's about, you know, just, just believing in yourself. So I say that to say, to say this: keep going after your dreams, keep going after your goals, pursue them relentlessly, dig deep down into your soul, hold on to that dream that's inside of you, don't let it go no matter what. Be like a pit bull, be like a tiger, just attack your dreams with aggression and power, but be polite while you're doing it. Have faith in yourself, have faith in your God, listen to your mentors, and love you. Maybe it's my fault. Maybe I led you to believe it was easy when it wasn't. Maybe I made you think my highlights started at the free throw line. And not in the gym. Maybe I made you think that every shot I took was a game-winner, that my game was built on flash and not fire. Maybe it's my fault that you didn't see that failure gave me strength, that my pain was my motivation. Maybe I led you to believe that basketball was a God-given gift and not something I worked for every single day of my life. Maybe I destroyed the game. Or maybe you're just making excuses.