If You Feel Overwhelmed In Life, WATCH THIS! | Anthony Trucks

What actions are you taking or not taking that are fueling your personal pride and personal ego? Right. If I. If I believe I'm supposed to do something and I do it, oh, I feel amazing.

Yeah.

If I don't, I don't.

So, man, I want to come straight out of the gate. Like, what is the number one thing that you're finding that people are really struggling with and kind of necessity? The need to write the book.

Identity, man. Everybody. Everybody is a little bit lost on who they are, and they don't realize it. And it's not that, myself included. I'm sure there's areas I'm like, I didn't realize that that's who I really am. But here's the hard part. I think societally, we are in this really interesting space where there's a complete upheaval of normalcy. And when we have an upheaval of normalcy, you start trying to figure out, well, who am I within this new thing? And that's where the discontent comes from. It's the incongruency, misalignment with what I thought was the world and what the actual world is, and who am I? What do I. Fitness. It's actually called identity versus role confusion. I think people just don't know their role in new society.

Yeah. Well, one of the things you talk about in the book that I. That kind of. It kind of. I won't say stunned me, but it caused me to stop and kind of reflect a little bit, was I actually had to ask myself, how am I currently operating? And better yet, how have I been able to transition from operating, you know, back when I was going through the homelessness stuff to where I'm at now and then how can I elevate where I'm operating now to where I need to be?

Yeah, that's the hard part.

Yeah. So I'm, you know, as I'm kind of, like, thinking through these things, I'm like, dude, the audience has got to, like, have a better understanding of what it means to operate, like a kind of a polar shift. Talk a little bit about the. How we operate and how. And how. How we operate is actually holding us back or propelling us forward.

Yeah. The hard thing is those who have success understanding that the operation we have is. Is below the level of where our next level dream is. Because whenever you've gone from a dark place to a high place, you're feeling good, you've succeeded. Right. We're like, we're good. We don't want to admit that there's something we got to work on. It's very interesting. We're like, I'm good. Like, when I play professional football, I'm like, I'm good. I don't need to work. But, like, I still work out. You know what I mean? Like, that's the way. It's just a weird level. So the operating is an aspect of realizing that every day you show up as a person and it's your identity. And the way I explain it is it's who you are when you aren't thinking about who you are.

Yeah.

It's just how you're doing things, which is. It's just the natural flow of us human beings. But that actual level has created the life you have. And if you want a higher level of life, it could be more money, could be more freedom, it could be more free time. Whatever it is that needs. You have to get to a higher level. Because if the identity doesn't match the dream, the dream doesn't get realized. So you have to get those two put together. And then when you say, how do we choose it? Like, look at operation. It's a matter of stopping and saying, well, how am I operating right now? And if you really take the ego back and look at that, you might go, oh, you know what? I could do better there. And there's a simple question I can lead in with. And I don't even know if it's in the book. Maybe it is. The question I tell people is, talk about. Tell me what you want. I want this dream. Great. Okay. Does the person who has that dream right now, do they make the same excuse or stop at this level? Yeah, and that's it. The reality is no. So then keep going.

Yeah. I mean, when I think about it, one of the things that I've seen, at least in my life, is this essence of kind of letting the expectation of yesterday trying to kind of drive today, you know, so all the various things that, you know, that maybe it's lack of finance and you carry that into tomorrow and basically like, well, it's not. I'm not going to get anywhere anyway, so I might as well just, like, go ahead and buy the big screen, even though I know I should be paying off my debt.

Right, right.

All this kind of silliness and, you know, and then. But then you also talked about something that I think is really, really powerful, that I think is basically unknown to most people, which is this essence of understanding that your identity is being chipped away on a regular basis by life experiences. And if you're not paying attention to that, then everything, basically, you don't actually get to the elevated life. Talk a little bit about the kind of the. The frameworks around, you know, kind of understanding a little bit about how life has been stolen from you and then more importantly, how to steal it back.

Yeah, yeah. And I'm of. Stolen is the word. I'll take that though, because as I sit with that, I let it simmer on my tongue of a brain lifestyle. I think what ends up happening is, is we don't take it when it's there for us, right? So if, obviously, if you don't take it, someone else is going to take it. And when I look at the way that we operate in life, we have this interesting thing where I believe life has an amazing plan set out for us. I think there's some really cool things set out. However we mess the plan up, we mess it up with fear and frustration, anger and poor actions. Our free will or not. Leveling up our identity to handle the opportunity when it arises. And we see the opportunity as opposition. There's a lot different things we fight. Now the way that we can take it back is we have to honestly just look at who we are and understand who we are at a deeper level. And that's where we actually go into the frame of identity. Right?

