Mastering the Mindset
Mastering the Mindset
From Stuck To Driven: Five Steps That Actually Work
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Some days your feelings say “not today,” but your future can’t wait. It has to be about designing your days so emotion doesn’t decide whether the work gets done. Intention adds the soul back into structure. The key is to form habits that outlast motivation. Let's talk about it!
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 made 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 just 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_02: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 bumped in 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 angles for sure. Yeah. Until it put me in this earth. Before I ride in that hearse, I'm chasing my goals.
SPEAKER_01:I'm chasing my goals.
SPEAKER_00:Love enough back to improving yourself. You're putting the cutter. I'm fixing my goals.
SPEAKER_02:Alright, welcome back to another episode, man. Thank y'all so much for being here. Like I always say, if you are on YouTube, go ahead and like and subscribe to my channel. Like right now, it takes you less than five seconds. Just hit like, hit that subscribe button. Thank you in advance. If you are listening on a podcast platform, please leave me a review. And finally, become a monthly supporter of the show. You could you get to choose their monthly amount. It can either be three, five, eight, or ten dollars. That helps me keep this thing going for y'all. And you can cancel at any time. Why would you ever do that? Let's go ahead and get started. So today I'm going to be um giving you a straightforward episode. It's pretty straightforward. The title of this episode is pretty much what the episode is about. I'm gonna give you five ways for you to stop being lazy, to be more motivated to be able to get stuff done. And first I'm gonna give you a quote. And I want this quote to be your slogan for 2026, a part of your identity. This quote will change your life for the better if you abide by it. And the quote is simple. The quote is let action and routine drive your life, not emotion. Let me say that again. Let action and routine drive your life, not emotion. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with emotion. Emotion isn't necessary in life. That's one of the things that makes us human. Emotions. We fear the highest of highs, we fear the lowest of lows. We love, right? It's a beautiful thing. When emotions get in the way of your life and the life you're trying to build, that's when it's a problem. So again, let action and routine drive your life, not emotion. And let me give you an example of this. So let's say somebody has a project in their head and they want to bring it to life and they want to execute it and show the world this beautiful project they have in their head. And they start working on it, then make some progress, then they start to realize that okay, this is actually hard. It's hard to maintain this. It's harder than I thought it would be to keep working at this, to stay motivated at this. They realize that as time go time goes by, they want to work on it less and less and less. They realize that the motivation is fading and they feel stagnant when the progress stops. And what do they do? They beat themselves up about it, they let their emotions take over and dig an even bigger hole. They feel stupid. They call themselves stupid, they start judging themselves, they start guilting themselves, they bring emotion into it, or fear into it, or a limiting belief into it. I done been done that, particularly with this hip-hop play I'm writing. I tried a I tried before a couple of years ago and I failed. I was trying to do way too much. I was trying to write it, get it produced, direct it, plan it, make decisions on the venue and costumes, right? And do all that in under a year. And oh, uh, I didn't ask anybody for help. I tried to do it all by myself, and of course, that's hard. And of course, I beat myself up about it when I failed, and I was down. But those days are over. I got back on that horse and I got my routine and my playing, and I'm really, really making some beautiful art with this project. And I know I done told y'all before that I was going to share some music on here. And guess what? Today is your lucky day. I'm gonna share the opening song on here at the end of this episode. So stick around for it. Don't just jump to the end right now, okay? You really shouldn't miss this episode. I think it's uh can be really helpful to you. Anyway, but like I was saying, this is why you should let action and routine drive your life, not emotion. You want to wake up and take consistent daily action towards the life you want to have, towards that goal you're working towards. And if you do this consistently, you will eventually get to where you want to be by just taking the right action and having the right routine. And one of the reasons why a lot of people can't stay motivated or they can't keep a routine and consistency is because they don't have a plan. They don't know where they're going. And if you don't know where you're going, how in the hell can