1.) Don’t go through life thinking ”that can’t or won’t happen to me”.
Let’s get this one out of the way first. In February of this year, my dad rolled his car off the highway after having a diabetic reaction.
His blood sugar sunk to a level that was too low, and he basically fell asleep at the wheel.
His car skidded on its hood and rolled into a ditch on the side of the highway. His head rammed into the side of the car, and he suffered a brain injury.
I had no idea, even for a week or two after the accident, exactly what it meant to suffer a brain injury.
To clear any confusion: a brain injury is not just when you ‘’bang your head hard on something’’.
It’s not even a concussion.
A brain injury is permanent and will make a different person out of you.
The car he ran into, called the police and he was quickly rushed off to the hospital. He was comatose for about a week.
At the time of this typing, it’s been exactly 11 months since the incident (2/26/16), and my dad is largely no longer the same person.
He cannot walk, and can only stand with support. He can only speak short sentences, and has to talk from the back of his throat (you can tell it’s a bit a struggle for him to talk). He has not walked since the accident, and even at this point it doesn’t look like he will again.
Here’s the worst part: He isn’t mentally gone, he is fully aware and awake inside his head. He just can’t communicate to people like he did his whole life (he’s currently 62).
He was in sales his whole life and was always very acute socially.
Now, he cannot even use the toilet without someone helping him onto and off of it. He cannot wipe his own ass, or shower without someone helping him.
There were many nights this year that kept me up, wondering what living like that must be like for him, and how depressed and unhappy he must be.
Knowing he’s fully mentally aware of what’s going on, but unable to do anything about it.
Luckily, his wife (my stepmom) of only 4 years hasn’t left him…..yet.
I can’t even imagine what it would’ve been like for him if she hadn’t been there.
Point is, if you go through life thinking it can’t happen to you, you’re wrong. It can and if you’re not careful, it might, whether it’s directly to you, or someone close to you.
Do not EVER go through life playing with fire, or being reckless or careless.
My dad might not have even being doing any of those things and something like this still happened to him. Be careful and always take precautions to ensure you won’t get permanently sick or disabled.
Life is a fragile thing, one day you’re driving down the road as always, the next minute you’re confined to a wheelchair for life.
2.) If you have faith in yourself, you can and WILL make it through hard times.
You have to know, at a deep, core level, that you were put here to do something.
Something epic, something unique.
You have to really, truly feel that in your gut. This is the way I feel, the way I’ve felt all my life, and I believe it’s a quality that is present in all highly successful people.
It’s a knowing, a faith, and an unmistakable sense, that the universe will reveal itself to you. It will only do this when you’re ready for it to. And this is what will get you through the hard times.
This is what helped me overcome the hardship of my dad’s brain injury. You only need to have faith in yourself and your destiny (your mission).
You decide what your destiny is, sometimes it just takes you a while to allow yourself to acknowledge that.
What truly matters the most, is that you have faith in yourself.
YOU.
How much do you trust yourself? How much can you rely on yourself? I’m an extremely self-reliant person. Always have been, although I will say I’m more self-reliant now than I’ve ever been.
It’s a feeling I can’t even describe in words.
Being self-reliant is a quality so great, that no words can do it justice.
I encourage all you guys reading to strive towards this.
Because when times get tough (and sooner or later they will), it’s your self-reliance and self-faith, that will get you through life’s hard times.
3.) Self Reliance and self-determination are of utmost importance.
We’ve already spoken about the importance of self-reliance. What about self-determination? What is it that motivates you? What is it that gets you out of bed every day? What is it that DRIVES YOU? What is it that lights the fire under your ass?
For me, its accomplishment, its productivity, it’s in the joy of building something EPIC. The fire that drives me is in the building of an empire, and in making sure that people will never forget my name.
The lack of this fire I see in other people, bothers me to such an extent that it only adds to my own fire/drive. Their lack of drive drives my ambition even more…
I cannot tell you what moves you, only you know what that is.
I suggest you figure out what this is, FAST. Money never sleeps and the world isn’t waiting on you. Both will be quick to leave you in the dust.
4.) Self respect is of utmost importance.
Everything I’ve discussed up to this point can all be tied back to how much self-respect you have.
Self-respect is what separates the winners from the losers. You cannot be a winner without self-respect.
It’s as simple as that.
All of the most successful people you’ve ever known, maintain an above average level of self-respect (whether they’re conscious of it or not).
We often think how high achieving people can possibly undertake all the things they manage to juggle in their lives.
It’s not at all uncommon for high achieving people to have multiple ‘’high responsibility tasks’’ going on (usually at once). This happens over the course of their lives.
How do they do it? The answer is simple: They respect themselves too much not too.
They respect themselves too much not give everything they do their 110% effort.
They respect themselves too much to settle for less than they deserve.
Your level of self-respect is what will determine how good you are at what you do in life. Great fathers have too much self-respect not to be great fathers.
What is it that YOU have too much self-respect not to excel with in your life?
5.) Having money (or lacking it) can and probably will change EVERYTHING in your life.
2016 was both the worst year and the best year I’ve ever had with money.
I started a service based business in April of this year. It took about 7 months to really get it off the ground and running.
