USE Your PAIN to PUSH Yourself to GREATNESS! | Eric Thomas' MOTIVATION

If you're a fan of Eric Thomas and you're looking for ways to go get it, develop a routine, and change your environment, then this video is for you.

And the reason why you are not where you want to be— you want to be a 10 and you are running with 6s every day, you hanging around 5s every day. When I was growing up, it was a long, long time ago, but we used to fight. We used to get in a circle. We'd get in a circle and then 2 people would get in the middle and then you'd fight. Some of you are not successful today because you do not have a routine. And why is a routine so important? Your routine will show you your gaps.

What's up, Believe Nation?

It's Evan.

My one word is believe and I believe in you. I believe you have an amazing gift inside you that I want to see explode out into the world. I started the Mentor Me series to try to learn from people who've done a lot more than us and hopefully by hanging around them a little bit longer, some of their beliefs, mindsets, way of thinking seeps into us to help us become the best version of ourselves. So today we're gonna learn from one of the best, Eric Thomas, and some of his best motivation for 2018. Mentor me, Eric.

So this is what I want y'all to do tonight. Tonight, I wanna go somewhere because I told you, you know, like, I don't know if you, maybe because you're a human, and you've gotten so accustomed to human that maybe you don't know what you're capable of doing as a human, right? Anybody get a new phone? When you get a new phone, with the iPhone 7, 8, right? The iPhone, or you went to the Galaxy. When you get that, or Christmas, or you get that gadget, when you first open up that gadget, what are you happy about? What it can do, all the stuff it can do, right? If you like a geek, I'm not a geek, right? But I imagine if you a geek, you going through like, I only use the stuff I need. Like I'm not even really interested and the other stuff, right? But the geeks know everything you can do. Listen to me very closely. I believe that some of us have gotten so caught up with school and work, you forgot what you could do as a human. Like, for real, you just forgot. Like, you so caught up on life and problems, you so caught up on paying bills, you forgot you human. You forgot you the one made up the phone, you made up the TV, you made up cars, you made up flying. Like, that human— we flying. 100 years ago, if they would have told me I could, like, we could fly to Australia and watch TV— we watching We watching TV on the way to Australia. This is what happens when you have wild thoughts. And that's what I wanna talk about tonight. Like wild thoughts, like wild thoughts. Like I don't want you to be in school for grades 'cause I told y'all we passed that. And that's why school is so hard for some of you. That's why life is so hard for some of you 'cause that's all you doing is life. You don't have no wild thoughts no more. You don't dream crazy no more. You kind of settled into like whatever little life they gave you, whatever paycheck they gave you, whatever they told you to do for 40 hours. Like you locked in on that. And I just want you to do yourself a favor maybe the weekend when you're not busy. I just want you to start touching the buttons and see what you're capable of. I want you to get out of the average thinking. And look, I— okay, I'm gonna give you a secret. I want you to start having wild thoughts, because here's the deal: if you have wild thoughts and they don't work out, you can always go back to average thoughts. There's a whole bunch of people waiting for you when you come back. I promise you, they waiting. Average is gonna be there. So just do me a favor, just start thinking crazy and wild. I want to own multiple homes and multiple cars, and I want to have that nonprofit, and I want to have that profit, and I want to be able to travel the world. I want whatever. Okay, raise your hand if I'm telling the truth. You are crazy stupid talented. You know you are, but you get stuck on average not using your full potential. Let me see your hand. Just some stuff you know you could be doing that you ain't doing. Let me see your hand. You know you could be doing it. Hands down. Listen to me real quick. Eric Thomas, I don't really know who I am, but you here tonight, right? So I'm telling you, I'm giving you full permission to start having wildest dreams and be yourself. I'm giving you permission. Stop waiting on people. It's the weirdest thing. I meet some of the most talented, smartest people in the world who stuck because they waiting for permission. I give you permission. I give you permission to be yourself. Like, I'm giving you— and why do I have the authority? Because I'm myself. I'm in full Eric Thomas permission. I ain't ask no other motivational speaker, was it all right to go hip-hop? I'm just doing what I know I've been called to do unapologetically. I want to make sure I say that. I didn't even know if I could say it. I just tried to see if I could say it. It was in my head. I was like, can I say that word? I just said it. It came out. You don't have to apologize to anybody to be great. You don't owe it to anybody else to play little no more. Come on, don't play little no more. Like you don't want your brother to feel bad or you don't want your cousin to— look, you have full permission. You don't want your parents to think you a know-it-all. You have full permission to be your greatness right now. You have full permission to be your greatness. Whoever you— whatever your greatness is, you have full permission to be that right this second. Anybody else been watching the Olympics, especially track and field, over the last like 20, 30 years? Who dominated in track and field? Who? USA dominated. You had Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson. Michael Johnson came with the gold shoes on. I'm just trying to let y'all know, ain't nobody else going to win the gold but the USA. Herster was was there, they was murdering them. And all of a sudden something happened. And look, y'all think I'm talking about him and I'm not. I'm not dealing with him. I'm telling you the environment you're in is so important. Look, this guy, this guy is not only murdering the field, but what happened was, oh man, he murdered the field. He don't compete, he dominates. But what he did for Jamaica was not bring a gold medal, he brought a culture to Jamaica. He didn't bring a championship home. He brought a culture home. Okay, I gotta help y'all. Let me explain something to you. So you in America and they're saying to you that this, this, this is his, this is his record. So theoretically, you know how fast he is. Come on, are you hearing me? Theoretically, you know how fast he is. So what you're doing when you practicing is you trying to beat his time. Theoretically. I need you to hear what I'm saying. This is why you need to be in an environment, because theoretically they told you how quick you needed to be, and so you'd race, and then you look at the clock and coaches say you and you missed it. Alright, try again. And you try again and you missed it. But over in Jamaica, they weren't racing against a theoretical clock. They too became gold medalists and dominated because they was running against the real thing every single day. Did you hear what I said? They weren't running against the clock. They weren't in their mind saying, okay, how fast did I go, coach? How fast did I go? They were running against the fastest men in the world, so they knew how fast they were going. Listen to me, and the reason why you are not where you want to be, you want to be a 10 and you are running with 6s every day. You hanging around 5s every day. The people you talk on the phone to, 5, and if you became a 10, they'd hate you so much that you're afraid to be a 10 because you're gonna lose them. You hanging around scrubs, and when you start winning, all you do is win. And some of you are losers, and all you need to do is start hanging with some winners, and you're gonna see win it, and it's going to spill over on you. When I was growing up, it was a long, long time ago, but when we used to fight, we used to get in a circle. We'd get in a circle, and then 2 people would get in the middle, and then you'd fight, right? And I got smart because I ain't really like to fight, so I got smart, and I started telling guys who said they wanted to fight me, I'd say, look, let's do this, let's not fight in front of nobody. If you really want to fight, let's go in the back, just me and you. Like, I don't know why you clowning in front of everybody, why you gotta try to be the big man. Let's just, me and you, go to the back and let's just fight, and don't nobody got— if you really want to And I learned, E.T., if you want to get out of fights in the D, the more you run, the more they gonna want to fight you. But the more you step up and say, yo, you want— you— so I'm telling you, in life, you start running from a class, you start running from a subject that you don't like, it will haunt you for the rest of your natural life. It ain't going nowhere. But if you go after the fight, if you approach the challenge, you have a much better chance of winning. Yeah, those of you who are— you are like those dogs. You have the potential. You could possibly take him down. You kind of, you know, like, I think I can get him. I think— I'm not sure. I think I can. And then you watch the pit bull come. When the pit bull came, notice it was no— the first— the dogs hitting the back, they get the tail, they going on the side, they going coming to the front. When the pit bull came, he just came right, boom, boom, came right to the face, boom. And so I'm challenging you before you leave, it's gonna be a fight. You can't keep doing this for maybe your freshman year, maybe your sophomore year, but at some point you got to go take the life out of it. At some point you just gotta— I was on the— took me 12 years to get the 4-year degree and the master's. I was like, and somebody said, get the get the PhD. And I was like, no. And it was like, come on, E, get the PhD. And when I just started going after life and taking it by its throat, not getting to the— some of y'all get to the line. They got to the— the dogs got to the wild boar. They got to— you get, you get real close. The pit bulls was like endgame. They started with the endgame. There was no going back and forth. They came in, boom. And all that time he was standing up, all that time he was chasing, but when the pit bull came and boom, locked down You gotta take that thing out, like you gotta take the breath out. So some of y'all are afraid of math, go after it. Go get it. Don't run from it no more, go get it. So I'm constantly doing my research to find out how do I help the millennial generation, right? I was watching one of my homeboys speak, right? He's phenomenal. I was going about it the wrong way. I've been talking about execution is worship. I've been on that execution is worship. You gotta execute, you gotta execute. We speak in two different languages. What he shared with me is this is a generation of trying. Like, in your generation, you get brownie points for trying. So what you do is you do selfies that ain't real. And so I didn't get it. Y'all get actual credit for trying to look like you got it together. Like, some kind of way, when you take a selfie, even though you've done absolutely nothing, you literally do a selfie and you get cred. You get street cred for that. Like, you get— you— or you wouldn't be doing it.

Doing it.