you take the action to get there? Think about that. If you don't know where you're going and you wake up in the morning, what are you supposed to do? What action are you supposed to take? It can feel like the action you're taking is getting you nowhere. And what happens is people end up waking up with very little vision towards what they need to do. And if you don't have a vision or a plan, it'd be hard to figure out what actions you need to take. And then emotions will definitely kick in when you don't achieve anything, right? And of course you didn't achieve anything, you didn't have a vision, you didn't have a plan. And of course, you can't get to where you want to be. So I'm gonna give you five things to help get you out of your own way, five things to help you not be lazy, to get you to a place mentally where you can win the battle between you and yourself and get closer to achieving those things you want to achieve to help you become more driven and more motivated. And the first one is vision, the second one is schedule, the third one is intention, the fourth is action, and the fifth one is routine. So let's dive in. So the first one is vision, and the question has to be, what do you want? Because you can't help yourself get somewhere if you don't even know where that somewhere is. Where are you going? What do you want? If you fast forward your life 10 years, what do you want to be doing? If you want to be doing something that's gonna be making you a lot of money, well, what would you be doing? Right? Even 365 days from this exact day, if you can fast forward, what do you want to be doing? And as simple, as simple as this question may seem, a lot of people don't really sit and think about that. They have no idea. They probably know they want to be in a better place than where they are right now, but they don't actually think what the actual details of that is. And that's an important first step to getting to any place, right? To get into that place you want to go. And I want you to really think about that. What do you want to be next year? In five years, in ten years? And go ahead and write this down. You can hit the pause button if you need to, I'll be here. But what do you want? What do you want your relationship to look like? Your bank account, your career, your house, where you live, what you have accomplished. If you don't do this, then how can you ever have the life you want? How can you? If you never get clear on the life you want in the first place, it's gonna be hard as hell, hell, impossible to build that life. So the first thing you have to do is have some kind of vision. That's number one. The second thing is you have to figure out some kind of schedule. And y'all, y'all, I can't stress to you enough how important this is. I said it before and I'm gonna keep saying it because it's so damn impactful. It's been a major key in me being able to accomplish a lot of the things that I've been accomplishing. But getting your schedule together. And not only getting it together, but sticking to it. Because one of the biggest excuses we all hear, or that we all have had, is that we don't have enough time. Have you ever said that? That you don't have enough time? I know I have. Has it ever been has it ever been a reason for you to use to not being where you want to be? I know you have, we all have, I have. The thing is, you always have more time than you think. The problem is we can be flat out horrible at scheduling our time. We can be flat out horrible at managing our time. And this is a skill, something you can get better with. So if you feel like you don't have time, show me your schedule. Show me all the time you lose that you don't even realize you lose or that you think about due to your phone or your TV, or literally doing nothing. And the thing is, look, we only get 24 hours a day, no more, no less, and we all get the same amount of time. So how can you build a schedule around the life you have to be able to get the life you want? Maybe you have a full-time job, maybe you have kids, and that's amazing. But don't use your kids as an excuse to why you don't have the life you want. Use them as a reason why you're gonna create the life you want. We all only get 24 hours a day. And you better believe that there's somebody out there who has a schedule in life that looks just like yours, and they still were able to create a life they want, the life that they wanted, with those same 24 hours. So you gotta get good at creating a schedule. This will help you get motivated. Why? Because you're gonna know exactly what you need to be doing at a certain time to get you towards that goal. And one of the main things that keep people unmotivated is indecision, indecisiveness. That's one of the main things. You need to have some kind of plan, some kind of schedule to follow. And what you do is you make a list. You make a list and you write it down. You write down the things that you need to get done for the day and you cross them off. I can't stress enough how much this helps with being productive. Set aside that time to get things on your list done. It'll be a lot easier to get the things done if you know exactly when