Mastering the Mindset
Mastering the Mindset
Play This When You Feel Like Giving Up
You expected challenges and even setbacks. You thought you could handle them. Now, you’re not so sure. Despite careful planning and your best efforts, there are times when the difficulties you face seem impossible to overcome. You’re frustrated. You’re stressed out, and your lack of progress makes you wonder if you should stop wasting your time. Play this when you feel like giving up!
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What's up everybody and thank you for listening to Mastering the Mindset. My name is Darius Dodge and I'm an actor, hip-hop artist and fitness and life coach, and I'm here to personally help you train and improve your mindset so that you can, one, become the best version of yourself mentally and, two, gain focus and motivation to be able to take action and achieve the success in life that you want and deserve. Before we get started, please like and subscribe to my channel and at the end of this episode, if you liked it, please share it with a friend or a loved one or someone who would benefit from hearing this message. I'm so glad you're here and I'm ready to go on this journey with you, and that journey begins now. All right, and welcome back to another episode. Thank you once again for being here. If you are on YouTube, please like and subscribe to my channel. If you are on a podcast platform, please leave me. Leave me a review. Also, there's new ways to support me. You can become a monthly supporter and you get to choose the amount. It can either be three, five, eight or ten dollars a month and you can cancel any time, and that will be greatly appreciated. Your donations help me keep this thing going and I thank you in advance.
Speaker 1:All right, I'm so glad you found this episode today. I really feel like somebody needs to hear this one. And before I start, I want to say that this podcast ain't one of those podcasts where I'm the dude who got everything figured out and I'm some millionaire and I'm traveling all over the world to do public speaking and you should listen to me and do it how I did it, and you'll be guaranteed to make all your dreams come true. Nope, this ain't what that is. I'm on this journey with you. I'm growing and applying all the things I talk about on here to my life, and I'm growing and applying all the things I talk about on here to my life, and I'm seeing results, not close to a finished product at all, but absolutely experiencing growth, and I want that for you. So let's do this together.
Speaker 1:And y'all know I don't like the word motivation, not because I don't think it's not, not because I think it's a bad thing, but because a lot of times we want to wait until we feel motivated to take action, and in reality, that's the wrong way to go about it. If you only waited until you're motivated, then you would hardly ever take action and you actually get motivated from taking action. That action motivates you to do more anyway. But this episode is hopefully going to serve as some motivation and inspiration for you, serve as some motivation and inspiration for you, and I want this episode to serve as a reminder from me to you from me as your friend, as somebody who cares about you, that you're going to figure this out. You are, you're going to figure this out, and when you do, you're going to be so proud of yourself. When it does work out, it won't be the way you planned, but it'll be unique to you, which makes it even better because only you can walk the path that's meant for you.
Speaker 1:And some of you might be in a season right now, whether that's with your career or your business or your health and fitness goals. Maybe you want to start a podcast, maybe you want to start coaching or go back to school, whatever it is, and you've got this vision. But you're so far away from that vision that you might not even feel like talking about it out loud. You feel that doubt starting to creep in, like, can I really even do this? And sometimes you get hit with a whole lot of doubt and you feel crazy Like why the hell did I ever think I could do this? I don't have the track record to look back to say this is the way I did it this last time or this is why it didn't work. When I tried that Like for me before I started this podcast or music or my fitness business, the only thing I did that I would consider business-like was back in the sixth grade.
Speaker 1:So my mama was a big on-sale shopper, like she would buy a bunch of stuff that was on sale, on sale and out of season. She was the mama that would buy the easter candy the day after easter or the halloween candy the day after halloween and it's on sale for like 80 off. And so we had all this halloween candy in our closet and of course, it was supposed to be off limits. It was put away in the closet and we had to ask for it. But what did my dumb butt do? I took a bunch of it. I took a bunch of it without permission and me and my homeboy was selling it at school in the bathroom and you can tell the kind of environment I grew up in, because we would put the candy in clear bags like it was weed and we were selling in the bathroom and of course I got caught and when I got home I got my butt whooped.
