- There's one trick that will make you
rich, happy, and successful,
and it can make all of your dreams come true
and I'm gonna tell you what this trick is
by sharing with you a story
about how somebody learned this trick too late in life.
This is Lucas.
Lucas was born in the middle of America
to a man named John and a woman named Emily.
From a very early age, Lucas displayed signs of genius.
People would watch him in shock
as he solved these incredibly complex math equations
as if they were simple puzzle pieces
that he could easily fit together.
He had intelligence far beyond the other kids
and even most of his teachers.
It became clear to everyone
that Lucas would go on to do great things in this lifetime.
His parents were proud of him
and they loved him with all their hearts.
But one day, something happened to Lucas.
It was something that would leave a permanent scar
on the bright canvas of his life.
It was a moment that was truly unforgettable.
One foggy night,
Lucas' mother was working late in her office.
After she was done, she got into her car and she drove home
to see her loving family.
As she was driving through a green light,
she was hit directly in the driver side door
by an intoxicated driver.
While Lucas was reading a book in his room,
his dad came in and said,
"Son, your mother was in a car accident.
"She's in critical condition at the hospital."
When Lucas was looking at his mother's unconscious body
in that white bed, it didn't feel real.
This is something that only happens in the movies
in order to make you cry.
It's not something that is actually supposed to happen
in real life, Lucas thought to himself.
A few hours later, Lucas' mother was pronounced dead.
Lucas did not attend the funeral.
He didn't really talk to anyone.
It was all too painful for him.
The next few weeks were incredibly confusing for Lucas
which was something that he was not used to feeling.
He felt like there was this giant black hole inside of him
that he had no idea how to fill.
At first, he tried asking his dad questions like,
why did all of this happen?
What happens to mom now?
What is the meaning behind all of this?
But the only words his hurt father could really say were,
"Son, sometimes horrible things happen
"and there isn't always a clear reason why."
But Lucas' logical brain was not able to accept this answer.
He needed to uncover the why behind his mom's death
and uncover all the mysteries surrounding death.
There's no problem that is unsolvable,
Lucas thought to himself.
So he started to watch videos,
read books, read blogs, talked to people.
He even began studying the work
of Ancient Greek philosophers like Aristotle and Socrates,
but Lucas quickly realized
that the concept of death is not like his math equations
where everything is made up of simple 2D puzzle pieces
but rather it's made up of complex mind bending 4D pieces
that don't even conceptually make sense when you look at it.
As the weeks and months went by,
Lucas realized that no matter how much he read
or how much he studied,
he never really found the concrete undeniable answer
that he was looking for.
So he stopped searching.
His mom's death left Lucas in a constant state of pain.
So he set out on a self-destructive journey
to distract himself from this pain in any way that he could.
At first, it started off small
where he began to watch more TV and eat unhealthy food.
He then started to use social media more
like YouTube and Facebook and Instagram
and he would just sit on his bed for hours
just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling
consuming a seemingly endless amount of content.
But the more distractions that he consumed,
the more he craved.
Lucas began drinking on the weekends
which led him to drink on the occasional weekday
which led him to drink on most weekdays.
He soon began experimenting with drugs
which led him to abuse drugs.
There were even times
where he thought about physically hurting himself.
Lucas used these substances
because it allowed him to temporarily forget
about how hollow he felt.
And one night when he was really in pain,
Lucas abused so many substances that he almost OD'd.
It was so bad that he fell to the ground
and he began to have a seizure and then before he knew it,
he became unconscious.
The next thing he knew,
he woke up in a hospital to his dad by his side.
"Son, we are going to talk about this tomorrow.
"This behavior is obviously not okay,
"but I don't have time to figure this out right now, okay?"
"Sure."
Since his mom's passing,
the money had been a little bit more tight in the family
so his dad had to work overtime.
Seeing all the nurses and feeling the white bed on his skin
immediately reminded Lucas of his mother's death,
but Lucas did not have anything
to distract himself with this time.
He had no social media, no junk food,
and he certainly had no substances
and those horrible dark feelings came flooding back to him.
Lucas reached for the remote control frantically
trying to turn on the TV.
"It doesn't work," a mysterious voice said.
"Excuse me?" Lucas said.
"The TV, it doesn't work.
"You can click those buttons all you want.
"It still won't work."
"Um, and who are you?" Lucas said.
"Sarah, you?"
"No, I mean like who are you?
"Are you a nurse, a doctor?"
"Oh no, I'm a patient just like you."
"Oh God," Lucas said.
"That's not a very nice way
"to greet your bed neighbor," she said.
"Yeah, sorry, I'm used to talking to people's faces,
"not at a giant white curtain," Lucas said.
"Ah, I see, so you don't spend too much time
"in the hospital then, do you?"
"Nope, not really and you do?"
"Yeah, a little."
