Kenny Chapman (the "blue collar coach") delivers a short motivational talk using Jim Carrey's life and a personal anecdote to illustrate the power of clarity. He contrasts solving the "money game" with later-stage quests for meaning, recounts Carrey's childhood letter to Carol Burnett as an example of an early clarity-creating moment, and urges listeners to find clarity (or anti-clarity) to create progress in life and business.
Chapters
Hey, my friends, Kenny Chapman here, the blue collar coach, coming to you with this week's version of Freedom Friday, Focus. Now, here's what I want you to think about. Where are the nuggets, right? Where are the different gold mines sitting around you you don't even know about? Right. When I was in Saudi Arabia in the first Gulf War, the big thing was landmines, and we didn't know. And we looked to sweep for them, and we look to be mindful what those land mines are. And how do you, how do you look? Well, what about the gold mines? What about the things that really feed your life, the areas that you don't even see coming? That's what I want to share with you this week, free Friday Focus. This is about Jim Carrey, right? I haven't been a big Jim Carrey fan. Other than Dumb and Dumber, nobody can argue that. One of the greatest movies of all time, right? And so what's funny, though, you know, I didn't do all the, all the Pet Detective, all the different things. But what's interesting is the lovely Christie and I sat down the other night and we're looking at Netflix and there's a show on there, coffee with comedians or in cars or something like that. And Jerry Seinfeld interviews some different people. Good morning, Shana, Shawn, good to see you, brother. How's everything going with everybody? So they're doing some, you know, he goes around and he interviews different people. Well, Jerry Seinfeld picks up Jim Carrey. Jim Carrey looks like a complete homeless guy, right? He's got the nasty beard with all gray now. Why I don't carry a beard now. But nonetheless, no offense, if you do carry a gray beard, but I'm not ready. And so, you know, he's got this and he's got, like paint all over him. His shoes are all trash. He climbs over his fence of his, you know, place in Hollywood, whatever, and they hop in the car. And so I didn't realize, but Jim's a very enlightened individual. I had no idea that, like, he's, he's on this path. He's this huge artist now. He does all this, this new age art and different cool things, has this whole studio. And so I think about Maslow's hierarchy and where you are in different places. So he solved the money game, and now he's looking at these different things. And we all look at that and go, he's looking at these different things because he solved the money game, right? That's how we're taught that's how we're brought up. That's where we. Now, what I didn't know is what came out. Maybe many of you know this. Bigger fans of his than mine. But when he was 10 years old, growing up as a Canadian kid, he watched the Carol Burnett show religiously and he loved it and he would watch it and all these different types of things. And by the age 10, he had 140 to 150 impersonations that he did. And so he wrote a letter to Carol Burnett and said, I want to be a regular on your show. I think I can do it. Da da da da da. And so he said he waited and he waited and then he got a letter back. And here's what I want you to take away. This isn't about Jim Carrey. It's not about comedy. It's very serious and it's about your life. And here's what happened. He got the letter back and something became real. He said he looked at it and it came from the Carol Burnett Show. When he opened it up and there was this letter that was, while your talent sounds great, da da da da da. You know, kind of nice way of saying there's child labor laws in the US Whatever. And so they turned him down. But he said it had the seal, it had the stamp that said Hollywood, California. And it made it real. And he felt that he had connected with a possibility that became a reality. Now where does that show up in your life? I certainly didn't have clarity like that at 10, 20, maybe even 30 years old. But now, as I have continued to evolve into more and more clarity about who I am and what I want to accomplish in this life, who I want to spend it with, the areas I want to invest my time in, the short time that we have on this planet. I think about that at 10 years old. What about 50 years old? What about 75 years old? It doesn't matter. I've got a mentor of mine at 75, he sets a 25 year goal. Who does that? Right? Not normal people. My buddy Les Brown says, live like nobody today so you can live like nobody tomorrow. That's what it's about. You might not have that clarity at 10 years old. Get the clarity now. My first book, the Six Dimensions of Change. Clarity is the first dimension because that's where everything begins. I didn't know clarity. I didn't know I was going to run a coaching and training organization or have an amazing career in the trades the years that I did. But what I knew when I sat in jail in Lake Havasu City in 1989, I had tremendous clarity. And I had the same kind of clarity that Jim Carrey had when he wanted to become a comedian. Except I didn't know what I wanted. I knew what I did not want. And that's what I'm asking you to find. Find one of the two. Because either one will create movement. What you want is progress. It's not about perfection. It's about progress. It's about movement. It's 18. It's your time. I'm here. We're here to do anything. We can make this the greatest year of your life. Get some clarity until we talk. Have a better than fantastic weekend. We'll talk to you soon.
