Marcus Aurelius Anderson on adversity and doing the work!

What's going on? Ladies and gents, Robert Sikes keto Savage.com and today I have special repeat guests, Marcus, Aurelius Anderson, Mindset Extravaganza is about to be undertaken. So without further Ado, how are you man? Paradigm phenomenal? I love talking to you and I like you said, our conversations are always a enlightening. So I'm looking forward to get another one of these and continue to many more in the future. I agree man. I agree. That's always a pleasure

catching up with you. I feel like every time we get off the phone I feel much more just like at peace. Peace with where I'm at in life, but then also much more, you know, excited and ramped up about where I'm going. Like, it just is a mindset. I don't know. It's like a reboot almost. Yeah. Yeah. We re download some software, get some upgrades and then just keep pushing forward. She chairman, do you remember the time frame of our last

podcast? We've talked several times since then, but I do remember, when we recorded the last one, was over a year ago, I believe. Wasn't it over a year ago. That wouldn't surprise me. It's been a while. It's been a minute. It's crazy because I know you've A lot, you know, happened to your life since then I've had a lot happened to me since then as well. I feel like I'm coming coming at you from a very different Foundation now than I was a year ago.

I was, I was still pretty broke a year ago. Yeah. You you had tremendous success and you've improved in Leaps and Bounds and many facets and I've already told you about officially congratulations, on your engagement, that's phenomenal, very happy for you and Crystal again, like you said, you've really expanded You you're truly taking the entrepreneurial journey and now

you are truly scaling. The Aikido brick is destroying it. You're a lot of the programs that you have or just really revolutionizing what's going on in the space and then it's really helping get to other people. You've run that Marathon since we spoke the first time you really kind of dealt into a an extended fast. Which again these are all the ways that we really push ourselves and ask more of ourselves and if if we don't you know try to push the Is at least

in some capacity. It's really difficult for us to continue to evolve and you've absolutely did a phenomenal job, you know, doing that over the last, you know, 12 months. So, I'm really impressed with you when I certainly appreciate a man, but I definitely don't want this podcast be about me by any means, but I'm excited to hear what all you kept going on because you've been, you've been just crushing it on the front as well. Speaking of fast, you just

concluded your 5-day fast. So kind of give us some insight actually before before we dump it, jump into the weeds here for anybody that has Has not heard of you has not listened to the prior podcast or doesn't know who you are. Can you give us like a little quick bio on Marcus Aurelius Anderson? Absolutely, I'm Marcus release Anderson. I'm a tedx speaker. A keynote speaker, best-selling. Author of the book that get to

diversity. My tedx talk is by the same name that give to diversity and clearly, that's kind of what I speak around. That's why in my wheelhouse, but it really lends itself really well to leadership as well as being a personal development, of course. Just a little bit of a back drop in 2012, always preparing to deploy with the US Army. I suffered a severe, spinal injury, a disc in my neck was ruptured. They send me to the hospital immediately because I was having

a hard time. Just breathing, I was paralyzed from the neck down and when they operate on me, I lose me on the operating table twice. So I Flatline completely. So when I wake up in the ICU, the doctors here a congratulatory says, hey, you know, we launched you a couple times, but you live to tell the tale mr.

Anderson But unfortunately, even though they were able to bring me back to the land of the living, I was told listen what you have right now which is paralysis has but you're going to have for the rest of your life. So start wrapping your mind around that. And that's when I really kind of began my. There are many Falls and there are many injuries and many adversities in our lives. But for me, that was the

probably the lowest point. And the must have followed were when I really had to take a lot of deep soul-searching and brutally honest, reality checks and kind of call myself on my own, you know, Yes, and that's when I really started kind of crawling back up and seeing what I was really made up because it's so interesting. And I saw this in the military. I've seen this in martial arts is Canadian in training as well.

We all have these Concepts and we all have these beliefs about what we think we'll do when we Face something hard and we assume from this precious vacuum which we live, that that's what we're going to do. But there are many times that I've seen people that I thought that would be incredibly

resilient. I've seen them Buckle Under Pressure, I've since I've seen Seen some people that I thought would never be able to get above and beyond any hardship and they've completely leveled up and and Rose to the occasion because of adversity. So it's very important to put yourself within that tether often because if you don't do so it's really, really easy to start lying to yourself in all

of a sudden. Now, when you actually run into something really difficult, you really don't know what you're made of. And if you find out at the last second, it's almost like jumping, you know, falling in the water and then realizing, oh, I don't know how to swim. It's too late. Now you have to already have this mentality built up within you and for my life between martial arts and all kinds of other things I've been through. That's what actually ended up serving me and really helping me

get through my, my difficulty. And, and now that's a, that's why I'm the man that you're speaking to you today about not, I love a man like I've got chills up and down my spine because we really do Vin to them on the first podcast to. So, if anyone has not heard that one highly, highly, highly recommend you listen to it, but I mean, I'm on the same page.

100% agree with you like the adversity and just having having hard shit happened to you, is what defines you and makes you who you are and mold you into somebody that can actually be resilient towards life. So I love it, man. I love hearing stories of people that have just gone through hell and back. And I love putting myself through hell and back. Kind of like this magic, is this, you know, way almost, because I just know that anytime

I'm doing something that's hard. Coming better for it's almost to a fault to the point where, like I'm doing things unnecessarily hard but I'm not gonna like it. Always pays itself board. I agree. And, you know, my book came out and then David Goggins book has come out a few months ago and it's really neat to because I had some people that came at me sideways with this whole, you know, how is it virtually a

gift? How can you think that and the people that are saying that are coming from a place, where they're either in hardship, or they don't want to face hardship and that's why that truth is not. Ring with them. But then David goggin has come out recently which even when I was in the military we would hear Whispers of his name. You know.

Before you know you were in Pre Ranger school and you would hear about it and you'd hear about this guy that was running until his feet were breaking and he was pissing blood but that was what he needed. And the reality for him is he had such deep seated demons that that was literally the only way to truly exercise them from him. So like you say having that hardship is important. But hearing him come out and hearing him come at such a very, you know, divisive kind of end

of the spectrum. It really kind of helps people see how important that is and just like you say, I was the same way I push my body to a fault, I literally felt a lot of issues and a lot of sympathy ology before my my fall as it were, but I like you said, I my mind continually just push my body because as a soldier as an entrepreneur we do not have the luxury of who's saying to ourselves. Eggs. Elavil, I don't feel like doing this for oval. I'm tired and it's an

interesting distinction. No, because for us, sometimes we understand this is just an emotion and I can control this. So I'm going to push through this, I don't have to want to do it to do it. I don't have to be in the mood to do these Sprint's, or to pick up this. Wait to do it, but we can get through it. The other thing is there is kind of that cautionary aspect of Footwear like you say, sometimes, you know, we don't

want to do irreparable damage. But you know, Gardens forty percent rule is absolutely in play and even if we can push ourselves to, you know, 41% of 42% or 43%, that compared to the average human being is, is above and beyond will ever experience in their lifetime. I had really hoped to. I've got David Goggins book, that's like the next step in my cue to listen to inaudible. We can't hurt me.

And I kind of wanted to listen to it before are recording today, but the same time I almost didn't want to because I wanted to see what would happen. Happened. And then kind of use that as momentum to go into the book, but I mean your book is awesome as well. I mean, like, like I think when we met initially, I had just finished reading the obstacles the way for the first time. I'm Ryan holiday and, and I had talked about that book on this

podcast multiple times. I'm sure my listeners are tired of hearing me say it but that book your book and then I'm sure can't hurt me. But by Goggins is literally probably going to be my three trifecta. We're just getting in there and digging deep when you need to, you know, that's exactly what it is and you'll get to see you know, you get to hear the same theme but you get to hear it from different from different points of view.

