Writing Will Transform Your MIND & Life

If you're looking for ways to stop making excuses, love yourself, and think critically, then this video is for you.

Self-love is not an indulgence. It's not a nice-to-have. It is a prerequisite. Even if all you want to do is feel successful.

Even the person in the— with the broken heart, the person who's down on their knees, whether they see it or not, they have a choice to rise above their circumstances.

You You need to learn to think because thinking makes you act effectively in the world. Thinking makes you win the battles you undertake.

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. Now, I started the Believe Life series to try to tackle some more personal development topics on the weekend to help you become the best version of you. So let's live our best believe life and learn today the 5 steps to becoming a better you.

Enjoy! The concept of improving lives runs through the center of everything I do, and then I realized that the, the way to improve lives is to continually improve yourself, right? So with that, every morning when I get out of the bed, you know, I haven't fixed everything in the world yet, so there's always something to do. And in this film, I read an interesting quote. Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, he said that good people have to get out of the bed every day and try to empty the ocean with a ladle. Right? And I thought that was— I knew that was profound. And I paused for a second. And I said, all right, what the hell is a ladle? Right? Right? So then I just touched it on my iPad.

It's ladle. Oh, it's like a big spoon. A big spoon.

OK. As we say, spoon.

It's like a soup spoon. Yeah.

It's like a soup spoon.

I was like, why are you using a soup spoon? Trying to empty the ocean with a soup spoon, you know, as the mentality of how you wake up every day to try to do good in the world. So for me, I'm really driven by continually trying to elevate my mind and elevate my spirit and care for my body and to be able to love as many people as effectively as possible with this mystery of life that I've been given.

I realized, I'd say 2 years ago, but especially in the last 6 months, very recent, that— and this is the part that would make my Tim of 5 years ago just cringe, like vomit a little in his own mouth, which is I'm not going to mince words. I still have trouble saying this, but like self-love is not an indulgence. It's not a nice to have. It is a prerequisite. Even if all you want to do is feel successful and take care of the people you love the most, to really take care of them, you have to, as I've heard said, put on your oxygen mask first. And if you don't do that, like you are also shortchanging your ability to care for other people completely. And that's been a very, very much a 180-degree about-face for me, right? Because for a long time, I was like, "I don't need to care for myself." Like that's— The word keeps coming back to me, which is self-indulgent. Like, is this self-indulgent? Like, who cares?

I came home one night from work spraying for cockroaches, and long story short, I turned on the Discovery Channel. I saw some guys going through Navy SEAL training, and they're going through Hell Week, and they're getting their ass just beat, you know, in and out of the water, guys ringing the bell. There was suffering. And I was weighing like 297 pounds. And I had to make a change in my life. You know, I was at an all-time low and I wasn't going anywhere. And I was exactly what everybody said I was gonna be, which was nothing. So I had to make a change. [Speaker:EVAN_CARMICHAEL] What was it about seeing suffering?

That's really interesting.

And I actually get it, but I wanna hear you explain it.

Why suffering was the thing that triggered that thought?

Well, for me growing up, I came from a horrible background. I got called nigger every day of my life growing up. Lived in a small town. The Klan headquarters at that time was about 20 minutes from where I lived. One of the high-ups in the KKK's son sat behind me in 2 classes, so he called me nigger all the time. I got my first car, they spray-printed "nigger, we're gonna kill you" on it. I was just an insecure, scared kid. And the only way I could find myself was to put myself through the worst thing possible. Because I'm gonna say the exact opposite of what the world, today's world is saying. So we read a bunch of books nowadays. As humans, we wanna find out how to be someone else. What we don't do is we don't go inside. So literally turn yourself inside out. Read the book that's in— like, we're writing a book every day of our lives, but we never read that book. Every day we're seeing who we are as people. When I was growing up, I lied for people to accept me because I didn't accept myself. So I would make up stories so then you would accept me into your world. I would— everything I did was for someone else to like me. It wasn't until I started reading my own book about how pathetic I was as a human being I could blame my dad. I can blame kids at school. I could blame having health issues, ADD, my mom not being around. Great mom, but she was doing her thing, right? I could blame a lot of people, and that's the book I was reading, and I put it off on everybody else. It wasn't until I said, you know what, for me to fix this, I gotta read what the hell— what the fuck is wrong with David Goggins? Not blame anybody, read my book and say, okay, I'm afraid of my shadow. How can I overcome that? Go in the military, get your ass kicked, do things you hate to do, be uncomfortable every fucking day of your life. Roger that. I'm not the smartest kid in the world. Okay. Instead of somebody saying, oh no, you're smart. No, no, don't say that to yourself. I said to myself, no, I'm a dumb motherfucker. Okay. Roger that. How do you get smarter? Educate yourself. So the things that we run from, We're running from the truth. We're running from the truth, man. So the only way I became successful was going towards the truth. As painful and as brutal as it is, it changed me. It allowed me to become, in my own right, who I am today.