Yeah.

And there's, there's. We'll call it the six levels, which really is just six core pieces of what I call your ideal identity or your zone identity.

It's.

It's like you're in the zone. It's a version of your identity. It's hard to get there and stay there. Right. You get there at a certain level, but you can get close to it for a while. You can hang in that, you know, 95% of the zone for a while. And that's where people that are having massive success happen to live, like yourself and myself, we're in those spaces. But we're like, for the most part, we do things that keep us. There's. How do we do it? The six core areas are beliefs, thoughts, actions. These are the big, like, circles of the Venn diagram. Then you have an overlap between beliefs and thoughts, which is your mindset. You have an overlap between thoughts and actions, which is your habits, an overlap between beliefs and actions, which are your personal prior ego areas. So when we look at life, we have to actually ask this question. The person who's living that, that version, right, that identity that has the money, has the cars, has the time, has the body, has the joy has the peace. What are their actual beliefs about themselves in the world? And do I harbor those? Yeah, because most of us, if I think about it. Well, think about a guy like the Rock, right? What does this dude have to believe for me to get up and go, I'm going to be one of the greatest movie stars in the world. I'm going to create a tequila company. I'm going to.

Don't forget the energy drinks.

Yeah, I got them all right here in my fridge. I got like, three more cases coming today. But like that. And then Sam would be jacked out of my mind. Like, what does this dude got to believe about the day? And what's possible that everybody else goes. That can't be done.

Yeah, Right.

That's the belief you have to look at is what's the one that is out of character for me? It is foreign to my brain. What's the beliefs then? What do they think? What are the out of character, out of my framing? Thoughts that are going through that person's head, Right? Same thing with the actions. What actions are they taking? That would make my butt pucker. Right. Then from here, what's their mindset in action? I think the mindset is your mind in action, mind in motion, Right. It's like my mindset is operating, is an emotion type. I don't sit here and go, yeah, I'm good. No, it's like in the middle of something, something's going on. Where's my mindset? Can I keep on going? And then habits, right? Because we all know that habits create you. What you do over time becomes you. Seriously, it's just a matter of what it is. And then whenever you get to the beliefs and actions, things, it's what actions are you taking or not taking that are fueling your personal pride and personal ego, Right? If I. If I believe I'm supposed to do something and I do it, ooh, I feel amazing.

Yeah.

If I don't, I don't. And so when you say, how do we grab control? It's taking a look at those areas and saying, where do I need to upgrade? I need to upgrade my beliefs, my thoughts, or my. What are the. What do I have to do? Because if you don't focus on that, you'll get really busy being busy and get burned out by putting a bunch of energy in and not getting the return that you want because you never actually worked on the things you needed to.

Yeah, no, I. That's so good. Because, you know, I can tell you from my experience, you know, so I've shared with my audience a few times. I don't know if I've shared it with you yet, but the lack of focus on shaping my identity had me living out the identity that life and others placed in me or on me. You know, one of the, one of these big core things I believe is this importance of life lies. So one of the things my father told me one time, and he did, it's funny how people put their limiting belief on you, not realizing they're not. That they're limiting you, not helping you. So my daughter, my father came to me out of love and he didn't, you know, he spent, spent a lot of time in my life early on. And I remember his first business failed. And as we were kind of walking through that journey a little bit, I hadn't, you know, I was really getting to know him a couple of years and maybe three years in, you know, kind of spending time around him. And he made this comment, the skygons don't get ahead, they get by.

Right? A day later, I later went and did the whole ancestry.com thing. Went down that rabbit trail, which that took a minute, Learned that in 450 years, in 450 years, not a single Skagens had ever become affluent, influential, or somehow impactful to the world. And just they were, they were lost in poverty. They were actually came to United States as, as a part of a penal colony because they shot a deer on a lord's land in Europe.

Oh, wow.

Became sharecroppers, then went in the construction industry. And then I find myself sitting down with my dad. And something in my spirit was like, either I accept this as my truth.

Or I don't. And if I hadn't been for my first mentor, I absolutely would have continued that generational curse, bondage, whatever you want to call it. And the crazy part was, as Steve Mark, my first mentor that took me down that pathway, I found myself literally not focusing on my identity, not focusing on where I needed to go, not focusing on what I needed to be doing, what rituals I need to have in place, what actions I need to be taking. And as a result, because I wasn't starting with the root of identity, you know, I found myself overlooking an eight lane highway, ready to take my life, you know, because everything in me had been pulled from and pulled from and pulled from. And I feel like that if people aren't paying attention to their identity, which is another reason why I had to have you back on the show to talk about the importance of It. Because I think it's one of the most under underrated tools that you have in a healthy lifestyle. Right. So if you don't mind. You mentioned this one concept too that I thought was really powerful and that is we don't see ourselves as other people see us. And you have this amazing story with a good friend of our. With yours in the book. I'm not going to spoil it for the. Everybody's got to go. First of all, let me say this.

