Hey, this is Mat Boggs, and this week here in the United States we are celebrating the
4th of July holiday, which is a holiday all about independence, holiday all about celebrating
your freedom.
Whether you're American, or whether you're not, I want to tell you a story in this video
because this theme of independence, this theme of celebrating our own freedom, really applies
to every one of us.
Every year around this time I like to do a process with myself where I look at my own
life, and I look at the areas of my life where I'm actually oppressing myself, not through
some outside force, but maybe with the way that I'm thinking, with the thoughts that
I'm thinking, with the beliefs that I'm holding with.
How am I not really living up to my full potential?
I'm going to tell you a story, and I'm going to invite you to put yourself inside this
story.
Put yourself as the protagonist to this story, because there might be areas in your life
when you think about what you want to do, what's the next version of you?
What's some dream that you have?
What's some thing that you've wanted to accomplish that maybe you have been in your own way up
until now?
Because this video we're going to give you some insights about how to clear the way and
reclaim your own independence.
You see, back in 2010 is when I launched this YouTube channel.
My mission and purpose in life is to increase love in the world one heart at a time, and
so I put up a small clustering of videos back in 2010.
Those videos got a little bit of praise, and they also got some criticism back then.
Here's a couple of examples of what people posted on some of those videos.
Here's a positive comment.
Check this one out.
It says, "I love all your videos.
You help me so much.
A big hug for you."
Cindy writes, "Brilliant advice," but then I was also getting some haters as well.
Check out this one that says, "I feel bad for men and women who believe in this sort
of bullshit."
Stephanie writes, "This guy is pedaling the idea that men only have value as disposable
utilities for women."
Lucy writes, "Can we talk about that flashing light in the top right corner?"
She clearly didn't like my background.
I let some of these negative comments get inside my head, and cause me to hesitate on
making these videos.
As much as I still wanted to make videos, I was still writing videos, I was still setting
the date to record more videos, the end result was I kept procrastinating.
I kept procrastinating, and moving those dates, and kept procrastinating.
I procrastinated for four years by moving the date, moving the date, moving the date.
Now, in this other area of my business, I was focused, and working, and making progress.
But in this area, an area of a deep passion of mine of teaching and spreading this message
of love, I was stalled out.
Think about an area in your life right now where you feel stalled out.
There's something that you want to do, a big dream that you have, something where it's
been a passion of yours, and maybe you've stalled out.
What thoughts have gotten in your way?
What's in your way right now?
For me it was total procrastination.
It was this fear of being judged, of being good enough.
What's interesting is, the longer it went, the more that fear rose up, which was, "There
was something magical that happened in 2010," because some of those videos caught some traction.
One of those videos went viral and had over a million views.
Then the fear was, "Well shoot, if I make more videos, what if they're not as good as
those old videos are?
Then I'll be judged."
It was a whole procrastination fear-based path.
Four years later, I ended up going to this networking event for dating coaches, and I
meet a guy who talks about wanting to make YouTube videos.
This gentleman says, "Well, have you made YouTube videos?"
I said, "Yeah man.
Check this out," and I showed him the video that has over a million views.
He's like, "Oh my gosh," and he tries to find more videos.
He goes, "You posted this four years ago.
You don't have any more videos?"
I was like, "Well no."
I gave him all kinds of "legitimate" good reasons why I was working on another business,
and we were building this other business up.
But the truth of the matter was, it was very uncomfortable for me to share that with him
because the truth is, I did want to be making those videos.
He said, "No man, let's do this.
Let's rock our YouTube channels."
He didn't even have a channel at that point.
So we both committed that we were going to do it.
We went our separate ways.
I went home.
I put it on the calendar, and sure enough, I moved the date, and moved the date, and
very deceptively, very slowly ... I would have never said I was giving up on this dream,
but the end result was I wasn't taking any action.
So the question is, how long has your dream been on the shelf?
How long have you been waiting for the perfect circumstances?
Things to line up.
For me, I had all kinds of reasons.
Oh, I don't have this, or I don't have that, or I'm going to wait for the better day, or
I'm going to wait for when I don't have any meetings.
What types of reasons have you been giving yourself to not fully live your liberated
life, your free life?
Right?
We all have stories that we tell ourselves.
We all have reasons that we make up.
But at the end of the day, the only result is, are we doing it?
Are we living free, full and expressed, or are we not?
I let another year go by, believe it or not.
I went back to that same networking event, and that guy was there again.
I went up to him.
I was like, "Hey man.
What's going on?"
He saw me, and we started connecting.
He was like, "How's your YouTube channel," and imagine how I felt in that moment.
How would you feel in that moment?
You said you were going to do something.
A year goes by, you see the same person.
They went off, and did it.
He showed me his YouTube channel.
He had all these videos.
He already had 100,000 subscribers at that point because he got busy.
He made at least a video every single week.
I felt embarrassed.
I felt ashamed.
I felt in the pit of my stomach this awful feeling, and quite frankly, I was disgusted
with myself.
I was like, "Man, what am I doing?"
I left that networking event, and I got committed.
I said, "Enough excuses.
Enough procrastination, reordering things.
I'm going to make this a priority because I want to serve you, and I want to serve people
like you."
What happened was, the pain of staying stuck was finally bigger than the fear of actually
doing the thing.
That's a key.
When the pain of staying stuck, when you look at your current circumstances and you're like,
"You know what, I'm through with this," and the pain of staying at that place is bigger
than where you want to go, that's when we take action.
Lo and behold, it was July.
On July 9th, 2015 I released my very first video with a commitment behind it that said
I would produce a video every single week for you, to pour into you, to help you live
a life of an expansion, to help you live your dreams, to help you bring and receive more
love to this world because that's what this channel has dedicated to you.
In three years, we have not missed a week.
Every single week posting, and we have reached since then over 40 million people, 40 million
views, over 300,000 subscribers.
An amazing community of people just like you worldwide, committed to taking action, committed
to increasing love in the world one heart at a time.
This story is not about this YouTube channel, but that's simply an example, really a bigger
analogy for our own lives that say, "Hey, look.
What is it that is oppressing you right now?"
What beliefs or thoughts are oppressing you right now that you are ready to break free
from?
You are already to declare your own independence.
You're ready to declare your freedom from this thing, and you say, "No more am I letting
this bind me to an old result I don't love, but I'm freeing myself for the life I do love."
I wanted to film this for you here because I love the ocean.
It's a great expanse of possibilities.
What is the possibility that you're claiming this day for your life?
Go ahead and post a comment, and it's not just any comment.
Let this be a declaration.
A declaration to the world of the fears that you're letting go of, and the life that you're
claiming.
What are you letting go of in service of?
I'm letting go of the fear of judgment in service of fulfilling my mission.
I'm letting go of the fear of perfection, the fear of rejection, in service of increasing
love in the world.
What are you letting go of this day, and what's your declaration of independence and freedom?