Mastering the Mindset
Mastering the Mindset
How to Start 2026 Strong and Keep the Momentum
A new year isn’t enough — you need a new level of growth.
Let's break down why growth is the real path to happiness, and why staying comfortable is one of the fastest ways to become stagnant.
Reality check; You're either growing or dying. Discomfort is a requirement for personal evolution. and is what it truly takes to become a better version of yourself year after year. It will take challenging yourself, feeding your mind, choosing the right people, and building momentum — this episode is about starting 2026 strong and staying consistent all the way through.
If you’re ready to stop being the same person you were last year and start evolving on purpose, this episode will push you to move, grow, and take action.
Losing myself and finding my strength came to the conclusion that I want it all. Feeling that pressure of tryna do better. I wanna reach heights, but too scared to fall. Too scared of failure. Way more scared of feeling regret. I'm not even trying, that's terrifying. I understand that chasing my goals, I bury my clocks because it takes time. I gotta go. I already know. If I wanna grow, you reap what you sow. That be the case. Planting my seeds and water my base. Yeah, I make mistakes. Yeah, I know you grow in your garden, but watch for the snakes. The people that act like you're crazy, but trying this, they fall away. They don't think it's possible. I think it's possible. That is best hate. If they hate themselves, cause they on the shelf. Why you create a life that you love?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:A life that you love. Loving the fact to improving yourself. Decided that you would not settle. Decided that you got the drive to do it. The road got bumping your foot on the pedal. You go up a level, you turn up whenever. It's time for you to go put in that work. I know my work, huh? I know it ain't gonna be easy, yeah. I know it hurt, but thing is for sure. Yeah. Until it put me in this earth. Before I ride in that hearse, I'm chasing my goals. I'm chasing my goals.
SPEAKER_00:Love enough back to improving yourself. Decided that you were not settled. Decided that you got the drive to do it to go. Got more foot on the cutter. I'm fixing my goals.
SPEAKER_01:Alright, happy new year, everybody, and welcome back to another episode. Uh, thank y'all for being here. If you are listening to me on a podcast platform, go ahead and leave me a review. If you are on YouTube, please like and subscribe to my channel. These things help me grow this podcast. Also, become a monthly supporter of the show. You can choose the monthly amount. It can either be three, five, eight, or ten dollars. You can cancel at any time, but why would you ever do that? Let's go ahead and get it and dive into this thing. So, for the month of February, since it is a new year, I'm going to be focusing these episodes on setting ourselves up for having the best year as possible. I know all y'all got New Year's resolutions and the goals and the things you want to work on and improve this year, which is a good thing. I know I got some things I want too, so I decided to make this first month about making sure we can start off strong, that we can start leaning forward like a race. So we covered a lot of topics on here. And if you're like me and you've been trying to apply some of these things in your life, and you're probably seeing some growth. And that's exactly what I'm touching on today. Growth. And how do we grow more? And why it's so critical in our lives. Because the reality is, and I'm gonna borrow a quote that you probably heard before, you're either growing or you're dying. And as dramatic as that sounds, there's some truth behind that. It's part of nature and it's part of the human experience. And unfortunately, too many times people get comfortable and they become stagnant. We get stagnant and we wonder why we ain't happy. And I truly believe the path to true happiness, to true fulfillment, is to always be growing, always changing, evolving, always chasing that better version of ourselves. And that process should be happening on a daily basis. And actually, it's nature. Literally. What do I mean? Your body has 37 trillion cells. 37 trillion. Okay. Also, your body replaces cells every second. Your body replaces 810,000 cells every second. That's almost hard to comprehend. 810,000 cells every second are being replaced. That means in just the time you've been listening to me talk, several million cells have been replaced inside you. Old cells are dying, new cells are replacing them. You're growing and changing all the time, constantly. Even though we don't feel it in our body, we're growing and replacing ourselves on a constant basis. What about your digestive system? Replaces itself every four days. Your lung tissue replaces itself every eight days. Every year, 10% of your skeleton replaces itself. Every single part of your body is replacing itself all the time. So think about this. What this means is that every 10 years, you literally comp you are literally a completely different person. If 10% of your skeleton replaces itself each year and everything else is being replaced way faster in 10 years, that body of yours is going to be a completely different one. And I don't know about you, but I don't just want to be different on a cellular level in 10 years. I want to be different mentally, and I want to be different successfully as well. And for this to happen, we need to be growing and changing other areas of our lives as well. And it definitely needs to be happening in our minds. The pathway to happiness and growth all the time, in order to grow the external part of our lives, in order to grow our identities, our happiness and confidence, we have to be aware of the need to grow mentally and in our mindsets. But let's talk about it. So I believe that every year you should be a better version of yourself, an