Yeah.

The Venn diagram, he just mentioned that. He just kind of briefly went over that. Venn diagram is in the book in detail, so you can actually flow along. And then he also walks you through that in detail. So you absolutely have to pick up the book. But more importantly, that story really, really took me by surprise and had me thinking about people like Steve Meyrick in my own life. So talk a little bit about the. How we see ourselves versus how people see us.

Yeah, it's always different. It's funny you say that. One statement. Our family has a statement which is, trucks don't show up, we show out.

That means you get to build. That's. That's one going the other direction.

Direction, yeah, that's. That's. Yeah. We don't do the negative one. I got the positive one, man. It's. Yeah, yeah. Now it was a story like I post like, you know, a suicidal moment, man. And, and I was like, I just, you know, I didn't want to be here because life sucked after the game of football. I was like, well, this is life after football. I'm cool, you know, like, I don't want any of this. And so what ended up happening was I'd gone back to work and one of the guys that I'd played high school football with was actually an employee at my gym working for.

We had pulled me to the back office and he goes, first off, never do anything stupid like you just did again, like, I don't care. Thinking right? And he goes, secondly, whenever I heard what had happened, he said, I threw up in a toilet because I thought I'd lost a hero. I'm like, what do you mean you lost a hero? He goes, you may not know it and obviously you don't talk to anybody about it, but in this community says a lot of people look up to you for what you've accomplished. You are an individual that your life's inspiring, man, to a lot of people. And it was that first, like, it was the first time I'd ever had someone say something in a way that made Me think like, wow, maybe, maybe the things I've experienced or gone and done were of value to the world outside of me. Like, you know, because before that it was always Anthony focused on me and my family and that, you know, but I never really like focused on, on like what I could do with it, we'll call it. And that seed was one that has blossomed now. But there was a first time I heard somebody see me differently than how I saw me in like a really, really different light.

Well, and I think that, I think we all need those people. And you know.

I think, you know, it's. There's a, you know, I'm. As a person of faith and I think we share the same faith. But the. As a person of faith, I always wonder my. In fact, my grandfather told me one time, he said, who do you think has a. Has a larger kingdom impact? Billy Graham or the person that led Billy Graham to faith?

And I was like, yeah, that's pretty deep, granddad.

I'm not necessarily. You see my face? I went, yeah.

Well, it caused me to pause because he's like, you know, we underestimate as people the impact that we make on a day in, day out basis. I mean, you've been consistent with your Instagram live streams on a daily basis. And if you haven't, if you're not already following Anthony, you should be. But like, like clockwork. I know, I know I'm going to get something inspirational, something educational, something that's going to power my mind, motivate my heart on a day in and day out basis. And the reality is we will never know all the ears and the eyes that the content actually hits. Which is why I thought was important to share your share that story. Because at the end of the day, I think we're all chasing that, that area of significance and meaning and identity shift. I mean, it's a roadmap for that which I love about it, you know. So the other thing that I thought was really instrumental was this. You play a really high importance on personal accountability. How did you discover the necessity for that and how did you begin to operate in that?

Yeah, I think we all fail to comprehend that we are the common denominator in all of our problems.

Whether I'm allowing it, right. Because it's in my life and I haven't made the change to end it or because I caused it. And I don't want to own up that I caused it. So just, it honestly just permeates in all aspects of our life and it pervades and so the idea is, like, if we don't step back and realize that we are in the massive control seat and we're the ones that will end up just not even controlling the plane, it'll crash. And there's a great book by Mark. I think it's Mark Victor Manson, his name. And in the book, he talks about how life is not our fault, but what happens is our responsibility. Or like, it wasn't my fault. My mom gave me away, but it was my responsibility to fix it because she's not going to come back and fix my life. No one's going to do that. And so the reality is you've got to take this personal ownership, even if it doesn't make sense, even if it's like, yeah, but that person did that to me. Did that to me. Did that to me. That's great. They did that to you. But what are they going to do for you?

Yeah, nothing.

They're not going to do anything for you. Only you can do for you at this moment. So you got to go do something. Or now that you have this realization, at a certain point you will have no one to blame but you.

Yeah.

Because you had this happen, you now know you got to work on it, and you chose not to. So you don't get the right to keep telling people that that person did this. That's why I'm here. No, no, no. At a certain level, you got to take ownership and go, yeah, they did that. But you know what? It's time for me to work on this. Because once you're aware of the situation, once you're aware of it, the only person's fault for your life staying where it's at is yours.