you're gonna be working on it, what you're gonna be working on. Because it's so easy to get distracted. It's easier to look up and realize that you've been scrolling on your phone for 30 minutes, right? But if you have a specific time and you know that you're gonna be working on that list, then you ain't sitting around trying to figure out what to do next. You ain't waiting for motivation to hit you. You have a plan. Execute that plan. That's number two. Have some kind of schedule and a plan. Number three is intention. How can you bring more intention into your life? Can you wake up every day with intention? Not just waking up every day and just going with the going with the motions, just waking up and rolling with the punches of life. We all been there. Maybe that's you right now, right? You just wake up, go to work, come home, eat, shower, sleep. Then do it all the next day. We done all been there. Even if you are a successful person and you're making good money, and I'm not saying that, I'm not saying that if you don't make good money, you're not successful. That's not what I'm saying. But but from an outside looking in, right? Somebody who is making a lot of money, some folks might not understand that. They might not understand that they also could be going through the motions with no intentions, right? And what do I mean by that? I mean the conversations you may have with your employee or the conversations you may have with your boss, the conversations you may have with your significant other. And not just conversations, but actions. The intentions you may have when you spend that you spend with your kids, right? When you execute that to-do list, that daily plan, can you bring more intention into each of these things that you plan out? Going through the emotions and not having intentions of how you want to feel, what you want to accomplish ultimately can leave you stagnant. How do you want to feel when you walk into a meeting? What do you want to accomplish at work today? Too many people just drift, they drift from one thing to the next. But if you take just 15 seconds, just 15 seconds to think about what the intentions are that you want to bring, one, you'll enjoy it more, and two, you're gonna the more you're gonna be able to get out of it. Okay, just think about that. What would make today successful for you? What would it be? Have that intention in your day, in your life. Most folks don't have that intention in their day. They just drift. They get on autopilot and go through the motions. Just like you wouldn't jump in a boat and leave the motor running or leave the motor off and let the water just drift you to wherever it takes you, you shouldn't live your days in life like that. This is why most folks don't get the lives they want. They don't get in that damn driver's seat. They don't drive towards where they want to go, towards what they want to be. So that's number three, more intention. And what are my intentions, you ask? Well, lately I've been focusing on being a better friend. With me being so busy, I'm realizing that communication has been bad lately. So I'm making it a point to get better at that with my friends. I'm also focusing on my mindset, obviously, but with the intent on manifesting where I want to be. So my focus lately is heavy on telling myself that I'm going to make it happen, that I'm making it happen right here, right now, that this is the process. And with every day I make a daily plan for myself, these are all the things that will get me there. And those are a few of mine. Uh, yours don't have to be many, right? It can start off as one. As a matter of fact, if you've never done this before, it probably should be just one. See how it feels, how it affects your day. Do that for a few days, then add more. And I promise you, as somebody who does this, this can and will change your life. So that's number three. Have more intention. And this leads us to the next one, which is number four, which is action. You have to get your body moving. Emotions follow the body. Right? When you don't feel good, when you are unaccomplished, you don't usually feel this way when you have a vision. You don't usually feel this way when you have a schedule and a plan that you're executing. When does it happen? When you feel bad about yourself. It's usually when you're sitting around on social media for 30 minutes and you haven't gotten anything done for the day. When you take action towards something that you want, something that you want to achieve, you taking that action is going to naturally give you momentum and excitement to keep going. Emotion follows the body. So keep the body moving. Take that action, do the work. That's one of the biggest secrets. And I say this all the time. But action creates more action, inaction creates more inaction. Action creates more action, inaction creates more inaction. Remember that phrase. If you've been inactive today, you've been sitting around doing nothing, it's easy as hell to keep on doing exactly that. So move your body. Even if it's just doing jumping jacks, push-ups, jogging in place, shaking your limbs out, there's a science behind you getting your body moving