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Why Most People Drift Instead of Decide (S5) S17:E1 · Inspirations for Your Life

0:24
Well, hey guys, and good evening, it is
0:27
John Seymour Lee here, serial entrepreneur.
0:30
It is great to be with you on
0:32
the Inspirations for Your Life show.
0:35
Yes, guys, thank you so much for tuning
0:36
in.
0:37
It is Saturday, it is April 18th, 2026.
0:42
And what does that mean?
0:44
Well, that means we're on a brand new
0:46
master topic.
0:49
Yes, if this is your very first time
0:52
with me, I want to say thank you,
0:54
and of course I want to say welcome
0:55
to you, definitely want to say thank you,
0:57
and I want to say welcome.
0:59
So yes, and if you've been here many
1:00
times before, I want to say thank you,
1:03
and I want to say welcome back, yes,
1:05
I want to say welcome back to you.
1:07
So every single day, you know, I put
1:10
on the Inspirations for Your Life show, we've
1:11
been on the air now, oh gosh, four
1:14
years and basically three months, yeah, a quarter
1:22
of the way through almost of our fifth
1:25
year, a lot of great stuff to talk
1:27
about.
1:27
So guys, if you're thirsty, if you're hungry
1:29
or what have you, feel free to go
1:30
grab that quickly and head on back to
1:33
the show, because I have a lot to
1:36
share with you.
1:37
By the way, I've got a nice RO
1:38
water here with some fresh lemon in it,
1:40
which is really sweet, delicious, and very healthy
1:43
for your mind and body.
1:45
So guys, without any further ado, I want
1:46
to start, but before I do start the
1:48
show, I want to let you know that
1:50
I am now a published author, and I'm
1:52
so grateful for that, and this is my
1:54
book, Drained to Driven, Breaking the Cycle of
1:58
Burnout Through Awareness, Boundaries and Intentional Living.
2:01
So I'll probably be talking about this every
2:02
show, just mentioning it, because I'm very proud
2:05
about the book, it talks about what happened
2:06
14 years ago in my life, and how
2:09
if that didn't happen, I would not be,
2:11
ladies and gentlemen, where I am today.
2:14
Talks about awareness from a lot of different
2:16
perspectives.
2:17
So really grateful for that, guys.
2:20
All right.
2:21
Incidentally, if you do want to check out
2:23
the big reveal that we had, you can
2:26
go to believemeachieved.com, and yeah, I think
2:32
you guys will definitely find this to be
2:35
pretty interesting.
2:37
You can find more information about the book,
2:40
and possibly read it, and lots of other
2:44
stuff, but also get a lot of my
2:47
free content, you know, inspirational content that I
2:50
put out there every single day.
2:52
So again, I am really, really grateful for
2:56
everyone that has supported me along my journey
3:00
and continues to support me.
3:01
So thanks very much.
3:03
So let's go ahead, guys, and kick this
3:05
show off.
3:07
Are you guys ready?
3:08
I know I am.
3:09
So ladies and gentlemen, in case you did
3:11
not know, yes, you are tuned into Inspirations
3:15
for Your Life.
3:17
This is the daily motivational show.
3:19
That's right, guys, the daily motivational show, Inspirations
3:22
for Your Life.
3:24
And so I do want to take the
3:26
opportunity to definitely welcome you to the show
3:29
today.
3:30
Again, my name is John C.
3:31
Morley, serial entrepreneur, engineer, marketing specialist, video producer,
3:39
podcast host, host, host, host, and coach, and
3:45
also a passionate lifelong learner.
3:47
And I'm very proud to say I'm now
3:50
an official published author with my own first
3:53
book.
3:53
And yes, guys, there will be more.
3:56
Yes.
3:57
Not just about motivation, but I'm also going
3:59
to be writing a book about AI, probably
4:02
the end of this year, The Truth About
4:03
AI That the Media and the World Don't
4:06
Really Tell You About.
4:08
So these are some really, really cool things
4:11
that we're doing.