Yeah. Well, and I think. I think that's important because, you know, one of the stories that I. There's so many stories in your book, man, that I personally gravitate towards. I think I messaged you, like, after I was about 3/4 of the way through. It's like, dude, we have more in common than we probably realize.

I don't doubt it.

And that is this. The concept of. I remember this. I guess this phrase that you said, and I jotted it down, says it says, well, the reason I'm so bad is because I'm in foster care.

Yeah.

You know, and I wonder how many of us have something like that that is kind of like the. The threshold or the.

The.

The barrier that has to be broken through to really shape our identity. So talk about Anthony Trucks, who is. Was in the reason I'M so bad is because of foster care. And the Anthony Trucks was like, over here, that's like now I'm talking to thousands of people on a regular basis, on a consistent basis. Empowering minds. Like, what is the different mindset shift between the two?

Yeah, yeah, fascinating. Well, the thing was that, that was actually a statement said outside of me that I overheard by a girl that was actually stating what I was probably saying inside, we'll call it.

Yeah.

And it was like this, this blame on the fact that foster care was the cause of all the demise. Right. And so that that guy at that moment when he first heard it was still in that mindset of that. But then it was interesting as I got to hear this excuse out loud that didn't sound proper to sound like off. Like that's not a good excuse as to why you don't do anything great in life. And I mean, way back, that was 15 years old, man. Way back then it was like, I'm not gonna. I gotta find a way to be better than this. I was like, I'm gonna do football, I'm gonna do. Right. The progression to now has been a massive up and down journey. The difference I think between the two is that that guy at that age felt like a leaf in the wind. Right. It was just like, I'm at the whim of the world and no matter what I do, I'm not in control. You know, I'm a minor still at that point.

Yeah.

And even then I've been shipped around from house to house and just. You don't have any control. Right.

Yeah.

Whereas now I have, I have a different sense of control and power. Our company's motto, or like mission, we'll call it actually is to get people to have an internal state. Be in a limitless state of ridiculous power.

Yeah.

And it sounds odd, right? But it's like, if you think about it, like I want to have this sense of power for life. There's nothing wrong with. I'm not talking about power like, you know, Dr. Evil Power. I'm not going to push buttons and have lasers on shark's heads, but I want to have a power that says I'm in control of what's going on. If, say my relationship is off, like I'm in control of helping me better. If the business isn't doing very well, I'm in control of making it, you know, do better. If my body's not right, I'm in control. And that's the thing that's powerful because when you have that it makes you start going, man, if I can do this, what more can I do?

Mm.

It's a different level of expansion and possibility. And so that's where I think the difference is for me. And that guy was like, I have a different expansion of what I have inside as a belief of what's possible based on the power that I believe I hold.

Yeah, well. And I think that that builds off of little wins along the way.

Yeah.

Right. So, you know, you didn't step out of that.

That.

That mindset, you know, and. And almost taking your life and then going through that scenario and then immediately stepping on stage and then motivating, you know, thousands of people all at one time, you know, And I think that's one of the reasons why it's so important for people to understand that what their ultimate dream is is still being formulated. And it's formulated as you're taking the steps and creating whatever, you know, whatever the dream is in front of you right now. Right. So the other thing that I loved about what you did and how you broke it down is. Is you took the time to actually break it down. And what. So it wasn't. So Identity Shift is not just a book about healthy identity. Right. It's a framework to take the lowest form of self confidence and basically build bulletproof self confidence.

Yeah.

And one of the tools that you talk about. And again, I'm not giving away the whole book today, so you guys have to grab it and read it and digest it. I've highlighted the mess out of mine. So is this concept of basically starting with the end and working backwards, like learning, because, you know, we start what. I guess it's like a lack of a better word. The word of deconstruction comes to mind. You kind of deconstruct to kind of reconstruct. Walk us through that a little bit.

Yeah. So in order for you to figure out where you want to go, I actually have a thing called a GPS planner, because the GPS concept makes way more sense to me. So we all. We all say, I want to do this next thing. We have a very big dream, but we don't have a vision. So it's kind of like, I know the city, but not the address.

I want to make more money, but I don't know how much I want to have a better relationship. I don't know what that looks like, you know, and so what I look at is if you want to actually think about what identity I should shift into, you first got to think about what is it that I really want. Because most people know more about what they don't want than what they do.

Yeah.

So part of it's crafting, like, what is it that I actually want? And then once you know that, okay, who is the person that has that? And we think through it and we create that actual vision. I have this idea of, this is what I. What I want my life to look like, what I want to experience, who I want to wake up in the morning and feel like this is me to my core at a level that feels aligned. Right. And then now I can go back and. Okay, great. Where am I starting now?

