Russ Lowry argues that what you tell yourself determines what happens next. A waiter who says he never remembers names will keep forgetting them. Change the story you tell, control what you can control, and you change the outcome.
Called today's talk words or weapons. Quite often today we see people set themselves up for failure or when things get hard, they start telling themselves little things like, I'm no good at this. This is more than I can handle. This is the wrong time in my life for this. This doesn't matter. When it really matters a lot, a lot of times these are going to be things that may be you do need to pass a test, you need to pass a class and licensing thing. But people quite often set themselves up for failure using words that they start believing in themselves. I don't ever want to hear you say that. Very, very rarely do I hear you guys talk like that. But occasionally I have, and a little bit more recently because shit's starting to get real as you enter your professional careers and you enter the world where things actually matter. You know, it's make or break time. GPAs get you into nursing school, master's degrees get you into administration. Passing an H VAC test gets your licensing and gets you your contractor license. So things are going to get a lot tougher in life and make or break careers and how you deal with yourself and what you tell yourself and how you set yourself up for this really can make a huge difference. I mean, so many people, like I said, just set themselves up for failure. And it's either, you know, they do it without thinking about it, or they think about it and do it just like for an example, roughly the day there was a waiter that was saying how bad he was at names and he would never remember anyone's names. And after he told that to like the 15th person, we were at a bar eating at the bar. I said, hey, partner, how about you do this? How about you say, I'm getting better at names, I want to ask you your name a couple of times so I can remember it. And I said, then why don't you use mnemonic devices like, and match up things with people? Of course. I mean, I'm an old man and I'm a dad, so I tell people stuff that they don't really want to hear. But he actually thought, he goes, well, that's true. I said, because if you keep telling yourself you never remember doing Stames, guess what? You're never going to remember anyone's freaking name. So my think positive. And I'm not normally, of course, the touchy feely kind of cat. I took a sensitivity test and I failed it. But there are some psychological triggers to thinking that way and putting yourself down, and that's just never good. And I don't know why so many people do that. I think a lot of people may be afraid of failure because like I said, words are weapons. And if they tell themselves they're going to do good, they're going to pass this test and they're going to get that license on the first try and they don't, they feel devastated. But we'll talk about that later, about not giving up. But be sure to. And be careful what you tell yourself because you start believing in that. So always be positive. You know, that goes back to what we've talked about numerous times. Control the controllables. You have to only worry about what you can control. So everything else you take out of there, like, oh, I got sick before a test. Shit happens. Study harder. You know, this happened. I have to work my job, and then I have to get my certification on weekends, and I'm coaching and I'm working full time and having to study for the certification. Shit happens. Get over it. Say you can do it. Set your mind to it. Set yourself up for success. Lots of things you can do for that. Sleeping, diet, not going out, partying, stuff like that. But almost words of affirmation, which, like I said, I'm not really into that kind of stuff necessarily. But so many people talk down to themselves and set themselves up for failure using words like that. Do the opposite. Set yourself up for success. Tell yourself, I'm going to do this. So when the time comes for the test, the Hayes in the barn, as my buddy Michael says, and you're already ready to go, the test is just one little hurdle. You got to go, You've already studied, you're ready, you're mindset's there. As soon as you hit that test for your license or whatever, boom, it's done, you're good, you're on to the next hurdle. Because trust me, you just think this shit's getting tough right now. I look back to my 20s and think how great it was, and it seemed like it was really tough. And you do have lots of obstacles, but the only easy day was yesterday. Life just gets harder as you get more responsibilities as you have a family. Marriage is tough, careers are tough. Working with other people are tough. So life gets tough. So always set yourself up for success. Don't talk down to yourself. Get ready to win in society, and you will be head and shoulders above your competition. Because so many people, like I said, do set themselves up for failure, just telling themselves it's not going to happen, giving themselves a litany of excuses why they can't pass a test. They can't go to the next level in their job and coaching. Why their team can't win. Why they're a bad spouse or their husbands. Don't do that. Words are weapons. Set yourself up for success and life will be a lot better for you.
