Do you know how the world, like the median, our culture, tends to all the time advertise luxury and ease, as if you are going to graduate, as if you are going to reach some level, and then you are going to have this luxurious life, an easy life. I find that not to be true. In fact they are advertising that to a certain group of people, and that group of people is not us.
That group of people is Amateurish. Amateurs always think they are going to arrive somewhere. Like they are going to arrive and everybody is going to know them and their life is going to be set from that day on. That is a myth, there is no graduation. There is no arrival.
One of my favorite credos that the Navy Seals use is this, there are 2 kinds of pain in this world, there is 2 kinds of pain in the world, the pain of discipline and the pain of regret. You can only avoid one. Choose, oh warrior, the decision is always yours. There is 2 kinds of pain in the world, the pain of discipline and the pain of regret, you can only avoid one. Choose, oh warrior the decision is always yours.
So people ask me all the time, “Bo, how do you stay focused on your plan, on your dream on being the best, for these long extended periods of time, whether it is 5 years or 10 years or 8 years or 14 years or 20, how do you stay focused on that?”
And I say, “I am not focused on it all the time, I fall off just like you are. I am off track sometimes, but always rights me is this decision. The decision is always yours, the decision to be great, to be the best is always mine, that’s up to me.”
So I can choose discipline, so what does discipline look like? You can choose the pain of discipline, so let’s choose that for a moment.
Okay, so the things I choose to be disciplined at, are my marriage. Very disciplined in there, lifer right. Where I choose to be very disciplined is in my fatherhood, my parenting. I have 3 little ones and I am very disciplined with them. I don’t wander, I don’t wonder if I am good father or not. I am constantly in there working the best I can.
I stay very disciplined in my work. So if I have a writing schedule, I have a writing schedule, I keep the schedule. I treat that very sacredly, my warm up getting ready to be great. Most people want to be best, they want to be great, they are just not prepared to be great, because they’ve done no warm up to get themselves ready.
So I do a sacred 6 warm up where I am getting my body ready and willing to express itself. So my body is constantly ready to express itself, see what I mean? Most people just won’t do that.
Now a lot of people say this to me too, they go, “Now Bo, maybe I should follow my passion.” I think that’s a trap, and I think that’s a myth, because then your whole life you are going, what’s my passion? Am I passionate about this, or am I passionate about that?
I don’t follow my passion, that’s a myth, I don’t follow my passion, my passion follows me. I stay disciplined and the discipline reveals what you are passionate about. Discipline equals passion. I can choose just like you, just like the credo says, the pain of discipline or the pain of regret, which do you choose?
So I put myself at the end of my life or when I get in bed at night, I put myself in that position and do I want to have regrets at that moment?
When I am going to bed at night I don’t want any regrets. When I die, when I’m on my death bed I don’t want any regrets, I want to go, you know what I gave it everything I’ve got. Your arrival is a myth, you are not arriving anywhere. That luxury and ease, and what our world promises you and what they advertise that you are going to reach one day if you buy this or do that, that’s a myth, that’s not going to happen.
Your arrival is today, you are already here, you are already the best. You just have to keep opting for discipline, or you can opt for regret, that’s up to you. But you are going to have to right that ship day in, day out, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second. I always have the choice, discipline…regret, discipline…regret.
I choose discipline almost every time, and then my passion arrives, and then I’m not that amateurish audience any more.
That all these promises are coming to like, hey, once you make this much money your life is going to look like this. It doesn’t look any different. I have been rich, I have been poor, it is the same. Being rich is more fun because you get access to things, but there is no arrival. All there is, is being the best. All there is, is discipline to your dream. Discipline to your nature and your nature is the best.
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