Speaker 1:But as an adult I look back like you know what? I had a business, I had a supply and I had a demand. I had a strategy that was better than my competition, which was the concession at recess because they were expensive. I was set in mind for a dollar bag and I even had an employee, my homeboy. I was a little entrepreneur, pat on the back, didn't even know it Now, funny story. But of course I don't really count that as something to look back on, to be like yeah, I have experience. But fast forward to now and looking at all the things I'm trying to get accomplished, I can relate to the feelings that you may be having right now, not having anything or any other experiences to compare it to.
Speaker 1:You might feel like you're not capable, like you're pushing this big monster truck tire up a hill and going nowhere fast, a snail pace, and that whisper of doubt can turn into this big wave over you and make you think that you should just throw in a towel. Like am I ever going to feel confident? Is this thing good for all of them, the ones I see doing and succeeding? Is it for the people like them and not me? And it can make you want to give up. And I'm here to tell you no, this is the part that's going to make you proud, this moment, right here.
Speaker 1:All those times you want to throw in the towel and instead you decided to keep going. These are the moments where you build that mental toughness and grit. Sometimes you just have to figure out a way to get resourceful. You don't want it to be easy. The easy path robs you of being proud. It does. It's the reason we set goals in the first place. We want that feeling after we accomplish those goals. Part of having that big vision is we want to feel proud of ourselves. Right, if you didn't have those moments where you really doubted yourself, where you couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel, where you wanted to throw in the towel, how would you feel proud? And sometimes that voice inside you, the one that's telling you not to throw in the towel sometimes it's so small, it can be so small, but it's still there and it's saying you know what? Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I shouldn't throw in the towel. Maybe what I need to do is just keep going. And I know you have the little voice. It's there, it's always been there. It's just small right now and that's OK because you know, I know and you know that eventually, when you keep going and you don't throw in the towel, you might not be able to see them now, but those dots are going to connect. You're going to look back and see how they were connecting the whole time.
Speaker 1:A lot of times things don't make sense when you're in it and you wish you could just be happy with it. You wish it would just work out the way you wanted it to, the way you saw it in your head before you started, the way you see other people doing it. We have to embrace that we have a vision unlike anybody else, and I truly believe that. And because you gifted that vision, you always been gifted the ability and the resourcefulness to make it happen. And one of the problems we have is that our unique vision means we have a unique path to take and that path ain't going to align with nobody else's path. Your path is your path, not theirs and theirs and yours.
Speaker 1:And so whenever you feel those moments of doubt, big or small, those are opportunities. Even though I don't feel like an opportunity, it's the opportunity to prove it, to prove to yourself that you got it, that you got that grit, that toughness, that resourcefulness, and when you eventually get there, you'll be able to look back at that path and see that you did that, that you qualified yourself along the way, that you push yourself and even though it took longer or don't look like it did in your head when you first started you still here you did it and it's going to give you confidence. You get confidence when you take on that challenge, even when you don't know what the hell you're doing, especially when you don't know what the hell you're doing and you figure it out Right. And the next time you in a moment like that, you can recall on those moments that, even though you had no clue where you were going to get it, how you're going to get it done, no clue as to how you were going to make it work, and you did it. And maybe that's a moment for you right now. You'll be able to pull from those moments and feel like you know what I will. I will do this, I will get through this. I've been here before and again not the way you planned, but you'll be able to look back at your track record, to look at your life track record.
Speaker 1:You came across a lot of opportunities in your life that challenged you, challenged the way you see things. You figured things out even when you didn't know how you were going to figure it out. You didn't even know how you were going to get through that grief, but you did. You had no idea how that bill was going to get paid, but you figured it out. You had no idea where that next check was going to come from and I can't tell you how many times I go through that but it came. You didn't know what to do about your car when it was broke down and you couldn't afford it, and somehow it figured itself out. And here you are on the other side of all those things and are better because of it. You learn skills and how to do what you have to do. You learn things that you could never have learned if you didn't get met with those obstacles.
