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Feel Like You’re Getting NOWHERE? KEEP GOING! (S5) S41:E5 Wednesday · Inspirations for Your Life

0:23
Well there, hello everyone, and welcome to the
0:26
ever-popular Inspirations for Your Life show.
0:29
It's so great to be with everyone here
0:31
today.
0:32
Thank you so much for joining me.
0:34
If this is your very first time here,
0:35
I want to take the opportunity to say
0:36
welcome, and I want to say thank you
0:38
for joining me.
0:39
If you've been here one time, five times,
0:42
10, 100, or maybe you lost track of
0:44
the count, I want to say thank you,
0:46
and of course, I want to say welcome
0:49
to you, but I also want to say
0:50
the words, welcome back, yes.
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And so I want to thank you very,
0:58
very much for deciding to be here again.
1:01
We have another great show.
1:02
I have some delicious RO water here, which
1:04
I think all of you will definitely really
1:07
enjoy with some fresh lemon.
1:11
Feel free to go get some, and come
1:12
on back to the show, okay?
1:15
Don't forget to check out BelieveMeAchieved.com.
1:17
Of course, for more of my amazing, inspiring
1:20
creations, which you can check out as soon
1:22
as the show is over.
1:25
All right, guys.
1:26
So we've been doing a lot of cool
1:28
stuff this week, and we've been talking about
1:30
something pretty important.
1:31
You know what that is?
1:32
That's momentum.
1:33
Momentum is something I think a lot of
1:35
people today don't realize that much, but it
1:40
is the key to helping you become a
1:43
better version of yourself.
1:45
So let's go ahead, ladies and gentlemen, and
1:47
let's take this away.
1:49
All right.
1:50
So as I said, welcome, everyone, to the
1:53
ever-popular Inspirations for Your Life show.
1:56
I am your host, John C.
1:58
Morley, serial entrepreneur, engineer, marketing specialist, video producer,
2:01
podcast host, coach, keynote speaker, passionate lifelong learner,
2:04
graduate student at Montclair State University, and so
2:07
grateful now to be a published author.
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Yes, our weekly topic is momentum, in case
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you didn't know.
2:17
Momentum changes everything.
2:19
We've been talking about something almost everyone experiences.
2:23
If you feel like you're getting nowhere, keep
2:26
going.
2:28
Have you ever worked hard, made sacrifices, and
2:32
wondered whether anything is even changing?
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You're showing up.
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You're trying.
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But the results aren't there yet.
2:40
Before you decide you're failing, consider this for
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a moment.
2:44
What if you're making more progress than you
2:47
actually realize?
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Hmm.
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First, progress can exist before results become visible.
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That's true, guys.
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Think about planting a seed.
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Nothing appears above the soil at first, but
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roots are developing underneath.
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Your progress can work the same way.
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Second, some growth happens beneath the surface, guys.
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It's kind of like, you know, the glaciers,
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right, and the ice.
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There's real big ice peaks at the bottom.
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The top is just a tiny part of
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it.
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So what I want you guys to know
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is that your judgment improves your confidence.
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Yeah.
3:34
And it develops.
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Your ability to solve problems increases these changes,
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and they matter even when nobody notices them.
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Third, stop using immediate results as your only
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measurement.
3:51
Views, sales, followers, and responses don't tell the
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complete story of who you really are.
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Ask what you've learned and what you can
4:01
do better today.
4:02
Fourth, mention as repetition builds capability.
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As an engineer, I understand that reliable systems
4:14
require testing and refinement.
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Every meaningful repetition creates another opportunity to improve.
4:24
Fifth, difficult days, they count, guys.
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Some days bring interpretations, setbacks, and frustrations.
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If you still make meaningful progress, that effort
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counts.
4:36
Sixth, slow down.
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Progress remains progress.
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We don't need to rush it.
4:45
Speed isn't everything, guys.
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Direction matters.
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Even a small step forward can bring you
4:51
closer to something important.
4:55
Seventh, your timeline does not invalidate your effort.
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Somebody else's achievements don't determine your schedule.
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Their resources and circumstances may be different.
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Measure your growth against your starting point.
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Eighth, separate frustration from failure.
