(calm music)
- Hey, guys, it's Roberto.
It is a ridiculously gorgeous day out
so I decided to have lunch out by the lake,
something a little different.
You really should take time
to just kind of enjoy everything around you
and that sounds really fluffy
but I'm going to definitely explain that here
but today's vlog, today's Creative Thoughts episode
is about the thing that 99% of people
don't understand about success
and why the far majority of people ultimately fail
in their endeavors
and again, guys, this isn't limited to the context
of YouTube or social media or influence
but it does loop into those things
especially into the business world
and I feel like I need to tell you this,
I need to talk about this
'cause I don't think most people are saying it
and they're not qualifying it in any meaningful way
and I'm gonna tell you what I did that works or whatever
if you decide that you consider what I've done
to be successful then you can understand how I got there
through what I'm about to explain
about a couple of fundamental things
that again I don't think most people
are keeping this a secret from you.
I think they don't fully know how to articulate
or explain what it is that they've actually done.
The common key thing that you will hear from people
is to study success and study successful people
and study all these masters
but if you don't know what you're looking at
in the first place,
if you don't understand the material,
if you don't understand the language of success,
if you don't understand the language
of the things that these people are talking about
in their journey, you could sit there
and you could consume all the information,
you can listen to these people all day
and it won't necessarily,
it won't necessarily translate or it won't matter for you
in a meaningful way because you can listen to them
but you're not hearing them,
you don't actually get how to do the thing
that they're telling you
no matter how many times you hear it
and the reason I think that message is important
is because people are being made to feel stupid
and I don't think it's intentional.
There are plenty of people who will say,
I've tried everything, I've done everything
and they're being made to feel stupid
or like things don't work or like things are a scam
because the thing that people are talking about
is the fact that if you don't know the rules
and the jargon and you don't understand
the technical aspects of this process
that people are trying to walk you through,
how can you do it, right?
I mean, I could sit there
and I could try to mimic somebody who's an athlete
but if I don't understand how the rowing machine works,
if I don't understand how the leg press machine works,
if I don't understand the terminology
and the jargon of athletics
then everything they say to me is Greek, it doesn't matter.
It goes in one ear and out the other
and I think that that's a big barrier for people
but it's not even the worst part of it.
What's even worse is that when people are looking at
those very successful people they wanna learn from,
they are judging themselves against those people.
They are making unfair comparisons of themselves
to people who are already successful, who've already made it
and they are setting unreasonable expectations
of themself because of it.
One of the things I've always talked about,
one of the things I've always advocated for
is this concept of running your own race
and it's not an accident that I used that phrase.
I was a track and cross country runner.
My coach said, Roberto,
you can either be a phenomenal runner
or you can be a so-so soccer player.
Pick one and make it a priority
and that's how I became a cross country and track champion.
That's how I became captain of my team.
That's how I won my medal.
That's how I ended up doing a 5:15 mile,
10:26 two mile, a 18:18 5K race.
Those were my best times at my peak
and it was because I focused
on this thing that I was good at
and because I learned the concept of running my own race
so I wouldn't worry about other people
and how they were training, what they were doing.
They didn't have my body type.
They didn't have my DNA.
They didn't have my circumstances.
So what was the point about worrying about them?
What I did was I did study things about them that make sense
like their discipline, like their consistency.
The things that I could apply to myself, I applied to myself
but when it came to my execution of it, I did it my way
and I listened to my own body.
I couldn't do other people's diet
because that wouldn't work for me
and I didn't have their body type,
I didn't have their metabolism so I had to do my own diet
but doing a constant workout regimen
even if it wasn't the same as theirs, that was practical.
Looking at their running technique
if their body type was similar to mine, that was practical.
So I don't think most people know
how to study other people's success
and more importantly, I think they make the mistake
of playing the comparison game.
I feel like if more people focused on the concept
of self-mastery, self-mastery would be better for them
than anything else.
Disciplining themselves to focus on their strengths
overwhelmingly and to double down on that,
triple down on the thing that you're very, very good at
and then get to a point to where it's diminishing returns
to up the levels of quality or skill or what have you
any further and then you switch to the quantity game
which is why I've always said
that it's both quality and quantity but here's the thing.
There's a diminishing returns aspect to quality
that you get to a lot faster
than the diminishing returns on quantity
and sometimes, you need quantity
to produce quality in the first place.
Let me explain.
If you've ever played a sport
or if you've ever played an instrument
or if you've ever done art
then you understand the concepts of muscle memory,
the concepts of repetition
and the importance of consistency and habits.
Notice that all of those things that I just talked about
are quantity.
They are something that is measured in quantity.
Doing 100 pushups matters.
Showing up to practice every day matters.
Playing an instrument every day for five years matters.
Okay?
There is no disputing the quantitative aspect
of any of those things.
In that regard, quality is a result of quantity
so you cannot have one without the other in that regard
and I would also argue that if you want to do something
in terms of quality,
if you think that you can do something of quality,
if you think you can do something without practice,
without putting in the work,
unless you are super naturally talented,
it ain't gonna happen.
And so my friends, the thing that is holding 99% of you back
is a lack of self-awareness and a lack of self-mastery.
You don't know who you are yet
so you're chasing other people.
'Cause you don't know who you are
and because you don't know what you're good at yet,
you're looking at other people
and you're using those people and what they've accomplished
as the measuring stick for who you are
and you're using things like that
and your follower count, your subscribers,
the attention, the acknowledgment,
you're using all of that as a basis
for evaluating your self-worth
because you lack the self-awareness and the self-discipline
to figure out who you are and what you're good at
and to respect that on its own merits
and that's where you're messing up
and that's what's hurting you
and what it's doing is it's causing you
to have all these bad habits.
It's meaning that you're not being disciplined and focused
because you're worried about the external validation
and all of those things
and the worst part is it's not even your fault
because you've been marketed to and story told to
in a way that makes you believe
that those things actually matter in the first place.
So my question to you is also a challenge.
Question of the day.
Who are you and what are you actually good at
and why does it matter?
Drop that in the comment section.
Like this video if you like it.
Don't forget to subscribe.
Check out the other awesome stuff on the channel.
Thanks for letting me share my creative thoughts with you.
Again, this is not meant to raze anybody.
This isn't meant to make you feel bad
but again, I really believe that this
is why 99% of people, probably 99.9% of people don't make it
and so I want you to have your shot
and I hope that this helps.
As always, you guys, just thank you so much for watching,
hanging in there with me
and don't forget, go out there, somewhere really beautiful
and create something awesome today, alright?
Take care.