I was in Johannesburg a little while ago, and I went through the airport. And I went into the men's room, or washroom, or bathroom, however you want to call it. And so I walked into the men's room, and the first thing I hear is, "Welcome to my office." And this was the janitor at the Johannesburg men's room.

That's funny.

Who janitorized, or I'll make up a word, cleaned the men's, the toilets like Mozart composed music. Now that man has no money. That man probably has very little education. That man is judged by the world. As having an unimportant job. And that man is a hero, could be a hero to millions of people.

Why?

Because he actually saw himself as an ambassador to South Africa. And his passion was palpable. And his visceral commitment to doing work at the highest level was like you don't see even from the CEOs. And all I'm saying is even the person in the— the person who's down on their knees, whether they see it or not, they have a choice to rise above their circumstances. And leadership and humanity is a testament to the people who have done it. I mean, you read the— you look at Mandela, you know, 27 years in imprisonment. When his son died, he wasn't allowed to attend the funeral of his own son. He said that was one of the great pains of his own— of his life. And what did he do? The victim looks at something like that torture and says, "I am broken." And they give up and they spend— they close their heart, they close their mind, they close their creativity, and they blame the rest of their life on what happened to them. But Mandela, what he chose to do was to use it as an opportunity because actually the things that break your heart, if you choose, can open your heart. Fear, the world says fear is bad. Fear is only an opportunity for bravery training. And what he did was he used those 27 years of torture to open himself mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually to the point where when he was released and became the president of South Africa, he invited his jailers to sit in the front row at his inauguration. And he was asked why, and he said, "Because if I don't, I'm gonna forget them." I'd still be in prison. And that's a long way of saying, but, you know, we do make excuses because we are very good at self-deception. Because if we actually had to face the responsibility of playing with our bigness in the world, we'd have to let go of our addiction to our excuses and leave what's safe. Am I making sense? No, totally.

No, you're totally making sense.

You have to leave what's safe. I mean, we are addicted to crisis sometimes. It makes no sense. We are addicted to pain. And we'd have to actually leave the pain to go out to the possibility of pleasure and joy and greatness. And believe it or not, that frightens us. So we make these excuses, and then we blame people. Oh, Joe or Robin, I don't like the way he looks. He speaks differently. But subconsciously, as you're suggesting, those are just our protective mechanisms to avoid owning the responsibility of our brilliance.

The best thing you can do is teach people to write. 'Cause there's no difference between that and thinking. And one of the things that just blows me away about universities is that no one ever tells students why they should write something. It's like, "Well, you have to do this assignment." Well, why are you writing? "Well, you need the grade." It's like, no! You need to learn to think. Because thinking makes you act effectively in the world. Thinking makes you win the battles you undertake. And those could be battles for good things. If you can think and speak and write, you are absolutely deadly. Nothing can get in your way. So that's why you learn to write. It's like— I can't believe that people aren't just told that. It's like— it's the most powerful weapon you can possibly provide someone with. And I mean, I know lots of people who've been staggeringly successful and watched them throughout my life. I mean— Those people, you don't want to have an argument with them. They'll just slash you into pieces. And not in a malevolent way. It's like, if you're going to make your point and they're going to make their point, you better have your points organized, because otherwise you are going to look like and be an absolute idiot. You are not going to get anywhere. And if you can formulate your arguments coherently and make a presentation, if you can speak to people, if you can listen, you lay out a proposal, God, people give you money, they give you opportunities, you have influence.

My very first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is I want to get my head right. I do this thing called priming. Now, some people get up in the morning and they meditate, and I think meditation is wonderful, but I haven't met many people that cannot think thoughts. This is a different outcome. This is about priming yourself. It's about putting yourself in the state where your mind and body will respond accordingly. We'll 3 steps. It's really simple, over 10 minutes. So why don't you sit down and I'll guide you through it. So just get really comfortable. You want to be sitting up. Is that back enough for you to be able to relax?

Yeah.

