In this reflective vlog, Tony Stark Policci recounts a recent stretch of days marked by low energy, a Memorial Day holiday, and a series of personal responsibilities. He describes waking early for a two‑hour gym session, completing a presentation and a pre‑recorded summit interview, and taking a long walk with his wife. The holiday’s somber tone leads to a more relaxed mindset, yet he still pushes through his task list. The emotional core of the video centers on a longtime friend with advanced muscular dystrophy who asked Tony to voice chapters of a video‑diary legacy project. Listening to his friend’s story moves Tony to tears and prompts a deep reflection on gratitude as a perspective‑based choice, the responsibility to overcome inertia, and the limits of simply “choosing” happiness when mental or medical challenges arise. He contrasts his approach with the extreme perseverance of David Goggins, acknowledging both the value of relentless push‑through and the need for surrender at times. The vlog ends with Tony affirming his progress, expressing hope for rest, and committing to continue navigating life’s challenges with intentional effort.
Chapters
Report that the rest of yesterday went extremely well. So after I got out of the gym, in spite of not having a lot of energy, not wanting to really step into the responsibilities that I had that day, I, you know, I just got into it and tackled it. I mean, I got it done. I got my presentation complete. I did my pre-recorded interview for the summit that I'm speaking at, and it went very well. Spent the rest of the day, you know, just checking things off my list, getting things done. That was great. Today, woke up, was at the gym at 5:20. Did not, you know, have a lot of energy, motivation, right? It was another day where I just didn't feel that natural, hey man, let's get up and go, but Went, spent 2 hours in the gym, came home, took a long walk with my wife, like an hour and 15 minutes. It was good. And today was a bit of a lazy day in just the way that it felt because it's a holiday and my brain knows it's a holiday. And even though this is not a happy holiday, this is not a holiday that's joyous to me, I very much recognize the somberness and the you know, the meaning behind Memorial Day. So that's, you know, as I record this, it is Memorial Day evening. But, you know, this, there's like this conditioning, right, for 3-day weekends for many, many years, right? And even though I've run my own business for decades, so, you know, 3-day weekends don't necessarily mean very much to me because nobody's paying me to stay home. It's just the awareness that there's a holiday and other people, you know, their schedules and their lives fluctuate based on, you know, national holidays and things like that. So it just felt a little more relaxed, which was good. I still, you know, chunked through my list of tasks and was very accomplished. Actually, I did something tonight that was very meaningful. I have a friend that has muscular dystrophy and we've been friends for a couple decades now. And I have watched him as he's gone through surgery after surgery and his condition has degraded to the point where, you know, he's gone into a wheelchair and then has become basically a paraplegic. Now can just barely speak and only, you know, use his eyes to communicate with a computer and things like that. Well, he gave me some chapters of a book that he's working on. It's more of a kind of a video diary legacy piece, and he asked me if I would be the voice, if I would record it. And as I was going through this tonight and recording this, man, was I really struck with how great I have it, you know. The stories he's telling about what he's been through in his life, even though I've known him for many, many years, he never shared some of this stuff with me. And as I was reading it, there were oftentimes I got so choked up I had to actually stop my recording and restart. Because I mean, I can't be telling this story and weeping in the midst of it, right? But, you know, it just reminded me that gratitude is really perspective-based, right? There's always something to be grateful for. And as I I wish I could tell you the story here and give you the comparison, but my point is this. Really, gratitude is a choice. Energy is a choice. So many things are choices, and it's easy to fall into this victim mentality when things aren't going well, when things are difficult. And it's also our responsibility, my responsibility, to live the best life that I can, to give everything that I've got, and to overcome inertia, to overcome resistance, to overcome, um, you know, lethargy. Uh, and you know, if there's medical issues, if there's psychological issues, I mean, if there's clinical depression, there's other things, you know, you can't just, okay, make a decision to be happy. Sure, we may need help at times. We may need a lot of help. And the, you know, I think my responsibility, my gift back to God for this gift of life is to just do my level best every single day. So I don't always do that. And, you know, that's the point of this stretch is to shift into a way of being that is better, where I'm leveling up, right? So I'm rambling. I think I got off on a tangent here when I started thinking about my friend's book. But what I want to leave you with tonight is that in spite of how the past few days have been challenging, and my energy has been low and it's taken an awful lot of intention and pushing through resistance. I, you know, am making progress and still doing that. So, I would love to just get on here and say, man, everything's fantastic, I am charging through life, let's go, let's go, let's go, you know, let's David Goggins our way through this. And some days I actually feel like that. The past few, I just haven't. And that's okay because I can still David Goggins my way through life, just at a different level, right? I don't know that I would want to be going through life like David Goggins style, because he, you know, really just beats himself to death. But the fact that we can get through hard things, we can press on in spite of difficulty, in spite of tremendous adversity, you know, we just keep going, right? It's like sometimes the best strategy is is just not to quit. So, and at other times the best strategy is to surrender, and there's a difference. So anyway, that's it for tonight. I, uh, I'm looking forward to getting a good night's sleep. Hopefully that happens, and I will talk to you in the next video.