4:12
And this book has been a really great,
4:14
I'm going to say, a starting point, but
4:17
more so a great vehicle for me to
4:20
get the word out about my story and
4:23
hopefully impact some people's lives.
4:25
So, yes, Why Most People Drift Instead of
4:29
Decide.
4:31
Yes, this is series five, show 17, episode
4:33
number one.
4:35
That's the granular.
4:36
The master topic is how people actually take
4:38
control of their life.
4:40
Yes, that's what it's about.
4:43
And you know, whether we're talking about engineering,
4:45
whether we're talking about being an author, whether
4:47
we're talking about being a graduate student, it's
4:51
so great to be here every day and
4:53
to be able to make some amazing, I'm
4:57
going to say some amazing things for you
5:00
guys that can help you grow and, like
5:03
I said, become a better version of yourself.
5:07
So I think that's important.
5:12
And so, you know, I think a lot
5:15
of people get confused, OK?
5:19
And the reason they get confused is because,
5:24
well, they get frustrated.
5:28
They get stressed, right?
5:30
I think that's a very, very important thing.
5:35
And it's real for a lot of people,
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OK?
5:43
And that's that's an important thing for, I
5:45
think, for all of us to be aware
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of.
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So tonight, it's all about something subtle, but
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it's very powerful, guys.
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What is that that we're talking about tonight?
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Well, happy to share that with you.
5:59
And that is not failure.
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Not success.
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What are we talking about?
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Direction, because you see, most people don't wake
6:10
up one day and decide, bam.
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Where their life will go.
6:17
They just sort of stumble into it.
6:19
And I've said to you guys before, if
6:21
we fail to plan, then we have planned
6:25
to fail.
6:28
Yeah.
6:31
I think that's an important thing to definitely
6:35
understand, that these are things that most people
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don't understand.
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Most people don't know.
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Most people just don't really see what's going
6:49
on.
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And I think for some people, they want
6:54
to do the right thing.
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But then for whatever reason, it's like they
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get stuck.
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And again, they get stuck because, again, it's
7:06
just where they fell in the moment, where
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they fell in the moment.
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And that moment is something that a lot
7:14
of people, well, again, they get stuck in
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it because they don't understand.
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And this can get people to want to
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give up.
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Does that make sense?
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And I want to tell you that it's
7:43
important to become aware of things.
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And when I say this, it becomes very
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hard.
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Very hard because some people just, again, they
8:14
get stuck.
8:16
They get stuck into this whole conundrum of
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how do I do something?
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Where do I go?
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And that's a very, very big problem for
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a lot of people.
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Where do I go?
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What am I supposed to do?
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And again, this gets into a point where
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a lot of you say to me, John,
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I don't know where I'm going.
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I don't know what I'm doing.
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They slowly drift there.
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Most people don't choose direction.
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They just sort of fall into it.
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Life rarely breaks all that down at once.
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It shifts quietly through what you allow.
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Comfort creates slow stagnation.
9:00
And when nothing feels urgent, nothing truly changes
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for us.
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Repetition feels like progress.
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Movement is not the same as advancement.
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Routine hides lack of growth.
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Consistency without intention leads nowhere, folks.
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Familiar feels safe, not effective.
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What feels natural is often just what's repeated
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in a loop or on a habit that
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we don't know about.
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Passive habits control outcomes.
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What you don't guide will guide you.
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Drift feels normal until it's too late.
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You rarely notice until the distance is already
9:38
there.
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No decision is still a decision.
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Silence shapes direction just as much as action
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does.
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Time amplifies inaction.
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What you delay becomes more difficult to change,
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guys.
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More difficult to change.
10:01
More difficult to change.
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That's important.
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And again, this can be a challenge, okay?
10:24
And I'll tell you that the challenge comes
10:28
down to a lot of things, okay?
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And so I will tell you that for
10:39
whatever reason, you're gonna get stuck in wherever
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you are.
