Be your own cheerleader:

Be your own cheerleader.

No one is coming to save you.

No one cares about you.

At the end of your life, you’ll be alone.

You might be lucky to have family around you, but you also could end up in a ditch with no one around you.

Life is uncertain.

Anything can change at any moment.

You don’t know when that will be.

But it will be different.

Your whole world will change.

Hopefully positively but it could be negative.

Memories can stick around for a while.

Negative experiences can feel real years later.

PTSD is a brutal condition.

It makes you feel like you’re back on the battlefield.

Gunshots all around you.

Trying to remember your training but you’re too focused on the bullet that just whizzed by your head.

Then you see your friend drop dead in front of you.

No one’s ever prepared you for that.

Years later, you’re with your family. Hanging out on the 4th of July having a good time barbequing.

Someone brings fireworks and you’re too drunk to realize what’s going on.

All of a sudden you hear those noises and you go immediately back.

You leave and hide inside.

Everything in your body is telling you you’re back there.

Your mind is there.

In the fields of Afghistan with your brother in arms getting killed in front of you.

In those moments, you’re on your own.

No one is coming to save you.

No one is coming to help you.

No one is telling you how to deal with that experience.

You gotta figure it out.

I believe everyone can come out better from negative experiences.

It takes a long time.

But you have to sit with yourself.

Embrace your fears.

Go deep within your mind.

Listen to your fears.

Understand them.

Where did they come from?

Why are they there?

What were the events that led to that fear?

Why am I still so scared of that thing?

For me, it’s failure.

There’s something deep down from childhood that’s telling me to not stop.

I can’t be a failure.

Why?

I don’t know.

My immigrant parents always pushed me.

They wanted me to be the best.

Yet I could never live up to that expectation.

I was always one step behind in my opinion.

No matter what, I could never satisfy them.

It wasn’t till I grew up that I realized that’s all a false idea.

This guy who’s become a doctor, transferred careers, visited almost all the continents, feels like a failure.

He tells himself ‘you haven’t done anything?’

What have you accomplished?

Nothing.

So what if you accomplished something in the past?

Don’t matter.

That’s gone.

That time doesn’t exist anymore.

Understand it, learn from it, appreciate it, reflect on it and move on.

Don’t let your past define your future.

Keep moving.

Move forward, even if it’s a little bit every day.

All it has to be is a bit every day.

Small steps.

Don’t run a marathon without taking a step.

Success is small improvements over long periods of time.

Keep working at it.

Keep going.

Why is Buffet so great?

He’s been doing it at a high level for so long.

That’s it.

He still loves the craft.

He’s still committed to learning.

He’s still committed to his goal of compounding money and becoming the best investor of all time.

Buddy is over 90.

Old white people love this guy.

Why?

Because he’s a genius. Why is he a genius?

Because he loves the process.

He loves his work.

Everything always feels new.

There’s so much more to learn.

Yet he didn’t get there on his own.

He couldn’t have the life that he had without his wife, Charlie Munger and many others.

You’ll never get there alone.

Many other people dictate the trajectory of your life.

You never get anywhere on your own.

So many other people are the reason you end up where you are.

To think your life is dictated just by your decisions and actions is foolish.

You don’t appreciate that until you have more life experiences.

Especially travelling.

When you go to other parts of the world that are completely different from the lifestyle and cultures you’re used to, you recognize how lucky you are to have it.

Living in the West is a privilege.

So many people around the world don’t have the same opportunity through no fault of their own.

Where you’re born dictates so much of where you end up.

Success is a lot about luck.

Buffet only got here and is known as a legend because he’s lived for so long and was born into the circumstances he was born into.

He’s acknowledged it himself.

At any moment if his life abruptly ended, none of his genius would’ve been recognized.

So much of life is luck.

Until you recognize how appreciative you should be to live where you are, you’ll always be unhappy.

We compare ourselves to others all the time.

Yet we never look inside.

We don’t do the work to understand ourselves.

How are we going to change the world when we can’t understand who we are?

Everything starts with you.

Be selfish.

Choose you.

Choose what moves you and where you want to be.

People will come and go.

Don’t let others decide your life.

Sit with yourself, think about your goals, write them down, tell them to yourself often and go work your ass off.

Eventually you’ll get there.

You’ll be alone most of the time because no one believes you.

All good, keep pushing.

Keep working.

Little bit every day.

Consistency over long periods of time.

That’s greatness.

Irrelevant of the outcomes, greatness is good work over long periods of time.

Even if no one appreciates what you’ve done, you’ll always know.

You’ve done the work.

Be proud of yourself.

Be proud of getting here.

Be proud of who you are.

Tell yourself, ‘you can do anything.’

It might not feel like it, but why not?

Who’s stopping you?

Why are you blaming other people for your problems?

Why are you not looking at yourself and taking responsibility for your actions?

What’s stopping you?

What excuse are you telling yourself?

All of it is bullshit.

Stop believing your own bullshit.

The story you tell yourself about the world is a lie.

It’s one perspective.

It’s one person’s view on the world.

But the world is very different to different people depending on where they are and how they’ve been raised.

Get out of your own head.

Do the work.

Understand others.

Listen to them.

Stop bringing your ego to conversations.

Listen to people.

Understand their perspective and opinion.

Listen to their stories.

Everyone has a story.

Own yours.

No one else can tell your story like you can.

Considering we’re all gonna die alone, why not tell it?

No matter how you do it, own it.

Be proud of who you are.

Do something for you.

Forget about the world.

Forget about your friends.

Forget about your family’s opinions of who you are.

Focus on you.

Do things for you.

Choose yourself.

Most of the time it will be difficult.

Consistency is hard.

Clap for yourself when no one else will.

Be your own cheerleader.