And since you mentioned holiday and Goggins, you know, I would I feel that I'm sort of like a meeting between the both of them because I tried to have that edge. But I also try to have that cerebral capacity because if all you have is the intellectual component that's going to alienate the people that are really about doing shit and had the blue-collar work ethic and then the people that just want

to push push through. If you don't have that edge and if you don't have that, authentic reality, then it's not going to ring true with them and they're gonna be like, well, this guy is just talking about your flowery bullshit, that's easy to say and and that's what separates, you know, that's where the rubber meets the road and that's when you can really see what somebody's made of as opposed to somebody who's just trying to pontificate and wax poetic about something that they

may, or may not have actually experienced themselves. Yeah, 100% agree. A lot of mindset books, man, they, they are not. Relatable at all. And I do they fill you up with a bunch of, you know, hoorah motivation, but nothing sticks. You know, like, nothing is applicable that you can actually use on a day-to-day basis, which is one of the reasons I really like, you know, Ryan holidays

work. Because like, even if you're even if it's not something that's, you know, quote, unquote hard, like, even if it's not a insurmountable obstacle in your life, but if you just go through the day-to-day and then your you find yourself having you know, emotions are strong opinions towards something. That that could cause you to do or say something that would not be optimal.

I mean, just simple, like I catch myself amongst all the time, I'll get flustered over something, stupid and just minuscule, and then I'll like take a step back and recognize that look. What just happened, is not making me have these emotions. I have complete control over my emotions. How I respond is totally within my own grasp. That's exactly it. And almost like with meditation, you know, we're all practicing stoics in some capacity. So there's never Perfection when

Going to be completely stoic. And, and have this complete resilience mentally, and be able to just allow things to roll off of us. But just like you said, it's, it's the exercise of catching yourself, and they bring new about yourself back to that Center, you know, ends in and taoism whatever it is, they call it. They talk about that. And that's exactly what it's

about. There are going to be undulations of our of our emotions, but the idea is to be aware of them to be cognizant of them, and then not to allow them to control us and understand that we're the ones that are in complete control. And having that radical accountability is what really separates.

Like I said people that are truly successful in the long run compared to people that, you know, grind for a couple of years and burnout or people the end up inadvertently just sort of, you know, completely losing their their focus. And now it's impossible for them to get anything really, where it should be in the amount of time that they have. So, I absolutely agree. And that's the other thing to

Goggins was so incredible. Because not only was he able to take that discipline because I've seen people that have apply discipline first. Him for example, in college, but they didn't have the physicality and then I've seen people that are just animals as athletes that had this, you know, this natural inclination to be very physical. But yet, then when you put them in a position to say, okay, well, we have to memorize this manual.

Get to study the ranger handbook to understand, how to Ambush correctly, that was their shortcoming. But for Goggins, he just took that ideal of discipline and says, listen I'm going to do this. When I do things physically, I'm going to do this when it comes to the discipline of diet and then when it comes to learning something, I'm he you'll read about it and I'm sure you've heard about it, but he talks about if he needs to to understand Emanuel. He had to get that manual.

He has to write out amongst all the material about 10 times to really. Truly get it into his hard drive and he said, that's the only thing that he could do. So even in the intellectual capacity, he was still using that resilience and that just work and just grinding it onto his, you know, to his brain. So that he could actually recall it as needed under those times of stress.

And I've always wanted to be able to do those kind of things, but in my mind for a while, I thought that there was a separation but he is an incredible example, that really, really reinforces the idea that discipline as the overarching premise, in addition to, you know, mindset and some other things, those are things that will they are evergreen. They will always be correct, and they will never, they will never

falter in the process. And that's why it's so important to exercise discipline, and so many different degrees. He's so whether it be fasting, whether it be a cold shower, whether it be working out when you don't feel like it. Whether it being getting up when you don't feel like it. We're again, like you said, having the ability to step back and look at either a conversation or somebody's view on something, it is, you know, contrary to our own.

That's what allows us to really level up and continue to evolve as opposed to moving backwards. Because, if we're really honest with ourselves, we are either moving forward in some of these capacities or we're moving backwards. There is very little Raw emotion. And so we have to be very objective and keep ourselves with that kind of self auditing mindset to keep us going forward. I can play the angry, man.

I think, I think a lot of people and I'm a big believer in the fact that people should, you know, be very self-aware. I think people like a lot of self-awareness these days especially with like the dilution that, you know, social media, everything plays, but being truly self-aware and knowing what your strengths and weaknesses are and leveraging your strengths and you So focusing on that rather than putting all the emphasis on your weaknesses is very key.

I'm all for that. But at the same time, there are so many areas in life where, you know, you have to be able to bring up those weaknesses and then being able to apply discipline towards those is going to be, you know, a Paramount importance, the middle. There's a lot of things that I do really well at and naturally gravitate towards. But those things in and of themselves would never be enough to give me the whole picture to

succeed. To the to the level that I would want to. So, I mean, like classic example be like, you know, making a website or learning how to edit a YouTube video. That that is not something that comes naturally to me. So I have to go in there and you know, upon the discipline figure out how to do that. Watch a bunch tutorial videos and just learn. And so many people, you know, strive for a greater life or something more in line with their passions.

Like they, they made to that desire to become a professional athlete or something, but they don't know how to manage themselves in the market. So from a business perspective they met have that natural Talent with the sport or whatever they given you know trade is our skill said but you have to apply the discipline to the other areas in order to bring that overall goal. Closer you absolutely have to.

And like you say, if your self-awareness isn't there, then it's impossible for you to even be cognizant of the fact that

you're weak in one area. So I was talking to somebody, not too long ago who are very good at just like you said, they're very good at their profession, but then when I pointed out, a couple of places where they were changing their armor, They can improve, they wanted to just sort of, you know, disallow that they wanted to dismiss it but that in and of itself is shows that that's where they need to work.

And again just like with the website or whatever it is if you can write a check and let somebody else take care of it, that's fine. But there is a tremendous amount of edification that you get from trying to do it yourself and the importance of that is just like with, again, like the prince reading about Machiavelli. Are this kind of ideals?

We need to read those types of things, not necessarily because we had that It that mentality that idea of trying to you know, screw somebody over as it were or be just ruthless in business but we need to be aware of that so that we don't get victimized by it as well. It's the same thing when you're if you have that knowledge that you were talking about the

website. Now if you go to somebody else's website or if you go to somebody who sent you to there's you have the wherewithal and you have this knowledge to be able to say yeah well I can tell that this was you know kind of thrown together haphazardly on you know WordPress and that kind of tells you a little A bit of where their priorities are, but if you see someone and you look at you like man, this thing is smooth

is very user-friendly. Like, the way transitions, you see, at least that person was smart enough to have somebody else that can do the work, that maybe they aren't as inclined. I completely agree, man, what do you think? Like I know this has been a keen interest in my leg because you know I feel like I'm very self-aware.

I feel like I've got a pretty good grasp on where my weaknesses are and you know can then act on improving upon them but And maybe I'm just totally oblivious and I'm not self-aware at all. It's impossible. But how did, how does one go about recognizing and being self-aware? Like, we all know that self-awareness is important but there's so many people. I feel like that are just delusional and there seems to I mean, I don't know how I would even explain to somebody, okay?

This is how you become self-aware. Like what, what is the the roadmap to self-awareness so to speak? Because there's a lot of people that would benefit from knowing how they are actually. Viewed in society and what their actual weaknesses are as opposed to where they, you know, have these these, you know, self-imposed thoughts that may not be anchoring.

Yes and that's a great place to start and we can start from macro or micro but usually it's easier to start from like a very small thing and then move out Ed my let, he's an incredible entrepreneur, the Mi light show, max out, the book, best-selling author, incredible, incredible entrepreneur. And he made a comment. He was talking about. There were a lot of people that will go through these kind of things and they'll try to do so many things.

All at one time, but and he was saying how a lot of the thoughts that we have in our mind around 85 to 90% of them, the thoughts, and the actions that we do are almost on autopilot.

So for a lot of us, we had this default settings, we get up in the morning, we could coffee, you know, we check email, social media, whatever it is, we cannot do that without thinking about it. So if you want to talk about your self-awareness and see where you're at, look at the things that you do every day on autopilot and see where you stand with that step back and take a good hard look and say, Say, you know, am I even enjoy my coffee?

