Well, I’ve been away from Instagram and social media for many weeks. I wanted to show up here on Instagram Live and I wanted to connect with you. It’s a sad time in many ways in the world, and yet I’m also very much full of hope. I think if you lose your hope, then you lose everything, and I just wanted to show up here on Instagram Live. I thank you for being here with me, and I wanted to just offer some of my insights.
I think I’ve never seen so much disruption in the world, and I think heroes are born not in times of ease. Heroes are made in times of discomfort. For 24 years of my life, I’ve been speaking about shifting from victimhood to heroism. For nearly a quarter of a century of my life I’ve been encouraging people to treat each other with equality and respect and honor.
For 24 to 25 years of my life I’ve been writing books and giving presentations about doing your inner work. So you shift insecurity and hatred into love and decency and honor. And so what I wanted to do is, I wanted to offer you some hope and perhaps some philosophies and hopefully some ideas that will help you navigate all the volatility and use this season of winter and this time of darkness to be a light. Christopher Morley said, “You can curse the darkness, or you can light the candle.” Mother Teresa said, “If everyone would only sweep their own doorstep, the whole world would be clean.” And I think right now you can be paralyzed, or you can realize, there has never been a better time for you to look int he mirror and to ask yourself, what can you do to build a stronger mindset, to purify your Heartset, to elevate and optimize your Healthset, and to escalate your Soulset, the Four Interior Empires that I introduced in The 5AM Club.How do you navigate this difficult time? How do you stand steadfast? How do you push great creativity in a world with so much turbulence? How do you save your business or grow your business? How do you deal with what’s going on in the world? You shift from egoism and asking, “What can I get?” And you ask yourself, “How can I rise into my own unique form of heroism?”
You start working on yourself if you haven’t been working on yourself. Suffering is incredible fuel to open you up. I mean, if you look at Nelson Mandela, if you look at Mother Teresa, if you look at Martin Luther King, Jr., if you look at Rosa Parks, a simple seamstress in Alabama who changed the world. These people were thrust in greatness not by their genetics. These people were thrust into greatness by turning tragedy into triumph.These people weren’t born into their glory and their strength. These people used turbulence and difficulty to find their victory. So the first thing I want to offer to you is, this is a great time to strengthen yourself. It’s a great time to ask yourself, what do you want to represent in the world? It’s a great time to learn to meditate. It’s a great time to join The 5AM Club so you have an hour every day to work on your Mindset, Heartset, Healthset, and Soulset, and then go out into the world and be a force of good, a force of strength, a force of leadership, a force of integrity, a force of creativity.
By the way, a lot of you have been asking about my new book that I’m working on, and this is what it looks like right now. I think I’m on my sixth writing effort. I have to say, the book has been a struggle. Look at what’s going on in the world. It hurts my heart to see what’s going on on the planet. And if you’re an artist and if you’re sensitive and if you feel… I mean, if you don’t feel about what’s happening on the planet right now, you’re more likely a cyber-zombie than a human being. And so that’s affected my inspiration and it’s affected my work, but I know I must do my part to stay steadfast and to stay focused and to do my best, to work my craft so I can get the message of the new book out there to as many people as possible.And you must do your part through your work, whether you’re a taxi driver, whether you are a frontline healthcare worker, whether you are a firefighter, whether you are a coder, whether you are an entertainer, whether you are a YouTuber, whether you are a poet, whether you are an astronaut, this world will be less of a place if you do not bring your magic into it.
Second thing I’d like to offer to you with great love and respect is, a lot of human beings suffer from ostrich syndrome and normalcy bias and we wish things were the way they were before March of 2020. Well, things will never be the way they were. The very nature of the world has changed. Charles Darwin talked about survival of the fittest, and it is the woman and the man who can navigate deep change that not only finds victory, but can serve many. I think we all have a responsibility to do what is required right now to battle-proof our Mindsets. We must do what’s required right now to insulate our Heartsets, to protect any joy we have, to protect our gratitude, to protect our hope. We must do what is required to armor plate our Healthsets; that third Interior Empire that I introduced in The 5AM Club. We must protect our energy. We must protect our health right now, increase our immunity, reduce our inflammation, extend our longevity. And we must escalate our Soulset.
So we realize that whether our lives are short or long, we have a heroic warrior side of us that is much stronger than the ego chatter, which is simply the voice of fear that has built up through our hurts as we’ve navigated life. And the more through prayer, silence, meditation, journaling, introspection, quietude, solitude, the more we will build fluency and intimacy with that relationship with our best selves. And once we know our best selves, we will not represent hate. We will not represent greed. We will not represent selfishness. We will realize that we are all brothers and sisters on a tiny planet, and we will realize that we are meant to help one another and serve one another and respect one another. And even if you’re an entrepreneur, I’ve served businesses as a mentor for some of the best companies for a quarter of a century. The best businesses have a mighty crusade. The best businesses are value-obsessed. The best businesses want to do good for as many people as possible. The best businesses ask themselves, “How can I deliver value to my stakeholders that makes them fanatical followers of the work I do?” Third thing I would say, hidden inside of turbulence is great opportunity. Whether it’s for personal mastery, whether it’s to find a business that you can grow right now, whether it’s to build stronger relationships with your customers, whether it’s to get to know your family. I spoke with a good friend the other day. He said, “Because of the lockdown, I’m having dinner with my family every night and I’m not on the road. I haven’t been on the road for three months,” he told me. And he said, “I’ve never been so happy.” So there are benefits to quarantine. And the third philosophical point I’d offer to you is to be a work-around artist. Ask yourself, “How can I use this time to make myself better, stronger, more loving, or creative?”
This is an incredible time. I mean, speaking to the pandemic, a lot of the great works of art were created during the bubonic plague. And so, if you’re in lockdown or you can’t work right now, ask yourself, what could you do to capture your creativity? And the final thing I’d say to you is, this is an extraordinary time to reset your priorities. This is an extraordinary time to become more intimate with the values you want to represent. It’s an extraordinary time to shift. We’re no longer busy being busy.It’s an extraordinary time to shift from complexity, even in your business. So many people are retooling their business so it’s a simpler business, a more effective business, a faster business. I would encourage you to retool your life so it’s a simpler life. Having mentored many of the billionaires in the world, a lot of them are very… It’s almost like they have a series of golden prison bars.And I will tell you, having worked with many of the super successful people, what I call FFA, fame, fortune and applause, will not bring you more JPF, joy, peace and freedom. I think the real goal o fa human life is joy, peace, and then service to as many people as possible. And you don’t need a lot todo that. Very little is required to live a very rich life, and I think we’re all waking up to them. A lot of people have suits and watches and handbags and cars that are sitting in a closet right now because they just can’t use that. So I hope this has been helpful for those of you who are finding solace and inspiration and helpfulness in The 5AM Club. I appreciate the incredible worldwide support of the book.
For those of you asking about my new book, it’s been a struggle working on it. I’m working very hard on it. Some days I’m very inspired and some days my heart hurts for everything I’m seeing that’s going on in the world, but I’m doing my best to write this new book as a manifesto and as a manual that will really serve you during this turbulent time in the world. I think I just want to say that better days are coming, but we must do our part to be greater human beings, stronger human beings, wiser human beings, more creative human beings, more generous human beings, and more loving human beings. So, I want to thank you for your time and I want to thank you for being so incredibly kind to me and supporting and encouraging all of my work. And thanks. Thanks again. So to you, much appreciation. Bye-bye.