Yeah.

Because GPS doesn't just take into account the destination.

See, and that was the part I liked about it because everybody's always using the. Like, the end result.

Yeah. Well, you need to know the current location, dude. Yeah, that's what it asked me. My thing. It says current location. It's always highlighted where you're at. Like. Yeah, typically current location. But if you don't know the current location, you can't chart the blue line. Therefore, you have no idea. It's like going out of your house, wandering around town, hoping, I'm getting to that house. And that is the problem, I think, with a lot of people, is they have an idea of the place they want to go, but they don't even know where that really is. They don't know where they're starting, and they can't have any idea at that point if the path they're on is the right one.

Yeah. No, that's so good. You know, there were so many. There's so many gems inside this book. Literally, I will be read, probably rereading it two or three more times. There was this phrase that you mentioned, and I don't even. It's funny, because when I hang out with you or talk to you or whatever, whether it's on a podcast or clubhouse or whatever we're doing. Right. Even in your work, I think you drop little gems along the way, and you have no idea you dropped them.

Yeah, usually I do. I talk a lot. Yeah.

Well, in a good way. Right. But, you know, you have this phrase, and here's what it says. It says, if you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them.

Oh, it's not mine, but it's a good one. Yeah. Yeah.

I. That stuck with me because most people that I've been helping. Right. Most people that we both help, from my perspective, when you go to talk to them, you have to break down this defensive barrier of these different excuses, and different things that they've constructed in front of them that are actually impeding their progress. And you're like, no, you can be more. And they're like, I want to be more, but I don't want to be more. Like, it's kind of like it's a battle. Yeah. So how have you been able to unlock so many people?

Yeah. Well, the thing is, that was Gay Hendricks, in his book Good to Great, he talks about if you get to. If you fight for limitations, you get to keep them. And I kind of threw it in because it ties into how ego shows up for a lot of us. Ego is this thing that I call ego, everyone's greatest obstacle, because it's the one barrier to my ability to give myself permission to improve. Yeah, I don't permit myself to do the work to improve. I never improve. And so what a lot of people do is they'll have this ego protecting. And what it does is it protects the current identity in good and bad ways. Right. It could protect the part of, like, it's like protecting an army. Right. Let's say we're protecting this army. Well, part of the army is the army that's like, we're good moms and dads, so I show up for my kids to take them to school. Right. Other part is protecting the part of the army that sucks, which is like, I don't know, I eat trash food and, you know, I'm mean to people I don't know. You know, I hate the waiters. I mean, to them, whatever it may be. And then that ego will always protect that whole entire army, that identity. And what you end up have happening is people, whenever they have an area that needs improvement, the ego shows up and protects it. Therefore, they're fighting for that limitation. Because that's a limitation we're talking about. It's fighting because I don't want you to see a chink in my armor. I don't want to feel less than. I don't want to feel like I must improve. And so people will do a whole lot of things to justify why that is. And that's where the fighting takes place. It takes place in the justification for this situation, this moment in time, why it's their fault, why it's not my fault. And that's you fighting. And then what happens is, if you fight, you never give yourself permission to improve, therefore you get to keep that limitation.

Yeah. And, you know, it's. It's interesting because it seems like the harder you fight for that limitation, the more that limitation is prevails over your life, and the more you begin to release ego and start. And I tell you what, I tell you what's helped me, you know, because I think for that gritty young man that the homeless kid that, you know, went to go build a business and stuff like that, there was a certain amount of arrogance at the time that I kind of needed, like, I needed almost like a false sense of belief for a little while. Right. And then you get to the point you're like, okay, I don't need that anymore. And then you realize the importance of serving other people and how serving other people actually gives you more fulfillment than fighting for the limitation that you had.

Yeah.

Right. So it seems like maturity comes when we're actually taking the time to walk through the process and basically not allow insecurities to shake our identity. Right. And one of the things you talk a lot about in the book, that really there's so much that gravitate that I gravitate towards, is how insecurities shape identity. Like, talk. Break it down for the. For the audience. Because I think that. I think there's a lot of. I think a lot of us, if we're honest with ourselves, if we're honest with ourselves, we would say, yeah, I have days where I'm insecure. I have weeks or months, even years. Right. Help us break that down and kind of work that out.

Yeah. When security is a feeling that doesn't have to live on, you know, it's. That's the thing. It's a way I feel about something. And I would be lying if I came here and said, there's not moments where I question, like, I'm going to go on a stage next week in front of 3,500 people that are 15 to 200, you know, 2,000 people online and funnel hacking live. I'd be lying to you if part of me doesn't go, ooh, you okay, dude?