Can I even taste it? Really because if you're drinking your coffee, while you're on the phone and doing something on the computer, you really not even tasting that that coffee. If you're working out and you're thinking about something else, you may not be focusing on that mind-muscle connection nearly as much as you probably could have. And the overlying concept for all these things is to have the the idea of quality over quantity in all that we do.

So have quality in this conversation have quality and your your attention level. Quality in the food that you consume have quality in the movements that you do. When you work out, you're going to get a hell of a lot more out of doing one all outset to failure.

If you have complete mind-muscle connection compared to doing, you know, five-pump sets where you're really not getting a whole lot out of it. So that would be the place that I was started as just start examining the things that you do every day that you kind of do without thinking about and then find the presence in that and by doing that that will help you see presence that everything else that you do and then you can expand and everything else if it's a conversation.

Ation, you have every morning. If you see your significant others say, Hey, you can morning or how are you? It's a fine. Stop for a second. And look, look at her body language. Are they fine? Are they just saying it and then kind of a lot to dictate the rest of your behavior from that. So just taking a small examination at those ideals would give you a pretty good indication where your level of self-awareness is or probably areas where you can improve as

well. So it seems like it has like a pretty pretty close parallel to just being present so self-awareness and being in the moment, kind of Then hand. What about as it relates to your place in like a community or like Society? So to speak like that, this is a, this is a tricky topic because, you know, part of me is on the side of look, I don't care what anybody else thinks. I'm just going to do me. Put my head down and work.

And the other part of me is like I care what everybody thinks because you know we're all a networking, you know, unit machine and the more efficient all those moving parts and pieces. Has you know flowing work together the better. So it's kind of like you know two sides of the same coin. Yeah it can be a slippery slope and a lot of times you have to do kind of a combination of both just like what you were discussing because his two sides

of the same coin. I have to be able to work ruthlessly and focus on my own things. But what I have to do is I also had to make sure that I have some sort of ethos or some sort of, you know, compost at this pushes me in the right direction. So if my idea is to become successful financially I have I understand that with that, I'm able to use that money to leverage it towards something else. So for example, every nonprofit that's ever asked me to come

speak. Their goal is to be able to bring me in, to be able to raise money for their service. Having said that, if I have the, the wherewithal financially to be able to write it, write them a check and give that to them. Now, I'm able to do more good with that in the process. So understanding where I stand in the environment like you were saying. But also seeing, you know, being able to look up. Enough and say okay, where can I do the most good work and I contribute, where can I help?

And then, where is an area that again? We talk about networks. There are so many things that we could get done, if we can reach out to our Network and ask, you know, maybe second or third Hanley if they understand, you know, something that we could do to try to improve whatever this is, it's it's incredible. Where we can do the same thing with everything from like during the holidays, or with homeless veterans. There's a lot that can be done.

So we have to be able to take care of ourselves. You know, kind of kind of the You're putting the oxygen mask on ourselves before we're trying to help other people out. It's a, it's difficult to pour from an empty vessel, so we have to maintain our own, you know, structural Integrity, as it were, to allow us to capacity to be able to help others in the long run. So that's it. And again, it is a slippery slope because for most of us, I think you're the same way. I am, we're very much about

extremes. Moderation does not behoove us. And so lots of times you have to once a month. What I do is I had these five different circles and I look at these different areas. So like a I look at my own personal development, like, at my financial development with my business. I look at my physical capacities, I look at my relationships, and I look at my spiritual awareness, and at any given time and these five

circles, I can look back. I'm a month and maybe I crushed it business, but maybe my workout slip, or maybe my business, my workouts were awesome that maybe my personal development wasn't there. Or, you know, maybe I was able to spend a lot of time in those three areas but then I didn't get to spend time with my family or my relationship slipped. If you can do this this will kind of help you.

Back and have a very objective idea of where you stand and you remove the emotion from it. Because you're just looking at this, like then diagram this on paper and by doing so that allows you to have a very truly stoic rationalize. Look at what's going on as opposed to trying to justify our Behavior, either in a positive or negative capacity. Whether this is this is really project managers. So what are your five circles again?

Because I'm getting something very similar of like these five pillars that I try and you know, Focus my efforts on. So what are your five? The first one is just in the Different ways to go about it but we can talk about business and finances and I put those in one Circle and all these circles, you can break them up into different things. You could actually say businesses one and then financials another, because if you don't own your own business you may be thinking. Okay about investing.

So that's one Circle, personal development is another Circle. So that's about what I'm doing to make myself, you know, better in a person development capacity, the physical capacity. So and and within that, that diagram, I always think about my workouts. I think about my diet. I think about fasting. And then my relationships is why I look at as well. Looking at my relationship with my significant other or people in my family or people within my

network. And that I also look at just what I'm doing for myself, what I'm doing to educate myself. So if I'm trying to learn more in the specific arena for a skill set or if I'm trying to get better at something, that I know that I'm slipping on those kind of things, helped me a lot. And what that does is like, I said, lots of times, I'll pour My energy into a couple of those hookers or three of those circles and then realize that I have to continue to come back to

these other ones. So again it's not always going to be balanced, but it's should be at least about having some sort of consistent, lack of balance to be able to, you know, create some sort of balance overall, when it's all said and done. I'm really just like a perfect segue minimum at the just jump on it while it's there. But I want to, I want to pick your brain on the subject of balance, because I am kind of, I don't know. Like I've got the Five Pillars similar to yours.

I'm probably can't think of them on the spot. But I think like, career /, business finances, one, you know, family friends. Relationships is one spirituality, whatever that may be for the individual as one and then like health and nutrition is one. And then she was my, my fifth one self development, I think was my fifth one. So basically, pretty similar to yours and I'd try and do something towards all of those

five. I've and, and you know, each chapter of your life is very different or often times, it is very different. So like when I was broke and didn't live close to family and I was, you know, trying to build a business and just basically lock myself away and grind, you know, every other aspect suffered except maybe my training that was pretty good. But like my family, my relationships, all that was just down the tubes. And I don't necessarily think that I could have gone as far in

business, at that time. If I had tried to have a sense of balanced amongst all five pillars, Because you know, you're going to find points on your life, where you have to pull from the interest earned. So to speak in the other other pillars, other circles in order to bring you, no lagging ones up, at least, that's what I think. I feel like they can't all be balanced at all times.

So, I've kind of adopted this, this mentality of, you know, focus on those those five core elements of your life or whatever those may be for you, but then balance itself is kind of bullshit. Like, I don't think, I think His

bullshit. You know, like so many people seek balance in life and I feel like you're going to get a lot farther, a lot more efficiently if you kind of have an extremist mentality and you just go all in and then work on that, as opposed to trying to equally bring all levels and all aspects of your life up simultaneously, if that makes sense. You've read my book. So you hear about my idea of what a true priority is compared to what everybody else does. And these five colors are important.

These five circles are very But again, even within those five, we can really only focus our most energy on maybe two or three of them. So, just like you're saying and just like, you were saying before with business, it's very, you know, are our priorities what we shift and undulate, as are our careers and our lives develop. So what you do at 25 compared to what you do at 35, or probably going to be different, they're all going to be important.

But hopefully you from a business standpoint, you want constantly have to be grinding 16 hours a day The way you did when you were younger. And that's where we have to find that medium. And just like, with in my book, I talk about this when it comes to any of these things when it comes to being successful, people say it's a marathon and then people say that it is a Sprint but the reality is it is a marathon and the Sprint is a marathon of Sprints.

So you're going to have to sprint in a couple of these Arenas quickly. Very hard for those two or three things. So again with business, maybe relationships and maybe some of your workouts me Be compromised slightly, but that's what's necessary. And then again life happens. So if you're working really hard on your business and your, your physical physicality is in great shape and then there's a death in your family. Well, you know what? That kind of stops a record for

a second. You have to really address this. You don't really have the option with the opportunity to decide that you don't want to deal with that, that have to be taken care of. That's a fire that has to be taken out right now. And then hopefully, once that's taken care of, of course, you're going to be a lot of repercussions from that, but the idea is to try to refocus and then we double your efforts. Back into those things so that marathon and that's pretty mentality.