evolved version. If you look back a year from now and compare yourself to yourself, you should without a doubt see some growth. And if you don't, you shouldn't be comfortable with that. That should be something for you to evaluate because too many times, even though our skeleton is replacing itself 10%, even though our lung tissue is replaced every eight days, our digestive system, we don't replace ourselves with the next best version of ourselves. And then there becomes a certain age, and that age is different for everybody, but an age that the versions of yourself start to be the same, right? Let's say the 18-year-old version, that version is almost exactly like the 19-year-old version. Or was it 23? And you're almost identical to the 26-year-old version of you. Or the 35-year-old you looks exactly like the 29-year-old you did. Or was it the 45-year-old you that started it and you look up and 50 looks the exact same? Right? And the process of growth begins to slow down, and a lot of times it just stops altogether, and we stop replacing ourselves every year. We get stagnant and we never change or grow. We need to get to the place where growth is an addiction for you. We have to get to the place where growth is an addiction for you. How many times have we done this or said this? I know I have. You get presented with some kind of information or some situation presents itself to you, and it'll no doubt help you grow, but it requires you to put in some work to do, to be able to do it. And you say stuff like, Yeah, I look into that. Yeah, I I should do that. Or okay, I I I'll see. Or right now, you know, I'm not where I need to be, but I do need to go ahead and get around to doing that, right? We've all said that, we've all done that, I'm one of them. And the thing is, we'd like to grow, but every time we don't make it a priority, we don't make it an urgency, we don't get there. It's impossible to. And the truth is, whether you believe it or not, you're either growing or dying. Your body is growing and replacing itself, and you need to grow as well. You need to grow it, and it needs to become an intention of yours. It needs to become an obsession of yours. You can't always acquire what you want to get: a new house, that new car, that relationship, that job. Some of those things you can't control. But what you can control and acquire is the next version of you. And that requires being uncomfortable. That requires growth. That requires a conscious effort. That requires putting in some work. Just like being in the gym. Think about working out. To build your muscles, you have to intentionally break your muscles down. You have to make your muscles uncomfortable. Think about the times when you work out, right? Do you think if you go to the gym or you work out from home, that if you're comfortable the entire time, you go see some growth? That's literally impossible. And I hope you ain't going to the gym with that mindset. No, you have to break those muscles down to build them back up again to get that growth. This is true in life. You know, sometimes we have to take a step backwards. It may get uncomfortable, just like in the gym. Just like on those last few reps, it may start to hurt. It gets really uncomfortable. But we know that when we're hurting, we're growing. If it ain't hurting, you ain't growing. We understand that concept without having to put too much thought into that. And it's also true when it comes to our identity, our confidence, our life. It has to be hurting at least a little bit in order to be growing. So we have to run towards that pain, towards the uncomfort, not away from it. We can't be comfortable in life and grow. That is literally impossible. And I talked about this before, but again, I'm on this journey with y'all, so I'm gonna share it what's going on in my life. But a great example of this is this hip hop playslash musical I'm writing. And I was sitting here thinking and thinking to myself that I haven't been writing songs much lately, right? Not songs for the script. I'm talking about songs that's just music for me as a hip hop artist. And I was thinking how I wish I had more music out right now, how I'm getting better lyrically with my pen, but my audience don't know that because they ain't heard it yet. And I had to take a second to remind myself that actually you have been writing. You actually been writing a lot. And you actually been writing stuff that's actually more challenging than just writing for recording purposes. Because writing music for a play, right? I gotta think about so much more. I gotta think about the length of the song and the and the and the accents. I gotta think about other bodies that gotta say these words and how it will work for them. I gotta think about breath on stage and performing, right? Because it's way easier to just go to the studio and record. I can get as many texts as I need to, and I don't gotta do it all in one breath. I could literally do it one word at a time or one rhyme at a time if I needed to. But on stage, you can't run out of breath. You gotta get it all out. And I gotta think about how fast I write as far as cadence, right? Because I'm a hip-hop artist. I can easily write lyrics that got a fast pace, but not everybody else can. So, so yeah. Not only am I writing music, I'm writing in a way more challenging way. And I should be proud of that, right? But I'm having to be uncomfortable with it right now. I'm having to take a step back from releasing music, from even writing the music that I want to release on streaming platforms right now, because I'm working on a really big project that's stretching me in a way that I've never been stretched as an artist. And that's literally gonna lead to growth. So, how do we grow? Okay, ask yourself this. In the last week, last month, last year, how many uncomfortable situations have you put yourself in? How many uncomfortable situations have you put yourself in that challenge