And so you put on your makeup and you get in the place, and then you make it— now you do it 8 times, and then you get the right one, and then you put it up and you drop a filter on it, and you get credit for that. See, the reason why I've been so hard on y'all is because where I come from, and I used to watch the people on my block go to Ford, GM, and Chrysler, they wouldn't get credit for selfie. They didn't get credit till they checked in and they was on the line going zzz, zzz, zzz, and they did it for 40 hours, then they get a They weren't blessed to get credit for trying. I'm sorry, it ain't your fault. We live in a generation now where you get a trophy for just showing up. It's not they fault. You play on the football team, y'all didn't win one game, but you get a trophy at the end. You get a trophy. No, we don't want to hurt your feelings. Are you hearing what I'm saying? I want to rewire you. The problem that you're having is that you're looking for rewards when you just show up. Up, and you thinking somebody should be grateful that you showed up. So I want to show you, I want to show you what Bruce Lee said a long time ago, so you don't take offense to it. Knowing is not enough, we must apply, execute. Okay, he didn't say knowing is not enough, you must try. That's not what he said. He was probably one of the best that ever do what he did. Willing is not enough, we must do. You do not— I cannot try to pay my mortgage. I cannot try I cannot try to help my wife quit her job. I cannot try to pay my kids to go to school. I can't go to Michigan State and say, "I want to try to pay tuition this month." They're gonna say, "Okay, we want to try to teach your kids. We want to try to put them in a dorm. We want to try." Say it with me. Knowing— not enough. Again, knowing— not enough. Come on, knowing— not enough. We must apply. Willing is not enough. We must— do. We must. Every single day, if you do what you said you're gonna do, you're gonna get what you dream to get. I need you to be honest, do an honest assessment. I want you to write down what it is you're trying to do, and I need you to be very honest about where you are in terms of what you're trying to do. Like, where are you? So for those of you who like, I want to be a millionaire, I just need you to really be like, think through where are you financially. Like, in terms of financial literacy, where are you? In terms of financial discipline, where are you? And in your past, where are you? Do you spend money you don't have? So I heard somebody say this the other day, I thought it was funny, right? Somebody was talking about— and this I'm talking about mentality, I need y'all to hear me. Can you lift your own weight, right? Can you lift your own weight? So somebody was saying like, yo, I don't know why y'all on the phone all proud of the fact that you could change your own oil. Like, why would you want to change your oil anyway if that's not your job, right? And somebody was like, well, I save $140. And he like, save $140? But what if you make $250 an hour? No, hear what I'm saying. Why would you change your own oil to save $140 when it took you 3 hours to do it? And somebody like, yo, so you saying you always— I said, look, let me jump in. Like, I ain't trying to be disrespectful, but first of all, I didn't go to school to change oil. That ain't my job. That's somebody else's job. Let my man do his job. Somebody else said that when he changed your oil, because he went to school, there's some other stuff under the engine that he see that you don't see when you changing your oil. So while you saved $140, you missed something else that he would help you catch so that the life of your car— so you changed your oil, but you didn't notice the 3 or 4 other things that was missing. Listen, I said, look, let's not talk about you saving $140. Here's the challenge. You can't pull your own weight. The challenge is you shouldn't have a car that costs you $140 to change the oil when you ain't got $140 to change the oil. You shouldn't have that car in the first place. Why do you have a vehicle that the oil costs $140 and you can't afford it? Why would you buy something that you gotta change the oil? That's not your job. And you know why you doing this? Because it's no longer a car to you, now it's a status symbol. And so we're dealing with something deeper. You can't hold your own weight. You bought something you can't afford. Why? The deeper issue is because you got a self-esteem problem. And so you got shortcuts. So you drive a car to make it look like you somewhere you are, but when you actually there, you ain't gotta have a car that look like you there, 'cause you there. No, hear what I just said. When you're there, you don't have to look like you there because you there. But when you not there, you can't pick your own weight up. You have to do stuff. And now you done messed up your whole credit because you bought a car so that people can think you somewhere that you not. And you've destroyed your whole future. That if you could hold your own weight, you could drive around in the Ford Fusion and be— I'm talking comfortable, like, like a Range Rover. You getting out that joint like a Range Rover. You getting out the Ford Fusion like what? Like you in a 745 Li. Like what? Why? Because you ready. Are you hearing me? You ready. I'm running, I'm running a mile a day, walking at least a mile a day. I might do 5 or 6, but I'm committing to 1 a day for 100 days. 1-mile walk a day, 100 days. And a set of 100 push-ups, 100 days. Are you hearing me? Like a routine. Some of you are not successful today because you do not have a routine. And why is a routine so important? Your routine will show you your gaps. Your routine will show you your gaps. You think vegan is just about eating right? Vegan is showing me how disciplined I am and how disciplined I'm not. I was murdering the game. Look, I murdered the game at the crib. Why? 