Have to go hand-in-hand. And we can't always do one or the other as well as who is like to. But again, by being able to go through and re-evaluated or, you know, having goals that are consistent, that are measurable, that's the key. And without those things, it's really easy for us to get kind of caught up in the semantics or chase our tails, and that's where so many people get lost.

It was so important to have, I talk about goal setting, the idea with the goal is a goal is only as attainable as it is specific. So how many people, I mean, we're in February. Now, how many people do we In January, the city want to be in better shape. They want to make more money and they want to feel better about themselves. All those things are great but

they're vague at best. If you tell me that you want to lose 10 pounds of if you want to lose 10 pounds of fat, if you want to gain muscle, if you want to be and you know, lift, you know, 315 and you wanted to make an extra 20 grand a month. Now, those are very specific ideas and those are measurable and once they're measurable and we have a deadline.

Now we can reverse engineer and hold ourselves accountable but with that kind of mentality your again sort of wishing at best and being a wish, which prettier wish whisper preneur. So to speak is not going to help you get any further in business.

No, I totally agree, man. I've always kind of I like New Year's because I feel like it he gives, you know it at least in my mind, I kind of like wipes, the Slate clean and I can you know, re-attack all the white boards and and notebooks that I've gotten the office with just like this new Zeal. But I've always kind of strayed away from the idea of having a, you know, quote, unquote resolution.

So to speak. I try and think Of goals, and Visions more in the terms of like themes, like each year as a theme and everything. I do in that year has been moving me closer and in line with that theme in some form or fashion, but that's much more sustainable. And actionable than just like a, an arbitrary resolution that anybody anybody can wish for and people don't even realize what

the word resolution means. They, that means there's something that's on Rizal. So if you're doing a New Year's resolution that means that you have an entire year of stuff that is, Been unresolved. And if it's taken you 12 months to resolve something, then that's something you should have

already figured out. So, like you said having this theme or having, you know, a couple of, you know, a quarter quarterly ideals or whatever it may be, that's in my mind, a lot, that helps you push a lot further a lot faster and the classic, you know, entrepreneurial question of, how can I achieve my 5 year goals, in six months, that really makes you compress time? That really opens up your thinking and that really gives you a chance to get shit done as

opposed to saying. Well, you know, this year, I didn't make what I wanted. Like the next year will be different. It's like well if you don't change what you did last year, chances are this coming year, won't be any different either. So there's that brutal reality as well as having that courageous optimism simultaneously to push you forward.

Please Angry completely. I'm gonna I've got a question for you here and I don't know the best way to even word this and I'm going to use like bodybuilding for me as my as my vehicle to illustrate this but I'm curious to see what you'll say. So with with bodybuilding as with most things in life, you know, it's the Out of, you know, constant consistent disciplined effort over years and years and years. However, in moments of like contest prep or just really Extreme Action.

When I'm on the total opposite in the Spectrum and I'm just going all-in and I kind of like just get into this dark place. I love that. I love that. I love it. It makes me feel like I'm alive, but at the same time, it's very damaging and that really sustainable and Gets in my head in a very negative way. Like it's so incredibly positive, but it's also got like the same strength towards negativity. And I love it. Empowers me, but I feel like it.

It's damaging for the long term and I'm sure a lot of people can relate with this, with whatever. They're given thing is, you know, whatever that may be. But this year I'm considering taking a different approach towards like my next competition prep, I'll be prepping for a show early. Next year. So I'll start prepping the

latter part of this year. But for the first time, I've started tracking my workouts, I've started, you know taking a much more numerical measured approach as opposed to just being instinctive and getting in my head and like for instance rather than doing a set until absolute failure and then doing another 10 reps that sacrifice form and just like pushes me to that you know, Insanity level, I'm only doing you know, one or two reps beyond what I did last week.

And I'm curious to see if having a much more modest much more measured approach is going to be advantageous from a long game perspective or it's hard for me man because I want I feel weak. I feel like pathetic if I don't push myself to that Instagram, but at the end of the day, I have to look and see what is going to provide the best most favorable outcome.

And I'm curious to see if it's the Intense, more sustainable method or the balls to the wall, I think it's going to have to be a sort of a marriage of both of those and it's important like what you're talking about now to be able to do that.

Because we see so many people that are very dogmatic in their mentality when when Arthur Jones and like men sir and even during a case to a certain extent we're preaching sort of the antithesis of what everybody else was talking about where they're talking about a couple of sets to True muscular failure. And then allowing the body recover, that was that flew in the face of the Idea of you know, two hours workouts with set after set up for Seth trying to chase the pump or whatever.

So the beautiful thing about the way you think is you're thinking of it just like you're talking about, this is Antiquated, I'm looking I'm collecting data. This is an experimentation, you know what, work before we're going to go with this and we're going to see where we stand at the end of the prep and by keeping your emotion out of it and being Logistics logistical about it. That's where it's, you're going

to get a lot of material. Even if you don't do as well as you want, To now you would like, you know what? Now I know now there's no question in your mind because if you just Without any kind of, you know, any kind of thought behind it. If you just like, would grind year after year, after year. And now your turn up, your shoulders, your knees or your back.

And now it's unsustainable. When if you think back on your career and think, man, you know, I wish I would have taken one prep and just sit back and looked at it logically and taking the emotion out of it and just looked at it and said, you know what? Because I see what you're doing. I see it on your story on Instagram and stuff your PR in continually. It seems like every exercise that I see on there. Just like this is a on front squat, a funeral. Last one up here on this.

So by coming out of from that Antiquated standpoint, I think that's going to help you a lot. And then I also think that will happen as we both know, as the prep gets more intense, you're going to have to be able to channel That Emotion, you're going to have to be able to channel that that savagery to push you through. Don't want to go any further. So to be able to maintain the pace that you're doing.

Now, you're going to have to be able to couple those together and coming from that standpoint is going to help you a lot. And again there's so many people that I've seen that are very We see it in the gym all the time, this person that's doing the same work out the same way for the last three years and they look exactly the same. They haven't changed their body, the saying, they're doing, whatever it is.

And lots of them are, you know, talking more than they are working on, and that's fine, that's up to them. But their goals are clearly different than what yours are. So, it's important to have that self awareness. And a good look at yourself objectively, because you may find in six months, he may surprise yourself entirely.

So the darkness is very important because it's in us for a reason every emotion We have within our bodies from love to hate, is there has been placed in us for a reason for, but and it was put there by God or the universe or whatever you believe in for a reason. So to completely divorce ourselves from these things, is that our own Peril because again, that darkness is what helped me survive. That darkness is what helped me get through.

What I went through, having said that, I see so many people to go through adversity and they do one of two things, if you absorb of adversity and you learn the lesson from it, you will We'll have exponentially increased amounts of empathy for other people. You will be able to see a person who's fallen down and says, hey look at that. We guess you know you're actually looking at this a man. I remember what it's like to fall down.

I went to help them up or at least have empathy towards them. There are other people that I've seen and I think we've all seen that have gone through tremendous hardships or at least their interpretation of what a tremendous hardship is to them, because adversity is an individual thing. It's not a competition, it is objective to each of us. I mean, it's subject to, I'm sorry.

If we go through adversity and we don't learn the lesson then that is the set point and we will never develop beyond that. So these are the people that are emotionally angry all the time. These are the people that have chronic pain. These are the people that are pessimistic about all things and they're the people that are telling you, man. I must be easy. You know, it's nice to, you know, wow, look at you must be nice to be able to own your own

business and be successful. Well, they don't see what you went through, but all they do is they're just looking at where their hardship is and because they allowed that poison to really just stay in them. We're going to go beyond that and so whether they be 20 years old or 70 years old, they're going to live that existence for the rest of their days until they understand the being and that that darkness is not going to serve them long-term. And Tom, will you talks about

it? He calls it the 80/20 ideal of 20% Darkness 80% positivity, because he calls that Darkness very corrosive and I think that's a pretty good word for it because it in the end it kind of destroys us from the inside out if we're not able to temporarily something important. Positive. He's had a lot of really good. Really good gyms in there, man. Like I this this is good for me.