you, that grew you, that pushed you to get to that next level of who you are? Are you under the illusion that you can acquire all these external things you want? The new car, the house, the growth, the goals, the career, the marriage, the things you want without growing who you are, well, you couldn't be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, if you did happen to get those things, if you got those things without growing yourself, you will lose those things. Think about all the celebrities who have the world, just the world just given to them, especially the ones who strike lightning in the bottom, right? The quote unquote overnight successes. How many times have we seen them not be able to handle it? How many times are celebrities in the news because they just can't handle all the things that's been given to them? They didn't grow. People think money will change you. It doesn't change you. It makes you even more of who you already are. Same thing happens to athletes. How many times are they in the news for some wild, crazy incident and you see it on your timeline? Like, how in the hell do they make these stupid choices? It's simple. They can't handle it because they haven't grown. I think about me being in college and playing football. So many dudes came through that program and could not make it. Because they couldn't they could not handle the responsibility of being a college athlete. They would go out partying at night and drinking, and a lot of them would just flunk out of school because they literally couldn't handle having a scholarship, being committed to football and school at the same time. No, the partying consumed them. They couldn't handle it all. And they got kicked off the team and ended up leaving and going back home. And some of these dudes was extremely talented. One guy should be in the NFL right now as a kicker. The best kicker I've ever seen in real life. Not on TV or from the stands. I'm talking about on the football field that I was playing on, and he didn't even make it to his junior year. My point is, if you were to acquire those things you really want without growing yourself, you will eventually lose it because they don't align with who you are as a person yet. So elevate yourself. This last week, this last month, how much have you put yourself in those uncomfortable situations to help you grow? To help grow you. And that can be a number of different ways. Like being uncomfortable by putting in some extra time after work. We all want to come home and relax. But let's be real, if you're relaxing, then you ain't growing. And I get it. You're tired. Work is hard, but that's life. Don't let the excuse of work, right? And yes, of course, you need to rest. Rest is important. But you better believe there are people out there who are busting their butts and getting things done at an elite level. Sometimes you have to be uncomfortable and you have to do it tired. One of the realest things I heard Steve Harvey say is that if you want to be a millionaire, you can't sleep eight hours a night. If you want to be successful and make a lot of money and get ahead in life, you can't sleep eight hours a night. That is literally a third of your life. If you think about it, how would you expect to get ahead in life if you sleep for a third of it? And I know what you're thinking, but eight hours is what's healthy. And it is, it's what the body needs. I'm not saying that you should never get eight hours of sleep. What I'm saying is you have to have the mentality that sometimes you're gonna have to get uncomfortable and lose some sleep to achieve some things. Just like a CEO or somebody who was a super successful business owner, they know that if they live on the West Coast, they can't wake up at 8 o'clock in the morning because for folks on the East Coast, the stock market has been open for three hours already, and decisions are being made. They can't afford to be waking up at 8 30. And that's how we have to look at growth. Being uncomfortable is part of that process. Being tired, putting in extra hours, putting yourself in situations you normally wouldn't be in if you were comfortable. Like having anxiety or a fear for public speaking. If you've never done it, or you only do it when you absolutely have to, of course you ain't gonna be good at it. Of course it's gonna be tired uh terrifying. But what do you think would happen if you worked at it? Over time, you will get more comfortable with it. And we put children through this same goal process, the same growth process. They get put in situations that challenge them, that make them uncomfortable. Every day in math, right? They gotta learn something new. They gotta read in front of the class. Every year in Spanish, they learn new words. It's a constant at school, especially if they play sports. They're in situations that challenge them, that make them uncomfortable, and it grows them. And as adults, at a certain point in our lives, we start to avoid these circumstances and challenges, and we grow at a way slower pace. So, that is the first thing we have to do in 2026. We need to challenge ourselves and get uncomfortable as much as we can. The second thing you should be doing in 2026 is feeding your mind. What books are you reading? What podcasts are you listening to? You already on a good track with this one by listening to me. But what are the things you're learning? What are you reading online? Do you only follow celebrities and funny cat video pages? Or do you follow those pages that give you knowledge and insight? The more you feed the mind, the more your outlook on life will change. You'll have an advantage because you know things that you didn't used to know. And I pride myself on that. You can ask anybody who knows me. I have a lot of random knowledge in my brain. And it's because I make it a point to learn about as many things as possible. And what happens is sometimes your conversations are just different when