'Cause my cousin got everything prepared. I learned a lot about myself when I get on the road. I learned that I was probably like 60/40 vegan on the road. 60% vegan on the road, 40% vegetarian. Yep. Yep, I realized when I got on the road, it's easy to win at the crib 'cause everything is set up for me. But when I get on the road, that's a different monster. Every city don't have whatever. So when I went to Chicago, I had to pack my stuff and take it with me. Are you not hearing what I'm saying? I was on the— 40%, 30% vegetarian. Why? Because when I get on the road, I ain't got all my stuff. I wasn't— and so what I realized was like, yo, E, you do good at home because somebody else prepares for you. You don't do as well as on when you on the road. Why? Because you don't prepare for yourself. So as long as somebody's preparing for you, you got the discipline to eat right, but your strength is not in your preparation. And I saw a weakness in my preparation that I got to work on in 2018. If you gonna do what you say you gonna do, be what you say you gonna be, you gonna have to lion me out. That gazelle stuff, I'm trying to tell you, you a gazelle, you gonna come up short. You a gazelle, you not always gonna get what you want out of life. You a gazelle, it's gonna be— you gonna have an average experience. You a student, I need you in lion mode. You a teacher, I need you in lion mode. You an entrepreneur, I need you in lion mode. You trying to lose weight, lion mode. You can't do nothing significant in gazelle mode. Nothing. Nothing impressive happens in gazelle mode. Nothing happen when you running. Nothing happen in run mode, give up mode, quit mode, scared mode, fearful mode. Nothing happens. Everything happen in lion mode, like I'm coming to get you. I love it. Y'all ever seen the one where the lioness is kind of sitting there and she double dutching and all the beasts is running by? And they just keep going. And she just in preparation mode. And out of nowhere, there is no music, no preparation. You just see my man come out of nowhere and just boom, bam, grab one, boom, boom, rip the heart out. That's lion mode. And you gotta get to a place where you start executing. Somebody just help me out. Last year, the greatest news in the NBA The greatest story in the NBA last year was what? Greatest story told in the NBA last year offseason was what? Kevin Durant left to go to Golden State. Durant like, I'm out. I don't know where y'all come from, but that hurt hard because they supposed to be boys. Look at this picture for a minute, because this is why if you're going to be successful, this is where I need you to go right here. What a pick! This was the one where you play your boy first game, you and your homie was cool, right? And this is where you emotionally cut him. This when you cut my man. This when you see my man and he trying to be cool, he trying to act like he ain't leave you high and dry, he trying to act like the goals and the dreams y'all have. This the one where he clapping and you look my man in his face and say, "You dead to me!" And that's why most of you will never be successful. 'cause there's some stuff in your past you keep holding on to. And you gotta get to a point when you ready to grind and you ready to get to the next level. You look at people you used to be close to and say, you dead to me. You dead. 42 triple-doubles. We shouldn't even be talking about the MVP. Ain't nobody else even— if somebody else make it close to the MVP, the NBA is rigged and I'm through with them. They saw my man at the beginning of the season. I'm talking about, I'm talking about high octane. They said if he keep doing that all season, what's gonna happen? They said he keep running himself like that, he gonna burn out. My man ain't burnt out. He don't look like he ain't close to burnout. But you know why they said it? 'Cause they can't operate on that level for that long. So people will try to put their limitations on you. I can do 6 gigs. I can do 7. We can leave here tonight. You can take me to a church. I give you another hour. You can't do it. Don't put your limitations on me. I'm dead to your limitations. Your limitations don't exist in my world. Those are your limitations, keep them. Go home, watch them on TV. Go home, read the newspaper about them. Go home and look in the mirror. Go home, call your homeboy and y'all talk about your limitations. I ain't got none. I get off the plane from going to Dubai and get on the ground and I hit it. And some of y'all holding on to stuff you shouldn't be holding on to. It should be dead to you. Doggone, go do a funeral if you need to. Get rid of that junk. Like, bury it. Do whatever you gotta do. You, but it's wearing you down. It's killing you. Every day you waking up thinking about it. You shouldn't be thinking about it no more. It should be dead to you. Move on and move towards your greatness. I forget those things which are behind, and I press, I press toward the thing. I press. I don't got time for that no more. It's nothing personal. I ain't got nothing against you. I don't hate you, but I love me.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed. I'd love to know what did you learn from this video that you're going to immediately apply somehow to your life or to your business? Leave it down in the comments below. I'm really curious to find out. I also want to give a quick shout out to Shaadin. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, and doing the review on your YouTube channel. I really, really appreciate the support and I'm so glad you enjoyed my book. 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. I'll see you soon.

Raise your standard. Apple, at the core, its core value is that we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better. Not one drop of my self-worth depends on your acceptance of me. I don't ever give up. I'd have to be dead or completely incapacitated.

Hey, Believe Nation, if you want to see my all-time favorite top 10 rules of success, I have a very special special secret video for you. These are the individual clips that I have personally learned the most from and applied to my life and my business. Check the link in the description for details.