Speaker 1:And remind yourself that easy robs you of proud. Easy robs you of proud. We set goals and we have things we want to work for and strive for in life, because we have to work and strive for them. Ain't no way we would feel proud if it was all handed to us on a silver platter, like look at me, I have the life I dreamed of and I didn't have to do anything to get it. I just woke up and, boom, it was handed to me.
Speaker 1:No, we don't want that. We want the journey Now. Do we underestimate how hard the journey can be? Hell, yes, we do. But that don't mean you should quit If you're in a season where it's hard and you feel this resistance. Trust that it's serving you. Trust that you'll have those moments of reflection when you look back and feel that pride. Trust that this friction is a requirement for growth and that you are growing right here, right now. Trust that it's teaching you things you can never learn if you growing right here, right now. Trust that it's teaching you things you can never learn if you weren't in it right now.
Speaker 1:This is the path that's qualifying you. So when you get to where you want to go, you know that you can handle it. You learned the coping mechanisms. You learned the skills, learned how to deal with adversity, how to face your doubts, how to show up for yourself, even on those days you don't feel like doing it. You learned all this along the way, so when you finally get there, guess what? You'll be the kind of person who's going to maintain it.
Speaker 1:This is a process. This is you qualifying yourself. This is you becoming the kind of person who achieves the things. You're going after You're in it. Don't look back with coulda, woulda, shouldas. Look back and see how it would have been easy to give up, but you didn't Look back and see that. What you have now, you deserve it and you were capable all along. So that's what I got for you today. Thank you all again for being here.
Speaker 1:Like I said, there is a new way to support me. You can become a monthly subscriber and you get to choose the amount. It can either be three, five, eight or 10. I did leave links in the description for you to be able to go ahead and click and fill it out. It's easy to take you less than a minute. But yes, the song I'm going to leave you with is another unreleased song. It's called Opening Night and for all my theater folks out there, you are definitely going to relate to this one. I love this song. I can't wait to release this one. The song is called Opening Night, so let's ride out.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, look, I decided to take a leap of faith and I never landed. I'm fly as a bird, I'm high as ever and highly favored, but it wasn't my time to shine. So I waited my turn, sat back and observed and I got to work. And before I sign on your dotted line, put some respect on my check. Yeah, cause I know my worth. I don't want much, only what I deserve. I ride that beat like I ride in a hearse. I buy the bag of beat Boy. I come with this heat you might need to earn. I let it burn. And as long as my family proud, I'm sitting here laughing Just like my daddy, cause we go grind, you know, we go work long as he proud of me, that's all that matter. All your chitchatting, that's not my concern. Never no negative words from her.
Speaker 1:She probably salted because she got curved. You probably thought he was finishing done. He started to doubt me. I promise it Made me go hard as ever. Open the night. I gotta buy me an opening fit man. I hope I don't splurge. I'm reaching heights. I know eventually I gotta fall. I hope it don't hurt, hoping I don't Stay down on the bottom. I hope I return.
Speaker 1:It's opening night. Hoping I go to bed or wake up tomorrow, like over the night. Hoping you not trying Seein' her in a while. She know it's on sight. She know that I'm busy. As soon as I finally get that day off, she get the whole night almost time.
Speaker 1:This is the night Clearing my mind. I'm finna get right. Yes, yes, hoping I shine they dimming the lights. Yes, wish I could give you this feeling. I promise this shit is the best. I got this weight on my chest. I'm pushing it off me. Promise you that's not a flex. Yes, yes, so analytic. All you gotta say is you don't get it out here acting like a critic.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'm done trying to prove to y'all that I've been gifted. Half of y'all ain't know I existed. Now my name be selling tickets. Yes, I'm thankful to myself. I stay committed and I'm sorry if I've been distant. I hope you don't get it twisted. I don't have hate in my spirit. I only hate flying spirit. Open the night and we've been sipping. I hope I'm still coherent. Yes, stand in ovation. A big celebration. Pick up your libation. We'll see you next time. Think about friends and all the partners I missed and places that I couldn't go. Sorry, but I gotta miss it. I'll be there in spirit. Damn, I feel like a ghost. I hit the stage and I float. Thank you.