I like I like the idea of not dealing in absolutes, so even if I approach this competition with with zero emotion and think of a very, you know, scientific approach to it, you know, and I find that this this method was not as good then I can always go back to what I know works. So this is not an absolute. Like I don't have to live in that by this technique which can be applied to anybody in any form or fashion with anything.

So that's key and then channeling emotions, it doesn't make sense like the whole stoica mentality is, is largely based on not that is, so not having emotion, but being in complete control of your emotion. And I like the idea of harnessing that darkness and trying rather than trying to remove it completely. Because I mean, honestly, some of the biggest breakthrough moments in my entire life have come from just leveraging that Darkness to the hilt.

So I think it would be remiss for anybody to want it to wish it away. So I think, you know, recognizing that it's there and embracing it almost is absolutely key. That's good, man. Philosophy or any ideal or any concept. It's only as functional to us as it is when it comes to serving us, And in a very objective manner. So if I just looked at stoicism and I was very dogmatic about it, then I become limited by it. I it becomes a crutch.

It becomes something that I hide behind to justify or corroborate my own excuses in some manners. I'm very much of the opinion that philosophy is simply truth and it's the reason why it was named what it was. It's just simply because of the time period and the location of where they were. So the daoist you nose in Stoicism different.

Religions, obviously, of talked about these trees because they're Universal. But I also like the idea of Bruce Lee, who was like just like, you know, you absorb what is useful? You just car, but he's useless and then you add What specifically your own. And the thing that people don't remember about that is that in and of itself doesn't mean that has to be set in stone.

So what may be serving and useful to you this year in this prep, may not serve you next year, but without that data and without that worthless objectivity to look at it and take the emotion Ocean out of it, it would be impossible for you to know that and you would simply be just pushing yourself based on emotion or logic and as a human animal we have both of

those within us for a reason. And so, like I said, if if I'm on the street and somebody attacks me or somebody else and they have a weapon, my logic probably will not be at the Forefront because once that adrenaline has me and I just react, that's what's going to be the most important thing. That's where my fight-or-flight instinct comes in. And that's why the skill set has to be in place.

Not only from a martial art standpoint but the idea to be able to have this mentality in this truth about us but to also be able to shove it in the back and the Wayside so that we can get done what has to get done right now. And that's what the beauty of the dance of life is. There's always, this transition between one thing, and another, and there's always this new thing that we're trying to move

towards and lots of times. Lots of times, this by her own choosing, lots of it is kind of forced upon us and that's when we actually learn. If what we believe is correct. And if what we're made of is true, I completely agree. Are you familiar with the country Marcus?

So he was at this, this conference this past week and he said, one thing that really stuck, he said, I forget things like morning but you know how like something bad happens and we go through it and after it's all said and done, we almost always say, I'm really glad And that happened. It happened for a reason. I learned so much from it. Like that's almost that's I mean I don't know of any example

where people don't say that. Like, there's always some way to justify that and have learned from it. He made a really good point on making an active, you know, approaching anything - like that in the moment with that forward-thinking mentality of the afterthought, if that makes

sense. So, you know, rather than waiting for it to be over and saying I'm really glad that happened saying that as you're going through it and being conscious of it, and I feel like like that that's just basically no waited to, you know, define stoicism but looking at that way, I think is going to resonate with a lot of people because you know we all can learn from these bad things in life but it takes genuine effort to recognize when it's happening

and actually be in support of the most Really crucial and its key. The the reality is when I got injured, when I woke up in a bed at 40 years old, you know, broke divorced that rent unable to move all this knowledge. I already had I've been doing martial art since I was 11. I've been studying philosophy in one way shape or form, you know, since I was 13 or 14. But the thing was in that moment when the shit hit the fan and it was happening to me and not

somebody else. I don't want to hear all that stuff. That was like a bunch of Flowery bullshit. Like it didn't serve me. It was a bunch of Pap because this didn't help me right now. And I and if you would have come up to me and said, well, Marcus you should be grateful. I would have spit in your face because I want to be able to punch you but that was the most, you know, have a Serial thing. I probably could have done. Would have been doing a lot of cuss words out yet?

But I knew deep down that there was that I should be grateful for something but I couldn't find any gratitude where I was at. So again that's why it's so important to have this mentality, a fixed before you get into the hardship. Because if you wait until that time, if you're in the heat of battle is too late to learn to fight. If you wait until you need it,

it's already too late. So that's why it's so important to again, just like with that mentality had that enlightened attitude before it happens to you. And then again, just like before I knew, all these truths when I was injured, it didn't really seem to make any sense because I didn't look at it because it was very, it was a brutal reality to

have to face honestly. But once I was able to look at it and take and take my desire out of it, it took my emotion out of it and just kind of go the direction that I was being pushed. That's what really helped me. It's almost like I had clients that want to be successful financially but they have like two or three problems in front of them. Like they're not very good. Good when it comes to like CEOs or Executives. They want to make a lot of money for this quarter and they want

to make these bonuses. But yet their people skills are horrible and when they try to coach their team as their communication sucks, like they just go to the people and say, okay you want me to do? X Y and Z and they walk out and then when I watch them, they said we'll see. I coach my people every Monday like that. I don't see why they're not hitting the numbers.

Well, you, you have to lead. By example, you have to give them an idea that you at least give a shit about them as a person as opposed to just having this. All Taskmaster mentality and if all you do is push the gas down, if all you have is the accelerator down there is nowhere for you to go if that's not working. You had to be able to shift your death. Be able to transition? Yes, take your foot, off the gas through the pump, the brakes once in a while to be able to

give that separation. And so, that's why it's so important to be able to have separate gears and to have the capacity to put the foot down, not only on the gas, but also on the brake is necessary. And that's where it's really difficult. Because for most of us again, like we're talking about extremes, there's your Extremes. You have one foot on the gas and the one from the break. You're not going to go anywhere, but you make a lot of noise.

So the idea is to know when to do each of them and that it be able to adapt as the situation evolves. Yeah. And see like to me this, this this is just like keep importance. Like people need to think proactively towards this because those hardships, those moments of adversity. Those obstacles will happen. It's not like this. Something that's like this, maybe looming, it's like this will happen. If it doesn't happen, then

you're probably not living life. If boldly enough, I agree, I adversity is an inevitability and like you said, the reality is, if if if you're not pushing as hard as you possibly can, then you're not going to go as far as you can with the time that you have. And if you're achieving all of your goals easily, then you're simply not asking enough yourself. Bruce Lee says that a goal is

always meant to be achieved. It's simply something to shoot towards and even antivirus Ella was saying, listen, you know, if you're trying to make 10 million dollars, you'd better be shooting to make a hundred billion dollars because into entrepreneurial Endeavor. They're going to be times when you fall down, or they're going to be things outside of our control, that just happen. And sometimes it's to our advantage to sometimes is to our disadvantage.

But that's why having this this operating system, this this philosophy Is what's going to help us? Because that's what builds the resilience in and again like you say like what Aubrey Marcus is talking about or Marcus Aurelius was talking about, we control what we can control and then we try to absorb the knowledge from that situation as best we can. And if we look at it objectively, it will probably bring them for something that we already know or something that

we forgot about. So for me, line there unable to move, I had a lot of regret because I realize that I've been given a lot of opportunities in the four years of my life at that point. And that I had just wasted a lot of that time. I had screwed around a lot and I felt like God or the universe was taking it away from me.

