What's up, gents? Antonio here. So, I got an email the other day from a young man, he's
reaching out RC and he's saying, Antonio, hope you're doing well, but I'm going through a
hard time right now. I haven't found work, I'm trying to bring joy into my life and it's just
not happening. A while ago, my great uncle passed away and I missed the funeral and I feel really
bad about this. In fact, thinking about it, I believe I'm quite depressed and I've tried
other avenues, but I can't seem to figure out. to get out of this. Mr. Centeno, I look up
to you as a healthy masculine role model and I'm hoping that you could point me in the right
direction. Kind regards, RC. So, first up, RC, if you're watching this video, I want to thank
you for having the courage to reach out. I also want to extend my condolences to the loss of
your great uncle. To lose somebody you care about is tough. To compound that with being
out of work, definitely it can put you just any guy into a depression. So, before I get
into my thoughts, I want to be clear. If you are feeling depressed, if you're somebody watching
this video and you've gone through something similar, it's okay to seek professional help.
I think as men, this is something that's difficult for us to talk about, but, guys, if you need
help, see a doctor. I've talked about the sponsor, BetterHelp, they're not the sponsor of this
video, but check them out. They've got a great service I've used personally. The point is
there's nothing embarrassing or wrong to work with a professional to get through this. So,
that being said, RC, I put together a list of routines that have really helped me over the
last year. Not all of these are conventional. I haven't seen these on a bunch of lists. These
are things I personally do that keep me out of falling into a rut because I think everybody
feels. you know, this sense of I wouldn't call it depression, but I definitely would call
it just feeling down. And, gents, really quick, this video is going to be a little bit different
than my normal video. I don't have the intro, but I would appreciate it if you enjoy this
message. If you've got something to add, let me know in the comments below and maybe share
this with a guy out there that you know is going through a tough time. And, if nothing else,
gents, you just enjoy the message of this video, do me a favor and smash the like button. It
helps it reach more people. So, the first thing, RC, that I'm going to recommend to you is just
to get out and walk. If you're watching this video, can you be out walking? watching this
video. Can you get out even just for one minute a day walking around your house, walking around
your apartment? Get outside and start moving. Now, there's tons of research on this and most
of us know this because at some point we've done exercise. And what do we feel? After we've
exercised, we just get this high. I know I used to get it all the time when I'm running. And
I think as we get busy with life, all of a sudden we don't have time for an hour, we don't have
time for 30 minutes, we don't have time, we say for 15 minutes in the gym. But, do you
have time? for 60 seconds. I think most of us do. In fact, I've got a good friend, he commits
to doing one push-up a day. Yeah, who can't make time for one push-up? And the way he looks
at it, you know, if I only did one push-up a day the entire year, that's 365 push-ups all
do in the entire year. But, the reality is when he gets started, he actually gets his workout
in. He starts doing, you know, 20 push-ups, 30 push-ups. He does his crunches, his sit-ups,
he does his leg lifts, all the other exercises that he can do. right there in his office. Exercising daily, it's so simple, but so
many of us fail to do it, me included, because we get busy with life. We don't – maybe we put ourselves last. I know as a dad, as someone that has a lot of people depending
on me, I'm always taking this martyr attitude and it's wrong. You've got to make sure that you make a little bit of time for yourself. In fact, really quick, I want to show you
guys my ugly gym down in the basement of my house. People ask me to make workout videos. Guys, I'm going to show you my workout videos.
I am not an example of a guy that works out every day. But, I do have, you know, these
adjustable dumbbells and I absolutely love them because I can do these pullover rows and it
just it's like I can do 15 of them if nothing else in the morning. And I can tell you that
starts my day, but what happens once I do one set, I end up doing three sets, then I get
over to the pull-up bar. Next thing I know, I'm doing squats, I just throw some weight
on my back and all of a sudden I'm doing, you know, three sets of 15 sets for squats. Again,
doesn't always happen. In fact, right now, I'm only getting to the gym maybe once a week.
into my basement even when I'm on a phone call just earlier today. I was on a phone call with my new – the guy that's going to help me build my house. And, yeah, we're – I'm taking the call
downstairs, so I'm kind of multitasking getting things done. The next tip that's got me out of a rut whenever I'm just feeling down, feeling a bit depressed is exposing myself to new ideas and to
new things. Many of you guys have probably noticed on the channel, it's like, he's talking about some interesting stuff. That's because I started getting back into doing research. I think for a
while, I got very comfortable with the channel just talking about those lists. I said, you know, how about I go back and I
study my history? So, yes, we are going to be talking about the Yakuza, we're going to be
talking about bikers and why are they so stylish. And what I found is doing the research for
these topics, it's enjoyable. It's made me excited about creating again. Now, I know not everyone
is a content creator, but you can control the information that's going in. Instead of just
watching the news or mindlessly scrolling across social media, could you be listening to an
audiobook? I was just getting through, anyone know about the Master and Commander series?
amazing set of books and it's really just turned me on to Naval History and, you know, Jess
Jack and Steven and the way that these two guys play in and the stories. What I also like about
books is they've got an end. They also usually have a good point. They've got their ups, they
got their downs. But, overall, it's so much better than the news and so much better than
just scrolling through social media that never ends. And, let's face it, for the most part,
is depressing as hell. Now, in that same vein, let's talk. about music. I've created my own
custom playlists whether I'm in the office or whether I'm at the house. And as many of you
guys know, music is just one of those things that especially when the song means something
to you, it just touches the soul and it can totally change your state of mind. It can take
you from being that to, yeah, all of a sudden just feeling great, bringing in flooding you
with good memories. Songs that really do it for me, The One by Elton John. Sia's cheap
thrills. John Newman's Love Me Again. Guns N' Roses' Rocket Queen. The Motels Only The Lonely.