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Feeling frustrated doesn't automatically mean you're failing.
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Sometimes expectations haven't matched results.
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Evaluate before deciding what that actually means to
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you.
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Ninth, one disappointing result does not erase previous
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growth.
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A project or presentation may not go as
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planned.
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That's one experience.
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It doesn't erase everything you've learned.
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So let's not throw the whole thing away
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because there's some important lessons that we need
5:46
to learn so we can move forward in
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our life.
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That's probably the most important thing that I
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can tell you guys.
5:55
It's probably the most important thing that I
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can tell you for people to understand.
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Very, very important thing.
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And 10th, give good strengths and strategies enough
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time to work.
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See, some approaches require consistent execution.
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Don't abandon a reasonable strategy simply because, well,
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success hasn't arrived yet.
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There's no way to give up.
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Because your train, your plane, your boat, it
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may just be on its way.
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And you giving up might tell it to
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turn around.
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Eleventh, evaluate before you ever abandon a thought.
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Is the goal still important to you right
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now?
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Is the strategy you're using effective?
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Have you measured the right things?
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Make decisions using evidence, not disappointment.
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Twelfth, adjust what's ineffective without quitting everything.
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I think a lot of people, when they
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hear something's not working, they're like, oh, you
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know, I'm just going to stop.
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But wait a minute, you're doing a lot
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of it right.
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And I think that's a big thing for
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people.
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Like, you don't need to stop, right?
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Think about what you need to change, right?
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Adjust what's ineffective without quitting everything.
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So maybe your message needs some tweaking and
7:23
improvement.
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Or your process needs simplified, right?
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Change the method without automatically abandoning the mission.
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I think sometimes we like to do things
7:32
that are complicated because we think they're going
7:34
to yield results.
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But you know what I found out?
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It's the simple things that get people's attention.
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Thirteen, motivation naturally rises and it falls.
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Nobody feels inspired every day.
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Motivation changes with every circumstance you have.
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Your progress cannot depend entirely on excitement, guys.
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I'm sorry, you've got to use discipline, right?
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Because our motivation will go up, it'll go
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down.
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Create routines, right?
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Number fourteen, your system must survive low motivation
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days.
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So create those routines.
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Know your next stop.
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Keep materials organized.
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Make useful actions easier when enthusiasm disappears.
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Fifteen, reduce the task instead of abandoning it.
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Plan two hours, but only have 15 minutes.
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Use those 15 minutes that you have for
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something meaningful in your life.
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Smaller progress, guys, it still counts.
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One step still counts, right?
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You have to take a step before you
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can take a journey of a million miles.
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Sixteenth, protect the habit when energy is limited.
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I think this concept gets people confused.
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They feel that they're not able to move
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forward because of something somebody else said, because
9:06
of a certain situation, but that may not
9:09
be the real answer, guys.
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That may not be the real answer, and
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I think that's a problem for so many
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people.
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They think that because somebody else said, oh,
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you're not good enough, you're not this, you're
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not that.
9:20
That's not you, you know?
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And you won't perform at your highest level
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every single day, let's face it.
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Choose a manageable action that keeps you connected
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to your commitment.
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It could be something very small, but it
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will keep you connected, it'll keep you grounded.
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I think that's why people go off track.
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They lose gratitude, they lose hope, they lose
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the ambition, the desire.
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Seventeenth, do the minimum that keeps momentum alive.
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Write one paragraph, review one page, make one
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important call.
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The minimum keeps us moving when circumstances become
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difficult around us.
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Eighteen, remember why you started without romanticizing the
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beginning.
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That's a real important one.
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I think sometimes we go back to the
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beginning because we think that's all we have,
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but we forget all the wonderful things that
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we've been doing in our life, right?
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Those wonderful things are pretty amazing in our
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lives.
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They're extremely, extremely powerful, right?
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I think that's the most important thing that
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I can tell you guys, right?
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It's probably the most important thing that I
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can tell you, but it causes a lot
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of people to stop early.
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Nineteen, compare your capability now with your capability
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before.
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I wanna tie this to a story of
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actually, an elephant, an elephant many years ago.
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So this elephant, you might've heard me tell
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the story before.
