0:00:00 - 0:00:33 Today's question not asked is why do you get up at the time? You do? The reason I get up when I do is because I haven't figured out a way to get up earlier than that. Around 20 15. I believe I started writing Seek Ye This Jesus, this is a, it is an old beat up copy that I used to proofread and release 0:00:32 - 0:01:06 a new edition. Um, anyway, when I was, um, when I was told to write that book, I found myself too busy to do so and I was spending the all the discretionary time I had, but it was taking forever. And, uh I just felt this urgency that was stronger than, um, the time I had at hand and I prayed and I prayed 0:01:06 - 0:01:30 to ask the Lord to help me to write faster. But he made it very clear to me that, um, I had entered into a new phase of the way things were gonna work when I wrote this book before that commanded in all things. Uh, that, that book came to me in about two weeks and that's how I would describe it. It came 0:01:30 - 0:01:52 to me. I'm not saying it's perfect. Uh I'm not even saying you should read that one. It came out at a specific time uh for a specific purpose and I would definitely write it differently today. But anyway, I, I'm just bringing that up because that book came to me in two weeks. I just, I, I stayed up at 0:01:52 - 0:02:18 night and I wrote that um, on the nights that I struggled to get to sleep and it just flowed and seek you. This Jesus was not that way. It was a very hard book to write. And um I prayed for ways that I could get that done faster. And the only way I knew was to sleep less. And I had so much going on in 0:02:18 - 0:02:39 my life that I couldn't set aside without violating what I thought he wanted me to do in those other aspects of my life. It wasn't a question of sacrifice. It was a question of um is a, is a question of meeting multiple competing constraints that all of which I felt were from God. So, uh I prayed and 0:02:39 - 0:03:02 I asked him to help me wake up earlier and I started waking up at 330 in the morning. And it was really hard. I had to set an alarm, um which was also a sacred cow when I got out of the military. II, I literally threw my watch in the trash the day I got discharged. And uh I, I never wanted to wear a 0:03:02 - 0:03:25 watch again and never wanted to have to wake up to an alarm again. And, uh, it, it's not like I slept in. I naturally woke up at six or something, whatever. Uh, 535 whatever. But I didn't want to deal with that anymore. I just wanted to live my life by what was important, not what someone else told me 0:03:25 - 0:03:44 . Uh, some schedule, someone else gave me, it was very important to me. And actually that, that wasn't for an arbitrary reason either. Um when other people prescribe where you're going to be. And at what time that obviously it puts constraints on what the Lord can do with you. And so I've always sought 0:03:43 - 0:04:13 the freedom to fully align myself with whatever God would do on a blank canvas. That's, that's what I'm trying to work towards in my life. It's been that way since uh since I became a disciple of Christ. So, um anyway, waking up to an alarm was, was not um something I wanted to do, but I did and I vowed 0:04:12 - 0:04:39 to the Lord that I would wake up at 330 every day until the book was done. And this was hard because my, many of those mornings I wake up and I was so tired that all I could do was just sit there, I couldn't think to be able to write. I was so tired. But um the, the book kept progressing faster than 0:04:39 - 0:05:03 it would if I, if I weren't doing that, but not by much, many mornings, not by much. And I think it took me about six months to finish that book. It had been started years before, but it took about six more months of work. Um, roughly three hours a day every single day until it was done. And, um, at 0:05:03 - 0:05:25 the end of the six months I felt very grateful and I thank God for his help. Um, and, and you know, through the six months it got a little easier to get up early. And, um, I was, I was grateful cause I was looking forward to a break. Not a break. I thought that was gonna be the last book that I wrote 0:05:24 - 0:05:47 . That was the fourth book I wrote. And on each of those books, I thought this was the last one. The, the first one I thought was the last, uh, the fourth one I thought was the last and everything in between. And, um, as I took my break over the next few days and I slept in, I felt relieved to get a 0:05:47 - 0:06:25 little more sleep, but I could not shake the thought that, um, there are many more things that he wanted me to do and, um, that I had proven to myself that I was capable of doing this. Um So, so I knew that in having done it for six months I had shown I could do it forever. And now I, I couldn't see 0:06:25 - 0:07:00 those three hours in the morning as something that there is no going back, there was no going back and, uh I didn't need an alarm anymore. So I just wanna make clear that there wasn't some magic, I don't call it magic is, um, there wasn't a miraculous alleviation from being tired instead. Um, you know 0:07:00 - 0:07:19 , as I prayed and I took that to God, he said you need to find a way, you need to get better so that you can function on less sleep because it's not fair for you to be grumpy with your wife and kids and you can't slack at work. You have to do everything you were doing before you got to just make it happen 0:07:19 - 0:07:42 somehow. And I did, I found ways, right? And I discovered that prayerfully, God led me through finding ways, but it just stayed harder. I mean, it's like if someone tells you, you need to lift £300 um, it's only gonna be easy if you're already that strong. But if you're not that strong, let's say you 0:07:42 - 0:08:08 can lift £10. You've got a path ahead