It's a little intimidating.

Yeah, it is. And it's. I think it's supposed to be at certain levels, there's a great deal of confidence to go up there, but at the same time, there's that little voice. It's a feeling, but it's a. It's a momentary feeling. It does. It's not a conversation I explore where I think some people let that. That emotion, it just lives on. And so what ends up happening is I live in a way where that is fueling. And it's like people ask what identity is. It's in the book. It's. It's who you are when you aren't thinking about who you are. Right. It's a flow. And if part of your not thinking about who you are is tainted or poisoned by this scarcity or this lack of anything or an insecurity, well, you'll show up in ways that'll actually be detrimental to your life. You'll be short with people. You won't let people in, you won't trust. You won't even shoot for much. Because your thought is, if I go and get a whole lot more people are going to know how much I suck or I'm going to just fall from a higher level. I'm going to fall from grace. It's going to hurt more because the higher I went up. And so what happens is people live in ways that keep them in this box, and it sucks because they don't even know they're in the box.

And it.

It really starts building a life. And then people go, well, how does your identity build your life? Well. Well, what builds your life? It's actions, right? Yeah. Actions build your life. Okay, great. What fuels your actions? What's emotions? Okay, cool. So if emotions are the things that are fueling actions that build my life, well, then what fuels the emotions? What's thoughts and beliefs? And those thoughts and beliefs are led by your identity. And so your identity is coming through unconsciously in your actions. So if it's going on and you're not aware of it and it's fueling the actions that are creating your life. Yeah, it's creating your life. And if you have that sense of scarcity or if you have a sense of insecurity that is actually building your life and you don't know it.

Yeah. And as a result, you get more of the same always, you know. Yeah. I mean, one of the biggest shifts that I made a number of years ago was understanding that I was creating each day versus I was living each day, you know, and it gave me a new level of perspective to begin to not even try harder. Right. Because I'm. I like to work like, I love what I do, just like you do. Right. We love what we do, but more importantly, like, learning the why behind what we do so that what we do is more. More fulfilling and more enjoyable. Right. You know, you also have this concept that I. That you call the life Mastery Loop, that, that is more of a. A framework to kind of work out of what we just discussed. Would you mind talking about that for a second?

Yeah. Yeah. It's so the, the way we process every Day. It's. It's a consistent loop always running. It's. It's kind of what I just described. You have an identity that goes to beliefs, to thoughts, to actions, to feelings. These feelings are. Sorry, beliefs. To thoughts, to feelings, to actions. Actions create outcomes. Outcomes tell us our environment, inside, how we feel, and outside, what we see in that is what fuels and anchors down our identity. And so this loop is always running. It's not like it. You just decide to start it. It's always already there. The problem is, while it's in motion, it's rolling downhill or it's rolling flat hill. It's not rolling uphill. And it's because in our heads, we don't see ourselves as identifying as that next great, whatever level. So our beliefs are less, our thoughts are less, our emotions are minimal. So the actions are half actions. The outcomes aren't that great. So the environment I live in says, look, see, not that great. And it re. Ingrains the identity. So when I work with people, my goal is how to get this, like, spinning uphill. How do you make it go in this flow, which is in a positive direction? You have to get to the level of really going, where can I enter in? And that's between a person's emotions and actions, feelings and actions. And if I can step in and take an unconfident action, an action that doesn't feel right, or one that is like, ooh, scares me. Which we've all done before. We've done something scary. Well, look what happened. You did something scary. Boom. All of a sudden, it's like, oh, it worked.

Yeah.

And I have this outcome that's amazing. And I have this environment inside of like, well, maybe I can. And in my life, maybe I made some more money and I see a better life up front. Wow. So I actually start adjusting and loosening the concrete of what I see my identity to be. And I have different beliefs, which fuel different thoughts, which create different emotions and different actions in a positive way. And now it spins uphill. So right now, it's already going for everybody listening. It's now a matter of where do you step in and renegotiate the way that loop is rolling and get it going uphill by taking it on confident action.

Yeah. I mean, I'm sure you get this question a lot. I know I do. Um, it's like, how do I build self confidence? How do I build self confidence? How do I build self confidence?

It's like, you build it.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You get started. How do you Build a house. How do you build a house? Yeah, you start with the footing and you work your way up, right?

Yeah, yeah, dude, that's it. You build it. You build confidence. Build is the word that's there. You build. Building is an actionable word. Like it's a verb. It's not this. Build it by sitting in my head thinking it doesn't happen. You don't just. You have to go and get your hands dirty.

Well, it seems like that most of us. And again, I'm speaking for myself. Early on, one of the reasons that I was hesitant to build self confidence or get. Get building was cause I was thinking that I needed to go from here to here in one swoop.