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So the elephant, when the elephant was a
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baby calf, was tied to a stake with
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a chain, right?
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Very small elephant.
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So people often ask me this question, how
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small, this is great, how small and heavy
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is a baby elephant?
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Well, basically most newborns average 200 pounds, which
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is heavier than many adult humans.
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African elephant calves tend to slightly be larger
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than Asian elephant calves.
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They stand roughly three feet tall at the
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shoulder when they're born.
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They grow very fast and can gain up
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to 200 pounds per week by drinking nutrient
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rich milk.
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So the thing you're probably wondering is, what
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am I saying?
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Why am I saying this?
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A baby elephant is small in the sense
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of nature, but 200 pounds, they're often very
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friendly, but they can be very dangerous, okay?
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When elephants are born, they like to play
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with things like kittens for the first time.
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And, but the thing they have to realize
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is they gotta be reminded to be gentle
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because in their playful nature, they're rough.
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I mean, their body is heavy.
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Even though they're not intentionally trying to hurt
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you, they are rough because of their massive
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size, right?
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Baby elephants, like I said, weigh 200, 250
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pounds.
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Imagine you being stomped over with a 250
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pound elephant.
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Now, here's the caveat.
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This elephant was tied up at a stake,
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baby elephant.
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And the elephant couldn't break free from the
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stake right away.
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The elephant got a little bit older, maybe
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a few weeks later, tried again, tried a
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month or two later, tried again.
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After a few months, the elephant gave up.
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She's like, John, how did an elephant like
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not be able to, you know, how could
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you, you know, keep an elephant on a
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chain or a stick or something like that?
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The elephant was conditioned with its mind, thinking
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that it didn't have the ability.
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It didn't know that it had more power
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because see, as you get older, you grow,
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you get stronger, right?
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And as you get stronger, life actually changes.
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Life actually changes.
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And that's the difference of you becoming a
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better version of yourself.
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So I say this because if we all
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act like that elephant and we gave up
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after the first few months, we'd never go
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anywhere.
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Just because something is hard doesn't mean you
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shouldn't do it.
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A lot of people that find things difficult
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to just give up early because they don't
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wanna put up with it.
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But see, success does not live where it's
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easy.
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It starts where it's complicated.
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I think that's a very important thing for
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us to understand, where it gets complicated.
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That's pretty powerful, guys.
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Don't be like that elephant, okay?
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Keep trying, keep trying, keep trying.
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If the elephant would have waited a few
15:11
more months, that elephant would have crushed that
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metal stake.
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So you're probably saying to me, John, well,
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how heavy would an elephant become in a
15:26
year?
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Let's just think about that.
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So in a year, okay, it would reach
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roughly 800 to 1,000 pounds.
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That's easy to crush a stake, let alone
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hurt a human.
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They mean to be docile, but because their
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body is so massive it can hurt people.
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Number 19, compare your capability now with capability
15:55
you had before.
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And I say this to you again, because
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what once intimidated you, what can you handle
16:01
confidently today?
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These improvements demonstrate growth you may have overlooked.
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Like the elephant, that's why I wanted to
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repeat that.
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20, difficult seasons can develop endurance.
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Challenges can strengthen patience and adaptability.
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We don't need to celebrate hardship to recognize
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what we learn while navigating it.
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I think sometimes we have challenges and then
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all we do is remember the challenge.
16:28
We need to throw away what felt bad
16:31
and just keep the lesson.
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I've told a lot of clients that are
16:34
like, oh, you don't know what I went
16:35
through.
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I do, forget about the hard time, learn
16:41
from it.
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Learn from it, know the lesson.
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So stop expecting every day to feel inspirational.
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Some days are exciting, others are ordinary or
16:58
exhausting.
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Meaningful progress can happen without extraordinary feelings, 22.
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Discipline carries you when excitement fades.
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And discipline should be your marker every day.
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Discipline should be getting you out of bed.
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Discipline should be doing things.
17:19
Of course, there's great things you like to
17:20
do in life, but discipline should be the
17:23
primary.
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Discipline means following through on reasonable commitments.
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Your goals remain important, even when enthusiasm changes
17:36
or like I said, it wanes or drops
17:38
off, 23.