and being able to mentally keep more action going. But you have to figure out how to get that action started. Because think about it. Excuse me. When you have that productive day and you're checking things off your to-do list, it's way easier to keep going and try and check off another thing off that list, right? Because the action you've been taking on that day is motivating you to do more. So you just got to take some action. Do the thing. Start the thing. One trick I found that helps me is I set a timer, right? When I'm feeling like I need to manufacture me just getting it going. So I set a timer for only five minutes. Just five. Just five minutes. Because five minutes ain't a lot of time, right? You got five minutes. Set that timer and start whatever task you need to do. And only focus on that. Don't focus on nothing else for just five minutes. Again, five minutes ain't that long. Don't let anything else distract you for just five minutes. No distraction. Singular focus on one thing, one task. And once that five minutes is up, see if you can do it again. Challenge yourself. It's only five minutes, right? Just five minutes. I don't know why I'm having fun saying that. Just five minutes. But try it. If you are feeling like you are having trouble mustering up the want to, or you feel like it's hard to just get something started, try that five minutes. Anyway, that's number four. Take action. Excuse me. And the last one, number five, is routine. Do you have a routine? A set routine. So you take an action, but can you create a routine around that action? Do you have a morning routine? Do you have an evening routine? Consistent daily action creates routine. And routines will drive you. And the thing about routines is once you build them, and they are the good ones, the right ones that will actually get you towards your goals, after a while, they become habits. And that's exactly where you want to be. How do we build those routines? How do we start building those habits of waking up early in the morning and doing our routine, of doing our routines before we go to bed? And this ain't gotta be this long ass list that takes like three hours because your morning routine or evening routine, it can't be too long. And what happens is people stop after a week or two because they feel like they just don't have enough time for their routine. So can you develop a routine that makes it easier to accomplish whatever it is you want to accomplish? My morning routine, I wake up, I make coffee, I make my bed, I pray, then I make my daily plan. And I do this every day. I wake up, make coffee, make my bed, pray, then my daily plan. Simple and short. And it has become a habit of mine. Now, even on off days when I have nothing to do, like I feel damn near guilty if I don't at least make a daily plan. Right? So anyway, create your routine. This will start to be momentum. Momentum will make it easy for you to for you to continue to take action. Excuse me. Hope I'm not coming down on nothing. Anyway, so if you are feeling lazy or unmotivated, if you can have a vision to where you want to go, have a schedule, if you start to have intentions and you have a plan of action and you take that action and set a routine, do you think you would feel more motivated if you decided to do that? Do you think you would feel more driven? The answer is yes. So ask yourself these questions. Where do you want to be in 12 months? Where do you want to be in five years? Where do you want to be in 10 years? What is the daily schedule you would have to have to make that a reality? What intentions would you need to have on a daily basis to get you to start to become that person? What actions do you need to accomplish daily, every single day? And what routines do you need to create? How can you create a plan, figure out what you need to do, and take the action towards getting it done? And I want to leave you with this. In 10 years, God willing, we'll all still be here, but in 10 years, the actions you take today will decide where you are. If you don't make the choice to take the actions to get a life that's different than the one you have right now, you won't get the life you want 10 years from now. We are all going to be somewhere in 10 years. What you do today will determine where that somewhere is. So that's what I got for y'all today. Thank y'all again for being here. If you like this episode, please share this on your social media or with a friend or family member who you think would um uh benefit from hearing this message. Also become a monthly supporter of the show. You can choose the amount, it can be three, five, eight, or ten dollars. I left the dis I left the link in the description. Again, you can cancel at any time. Why would you ever do that? Let's go ahead and get to this music. Like I said, I got a sneak peek for y'all. This is the opening song of my hip-hop play. Let me give you a little context of the play. So it's called the Black Album, and basically the way it structures is each song or track is basically its own scene slash movement slash um piece. And so it up the the play operates as a as a track list, right? So each track is gonna be different. This