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And it's when you lose sight of things
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happening, when you lose sight of the awareness,
10:53
which by the way is a lot about
10:54
what my book is about, to prevent burnout.
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Most people think burnout happens like this.
11:00
It's like, you know, a light just going
11:02
off.
11:02
But no, that's not burnout.
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Burnout is when you get apathy, when you
11:06
stop wanting to do things just because they
11:09
suddenly aren't interesting to you, or when you
11:11
get lazy for something.
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That's starting signs of burnout.
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Default behavior creates default results.
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If nothing changes, neither do your outcomes.
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People will avoid hard choices, but avoiding decisions
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creates harder realities.
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Easy paths create long-term cost.
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What is simple now often becomes complex later.
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Comfort delays change, guys.
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And the absence of discomfort can quietly limit
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the growth.
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Yeah, it can quietly limit the growth.
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And I think that's an important point for
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a lot of people to understand.
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To know that people in our world, okay,
11:58
are doing things, but then they're not really
12:01
sure about why things are happening.
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They just know that they're stuck in this
12:06
stage, okay?
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And I'll tell you the reason they're stuck.
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It's because they've gotten so frustrated that they
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do not know what to do.
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They don't know what to do.
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So they blame people.
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They blame people.
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And they think that blaming people is gonna
12:33
solve the problem, create more frustration, distance, and
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chaos.
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It's gonna create more of that.
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And I wanna tell you guys that these
12:52
things don't happen overnight, okay?
12:58
They happen by our epiphany, okay?
13:04
They happen by our epiphany.
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And that's a very important thing to note,
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an epiphany.
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An epiphany that maybe you weren't quite aware
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of.
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And maybe that's something that you're saying, John,
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this doesn't make sense.
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The reason it doesn't make sense is because
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you're not looking at things from a wider
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perspective.
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You're not.
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You're looking at things from a different perspective,
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one where you're closed-minded.
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Yeah, closed-minded.
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Closed-minded is something a lot of people
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don't understand, but yet it keeps them almost
14:02
tied to a rope.
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Very similar to the story.
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Do you guys remember the story?
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There was a story many years ago about
14:08
the elephant.
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It was the elephant tied to a rope
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when he was little.
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And then never tried again.
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It was called the elephant rope moral story.
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And it goes like this.
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Once upon a time in a land far
14:28
away, there lived a baby elephant.
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Whatever his name is, we can call him
14:32
Joey.
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And Joey was strong and smart, but he
14:37
had a big problem.
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He believed that he could never break free
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from a thin rope tied to his leg.
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When Joey was just a tiny little elephant,
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his owners tied him to a tree with
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a thin rope.
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He tried to break free, but he was
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too small and not strong enough.
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And Joey grew up.
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The rope stayed the same.
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And Joey never tried to break it again
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because the thought was impossible.
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That's important, guys.
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Our thoughts create our reality.
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Our reality.
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That's important, guys.
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That is so very, very important.
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Wherever we put our thoughts, okay, wherever we're
15:37
thinking about, that's where the energy is gonna
15:39
flow.
15:39
That's where things are gonna happen in our
15:41
lives.
15:42
But there's a lot of you all saying,
15:44
oh, you know, you can't do this.
15:45
You can't do that, right?
15:48
And then you wonder yourself, why are you
15:51
backed into this corner?
15:53
A corner that you didn't even know existed
15:55
before, but suddenly now it's a big problem.
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It is a very, very big problem.
16:03
A problem that I think a lot of
16:05
people just don't understand.
16:10
And the reason I say this to you
16:12
is because you put yourself into this place,
16:20
okay?
16:21
But you don't know how you got there.
16:29
You don't know how you got there.
16:37
And I think the reason that's happening is
16:40
because you are following other people's advice.
16:49
You are following other people's advice.
16:54
And that's interesting, guys.
16:57
That is so amazing.
17:02
And I say amazing to you because, again,
17:07
it's about a concept.
17:11
It's about something that you believed was true,
17:17
but it may not be true.