17:41
Rest can support momentum.
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When used intentionally, that is.
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Keep going doesn't mean exhausting yourself, doesn't mean
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going through burnout.
17:52
A purposeful break can improve concentration, judgment and
17:57
energy, 22.
17:59
24, recovery is part of sustainable progress.
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Systems need maintenance and people need recovery.
18:08
Sleep, boundaries and realistic workloads protect long-term
18:13
performance, 25.
18:17
Give yourself permission to move slowly.
18:22
I think a lot of people, they wanna
18:24
race to the end, right?
18:27
You've had the people, I'm sure that for
18:30
whatever reason, they try to put the desk
18:35
together, but they haven't even looked at the
18:36
instructions.
18:36
They say, oh, I know what I'm doing.
18:39
And they break it.
18:39
You've had probably friends like this, right?
18:42
Not you.
18:43
And when somebody doesn't pay attention and they
18:47
just kind of push all the way through,
18:50
they miss the whole point.
18:55
So you gotta give yourself permission to move
18:58
slowly.
18:58
You might say, well, gee, I'm never gonna
19:00
get anywhere.
19:01
So does anybody know what is the slowest
19:04
animal?
19:07
What is the slowest animal in the world?
19:09
Anybody know what it is?
19:10
If you had to take a guess right
19:11
now, what's the slowest animal in the world?
19:13
It's a three-toed sloth.
19:16
It's recognized as the slowest mammal and land
19:19
on earth, moving at top speeds of 0
19:23
.15 miles per hour.
19:27
Sloths are mostly leaves, which provide very little
19:31
nutrition or calories.
19:32
They have slow metabolism.
19:33
They have extremely low metabolic rates, meaning they
19:36
process food very slowly, sometimes taking up to
19:39
a month to digest a single meal.
19:41
Yeah.
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Energy conservation to avoid running out of energy.
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They have 50% less muscle mass than
19:48
other mammals of a similar size and more
19:51
deliberately, they do that.
19:53
Survival tactics, moving slowly, helps them blend into
19:57
the trees and avoids attracting the attention of
19:59
predators like jaguars and harpy eagles, which rely
20:04
on the sight and movement to be able
20:07
to hunt.
20:10
That's pretty amazing.
20:12
So we've got to understand that.
20:14
You may be balancing work, education, family, right?
20:19
And unexperienced situations that you're not used to
20:24
and unexpected responsibilities.
20:28
Choose a realistic pace that allows you to
20:32
continue.
20:32
I'm not saying to burn yourself out.
20:34
Let me be very clear about that.
20:36
26, keep collecting evidence that you can continue.
20:40
Remember the challenges you've navigated and skills you've
20:43
developed?
20:44
Your past progress provides evidence of your ability
20:47
to move forward.
20:50
So it's your past and how the fact
20:54
that you reflect on it's like, hey, I
20:56
did that before.
20:58
You can do it again.
21:00
27, your breakthrough may require more repetitions than
21:04
expected, right?
21:06
When you're first learning how to hit a
21:08
bat or like to golf, drive a golf
21:12
ball, you might need more repetitions than just
21:14
a few.
21:18
You may need additional practice to find that.
21:21
Or additional strategies, perspectives.
21:27
Keep learning rather than repeating ineffective methods.
21:32
Einstein said it before, insanity, doing the same
21:35
thing over and over again, expecting to results.
21:37
If you don't change what you're doing, you're
21:39
never gonna change your outcome.
21:43
28, stay flexible about the route.
21:48
Your destination may remain important even when the
21:51
original path changes.
21:53
Adaptability helps you explore better approaches.
21:57
29, keep your commitment stronger than today's frustration.
22:04
One disappointing afternoon should not automatically determine the
22:08
future of an important goal.
22:10
Give yourself perspective before making permanent decisions.
22:15
And now our 30th and final point for
22:21
today.
22:22
Sometimes the most powerful progress is simply continuing.
22:28
Not announcing another enormous breakthrough or goal.
22:33
Not making dramatic promises.
22:37
Simply living, showing up consistently again and again
22:41
and again.
22:43
Learn something.
22:45
Make an adjustment in your life.
22:48
Add something, delete something.