is the opening. It's called The Wanderer. And there's uh a couple of meanings behind that. I'll let you I'll you I'll let you decide, I'll let you figure out if you can figure out what the meaning for it is. But again, it's called The Wanderer, and this is the opening song to my hip-hop play called The Black Album. Oh, and one last thing. Uh, so these are what's called wet vocals. Basically, it's not studio quality. Um, I'm just recording it so I can hear it and see, hear how it sounds, and uh be able to teach it to anybody who needs to learn any parts of it. So it's not gonna sound like, you know, it ain't gonna be uh uh Spotify quality. It's gonna be good enough where you can hear what I'm saying, but just know that it ain't gonna be crisp like it came out of the studio. Anyway, pick with a song The Wanderer. Let's ride out. I look to the heavens like what did I do? That's what he spoke. That's what he said. It has to be you guys that you see me. I see the pain in the movie. I see the pain. I feel the pain. At least my family here, right? But not this close. Cause my mother is right next to me. And my brother is on the left of me. And my cousin may he rest in peace. This proximity is affecting me. We not supposed to be this close. He died because he couldn't breathe. And she died because she couldn't breathe. We never smelt this smell. Fresh air got stolen by dead relatives and disease. We not supposed to be this close. Like, how did 400 fit on this boat? The dead ones and the sick ones get thrown overboard with no remorse. I saw when they didn't float. And this trauma is hereditary. Gets passed down through generations over centuries. Their ancestors were so sick and so nauseous. Ain't no swimming pools in the hood. Black folks don't get their hair wet. They can't swim, they don't like water. That ain't why we don't like water. That ain't why we don't like water. Drop my eyes when I got to shore. I think we landed somewhere in Georgia. I got sold to Louisiana. And my brother got sold to Florida. I still live on, they can't kill me. I won't be no mortar. I still live on, they can't kill me. I must be immortal. I must be immortal. I look to the heavens like what did I do? That's when he spoke. That's when he said, it has to be you. So I've been living a life of bondage. I've been here for 400 years, and our language is forgotten. It sounds far into my ears. And they won't let me learn to read. I know it's out of fear. They know I teach my peers. They know that knowledge is power, ain't they fear us? Be in the power, they control us, keeping us down by whipping the raping and selling us off. They too scared of our power. And my power, our power. My power was one of rebellious bitch, taking a hell in this bitch. I wanna crucify every last one of them all. I put a nail in this wrist. I know they cowards just like dogs. I make them tuck they tell in this bitch. Yeah, I know it's a hell of a risk, but why's you telling me this? You my brother, why'd you tellin' me this? You saw what they just did to my mother, why is you telling me this? You know that last week they killed my cousin. Why is you telling me this? Why are you telling me quit? I gotta do something. No, I gotta do something. Free. Wait, free? What you mean me free? We've been free since June, so I look to the heavens like what did I do? Please don't be speechless, God. What are you tryna teach us, God? The playing field ain't even. So how are we supposed to beat the odds? The cotton fields ain't leaving. They tricked us into sharing crops, they callin' us sharecroppers. It's getting better as I fast forward. They still killin' our blackfathers, grandfathers. They put the cops on us, killing us with our tax dollars. I got it right for you to be civil. Why the fuck we gotta ask forward? I'm right next to my black mama, black brothers, black fathers, black bodies, black marshers. There's a bridge in Selma. There's a bridge in Selma, telling us that we can't cross asphalt. I can't keep my back off it. And even though we peaceful, they won't call the attack off. And my mother fell to the asphalt, and my brother fell to the asphalt. Tear gas, billy clubs, horseback. Felt like when my cousin died. When they lynched him back and toss him, they lynched him back and toss him. But it's getting better as I fast forward, slowly getting better. Let me fast forward. No, no, I survived it. I can't fast forward, we thrived in it. Can't fast forward from a shag proper to a black scholar. Four letters, that's a black college. And they just killed Malcolm. Then Stokely gave me black power, black panthers running on black power, black national anthem, black authors, black president, beautiful black daughters. Stokely gave me black power, black panthers running on black power, black national anthem, black author, black president, beautiful black daughters.
SPEAKER_01:Stokely gave me black power, black Panthers running on black power, black national anthem, black author, black president, beautiful black daughters. Stokely gave me black power, black Panthers running on black power, black national anthem, black author, black president, beautiful black daughters. Stokely gave me