"Are you usually this chatty with your bed neighbors
"as you call them?"
"Just the ones who are in a bad mood."
"Well, I'm sitting here with nothing to do,
"with a horrible headache
"so yeah, I'm not exactly very happy right now."
"There are always reasons to be happy.
"If you are bored, I can lend you my favorite book.
"Whenever I feel down,
"it makes me feel a little bit better, here."
A book came sliding under the curtain towards Lucas' bed.
He picked it up.
"The Power of Now," Lucas said.
"That's right.
"Most people hate what's in that book
"and they get really triggered
"when they find out what's in that book,
"but I think every single person on Earth should read it.
"Anyways, I'm feeling pretty tired so I'm going to sleep.
"I didn't catch your name?"
"It's Lucas."
"Well, it's great to meet you Lucas.
"I hope you feel better."
"Thanks, you too Sarah."
When Lucas got home, his dad immediately grounded him
until he could figure out how to proceed with Lucas.
So Lucas spent the next few days glued to this book,
but he noticed that it wasn't based on facts or data
like he was used to,
but rather it was based on ideas and perspectives.
He'd liked the book until he got to the section called
what to do when a loved one dies.
The book said great loss ends
with a great feeling of emptiness and nothingness,
but if you surrender into the nothingness,
there is a fullness waiting for you there.
But the only way to do this is to fully embrace
and accept all the pain that you feel.
Lucas closed the book and he immediately thought of the fact
that he had not gone to his mother's funeral
because it was too painful.
He felt like the book was telling him
to go to your mom's tombstone and surrender to the pain,
but this was out of the question for Lucas.
The mere thought of doing this
was almost unbearable for him.
"I'm done with this book.
"It's time to return it to Sarah," Lucas said to himself.
"Hi there, I'm here to see, um, my friend.
"Her name is Sarah.
"She's in room 112,"
Lucas said to the receptionist at the hospital.
"Sure, no problem."
She logged onto her computer and then she said,
"Um, you said you were her friend?"
"Yeah, I'm here to return the book she lent me."
"Uh, I'm not exactly sure how to say this,
"but she passed a few days ago."
"She passed?
"Passed where?
"What do you mean?"
"Sir, she had stage four terminal cancer.
"She died."
Lucas turned around and sat down in the chair behind him.
"The girl who told me there are always reasons to be happy
"was dying of cancer?"
Lucas thought to himself.
He sat there for about 30 minutes
replaying the conversation with Sarah over and over
and he deeply regretted how unsympathetic he was.
As a tear fell from Lucas' face,
he looked down at the book and he knew what he had to do.
The moment when he started walking towards it,
he felt immense pain.
Every breath that he took felt like somebody was placing
a 10 pound weight on his back
and every step that he took
felt like somebody was stabbing him in his stomach
with a small sharp knife,
but he just put his head down
and he kept walking one foot in front of the other.
Finally, he opened his eyes
and he saw the thing that he had been fearing most,
his mom's tombstone.
He immediately felt a hot searing pain in his stomach
that made him fall to his knees
and then within seconds this pain became so intense
that his vision went blurry
and his muscles began to seize up
and all he could feel was this overwhelming pain
that echoed throughout his entire mind and body.
Lucas sat there for hours slowly bleeding out his emotions.
Eventually, he had nothing left inside him.
He felt like a soulless, empty human being.
And over the next few months,
Lucas would go to his mother's tombstone everyday
to put himself through this misery.
But every time that he did this,
the pain would slowly go down inch by inch
and he would feel just a little bit better.
And eventually after months of this torture,
Lucas got to the point where he could finally
accept the reality that she was gone.
He finally got to the point where he could let her go.
Every single one of us have painful memories
and traumas from our past.
Some are big and some are small,
but very few of us make the decision
to consciously engage with these bad feelings.
We would rather choose to forget about them
or we bury them deep inside our subconscious
where nobody can find them
and then we walk around in this emotionally paralyzed state
that we aren't even really aware of.
This is why we see people who seemingly have it all.
They have money, good looks, women, fame,
yet they still aren't happy.
This is because they still have issues inside them
that they have not let go of.
Maybe as a kid they didn't get enough attention
from their parents so now they are addicted
to getting attention from other people
or maybe a girl cheated on them when they were younger
with some other guy who was way more cooler
or way more muscular than they were
and now the guy is addicted to going to the gym
seven days per week in order to make himself feel good
or worthy enough to have another girlfriend.
But most people will go their entire lives
totally unaware of these kinds of things.
So if you want to become authentically rich
or authentically successful,
you need to let go of your past traumas.
Otherwise, you will live a life
where you are constantly distracting yourself
just like Lucas
or a life where your traumas
will dictate everything that you do.
Letting go is the first and only step
towards authentic happiness.
If you enjoyed this video,
I promise that you will love the one on the screen.
It will inspire you to do anything.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you soon.