Good. Okay, cool. And then the first thing you're going to do is your hands are going to come up as you take the breath in, and then you're going to explode out the nose, down. Explosive. That's it. Good. That's it. Keep going. 2 more. Good. Now relax. Keep your eyes closed. Have your hands open, if you would, on your lap, face up like that. Just feel whatever you feel. Just take it in. And you don't have to respond to me anymore. You just enjoy it and take it in. And now just let your body relax deeply. And I'd like you to begin to think of a moment in your life you could feel really grateful for if you wanted to. It could be something little, rich, or it could be something big. It doesn't matter. It could be from your childhood or this week, it doesn't matter. Do your best to remember it and then step into it as if you were there. Kind of like stepping in your body and seeing what you saw then through your own eyes, hearing what you heard then, feeling what you felt then. Savor it. Maximize that sense of appreciation or enjoyment or gratitude. Enjoy it. Feel it. Fill up with it. And now we're going to shift to the last piece. Really simple. All you're going to do is focus on 3 things, one at a time, that you want to accomplish. 3 things you want to achieve. Live it and feel it and experience it. How was that?

It was good.

Yeah? What'd you feel?

It feels calming.

Refreshing.

Yeah, good to like escape inside myself.

Yeah, basically there's two worlds to master: the external world and the internal world. They both have to be mastered, but if you master the external world, you know, à la, you know, Robin Williams, but you don't master the internal world, there's a big price. This is the one to master first. And so I start my day by making that, so I have this base to do it. I'm going to live from gratitude today. I'm going to live from blessing, you know, I'm going to be a blessing in people's life today. I'm going to get stronger today, and I'm going to achieve what I'm here committed to do. And the whole thing, you know, we did that one in a little less than 10 minutes, to give you an idea.

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? Let me know down in the comments below. Whose advice resonated the most with you that you're going to spark a change? Please let me know. It'd mean a lot to me. I also want to give a quick Big shout out to Mike from Restaurant HR. Mike, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my new book, The Top 10 Rules of Success. I really appreciate it, man, and I'm so glad you enjoyed the book and had the desire to post it on Twitter. Means a lot, man. 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.

So it all comes down to this basic question. That human beings have for a long, long time been concerned about transforming their minds. Is there any way in which one's mind can be transformed, or is it simply a process which is nothing more than a vicious circle? I could ask, why have you come here this afternoon? What were you looking for? Would it be too presumptuous of me to say that you were looking for help, that you hoped you would hear somebody who had something to say that would be of help and relevance to you as members of a world which is running into the most intense difficulty, a world beset by a complex of problems, any one of which would be bad enough, but when you add together all the great political, social, and ecological problems with which we are faced, they are appalling. And one naturally says the reason why we are in such a mess is not simply that we have wrong systems for doing things, whether they be technological, political, or religious, but we have the wrong people. The systems may be all right, But they are in the wrong hands because we are all in various ways self-seeking, lacking in wisdom, lacking in courage, afraid of death, afraid of pain, unwilling really to cooperate with others, unwilling to be open to others. And we all think, that's too bad, it's me that's wrong, and if only I could be the right person. Is this man going to tell me something that will help me to change myself so that I will be a more creative and cooperative member of the human race? I would like to improve. Let's look at this thing from another point of view, which you will at first think highly depressing. Let's supposing we can't do anything to change ourselves. Suppose we're stuck with it. Now that is the worst thing an American audience can hear. There's no way of improving yourself, because every kind of culture in this country is dedicated to self-improvement. So here's the situation, you see. There is no— the, the whole idea of self-improvement is a, is a will-o'-the-wisp and a hoax. That's not what it's about. Let's begin where we are. What happens if you know, if you know beyond any shadow of doubt that there is nothing you can do to be better. Well, it's kind of a relief, isn't it? Seeing that there isn't really anything we can do to improve ourselves or to improve the world— if we realize that that is so, it gives us a breather in the course of which we may simply watch what is going on, watch what happens. Nobody ever does this, you know, and therefore it sounds terribly simple. It sounds so simple that it's almost— it looks as if it isn't worth doing. But ever just watched? Watch what's happening and watch what you are doing by way of reaction to it. Just watch it happen and don't be in a hurry to think you know what it is. You think this is the material world. Well, that's somebody's philosophical idea. Or maybe you're— you think it's spiritual. That too is somebody's philosophical idea. This real world is not spiritual. It is not material. The real world is simply— So could we look at things in that way without, as it were, fixing labels and names and gradations and judgments on everything. But watch what happens. Watch what we do. Now, you see, if you do that, you do at least give yourself a chance. And it may be that when you are in this way free from busybodiness and being out to improve everything, that your own nature will begin to take care of itself. Because you're not getting in the way of yourself all the time, you will begin to find out that the great things that you do are really happening.

So let me give you the one word secret to happiness. One word.

This is all you need to be happy. The most important word ever.

If you had to think of one word that's most important to you, or that sums you up, or that would be kind of like a little beacon, Hey Believe Nation, if you want to know what the most important one word is for Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk, Oprah Winfrey, will.i.am, and Howard Schultz, I have a very special secret video for you. Check the description for details.