Like okay, we give you 40 years, we gave you all this capacity, all this intelligence, all this physical ability and you squandered it. So we're going to take it back and we're going to give to somebody else's going to use it. And that was my big, big kind of kick in the ass moment where it made me realize that if I ever can get out of this bed and walk again, I will never ever compromise and I will ever never ever wait to On the things that really mean the most to me in my

life and that made my club. My priority is very clear that made my goals very clear. And now I just try to operate within those confines. Every moment that I'm breathing and then they gave me chills man. Like, I feel like the idea of self-entitlement just literally that's probably drives me more crazy. Any other you know than anything else in life? Like I feel like like so many people think that they deserve something that deserve to just live life on their terms.

Terms, you know, living their passion day-to-day, they deserve to have all the stuff handed to them but you deserve nothing in

life. Like the fact that you're even on this planet is a gift and if you squander that or live it any waking moment of it with the thought that you know, this is your god-given right to just be here and do as you please, then, then you're you're sadly mistaken because I feel like, you know, you have to Look at this opportunity and this gift for what it is and then every single waking moment of your life, be dedicated to just pouring yourself into it.

So you're constantly adding more value than you take because you deserve nothing. I absolutely agree. Just the fact that you're breathing is means that you're, you know, beyond even that means you've got a lot more than a lot of other people are doing, you know, as we speak, there are people fighting for Life as we speak.

There are people that are having a hard time finding clean water and it's funny because Cuz just like you were mentioning the reality is they say, You Don't Know What You Got Till It's Gone, but that's not the case. We know what we have, but we assume that we will always have and that's what separates like the person. Who's this, this person who's constantly taking taking taking, and this person is constantly

giving giving giving. And, you know, as well as I do when it comes to business, when it comes to entrepreneurship, when it comes to life, the more you give the more that it comes back and benefit you in be huge. You it's just that. A lot of times just like I was like I said before, we assume that we will always have it. It's the same thing with this people expect like immediate reciprocity, they think.

Well, if I if I'm not sure this person that I should see an extra $500 in my bank account this afternoon, that's not how it works. You're planning to each, you're putting out this ideal. But again, what that does is that creates momentum not only in your life but it packs the people around you and that creates momentum around them. So even the ideal of they say that you're the average of the five people that You surround yourself with the most that's

that's true but they don't see. The real thing, what you're really doing is you're the average of the five emotions that you're feeling continually. So if you're around five people that are positive that are uplifting that wants you to win that are taking you in the ass to be better and celebrate your victories. Absolutely, that's what you're going to propagate in your life but if you're around five people that are like pessimistic hate on, you are resentful.

Are you know, - about everything else in their lives. They're not taking care of themselves, obviously, that will bleed over into everything that you do. And again, like I said, in our lives, were create a momentum one way or the other. So either, we're creating momentum into something positive or we're creating momentum into something negative and it is up to us to make that choice.

Every single moment with every option, with every thought, with every breath of the take and if we can continue to do that, we will feed forward. That positivity meaning, not just this esoteric, positive idea, but this positivity and improving ourselves, you know, physically emotionally financially, Really and it's because the other direction as

well. So that's what I love about taking like stoicism and a lot of these other philosophical ideals, they're very pragmatic if you can put them in that right place, but if you just sit around and drink coffee and talk about it, and you don't actually do anything to push yourself.

Then it's really difficult to even comprehend what this deal, which were talking about, where the dollars were talking about or Bruce Lee was even talking about because we haven't actually achieved it. So that's why it's so important. Again goggin says, you know do some of the stocks every day. Day. So when you on that last set or that lasts forever, you're taking that cold cold shower or your, you know, reducing your calories for a fast that's key.

Because without that kind of push you will never ever that adversity is the Catalyst that forces us to get stronger much in. The same way that last rep for that last set is what makes us our body. It makes our muscle adapt because until we do that, we're kind of going through the motions. And that's why it's so important to understand it from the beginning completely agreement, I feel like you and I have a

very Alec on this stuff. So you and I can talk about these these Concepts and it's like a it's like a shared appreciated, respected understood language between us and anybody else that's listening. It's also gone through some of these these situations and been in this kind of environment, but for anybody that that may not be, or may not have gone through such a such a ordeal. What are some like, like, like his mindset is a pretty abstract thing, like when it's there, it's Parent.

It's in everything that we do but it's hard to really you know Point your finger at and quantify. But what are some like tangible action related items that you would that you do on a day-to-day basis that somebody listen to this could also Implement. I mean, one just kind of thinking about what we just were talking about with the people you surround yourself. Like I think auditing your friend list on like a quarterly basis or like a biannually basis makes total sense like actually

write names of people. You spend time with an audit them, like you would anything else in a business deal and figure out if they're truly adding value to your life? If there's truly a benefit that's coming from then if they're making you a better person. And if not, then, act accordingly, but like that, lot of people would hear me say that and think that that's - of me.

But if you don't actually do things to improve your certain, your, you know, environment your situation, then, nothing will ever change. The thing is, like you said, mine said can be abstract but What I'll do is I'll give you just a couple of simple things you can do, one of them is micro adversities every day, so something small that makes you

uncomfortable every single day. I talked, I mentioned cold showers, but if you did the kind of person who doesn't want to get into a cold shower and try to blame half breathe and, you know, have that shock to your system, you know, right now it's cold outside. So maybe if you realize that you're going to be walking from your car to your office, maybe don't wear your jacket and just kind of walk slowly and really ask yourself man you know is this It's really that bad.

Is this the fear that I so, you know, was afraid of and just kind of breathe into it. And what that does is that's a very, very small thing but that's a small drop in the bucket. It's a small deposit into your account of resilience, so to speak, right? So this is a small compounding thing and now when you walk away from work, now you go back again here, like, and it wasn't nice, cause I thought it was or a little bit stronger than I

thought I was. Again, the idea of maybe doing a little bit more cardio, even if you prolong your like delay, your pleasure a little bit. If you're used to eating lunch at noon and you can wait until 12:30, it's like, wow, you just showed your mom your body by using your mind, your mind set

that. I don't have to eat at noon and then again as you and I have found out fasting we realize that our body was designed to be able to not eat for literally days, maybe even weeks at a time because if you and I are like prehistoric, man, 200? A thousand years ago, we may not be able to kill another bison. We may kill that bison, eat it and now we may not eat for a few weeks but that's okay. Because our body is designed to do that. It's understanding and respecting what our body does.

But also being understanding of the idea, the notion that we can harness that as we need to, and if we put that into play every day, whether it be having a conversation with somebody that maybe don't agree with and you listen to their standpoint ask yourself is what they're saying really hurting me. Is it really that big of a deal that they Eve X instead of Y and

then does it hurt. I mean, I can have a conversation with them and not even agree with them but it doesn't hurt me. It's okay for me to listen to them or you can listen to whatever slant of political news that you want to and and hear other sides of the story and say ask yourself. Why do I disagree with that? What what why does that does that threaten me in some capacity I can listen to this person's belief system and not have to believe what they believe.

And if we're able to do that and develop that kind of mental callous or as a Scoggins As he's like, you know, your couch, your hands assembly could callous your mind. If you can do that allows you, the opportunity to grow stronger in that resilience and then put that practicality in it. And what you had that idea of being able to absorb, some sort of hardship would be walking in the cold or not eating that bleeds over into everything else that you do in your life.

