Sometimes the reason why the road ahead looks so hard is because we forget how far we’ve come. If you’re in a bad state right now, the best thing you can do for yourself is to realize what you do have and what you have accomplished. We all go through ups and downs, but the problem for many of us is that we focus too much on the downs. This keeps us from living in the moment and realizing what it is that we can do to make ourselves better now.
Transcript
Machine-generated from the episode audio and lightly edited — may contain errors.
Chris Albert (link to this point)
Good morning and welcome to the Warrior Soul Podcast. This is another in between episode. Tomorrow I am headed to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to watch the second half of the Olympics, and as I do that, I do so with a lot of humility. It's always been a dream of mine to to go down and witness the American team do their thing. Know, these are people who have dedicated their entire lives to a craft, to excelling at their specific sports, and a lot of times those athletes don't get a lot of support financially.
You know we hear about a lot of you know the people in the basketball team and certain prominent athletes on the swim team and the gymnastics team, but there's a lot of other athletes out there. We have over 500 on the Olympic team and many of them don't get the press that a lot of the other athletes do. They have to scrounge by and do everything they can to get their training in. And they have to adapt and overcome to to really reach their goals and reach their dreams. I have to say I've been a bit uncomfortable about going down there because part of me is really addicted to working, addicted to pursuing my own goals and my own dreams, and doing everything I can to make this company a success, and to spread my message.
At the end of the day though, I think that one of the things that I need to do, and that we all really need to do, is to stop and smell the roses, and to really understand what this life is about. You know you can go through life in a lot of ways without living. You know you bury your head into a computer screen, you bury your head into your cell phone screen, you waste your life in front of a television set, or even worse, you waste your life on worry. You waste your life on negativity, and you waste your life on really not enjoying what it is that you have. So many of us want better things in this life, and in the pursuit of those things, you know, come down on ourselves really hard.
And I'm no different, know, I'm telling this to you guys because it's something that I realize about myself. In a lot of ways when I do these episodes, I'm really speaking to myself and trying to smack myself in the back of the head. But I know there's so many of you out there who share the same thing. Who wonder what if? What if I did this?
What if I did that? If I could only get this? And the fact of the matter is you have to keep moving forward. You have to keep pursuing your goals. But at a certain point you have to sit there and you have to say to yourself, look what I've done so far.
You know there's an old story about people who quit because they see the long road ahead, but they never take a chance to look at how far they've actually come. And one of the things I think you need to do, and what I need to do more often is to look at how far we've actually come. You know, when I think about this company a year ago, we really weren't even on the map. We really weren't even doing anything. And in eight months, we've begun spreading our message, delivering it to people who need it, delivering it to my brothers and sisters in arms who really need to learn how to live their best lives.
Because the goal here is not just to exist, it's not just to get through every day, it's not just to make it through so you can get to bed, it's so that you can live in the moment and enjoy every single thing that you're doing. Even if it sucks, you know, I look back on my business career and I've had so many failures and so many defeats. But the benefit of that that I can sit here and I can look back and I can look at all the lessons that I've learned. And I can reflect on those and I can model my life so that I can improve upon those things that I made mistakes on in the past. And so my message for you today before I go, and I'll be posting pictures from the games and everything like that.
But my message for you today is whatever you are or wherever you are, whatever you're doing, take a minute to really appreciate what you have in this life, to appreciate your experiences, to appreciate not only the good times, but the bad times. Those hard times, those times when you thought you weren't gonna get through it. Those times when you thought that you were about to quit. And I want you to think about those times and be proud of yourself. And not in a way that is complacent where you say, all right I've gotten this far I'm just going to stop, but in a way to say, you know what I did that, and if I did that, if I got through that, if I could push through that, then I could push through this next this next thing.
Because the beauty of being a human here on this earth is that at the end of the day, we can all improve upon ourselves. And the reason why we can improve upon ourselves is because when you look at anybody else who's been successful, when you look at anybody who's achieved anything in this life, they've all gone through hard times. They've all gone through difficulties. They've all overcome obstacles, and we all put our pants on one leg at a time. We all breathe the same air, and every single one of us on this planet is someday going to die.
And given that we're all gonna die, at the end of the day, we have no reason not to live, and live in a way that we want to. So I want to thank you all for listening to this show. I want to acknowledge all of you because just by listening to this and other podcasts, other amazing podcasts out there, you're taking steps to improve yourself. You're taking steps to improve your life. Now it's just time to take some action.
So get out there, make the most of it, and do everything that you can to live your best life. And I will talk to you all when I get back from Rio on the August 22. And, you know, I just wanna express my gratitude because I have an amazing girlfriend who helped me take this trip, and she she knew it's something that I wanted to do. And I'm really grateful for that. And I'm grateful for all of you who listen in this show and everybody who sent their notes of support.
And, I'm grateful for everybody who's ever put their lives on the line for this country and for everybody who's out there trying to make it. So take care, guys. I will talk to you all soon.
Host of the Warrior Soul Podcast and founder of Warrior Soul. Worldwide trainer and nutrition coach, contributing author at Testosterone Nation and Muscle and Strength.