they need to be. Like, yeah, I have a certain way of talking around my family and my friends, especially my homeboys. And I ain't talking about code switching. That's a whole different story. But certain rooms that you walk in, they require you to speak a certain way. And you have to be mentally prepared for those situations. Feed your mind. Give yourself different perspectives and knowledge. There is literally only good that can come from knowing and learning many things. So in 2026, let's feed our minds more. Let's learn as much as you can. Whenever I don't know something, I love just Googling it right away. I'll be in a mid, I'll be in mid-conversation, and something will come up that I that we don't know, and I'll be like, don't worry about it. Google Google will tell me. And it can be that simple. But feed your mind in 2026. And the third thing is, and I mentioned this before too, is be selective who you associate with. There is an incredible power to who you hang around. And to grow, you have to have at least that one friend that you look up to. That one friend that when they that when you're around them, you feel the need to step up your game. Because you because who you hang around is very indicative of who you are. There's this saying that if you want to know who you'll be in 10 years from now, look around you. If you want to know who you'll be in 10 years from now, look around you. It'll be the average of the people you spend the most time with. And this is true. Think about the folks you hang around with the most. I know it's definitely true for me. My best friends are also actors, and we're pretty much in the same stratosphere as far as where we are in life. And I know I've been motivated by other folks around me. People see me putting in so much work on myself and the things I got going on and the messages and the energy I put out in the world. And they've even told me that, yeah, you motivated me to start waking up earlier. Or you motivated me to start being serious with my workouts, or you motivated me to start this thing or that thing, to get better at this thing. And all I did was be myself. They see what I'm doing, and it's and it inspired them to take some action. And that's what will happen if you spend some time around those folks that you feel like are on a higher level level than you. And I'm not telling you to compare yourself. What I'm saying is those people around you should motivate you. They should motivate you to want to put in some work to grow. So in 2026, get around those people that will motivate you. And the last thing we need to do to grow in 2026 is momentum. We need momentum. Once we get started, we have to keep fueling that fire. Momentum is the reason why people's New Year's resolutions always fall apart by April. That'll maintain that momentum. They think that once they start towards that goal, that they can just coast and they'll eventually get there. No, no, no, no, no. That's not how growth works. You might start out fast and strong, but eventually you will slow down. And those are the times where you have to manufacture that momentum. You have to keep fueling that fire. You have to find different ways to motivate yourself in the old ways just. Work. If you build up that momentum, it will carry you towards your growth. It will help guide you. Those opportunities for growth are gonna start presenting themselves, and if you have the momentum, you can recognize it and snatch it up. So figure out how to build up that momentum. Stack those days where you get everything done on your to-do list. Have those moments where you tell yourself one more rep for everything. Not just working out, but in life. If you read two chapters, make it three. If you decide to study for two hours, make it two and a half hours. If you respond to 15 emails, make it 20. But that's the kind of momentum that will that will propel you and magnify your growth. Get those small wins. Too many times we want the big goals and we try to achieve it all at once. Stack some small wins and keep stacking them. They will give you that momentum you need. Understand that you won't see progress right away. A lot of times we stop before we see the progress, and then when we do see the progress, we then fell off with the action we took that got us there. And now we gotta start from zero again. Let's stop doing that. So keep that momentum, build on it. So again, you either growing or you dying. It sounds grim, but what we absolutely cannot do is get stagnant. Being stagnant will no doubt kill your dreams, it will kill your ambition, and you'll end up being the same person you were last year. And I really don't want that for myself, and I really don't want that for you. So in 2026, let's get uncomfortable and live outside that comfort zone as much as we can. Let's feed our minds and learn as much as we can, and let's figure out who we need to be in close proximity to. That person, though that those people that will motivate us and build on that momentum we have that we get. Don't let that momentum go to waste. So let's get it in. Let's put in this work and let's see some growth in 2026. So that's what I got for you today. Like I always say, man, thank y'all for being here. Uh if you I I'm asking that you please become a monthly supporter of the show. You can choose the amount. It can either be three, five, eight, or ten dollars. That's like a cup of coffee for me every month. I need some coffee, so please just donate. You can cancel at any time if you want to. Why would you ever do that? Uh also share this episode if you feel like it is um something that would benefit from somebody that's something that someone else will benefit from hearing, whether that's a friend, a family member, or even just to your social media. Make sure you tag me any please. But let's go ahead and get to this music. The song I got for y'all today is so alive. Let's get it in. Yeah. See, I feel so alive right now. You know.