So now when you're at work and they say, hey when you just spend the stay an extra hour later it's getting old but hurt and pissed off about, you're like well I'm just going to push through it and then again, that gives you more confidence in yourself that And it's that having that you develop this sort of belief within yourself, you believe your own hype after a while, but if you aren't doing the work, if you are pushing yourself, then when somebody says, hey, you're really doing a

great job and then you beat yourself up, mentally, because you don't think that you are doing a good job. That's when it's really difficult for you to get to the next level. And then it becomes a self-limiting belief, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when it comes to your mind. So I agree, I agree. What are some like I know what is when make this personal here? What is the biggest obstacle in your life right now? Like, what is going on in this

chapter in your life? That is is proving difficult? And what are some things that that is touchy those far. Now, I'm in a position where a lot of people are vying for my attention, which is very, you know, that's a big compliment and I want to help everybody. But I also understand now that I simply there's not enough hours in the day and there's only one of me So just like with this, I mean I'm very selective about

who I'm on podcast with now. You know, I respect you very much in many Arenas and that's why we're talking again. But I, you know, if we try to re spend respond to every DM or every email that's sent to us, it's very daunting and frankly it's it's a there's no way we can win doing it. So for me, it's about allocating my time to True priorities, but being even more specific and having a true It's principal

true 8020 ideal of saying. Well, I could go speak here and make x amount of dollars or I could go speaker and make less money, but make more impact or get more potential speaking engagements or more coaching potentials are more code or more Book Sales. So it's about looking at the long game and then understanding that time that I have is very precious. So what do I want to do with this? Even if I have an opportunity to go off in the weekend is begin, make x amount of dollars.

Maybe I can do that. I can push and grind but in the grand scheme of things it may Be better for me to stay home. Maybe if I'm feeling sick or maybe, if I'm trying to spend time with my loved ones, that may be more important than, you know, a few thousand dollars or even twenty thousand dollars speaking or doing an event. If it's not going to serve me in the long run because that money is going to be gone.

Eventually better time as we both know is something that is very precious and it's a non-renewable resource at what point does and this is going to be highly individualized. But you know, when you when you first start out you almost have Just say yes to everything. Like be a Yes, Man.

Like everything that you do. I mean every speaking opportunity, every DM, every email, every everything you just sleep on it and then at some point there's a shift that occurs and you you have to become more exclusive because in being more exclusive you're going to bring a higher quality work and you're going to have a better better a game so to speak when you when you do perform. What how does one finds it like largely Financial based? Or is it more like fulfillment

based? Like how does one quantify when that shift occurs? And that's that's a great question and it's a perfect, you know, entrepreneurial question.

And like I said at the very beginning, you know, if you're a speaker and you're making a couple thousand dollars to speak, you're going to be saying, yes to everything, you're going to go to Rotary clubs are going to go everywhere that you can, that will have you speak but then eventually, you get to a point where you raise your price enough to where now

you value that time more. So you'll get to a point and we're all object--, I mean we're all unique so we're going to be some people weren't they say I make an x amount of dollars per year from speaking. I don't want to take any more, they're going to be some other people where that money will always be a driver and they won't be satisfied until they're made a hundred million dollars. So you have to find out what's really important to you and where you want to be in that

endeavor. Now as you and I both know, as we continue it as, as entrepreneurs as you continue with business and personal development, there are Lead thousands of unforeseen opportunities that are on the path and sometimes, they'll follow this guy and hit us right in the face. But sometimes it's just about being self-aware enough to look around us too.

So you're going to be saying, yes, a lot of times until you get financially where you want to be, whether it be out of debt or making a certain amount of money. And then after that, you'll start realizing that the money is not the most important thing. And a great example of this is I talk about in my book, is that If you ask a 25 year old person, listen, I can make you a multimillionaire right now, but

you'll be 75 years old. Would you rather be, you know, a hundred million dollar, you know, have a hundred million dollar net worth and be 75 or would you rather be broke right

now? But have all the time that you have before you and even a person 225 realizes the importance of time because every single one of them will say I'd rather be broke right now and live my life and have this experience then to be at 75 years old where they feel their life is sort of over and had this financial success but not be able to have the wherewithal to do anything with it.

And that's kind of the way that we should be looking at everything that we do in life and business and I mean, you're doing it. Well, you're scaling incredibly well, you making tremendous impact, tremendous ways in this entire Endeavor, especially in the key, do, you know, community and even, you know, that's why I'm doing some of the things I'm

doing. Now, I would rather put on my own event and have a high caliber of people that show up, then have then go to a bunch of other people's events. I said, I started saying no to pitch fests, you know, years ago. But even now a lot of people People would try to get me to come there and then even if I don't pitch, they're going to be pitching. So I had to be much more selective about where I'm

speaking. And if that means that I say no to more money, I'm okay with that because I would rather have a little bit more of my own time and frankly Integrity than to go out there and have a very predatorial kind of mindset about what's going on. And I think no matter what it says, I've got like a very hard line drawing with regards to my Integrity like no matter, no amount of money or or time or Prestige can ever, you know, breach what I value my integrity

at that's it's not worth it at that point. Yeah. What's your integrity for sale? It's just a matter of time before you fall. So speak speaking of different events and where you're allocating your time, talking about this one that you've got coming up, man, I'm I'm you invited me to come. I'm very excited to come Chris and I are both going to be there and I'd love to just kind of flush out the the event itself

and what all we can expect. Yeah, I'm so stoked to have you there and And to have Crystal there. And what this is is what I've seen in so many different events and I've been to all of them. And I've seen every speaker that you can think of and I've, you know, even share the stage with some of them. And what I find so often is that even if they're the best speaker in the world, they had the best

material in the world. Once that person leaves the event, they're excited for sometimes Tim and sometimes 10 days but then they kind of go back to where they were. The event that I'm doing on March 30th and Tulsa, Oklahoma is called, do the work. So what we're going to do is we're going to actually go through and we're going to actually do the work and it's all going to revolve around

this. This triangle of control is what I call it or this triangle of power and that triangle is based on mindset because this is something that we always have power over that, we always have control over Viktor Frankl says between stimulation and reaction and action is our ability to choose so that's the first part of it. The second part of that triangle is the Idea of what we put in

our body so that could be food. That can be water, that could be lack of food that can be lack of water that can also be what we consuming in a social contents component. So what books are we reading? What social media re listening to what news are you listening to or where you fasting from? If you're just out? Even on social media whatsoever, just to give yourself a chance to, you know, really relax and kind of see what's really important to you. That's the second part of the pyramid.

And then the third part comes down to again, Again, what you're trying to do from a fiscal standpoint. So going through and what kind of workout are you doing? But what are you doing to really push yourself and all those things come together. So if you're in a 3x5 room and they say, listen, you know, you can't really do anything here, you can do burpees, you can do push-ups, you can do sit-ups and that's the physicality component.

You could have, you can also decide how you feel about if you're eating or if you're not eating and then you can also use those kind of ideas about putting them all together. So for your listeners, who don't know I'm an instructor under Bruce Lee's protege. Guru Dan inosanto. So I have direct links to Bruce Lee and I've Loved she can do Bruce Lee's martial art for as long as I can remember.

So I'll be teaching some of Bruce's martial arts you can do well on there because I wanted to put, I want to show the parallel not only the philosophy, but the practicality of that martial art. And so, no, we're not going to put on gloves and do UFC stuff, but we're going to go through and we're going to talk about the concept, the principle.

Why he had his right side forward because I was the strongest side compared to everybody else why he was able to take components of Wing Chun that were very functional. Oil. And then put it into a very useful manner compared to say, a boxer, How This lends itself to everything else that we're doing in our lives. The idea of, you know, absorbing what is useful, this coming with his useless in Annapolis, specifically grown as he says, and then we're also going to put the physicality.

So we're going to be doing some, some hiking. We're going to be doing some marching, and then we're going to actually take those ideals and put them into. How do we apply this to business? How do we apply this mindset into our relationships? How do we apply this in the personal development and then put them all together? We're not just sitting on our asses talking about stuff and waxing, poetic and it's not just a boot camp where you're out there.

Just, you know, getting smoke all day but now you haven't got anything out of it. Other than, and I'm sort on sweaty, it's all this realm that goes across everything that we've done. And every person that we see whether it be the samurai or the stoics there is this Renaissance Man, kind of thing where you have all of these facets and you're hitting on all of these cylinders. And that's the key for us to go to next level and all these

things. And again, there is going to be a lot of things that are going to be. Pushing us, not just physically, they're going to be questioning ourselves in a lot of different Arenas, but that's what we need to do. And even if, even, if we don't push ourselves in every possible capacity, the idea is to to find those areas in those chinks, in our army that we don't normally have, and to shine a light on those shortcomings. So that's what we're going to be doing.