My Maria Alabama's Give Me One More Shot. I Want To Know What Love Is by Foreigner. Smokey,
Livin' Next Door to Alice. Bob Seeger, Still The Same. If you want to take it to a whole
other level, listen to albums the way they were meant to be listened to. If you're going to
do that, I highly recommend Fleetwood Mac's Rumors. Bob Marley and the Wailers' Legend.
Led Zeppelin's 4 album. So, RC, take the time and put together a list of songs maybe of audiobooks,
things that have meaning to you and that just pump you up, get you excited especially when
you're going to work being around the house doing dishes. Next up, let's talk about the
addiction, RC, your phone. And that's what I actually call it with my kids. I'm like, hey,
how much time did you spend on your addiction today? Because I want them to understand that
if they're not paying for something like TikTok, they are the product. TikTok is making money
off of them. Snapchat, you know, is not their friend. And I always ask, hey, do this once
a week, what was your screen time? Now, I like this question, my kids don't so much, but I
think all of us should look at our screen time because it's straight up a fact. It's right
there and we can see. how much time daily on average we're spending on our phones. There
are three things that I do that helped me spend less time on my phone. One, notifications are
turned off. That one is the obvious one. Next up, I turn the phone off when I'm not using
it. Not all the time, but multiple times a day. It drives my wife crazy. It's a small barrier,
but I find it's enough because of that 45 seconds to a minute it takes for the phone to turn
back on that I'm not just jumping on the phone to waste time to scroll social media. The final
tip is to keep your charging station downstairs charging at night, not in your bedroom. In
our house on weekdays, we've got a curfew of 8 PM. That's when people need to be off the
phones, getting ready for bed, reading. You can do all types of other things, but you can't
be on your phone. They need to be downstairs at the charging station. One, this kind of
keeps me accountable because every phone needs to be there, but also you don't want the phone
in your bedroom. Seriously, it's too much of a temptation. It's like being surrounded by
donuts if you're trying to eat healthy. I mean, who glazed donut? Oh, just. thinking about
it, my mouth is watering. But, if you've got those things around you, you're going to eventually
fall into that temptation. So, just keep it out. Now, this next one, I'm ashamed to say
that I procrastinated on for two years. But, when I finally did it, I mean we're talking
a total of twenty minutes, I just printed off a whole bunch of pictures. I'm talking about
my vision board, having a vivid vision of where I want to be in three years. Now, I finally
took action on this because I was reading the great book, High Performance Habits by Brendan
Bruchard. I've read it multiple times, but my wife said something the morning I was reading
it that really those two things hit me at the same point. And she's like, you know, I've
gone through a lot of your journals when I was in the military and she's like you hit all
of your dreams all your goals. You wanted to have a family that loved you, you want to be
running a multimillion dollar business, you wanted to have a home. Like, we knocked through
all of these things. She also found the list of which I was deciding was I going to marry
her or not, thankfully. I am a very transparent person, so I said everything was legitimate
there and I did marry her. But, Brendan Bouchard in his book, he was very clear, high performers
oftentimes they reach their visions and they forget to reset them to actually have further
visions. And I realized this is what had happened to me. I had outgrown my old visions and I
didn't have really some goals. Yes, I had talked about some things, but I didn't have a place
where I could see it. And before, I had written this stuff all out in journals. I wasn't doing
that anymore. So, I took 20 minutes and I just started printing off pictures. As you can see
right here, I've got mission fragrances and you got the dollar bill here that says lonely.
Aaron Marino has been yelling at me, I need to make these sets more available, I need to
launch more often. I just need to be selling more of these mission fragrances. And he's
exactly right. Next up, you can see this picture of my family. I've got my immediate family
plus my Ukrainian family. My nephews are now living with me permanently because of the war
in Ukraine. My sister-in-law, she went back to Ukraine to be with her husband. But, I've
got my mother-in-law, I've got seven kids I'm looking out for and a wife I like to spend
time with. So, it's now very easy for me to say no to opportunities that are good, but
not great because, hey, I only have so much time and I want to be able to spend as much
time as I can with the people I love. I've also got a new picture of my future house. Now,
this is an early rendering of it. So, I'm going to show you a picture of my future house. But,
it gives me a thing I've already bought the land. I am talking with the architect right
now. We are getting closer very close to starting the build process and I'm excited about it.