22:50
Taking another meaningful step.
22:53
Putting one foot in front of the other.
22:56
There are gonna be days, ladies and gentlemen,
22:58
when progress feels invisible.
23:02
Days when you question your effort.
23:04
Days when you've been tempted to walk away.
23:09
But progress doesn't always look like a breakthrough.
23:14
Sometimes it means maintaining a habit.
23:18
Sometimes it means recovering from a setback.
23:23
Sometimes it means finding a better approach.
23:27
And sometimes it means saying, I'm not finished
23:32
yet.
23:33
And a lot of you are not finished
23:34
yet.
23:35
In fact, we're never finished.
23:36
As long as we're here breathing, we're not
23:38
finished.
23:39
Here's my challenge for all of you.
23:42
Think about one meaningful goal where you're discouraged
23:47
right now.
23:50
Ask yourself three important questions.
23:52
You ready?
23:54
What progress have I already made toward that
23:57
goal?
23:59
What needs to change in my life so
24:02
I can get to the goal faster?
24:04
What is one thing or a useful action
24:09
I can take right now to get closer
24:14
to that goal?
24:15
Then ladies and gentlemen, don't procrastinate.
24:17
Take the action.
24:19
Not because success is guaranteed tomorrow, but because
24:23
every step offers another opportunity to learn and
24:26
improve and become a better version of ourselves.
24:28
And that's what we all want here, isn't
24:30
it?
24:30
Sure it is.
24:31
Our weekly topic is momentum changes everything.
24:35
But the choice to keep moving is all
24:38
up to you.
24:39
Momentum doesn't always mean moving quickly.
24:43
Sometimes it means moving wisely.
24:49
Sometimes it means adjusting to our surroundings.
24:53
And sometimes it means continuing when results haven't
25:00
arrived yet.
25:01
You might be unhappy because you're not getting
25:04
what you expect.
25:06
Do it anyway.
25:11
And I think if you could reflect back
25:13
on things in your life that were positive,
25:14
that'll give you not only the motivation, but
25:18
hopefully even more discipline to say, wait a
25:20
minute, I'm pretty smart, or I'm pretty strong,
25:22
or I'm pretty this.
25:24
And I could definitely do this.
25:28
People overlook that.
25:33
People overlook that.
25:36
You have to continue when results haven't arrived
25:40
yet.
25:44
You might say to me, John, why?
25:47
Well, if we look at every inventor in
25:49
the world, every successful person, they all had
25:52
some type of challenge in their life and
25:55
they push forward.
25:58
The question I have is why don't you
26:02
wanna push forward?
26:04
That's what I wanna know.
26:07
If they all push forward and they became
26:09
successful, you can too.
26:14
I'm not gonna tell you it's gonna be
26:16
a slam dunk.
26:18
It's not.
26:20
It definitely is not something you're gonna slam
26:23
dunk in, but it's something that I think
26:25
we need to become mindful of and the
26:29
more mindful of it, guess what happens?
26:30
We start to achieve reality.
26:33
We start to be like, wow, I'm actually
26:34
doing pretty cool.
26:36
Yes, you are.
26:38
But if you constantly say, I can't do
26:41
this, I can't do that, you cause your
26:46
brain and body to slow down because it
26:51
causes a decrease in what's released in your
26:56
brain, the dopamine.
26:59
And when we have less dopamine, we have
27:01
less energy.
27:03
The dopamine's like a natural high of drug
27:05
that we get.
27:08
It's a chemical reaction.
27:10
These are important things.
27:12
Ladies and gentlemen, I am John C.
27:14
Morley and I thank you so much for
27:17
choosing to join me as this has been
27:20
another amazing episode of Inspirations for Your Life.
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So what do I wanna leave you with
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today?
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I've left you with a lot already, haven't
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I?
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So one thing is, please, it's your choice,
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keep learning.
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Second, keep improving.
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And then guys, keep vowing to move forward.
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And when you feel like you're getting nowhere,
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remember these two powerful words, keep going.
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And you know what ladies and gentlemen, I'm
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gonna see you guys on another show real
27:56
soon.
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I hope you have a great rest of
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your day or evening.
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Be well and check out BelieveMeAchieve.com.