During those 7 months, I struggled immensely. It was not easy. I remembered what it felt like to be broke, which was a feeling I hadn’t experienced since shortly after college.
At 7 months in, I started making about $12,000 a month. The next month, I made $12,000 again. The month after that I made $10,000. At this point, I honestly don’t see an end in sight.
Never make the mistake of thinking money is made for money’s sake. Money is never made simply for the sake of doing it. There are two ways you make money in this world:
1.) By filling a need people have (or an extreme want).
Or
2.) By ripping people off or scamming them.
Obviously I advise you do 1st one: Fill a need they have.
You can do that by filling a void in their life. They have to do more than want something; they have to feel like they need it. It’s your job, to convince them why they need it. If they only want it, it just goes on the list with the 100 other things they want and ‘’might’’ (aka never) get someday.
Move your service up to the top of their priority list by allowing them to see why they need it.
Get them out of their own way long enough to pull out their wallets.
Come from a place of honesty and integrity.
Having money gives you options (one of greatest things in life). It raises your sense of self-worth and esteem, and it just makes your life so much easier.
It frees up mental energy so you’re able to focus on things that are above your base level needs.
It also stimulates creativity.
When you’re broke, you can only focus on base level needs: Food, shelter, clothing. Being restricted to those concerns will KILL your spirit and zest for life.
If you’re like I was, being broke also lights a fire under your ass and gets you MOVING, FAST!
It truly is motivation to man the fuck up and get your shit together.
If you are someone who has a problem with money or thinks it’s immoral or evil, leave this blog now and don’t ever come back (it’s not for you).
I don’t want that kind of mentality polluting my blog. Money is one of the most important things in life and should be treated as such.
6.) As you get older, the consequence of your actions weigh more than they used to.
I turned 30 a year ago, and a funny thing happened: I started to see things differently.
I can’t really explain it, but it’s something I feel like everyone feels at some point.
It’s a realization that you aren’t going to live forever.
In your 20’s, this is all it feels like.
We only have one life, one shot to make our mark and make a difference in this world.
At 30, you realize it’s time to quit fucking around.
You still have a lot of life left at 30 obviously, you just no longer have the luxury of putting things off like you used to. You realize that, every day, you are becoming who you are more and more.
Do you like the person you are becoming?
Have you been becoming that person for years already and not been aware of it?
Being unaware of what’s happening I think is one of worst things you could ever allow to happen.
It’s like being asleep at the wheel.
Always be aware. Always be conscientious of what and who you’re becoming.
You never, EVER want to be that guy that wakes up one day and wonders where his life went.
7.) Every area of our life effects every other area (its ALL connected).
That sentence speaks for itself.
Neglect in one part of your life, sooner or later, will affect the other areas.
You can never neglect one area for too long. Sometimes, you can actually go years neglecting certain areas of your life (and still be somewhat ok), but eventually it WILL matter.
Eventually, that neglect will start to hurt you even in the areas that aren’t being neglected.
I’ve noticed this isn’t talked about much on other blogs but I think it’s extremely important to touch on.
Everything is connected: Mind, body, brain, and spirit. Each one has a positive or a negative impact on the other. Think about it. More articles on this later.
8.) No one is (truly) looking out for you, we’re all alone & cannot rely on anyone but ourselves.
People may say they’re there for you. They may say (even often), that you can always rely and call on them if ‘’there’s anything you ever need.’’
The reality is that most of the time, people tell someone else that just to make themselves feel better.
They like the way it sounds, in theory.
There are a lot of things in life that, in theory, sound really good.
A vegetarian diet, in theory, sounds great. Starting a business or a blog, sounds great.
Then it comes time for reality, and they realize it’s not practical, or was much easier said than done. They think to themselves: ‘’This is different, and harder than I thought it would be…’’ or ‘’I just didn’t think it would be like this…’’
I believe this is probably how the process works. I’m actually not sure because when I tell someone something like that, I actually mean it.
I’m trying to think what it’s like for other people when they say things like this.
I’m very selective about who and what I’m committing to.
My word is everything. It’s like Tony Montana once said: ‘’All I have in this world is my word and my balls…..and I don’t break them for NOBODY.’’
When the shit hits the fan, and it comes time to pony up and be someone of your word, most of the time they’re singing a different tune.
They may even do what they said they would, but you can almost feel the resistance. And in that moment, you realize that you can’t truly ever rely on them. Not now. Not ever.
At any moment, that inner resistance could get the better of them and cause them to go back on their word. It happens all the time.
People only mean what they say, when they say it. They may or may not mean it later. It can depend on things like their mood, how their day, their week, or their month went. People change the way they feel about things constantly (and some people do this more than others).
Think about the concept of trust for a second. The truth of the matter is the only person you can ever trust is yourself.
The only person you can ever really truly trust is yourself (and sometimes you cant even trust yourself either).
If that thought bothers you, too bad, just tack it onto the list of things in life that you can’t change or have no control over. You can’t make other people trustworthy by wishing trustworthiness onto them.
The sooner you accept this, the sooner you’ll stop being disappointed and surprised.
End Of Part 1 (Read Part 2 HERE)
-Matt Mitchell