I printed out some countries I want to travel to. A picture of the ideal body that I want
to maintain so I'm able to move around freely and I'm never confined to a bed or a wheelchair
because, yeah, you see people in their 70s or 80s that are out moving. that's what I want
for myself. I also had a picture of a camp that I want to open up for entrepreneurs, business
owners, so that we can go and escape our business and be able to share ideas. I've got a picture
of a guy playing guitar. That's a kind of a secret dream of mine. I want to learn how to
play the guitar and sing. And I've got an open book here. Yes, I want to write a book not
about men's style. I've got some different ideas. The point is, gents, I've got this vivid vision
of things that I want to accomplish in the next three years that now is aligning. all of the
actions I'm taking on a daily basis. Now, this next one is going to require more work, but
I can tell you it's incredibly rewarding. For the last couple of years, I've been organizing
community get-togethers. For me, on Fridays, I've made it my day in which I meet up with
other business owners in masterminds that I am facilitating that I am bringing together
that I'm doing the work to make these things happen. I've been running masterminds on Fridays.
Most of them are virtual and that I find I'm of e-commerce owners to be able to talk about
how to grow their Shopify stores. YouTubers, we've been talking about the frustrations and,
you know, how difficult it is and what we can do to improve our channels. I had one for website
bloggers in which we talked specifically about getting traffic to written content and the
effects of AI. In fact, that's been my most fun mastermind recently is we dedicated one
directly to AI, how it applies to our businesses. And you make sure you've got a right mix and
that's where you've got to do the work. You're going to find a lot of these, they either cost a lot of money to get into or, you know, you're having to apply to it or maybe it's
not even a great fit, you wish it was a certain way. Well, stop wishing. Go out there and do that little bit of work to organize it yourself.
Now, the key to making it happen is to find the right people and what they're passionate about. You can do this about anything. Maybe you're a New York Jets fan. I am sorry if
you're a – oh, man, is he an Aaron Rodgers kid? You guys just have no luck. But, if you're a sports fan, why not, you know, you could start there?
It's just simply an after game. Maybe you want to go deep in about, hey, we want to talk about
the club in detail, so you've got a group getting together. I don't know what your passion is,
but find a way to be able to get one, two, three, four other people together on a regular basis.
I do encourage you to make it regular so that it's something that you get to know the people
because that's the benefit. Yes, it's nice to be able to talk about why the New York Jets,
you know, have sucked since Namath, but we know they will come back at some point. I'm not
a Jets fan. I just feel bad for you guys. I think it's really it's the connections, it's
the camaraderie, it's the friendship. And I think this is a big bonus if you can do this
about work. You're saying you're out of work. Well, what work are you doing on the side to
feel fulfilled? I think it was in the book The Wealthy Gardener. I think it was in the book
The Wealthy Gardener. my friend, John Sefork, he wrote about how even if you're just doing
manual labor, I know maybe you're a draftsman, maybe you're an architect, maybe you're someone
that you've got a skilled trade. Well, there's nothing wrong with working with your hands
because there is tons of work out there that needs to be done. Yes, it may not be paid.
Yes, it may be volunteering working on somebody's house that, you know, is confined to their
home, but you know what? That person appreciates it. And what it does for you instead of, you
know, you're spending an hour You're not even maybe looking for a job because, again, you
are feeling down. I'll tell you, you're going to feel a lot better yourself when that neighbor
across the street is going to look at their lawn and how you cleaned it up. And, yes, it
only took you a couple hours, your able-bodied, maybe you spent five bucks on gas, but all
of a sudden you made somebody's day and you've got this great feeling, a sense of accomplishment
that you are capable of. It may be a small thing, but it wasn't a small thing to that person.
And, you know, in the bigger scheme of things, it's reinforcing. what you know about yourself
that you are a good you are a great person on the path to even better things. And really
quick, RC, and I don't mean to overstep, but I do want to talk to you about, you know, missing
the funeral of your great uncle. Man, you got to forgive yourself. I don't know what the
circumstances were, but I've been in that same situation. I had one of my best friend from
high school. I remember when he died, electrocuted. When that happened and I got the call, my wife
had just given birth. to my son. I was on the other side of the world in Ukraine and, you
know, this is 2004 and I remember that I couldn't leave her. And at the same time, I felt that
I needed to be back in Midland, Texas. I hadn't talked to that guy for a decade, but it was
still it was somebody that had been important in my life and I didn't go to his funeral.
That being said, as soon as I could, I made it back there to Midland, Texas. I visited
his grave and I realized that, yeah, I had one person question me about it, why didn't I come
back? Well, you know, and I... straight up. This is what it was. And I don't know why you
didn't attend, but, you know, you can't change the past. We know this. And you need to forgive
yourself. You need to realize, hey, I'm going to do what I can with what I've got today.
And I think your great uncle, he's looking down and he's supportive of you becoming the man
you know yourself to be. And what video to watch next? Well, boom, I got you covered with this
one right here. Check it out, solid video. I thought it was a good one. Boom, right there,
gents. Yeah, click it. Magically, you'll go to the next video.