How do you get anything you want in life?

How do you get anything you want in life? Is that even possible? My name is Joe Apfelbaum, CEO of Ajax Union, and I remember I used to dream. I used to dream of being wealthy. I used to dream of being successful. I used to dream about being able to make a difference for other people, of greatness. And I knew for a fact that I wanted one thing more than anything else. I wanted financial independence. Now, for everybody, every single person, financial independence means something else. My challenge to you is to figure out what do you want. I know you've probably heard this over and over and over because we're constantly hearing people say— every guru will say, figure out what you want. A goal without a timeline is just a wish, and so on and so forth. But listening to that over and over and over and asking yourself, Am I doing this? Listening to this over and over and over and asking yourself, am I implementing this? Do I really know what I want? Maybe what you want is not attainable. Maybe what you want is too general. Maybe what you want is not something you really want, but something that you need. You see, there's a very big difference between our basic human needs And the things that we want and we desire. You need water, you need oxygen, you need connection, you need security. There are certain things that you need. You might say, I want water. You don't want water, you need water. There's a big difference between what you want and what you need. You're going to get what you need whether it meets your values or it doesn't meet your values. Your body's automatically biologically going to get What it needs, and sometimes it sacrifices what it wants to get what it needs. Now, what you value most in life, that's what you want. That's what you desire. That's really what's going to fill your heart. So figuring out what you want is really important, but it may be impossible to figure out what you want when your basic needs are not being met. If you're sleep deprived, can you even think about things like core values and language and psychology and consciousness and awareness and personal development. You can't think of any of that stuff. You can't think of optimizing a brain that's not functioning. It's kind of like saying, oh, my car needs an oil change. Dude, you're missing tires! You're missing tires in your car! How are you supposed to drive where you want to go? You don't have a GPS. You're completely lost. And you think to yourself you're getting what you want. Really? What you're doing is getting what you think you need right now, and I'm telling you, take a step back from everything and ask yourself the following question: Do I know what I truly want inside? And if the answer is no, don't search for what you want. Don't search for what you want because you're not going to get it. Because if you don't know what you want right now, you're not suddenly going to be able to find it. It has to come to you. It has to just appear itself. It has to be obvious. Like it was there all the time. I'll say this again. Don't go search for what you want. Don't go search for your desire. Instead, allow it to just appear. Magic happens when things appear. When I decided that instead of going after financial independence— oh, I want financial independence because I want security, because I don't have to worry about all this stress. I don't want to have to worry about— You know, my mother, she worried in her store for 10 years and eventually went out of business. I gotta figure this out, I gotta figure this out, I gotta figure this out. And once I figured it out, then what? Oh, I gotta double, I need more independence and I need more financial freedom. And there's no limit. And I realized I was driven by my ego instead of letting go, instead of just connecting with that which is evergreen. Look at that, look at that evergreen tree in my hand. Trying to make the perfect evergreen tree in my hand. Your desire, your love, your passion, your freedom, your purpose, your heartbeat is right there. Your heartbeat is right there. You just have to lean into it. You have to just let go and accept. Accept that you are where you need to be right now. There's no other place that you need to be but right here learning a beautiful lesson and connecting with who you truly are inside and finding yourself. And when you do that, Then you start breaking through the clutter. Then you start realizing that, oh my gosh, I'm trying to climb up the wrong tree, the wrong ladder, and when I get to the top of the wrong ladder, I realize it was leaning against the wrong wall. So take a moment and reflect and ask yourself, do I have what I need right now in my life? Am I living my ideal day? Am I energized? Are my vibes high? Am I great? Am I able to be grateful, or do I need to be resentful? And when you realize that once you get all your needs, the awareness, the awareness of your values, the awareness of what's most important, the awareness of all the available resources to get to your passion will suddenly appear. Your passions will light up. Your life will be so much better. And you will get motivated! Self-expression, the ability to completely eradicate any level of worrying about other people's opinions, really expressing yourself comes from knowing the truth, not because you found it, but because you discovered it. Boom.