SPEAKER_00:It will make a beat.
SPEAKER_01:But you got this frown on your face. It's like, listen, you got to get right with yourself before you can get right with anybody else. That ain't game, Marcus Wilson said that. Uh I feel so alive. Had to put my little chain on. And I felt like getting dressed, so I got fresh. I ain't got no stain on. They wanna cut my wounds and take my halo. They tried to get me, they came close. Police caught me slippin', got my name in a system. Yeah, I be fine, I'm an optimist. In my prime like optimist, I'm feeling alive. If you ain't feelin' my vibe, I don't give a damn. That should be obvious. It's dodge, and it's my night. So I flip the switch, I turn on my limelight, I shine bright. Like the stone, ruin your eyesight. But I can see clearly now. Unfortunately, it's from hindsight, but I'll be outright. Yeah. And my bar's always cold as ice cream. Like, what would you do for a clutch duck? All I wanted was an audience. All she wanted is my free time. You understand how hard it is. Chasing my dreams, baby. So I gotta put my all in this. You don't need a cardiologist. You can see I put my heart in this. Ain't nobody goin' hard as this. I know that when I started this. Yeah, I pick up this mic, I'm the sickness. And I be writing prescriptions. It got me feelin' like a pharmacist. I do it big like a toyist. And I'm down for whatever, baby. I'm with the shit like a toilet lid. You piss me, I'll forget flush. But I feel so alive right now. Loving your vibe right now. We look so fly right now. Maybe cause I'm high right now. No matter as a blessing, feel like I'm in heaven, girl. I just die right now. I dive in your hole with water, but I'm on drown right now. Cause I feel some alive. Yeah. I feel some alive.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:They in my way like TSA, but they will not stop this. Cause I'm like a pilot. That means I'm fly. Look at my outfit and suck my cockpit. Girl, I know we both got options. So let's be honest and keep it up front like table of contents. I'm never the nonsense. Not tryna fool you, baby. From Louisiana, better be careful. I got that boodle, baby. Come back to the crib. I don't got cable, but I got a boodle, baby. Come Netflix and chill with me. Don't lie, keep it real with me. I can tell you feeling me. Throw it at me, I will hit it. Foul. And I feel so alive right now. I'm so high off life right now. Bob it shit and drive right now. And my nigga just came in town. Yeah, we finna go take it down. Yeah, we finna go act the clown. Don't record me, put your phone down. A cell phone is an eyewitness, that's snitching, man. I don't wanna be on Facebook or your Snapchat or your Instagram. I can't let this hit the net, acting like it's the wimp with them. I ain't saying I'm innocent, but I am a businessman. I gotta image now. Yeah, I got a drink in my hand right now, then I gotta finish now. Yeah, I got a lot of patience, girl. But I got a limit. Yeah, I gotta show them. I'm not really playing like I gotta script. I never hate them niggas, cause I'm not a bigot. Everybody wanna give their two cents. So guess what? I got a lot of pennies, but so what? I'm already winning. I pulled you, and I get up in it. I make it juicy, you callin' me bigot. But that's later on when I call Uber to take us home. Cause girl, I feel so alive right now. Loving your vibe right now. We look so fly right now. Maybe cause I'm high right now. Do my is a blessing. Feel like I'm in heaven, girl. I just die right now. I dive in your whole lip water, but I won't drown right now. Cause I feel so alive. Yeah. I feel some alive.