No, you don't. It's actually not good.

No, you know, it's. And I think that's. I think it's where we all get it wrong. That's why it seems so intimidating. The other thing is we take the complex. I'm sorry, we take the simple and make it more complex than it needs to be. Right. And as I've been, you know, working with folks and then learning even from you, and then kind of some of the mutual friends we have, one of the things I see commonly amongst, amongst everybody is no one is trying to get from zero to a thousand. Everybody's going from zero to 100, 100, 200, 200 to 300, 300 to 400. You know what I'm saying? As far as like progressive. Yeah, progressive. Constant progression. So, you know, I've always said, you know, the reason we named the show Stuck to Unstoppable was because Stuck is nothing more than not making progress. Unstoppable, on the other hand, is nothing more than making progress.

That's it. You just keep going. It's. I live by the concept of fall in love with the day, not the destination. Best I can. Is it. Is it perfect? No. I have things I want to do and place I want to go and things I want to see. But I actually put counted effort towards enjoying my day. There are things I don't like doing and I get them out of my life. Sometimes it takes longer than I'd like. You know, there's certain, like, people I don't want to talk to or different parts of my schedule I try to slowly maneuver away. But I realized like I am, I'm trying to fall in love with my enjoyable day because then I show up better for myself, my family and my work. It just is what it is. And that's because I know the things I'M choosing to do are taking me in the direction of the dream. And then if I just love doing those things, and I'll just do those things, and all of a sudden, boom, like, the dream arrives. I get to be on a stage, I get to have a book. I get to be on Good Morning America. Right. These things, I wasn't shooting for those, but I was shooting to do the actions. And if I hated the actions, I would have eventually stopped them. If I hate doing the small things, I don't get the big things. So if you love the small things. Right. The big things come.

Absolutely. You know, one of these things that I. I guess I want to maybe pick your brain on. This is more of a. More me picking your brain on something that's on my mind.

Yeah.

How does. How does one person shape a healthy identity.

When those that they love most may not see what they see for themselves?

Yeah. So when you don't have the people that you want to be. So we have a. Like, a accepted realm of people. Right. We have, like, a group, a tribe, we'll call it. And whenever we start doing things outside of what the tribe is, we have to determine do we want the tribe to feel at peace or us.

Yeah.

Because if you know you want to do something, you don't go do it. Then the tribe is happy, but then you're not.

Yeah.

Here's a thing. The tribe is a collective of people. Right. So you are actually part of the tribe. So even the tribe is happy. The tribe is not happy.

Yeah.

Because part of the tribe isn't happy. That makes sense. We call it meta. So what I talk about, and then when I tell people, like, how do we do that? I say, look, man, it's gonna feel weird. Robin Sharma says change is always hard in the beginning, messy in the middle, beautiful at the end.

Yeah.

That journey is gonna end up being something where people typically. It will go the route of trying something new. And someone in the tribe goes, odd, stupid. Stop doing. And they go, oh, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna stop doing it. Right. And I go, no, no, no. That's the moment where you keep going. What do you mean you keep going? Here's why. They're gonna see the first time go, you're crazy. Stop doing it. Second time, go, why are you still doing that? Third time, go. You're still doing it. Fourth time, go, why are they still doing it? Fifth time, go. They're really still doing that. The six, seven time. Like, wow, that's who they are now. Yeah, that's the journey to it. And then what they do is they. If they love you, which the right people will love you. They may look at it like it's weird, but they'll go, I see you happy. Yeah, Support. You see what it is. Right. But that's a journey. It took me a long time for even my wife to understand thoroughly and accept thoroughly what I do. You know, it's. It's an interesting journey. I love it. But I stayed the course and I stayed the path, and it panned out, you know, in an amazing way. But the reality is not everybody's gonna support it, and that's okay. Your job is to be the one that's the first leader of the movement. And then when you lead it and they see the emotion behind it now, they'll get on board. And that's what's gonna happen when people in your own tribe don't believe you at first.

Yeah, I mean, that's. And I've lived that numerous times in my life. I remember my father, when I went to go first start my first business, of course he had the. You know, he had a business failure that he decided not to try again, which, you know, that's. That's a choice we can all make. But that fear, he pointed my direction, said, you don't want to do this. You don't want to start this business. You don't want the entrepreneurial life. You don't want this. And for me, I knew that. I knew that. I knew that I needed this, but I wasn't sure what it would look like. I didn't have a plan. I didn't have all that stuff. And I wanted my dad to be happy. I wanted to be happy with me. I want my wife to be happy with my kids to be happy with me. I want to be present and be attentive, you know? But it was this interesting situation that, like, you were just talking about. I went for year one, year two, year three, year four, year five, year six. Not really making.