17:20
It may not be true.
17:22
But if you live your life thinking that
17:24
it's gonna be true, right?
17:28
Then that becomes a slightly problem, a big
17:32
problem.
17:40
I think that causes challenge for a lot
17:43
of people.
17:52
And maybe you could say to me, John,
17:56
it makes a difference.
17:58
It makes a difference for me.
18:00
It makes a difference for a lot of
18:01
people.
18:04
And what is that difference?
18:09
I think the difference is that we see
18:12
things in a different light, right?
18:15
And we don't know where we're going or
18:18
what we're doing, at least at the moment,
18:21
like that elephant guys, right?
18:23
So patterns are gonna keep repeating.
18:26
And even if we don't know what we're
18:29
focused on, if we look at our results,
18:31
that's what we've been thinking about.
18:33
And without awareness, you cannot change what you
18:35
do not see.
18:37
Small neglect compounds.
18:39
What is ignored today grows immensely tomorrow.
18:43
Most people never audit their life.
18:46
I'm not talking about accounting.
18:47
They continue forward without questioning their direction, their
18:51
purpose, their core values.
18:55
Direction is shaped quietly, guys, very quietly.
19:00
Your life is forming even when you are
19:03
not paying attention to it.
19:07
When you're not paying attention to it.
19:11
I think that's one that often scares people
19:15
because they don't understand the fact that they
19:18
can make this change, right?
19:22
They don't understand that fact.
19:23
They don't know that the difference between their
19:28
success and not is the thoughts in their
19:32
head.
19:33
Now I'm gonna let you in on a
19:35
little secret.
19:36
Even if you start these thoughts today, they're
19:38
not gonna appear tomorrow.
19:40
You've gotta keep changing.
19:43
As long as the patterns change and they
19:45
stay changed, you will attract success.
19:48
That's inevitable.
19:50
But a lot of people I know say,
19:50
oh, John, I'm not seeing success.
19:51
I just wanna give up.
19:54
You wanna give up?
19:56
Yeah, I've been doing it for how long?
19:57
Oh, I don't know, a few days, a
20:02
few days, a few days.
20:08
Like, really?
20:11
I don't understand where you're coming from, like
20:14
where that's even coming from as well.
20:20
And I think that confuses a lot of
20:22
people because they think that if they are
20:26
able to, let's say, persuade their brain to
20:33
do something that may not be the greatest
20:35
thing for them, that could be a problem.
20:41
That could be a serious, serious problem.
20:45
And so as we think about where we
20:48
are each day, okay?
20:50
And we think about these plans and we
20:52
think about what's happening, it comes down to
20:56
something very serious.
20:58
It comes down to our own thoughts.
21:01
Our thoughts become our reality.
21:03
You know, guys, drift is slow, but it
21:06
is so darn powerful.
21:07
It rarely feels dramatic when it's happening, but
21:10
it is always active.
21:14
And a lack of awareness, sustained stagnation, unseen
21:18
patterns are the hardest things to break.
21:22
Stability can be an illusion, guys.
21:24
Stillness is not the same as progress.
21:29
Nothing breaks until it does.
21:32
And when it does, it feels, well, catastrophic,
21:36
sudden, an emergency, but it wasn't.
21:40
This was breaking all along.
21:42
I'm gonna give you a per example.
21:44
I had a chair that I've had for
21:45
a while.
21:46
I'm getting a new chair actually soon, but
21:48
the chair that I had for a while
21:49
was slowly starting to not hold me up.
21:53
And for a while, we were trying to
21:54
fix it.
21:54
We thought we had it.
21:55
And today, just before the show, I got
21:57
on the chair and basically almost fell to
21:59
the ground, did fall to the ground, held
22:01
onto the desk a little bit, and I
22:03
put another chair in its place.
22:04
But this is what happens, guys.
22:07
I was aware of it, but it was
22:12
different, okay?
22:17
I was aware of it.
22:20
I was aware of what was going on
22:23
and why things were going on.