There is going to be a big day and I'm also going to have my really good friend, Matt ganyan. They're speaking as my keynote and just like I said before, this is not going to be a Pitch Fest. Going to be a price. You pay you're going to get there and then I'm just going to give you a mazing wealth, amazing value amazing knowledge Mass not going to pitch. I'm not going to pitch and this is going to be more of a the group of people that are coming

or going to be so incredible. These are areas of opportunity to be able to collaborate to be able to know network. But also adversity, really brings people together. And to me I look at this like almost like a graduation. This is the first of its kind that I've done and the people that are at this, this first event Point. There's really going to be a very cohesive strength to them.

And these are people that, you know, not only is friends, but I hope even from for some people with their business oriented. This is an opportunity a to find people that are kind of a similar mindset. And then that networking capacity is going to be tremendous in the future as well. So so thank you for letting me bloviate about that but I'm really excited to have you

there. I'm hoping down, he's going to be able to make it to and there's a lot of stuff I have in store for you guys and I think it's going to be unlike anything else you've ever Minutes, so I'm stoked. No, I'm incredibly excited to me because I feel like I got mine set, obviously is a huge, huge part in my life. And, you know, my success and or lack of success. You know, I feel like it all comes back to mine said, but there's very few things that I do to be proactive with mindset,

at least, in my opinion. I feel like I should always be doing more. My mind says is much more kind of like a consequence of just the things that have happened to me as opposed to the things that I've actively pursued. Dude. So I'm really excited for this because it's going to be like a very clear direction that I'm taking to improve upon it. Proactively, and I have utmost respect for you, and what? All you've gone through and all you've done. So it'll be awesome to learn

from you, man. Well, thank you. I'm excited to have you. And like I said, the people are going to be there is going to be a really, really high caliber people. And I'm just really excited to see how everybody responds and what everybody gets from it. And then in March, It's a say one teach but to learn.

So I'm going to be getting a lot of knowledge and a lot of reinforcement from it and I'll probably learned a tremendous amount about stuff that I didn't think about because I'm going to have that very empty cup that white belt mentality as we go through the material. So it's going to be awesome. I'm excited. Learned some martial arts. Man, I've always, I've always wanted to learn martial arts

have always. I mean, I think, at some point in life, that will be an outlet that I really pursue, I haven't been able to add that to my pillar, like we were talking about, you know, previously. But I definitely We want to pursue that going forward so this would be a good introduction for me. Yeah. It's going to be a great foundation. And the beauty of it is nobody's going to walk out with the certification or as a black belt.

But the nice thing is if you can even hold on to a few of those tools or a few of the ideals even for a like, if you take a person who's never done martial arts their entire life and you teach them how to throw a punch and kick, you will see them stand a little bit more erect. Their shoulders will be back a little bit further when they walk, they don't have their head down. Now they look look more. I wouldn't say a predator but they definitely don't look like

prey because they had that. So Polly. So that's why to me, martial arts has been so important because the martial arts are the vessel by which you're able to create mindset. And that's the way that that's what makes you move forward with it. So that's, that's why I love it so much. And, you know, even people that just want to get in great shape, that's fine. But I think that if they look at it, there's a lot more to that that they can get from.

Yeah, I totally agree, man. I mean, I haven't like, I said, I haven't done any martial arts previously, but I can appreciate and respect how, you know, having the right approach towards that. It's just like a parallel. And a synonym for Life, man. I mean, you know, living with confidence, living with belief in yourself. Being a predator and not pray living boldly and with purpose, I mean, that all his kind of embodied in in the art of

martial arts. Yeah, it's so true and it's, and it's like, I said it lends itself. Well, to entrepreneurship, you know, if I'm trying to learn Bruce Lee says, I don't fear. The man that is done, 10,000 techniques. One time, I fear, the man who has done one technique 10,000 times. So that we had that reinforce that reinforces that idea of the fundamentals and how, anybody who is extremely successful in

business. They have a couple of things that are really in their wheelhouse and they just Crush that and they own that space. If they're trying to do a bunch of other stuff. That's okay. But they're going to dilute their the results. It's the same thing with martial arts. If I can teach you to punches and to kicks and then train, you and push, you and wait until you're tired and do it in the middle of the night and wake you up with it and do it when your

Ambush now, you have this. Built into your system, but the way that I do it when I add adrenaline to it now it hardwired into your system about five times harder and faster than it would. If you were used to sit there and just do it like two days ago. So I've been doing, I've been teaching martial arts for 25 years. I've learned martial arts from some of the best people in the world.

I've learned martial arts from even in the military and done things with, with police, force and stuff, learning, and teaching them. So, I see what works and what doesn't work and no, this is not going to be like something. Or we go up there and try to beat each other up but I'm also going to give you something that is functional and practical that you can walk away with us and just that self-confidence alone that's going to be something. Like I said it's going to help a

tremendous amount of people. And again those small micro adversities are going to be who view, you know, with huge dividends on the investment you know, in the future for that Roi. And I honestly incredibly excited, man. Like this is going to be a great week and I've got, you know, no doubt about that at all and what making his last weekend in March, right?

Yeah, will be more. Artists will be Saturday and then all day Saturday will do everything and then Sunday morning will have sort of a breakfast and kind of a time and give everybody a chance to network and kind of give us you know kind of their thoughts or if there's any questions or anything moving forward. But the idea is to get them definitive skill, set to get them, a definitive plan and give them a definitive goal when they're leaving.

So it's not just something that they feel good about and they just throw the, the existence, I mean, throw the opportunity and experience away the opportunity. Unity and the experience is tremendous. But what they take from that and what they put into action is going to be even more important. That's also done. And is this, is there still any open slots or like if anybody listening would be Keen to go there's there's a few slots. Absolutely.

And I'm trying to keep it to where I don't have any more than 30 people there. Because I my mind if I have more than 30 people and I'm doing the all the teaching myself, it's going to be hard for me to get them the quality that I want to. So if you want to do it get in there and get the slots now before they're all take. And what's the the website too? And for that are you can just go to Marcus release Anderson.com. Or if you go to, you know, there's any of my social medias.

If you go to my bio, it's going to have the link to my do. The work live event and it's all on there and you'll be able to get all the information that you need and get signed up and get your spot before they all disappear. Awesome, awesome. I'll link after that is shown us to so people can easily find it and get on it. Take advantage of it marketers. There's very few people, I could talk to for 77 minutes and it feel like seven minutes but you're one of them. I get mad.

I feel the same. Yeah, no I mean this this is the second podcast we've done. We've been on the phone call. I said several times since the last podcast but we'll have to you. One of the one of the people that were just going to have to do like a like a regularly occurring podcast because I feel like every time we talk it turns into something that other people would benefit from hearing. But also it just it does me wonders. Hopefully it does something for you but it doesn't me wonders.

At least know. I, I absorb a tremendous amount from you and like I said, seeing what you're doing and seeing how you're holding yourself. From the Integrity with which you work that that inspires me because as, you know, in this space that's a that's more the exception than the rule when it comes to this. Appreciate it, man.

It's a, it's something. I'm very proud of and I feel like we were saying about integrity, like I'm nothing I ever do in life is ever going to breach that because that's what that's who I am. Like my word is my bond. You know, like if anything I mean nothing even comes close. I mean, no sacrifice is worth losing your Equity for. I absolutely agree. And at the end of the day,

that's all we really have. So, if you, if you sell that out, or if you break that, then you really have your left with nothing in your empty agreed agreed. Well, Marcus until next time, Anna. I guess I'll see you in person in March, but let's definitely keep in touch. And if you need anything from me, man, you've got my number so definitely don't hesitate to reach out. Absolutely, I appreciate the opportunity. I'm humbled and honored always to be able to speak with you and we'll get you.

I'll talk to you obviously. In a few days but also have to have you on my podcast. I'll be honored to have you on there and percent man. Count me in for sure. I'd love to. All right, I'll talk to you soon. My friend, thank you for having me. All right, take a Marcus.