Running Away, or Moving Toward?

Download Show | “Yesterday we discussed the concept of… at what point in your life did you start allowing yourself to live a less than exemplary life? At what point did you make the decision to start allowing the bad things happen in your life.

We used the example of the cigarette. How does someone force them self to pick up the cigarette and do the most disgusting thing in the world and stick this thing in their mouth and blow smoke through their body and start killing them self? And yet, continue be willing to do this, to force one’s self to do this until one becomes so comfortable with death that it becomes the norm.

So the point was: where did you decide to start making the middle class to lower class financial decisions and living that type of a lifestyle? At what point did you decide to start making those decisions?

For many of us, I don’t believe we had a choice, I don’t believe there was ever a choice poised to us when we were younger; we just started doing what everybody else was doing around us was going to do, which was go and get a job, save your money, invest in safe, guaranteed investments, and work for the rest of your life and hope you have some money left over when you get done… hope you don’t run out of money before you die.

That’s the basic concept, some of you throw in going to college first… go and get a good education and then get a job; but that’s the basic belief system. Now where is it and when does it occur that you could have had some other ideas and options?

Well right now, you have those ideas and options presented to you, so what do you need to do? You need to start taking steps towards where you want to go.

I remember when I was 200 pounds in 4th grade… I was overweight, and I got ridiculed. Back then, kids were not too kind to overweight kids, and so it was something that I wanted to change in my life.

I knew that I didn’t intend to be a fat kid, but somehow I was a fat kid… so I started looking at what I was doing that made me a fat kid, and comparing that to what other people were doing to not be fat kids. And realization that there are genetic differences between people there, but I realized very early on that I could change my body type if I so wished to.

So I started researching, studying, and learning what to do. I started out very slow, I mean I was so far out of shape, I couldn’t run the 600 yard dash, that’s like 1 and a half times around the track and I couldn’t do it. That’s how out of shape I was… and so I started working out.

I started with just the easiest of things: calisthenics believe it or not. I started working out on a really inexpensive barbell set that found at a garage sale that I bought for like 10 bucks.

And then I got books on dieting and exercise and I started increasing it and working with it. In just no time at all, I’d lost like 50 pounds. And not only did I lose 50 pounds, I gained confidence that I could accomplish whatever I wanted, so I started training to be an athlete.

Instead of looking at it from getting away from being something, which was getting away from being fat; I changed my outlook to looking towards something which was going towards being a competitive athlete.

Interestingly enough, I see the same thing here. Many of us in life are just trying to get away from being in impoverished… from being broke… get away from having bad credit. That is such a difficult place to start from, to start from getting away.

Tony Robbins says that everything we do in life is for one of two reasons: to gain pleasure or to avoid pain. The reality is that people will do 10 times as much to avoid pain than they will to increase their pleasure. The example that he uses in that is: if I call you at 4 o’clock in the morning and say I’ll give you a $100 if you run down the street in your underwear, you probably wouldn’t do it… but if I called you at 4 o’clock in the afternoon and say that I just saw a guy down the street with your kid’s $100 bicycle, you’d come flying out that door in your underwear and chase him down the street… because the fear and pain of loss is much greater than the pleasure of gain.

So in this case, we’re forced with this dilemma: almost all of the average person’s motivation comes from going away from instead of going towards. You’re not out there going towards being rich, you’re not going out there going towards retiring at an early age… you’re out there staying away from being broke, staying away from being impoverished, staying away from having bad credit, staying away from being unemployed, all of your ideas, all of your will is utilized in avoiding failure.

Now, when you use all of your energy, and all of your will, and focus all of your attention on avoiding failure, you only have two options: basic survival or failure… because none of your energy, none of your ideas, none of your motivation is being used towards success.

That’s the important thing here today my friends: we want to start thinking about success. Why don’t you think you could retire in 2 to 3 years? It’s possible. Many people have done it. At Lifestyles, lots of people have done it. You just have to take those steps. You have to change the way you utilize your mind and your physical energy. By doing that, you’re going to be able to change your life… not from mediocrity to poverty, but from mediocrity to massive success.

That’s the difference, my friends. That’s what we want to talk about.

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