22:32
I think that causes people to have a
22:36
difference of opinion, a difference of opinion that
22:45
can change a lot.
22:49
It can change where you are today, and
22:53
it could change where you are tomorrow.
23:00
But again, that whole concept, that whole piece,
23:06
I believe is just an illusion for us.
23:12
It's an illusion, guys.
23:15
It's an absolute, absolute illusion.
23:21
And I think those are the kinds of
23:23
things that get us to realize one thing.
23:28
You know what that one thing is?
23:29
That one thing is this.
23:32
It's that we have to be aware of
23:35
what is going on in our life 24
23:38
seven.
23:39
If we are not aware of these things,
23:44
life is gonna pass us by.
23:53
It's gonna pass us by.
23:55
And I say this to you because I
23:56
want you to be aware of life.
24:01
I want you to be aware of possibilities,
24:05
of opportunities.
24:07
Passive living, guys, creates regret.
24:11
Because one day you recognize you never made
24:14
a choice, and the choice was made for
24:17
you.
24:17
You become what you repeat.
24:19
Identity is built through consistent behavior.
24:22
Unchecked habits turn control and give it away.
24:27
What you allow repeatedly becomes permanent in your
24:30
life.
24:32
Now, if you change your thoughts, you change
24:34
your values, guess what?
24:35
Then you can change those things in your
24:37
life.
24:37
You can change them.
24:40
You can change them.
24:42
People normalize decline.
24:45
They adjust instead of improving.
24:47
Delay reinforces the drift.
24:50
Time strengthens whatever direction you're already in.
24:54
The direction you're already in.
25:00
I think that really puts a big highlight
25:05
to things.
25:09
A highlight that says, yes, I can do
25:14
it, but for some reason I don't do
25:16
it.
25:16
Why?
25:32
And I think that's something that a lot
25:34
of people don't understand.
25:45
And that whole concept right there, right?
25:49
That whole concept right there is the kicker.
25:54
That is the kicker.
25:56
That's what brings people to the point.
25:59
Saying, well, what's going on with me?
26:02
What's going on with me?
26:05
Right?
26:07
And you might think you're doing something wrong,
26:09
but really you're not doing anything wrong.
26:15
What you're doing is you're probably getting confused.
26:20
Right?
26:22
You're getting confused.
26:25
And I think that's a big challenge for
26:27
a lot of people that they get confused,
26:31
that they don't understand why things are going
26:33
the way they're going.
26:34
You know, there's no urgency in a sense
26:37
for a lot of people.
26:38
And that equals no change without intention.
26:42
Intentional people live the life they want.
26:46
Nothing shifts.
26:48
Awareness disrupts autopilot.
26:51
The moment you see clearly, you begin to
26:54
change like that.
26:56
Now the whole change doesn't happen overnight, but
26:58
the change starts to evolve.
27:01
Change starts when you notice clarity is beginning
27:06
in your life and you see the control.
27:09
Most people drift a few, decide.
27:11
And those who decide redefine everything.
27:15
This is the shift.
27:16
You don't need to rebuild your life today.
27:19
You need to recognize how it's being built.
27:22
Because the moment you become aware, you create
27:26
choices.
27:27
And the moment you create choices, you take
27:31
control of your life.
27:33
Not all at once, but intentionally.
27:36
And I think that's the thing that a
27:38
lot of people miss.
27:40
And I invite you ladies and gentlemen to
27:42
check out BelieveMeAchieved.com for more information about
27:44
my book, to watch the dedication ceremony and
27:47
lots of great inspirational shows, as well as
27:50
the tech show.
27:51
So for more insights, please go ahead and
27:54
visit BelieveMeAchieved.com.
27:56
Your life changes the moment you stop drifting
27:59
and start deciding.
28:01
What are you waiting for?
28:02
Start living the life you've been wanting to
28:04
your whole life.
28:05
Get off the bench and get in the
28:07
game.
28:07
It's time to play.