Financial, like, true financial sense for almost five years before all of a sudden, you know that you are overnight. You're basically an overnight success after, you know, five or six years. Right. And I'll never forget this. My dad comes back to me and he says. He says, I just want to tell you I'm proud of you. And I always knew you could do it. I was like, huh? Like, I don't get that. Right.

Yeah.

Crazy part was, is. And this is why I think your book is so important for a lot of people. Because if they can get their identity underway. They can develop the courage and the confidence to pursue what we just talked about, to take those stairs and take those levels.

Whether we realize it or not, we're giving those that we love most the courage to follow in the footsteps and do the same. And if we don't take that step, they don't follow either. Did you have that kind of situation as well as you were kind of like shaping this brand and all this kind of stuff?

No, man, I was solo, dude. Well, yeah, I mean, my family, I'm always been the oddball. I was the only athlete in the family. I was only one. You know, everybody's pipe fitters and they do welding stuff. And so we have these meetings of the family. We hang out and they're like talking about stuff that's Spanish to me, and I don't speak Spanish, so I wasn't a weird winner. And then, you know, in the world of what I do, I definitely. My one point, my wife and best friend were like, bro, chalk this stuff up. This doesn't work, and go get a job. And I would tell them back then I say the Anthony that. That would have a job would not be the Anthony that you'd want to be around. Yeah, it's not for me. It's. It's not. And I'm not saying it in a way of like, it's below me in any way. I just know I'd be a really bad employee. I wouldn't. I'm not built to live your vision out. I'm built to serve people. Where I. To tuck this behind a desk at a 9 to 5 would be. I feel like it'd be wasting God's gifts to me.

Yeah.

And like, I had that and I had this interesting belief in me that other people didn't have. And it wasn't in what I was going to accomplish. It was who I was going to be.

Yeah.

That's the big difference. It wasn't like I never told him, I'm going to do this and I'm going to make this never. I was just like, no, I'm going to become a guy who has some kind of impact in a positive way in the world based on where I came from, because no one that looks like me does what I do. Right. And so that was always a thing. And yes, it is met with a lot of weird looks because it's not normal.

Yeah, it is.

Just not that there's a small, small minority of individuals like us who are.

Crazy enough to put ourselves out there. Like that.

Yeah. And that's okay. The world still, the world needs us as much as it needs everybody else. I need everybody else to do what they do so I can do what I do. It's a collective, you know, everybody needs. And so, yeah, there's going to be. If you have that itch that's like, there's something more. You got to realize that that itch is one that only you can scratch. But here's the thing is no one's going to notice the itch or being scratched until it's been scratched.

Yeah, that's true.

There's going to think you're crazy.

Yeah. And I. Lord knows, I've, I'm, I'm. I've. I'm still seeing that from time to time on my journey. The, the reality is, is if you, if you desperately feel like you're ultimately called to serve at scale, identity is the first step. Right before blueprints, before frameworks, before, you know, planning out your social media and all this kind of stuff to build your audience. It all starts with you, because had you not done that work, we wouldn't even be talking right now.

No, you wouldn't. Because all the things that I knew to do, I wasn't doing until I became the guy to do it. It's like they're all tools. It's all information. It's all stuff you can utilize, but if you aren't the person to utilize it yet, it won't get utilized. It's like giving a. A hammer to a baby and saying, build a house.

Yeah.

Or giving a hammer to a construction worker saying, build a house.

Yes.

Right. Person, same tool.

Yeah. So good. So good. Well, dude, everybody's got to check out Identity Shift. Everybody's got to grab it. I'm very fortunate. I have a few hundred copies for our. For our attendees at Transform you Live, which I'm excited about. Can't wait for you to sign those and all that good stuff. But, you know, where can everybody else get the book for. For right now and learn more about you?

Yeah. If you go to identity shiftbook.com identity shiftbook.com I say it because people can mess it up. And then if you go through the process of getting the book and come back to step three on that same page, use the code live, you'll be able to get a free audiobook, free digital book, and a $97 workbook for free.

Love it, man. Love it, dude. Man, always. I sincerely, always enjoy hanging out with you, man. You always.

Ditto, man.

Think and reflect and awesome, dude. Thank you so much.

So very welcome. We'll see you soon, too. In October, I believe.

Yeah, sounds good. All right, man. Take it easy.

See you, dude. Take him.

If you love that interview, go ahead and check out this next one right here. Because of the experience of feeling super stuck at certain points in my life and living inside of funks in a certain point in my life, identify now, looking backwards, that those periods of being down were connected to times when I was not growing.