of you. And we think of this in terms of some instantaneous change that God can affect from uh effect externally upon us where all of a sudden we're just gonna be capable of lifting £300 and that can happen. It, it absolutely can happen. But for a reason, they can't 0:08:08 - 0:08:36 get into. It's a greater blessing from God for him to give us years to lift weights. That's a greater blessing than him instantaneously giving us a gift of being able to lift £300. And, uh, that's a deep topic and I wish I could go into it right now. I can't if something is hard, but it's good. It just 0:08:35 - 0:09:10 means that it's worth all the more, it just means it's worth all the more a certain man had a son and he loved that son with all of his heart. But he was a rebellious son. He was, he was slow to listen and quick to rebel, very ungrateful. But the father loved his son and he'd do anything for him. So 0:09:10 - 0:09:34 every time his son betrayed him, every time his son turned away from what would benefit him the most his dad didn't give up. He just think again about what more he could do to help him, what more he could do. And often the, the extra thing that he could do was doing a little less than he had done before 0:09:33 - 0:09:58 . And he did it intentionally in love knowing that if the son struggled with the big things, maybe he'd have more success with the little things the father would just go through extraordinary means over weeks, months, years, long term plans to do all he could to help entice his son to be the best man 0:09:58 - 0:10:39 that he could be. And to see and receive his love as we go about our lives to try to serve God to the best. We know how we're going to learn things along the way. And um we will learn of ways that we can serve Him new ways or different ways that seem to be on the edge or even beyond our capability. But 0:10:38 - 0:11:09 if God shows you something that is good, he also gives you the ability to become capable of doing it. Now, the simple way of describing this is that God gives us power to keep His commandments, but it requires our faith. It requires all of our energy, all of our motive and he makes our weaknesses, strength 0:11:09 - 0:11:42 . He turns our weakness into strength, but it's not always by uh instantaneously transforming us through miracles often. And I'd say again, just to make it totally clear, the greatest way um is through providing us with the opportunity to make the choices day after day to tenaciously acquire the qualities 0:11:41 - 0:12:09 he shows us are possible for us to have, which is how He is a greater revelation of how he is. I would read in the scriptures, how Jesus would get up early all the time to have time by himself, with the, with the father. And I thought if, if this was good for Jesus to do, it's good for me to do. And 0:12:09 - 0:12:36 if it was needful for Jesus to do, how much more do I need that? And so I developed the ability to love God more than I love sleep so fast forward through the years. And um I wake up on average over the last few weeks, it's probably been 130 or two in the morning. And, you know, I don't go to bed at 0:12:36 - 0:13:01 1030 at night. I go to bed average maybe 8 p.m. which is early for most people. But um, we've got a system in place in our house where it's quiet time starting around 730. Um I say around 730 the kid kids go upstairs at seven and they have to just sort of get into the get ready for bed routine and usually 0:13:00 - 0:13:27 that's, that's done around 730. And um each morning we start the day as a family at 630. Um where my wife uh uh conducts, I don't know what the good word for that is, leads the kids in, in, in scripture study and she teaches them for about a half hour. The older kids um are encouraged to wake up before 0:13:26 - 0:14:03 that and do their own scripture study. And uh the oldest kids also work out at that time because they can do that on their own. The younger kids that's during the day with my wife like a pe time kind of thing. So, um yeah, so, so there's something else I wanted to say about this bear with me. So, um 0:14:03 - 0:14:26 from time to time I sleep in till maybe four or 430. It usually only happens once a month or every other month because like I said, I don't set an alarm. Um What happens is the second I wake up instantly, my mind fills with so many things from the Lord. It's like it's on drip while I'm asleep. And the 0:14:26 - 0:14:53 second I wake up, I have like 10 pages I could write out of things that usually include mysteries that I've been praying about for, for five years, 10 years. He's just dumping these things out on me every day. And my wife, we had to find a really good mattress because, um, she, I spring out of bed. I 0:14:53 - 0:15:15 literally jump out of bed and it wakes her up. You know, we had to find a mattress that didn't shake so that I didn't wake her up when I, because I literally jump out of bed every morning. The second I wake up, I jump out of bed every single day because I'm so, uh not even excited. Like I just, I need 0:15:15 - 0:15:45 to get to writing this stuff and thinking about this stuff and praying. I need to get into that place. The best part of the day is when I get up because that's when I commune with God most directly. And that's the closest thing to heaven for me right now. And uh I rejoice in it. So, is it hard? Yeah 0:15:45 - 0:16:13 , I mean, I can't even tell you what it's like to be pooled like this where, um, figuratively speaking, my head is in the clouds. My heart is in heaven. And then every day when it's time for work, I have to somehow turn all that down so I can think about anything else. And it's like, it's like eating 0:16:13 - 0:16:34 the, the best meal of your life. This is wholly inadequate as an analogy. But eating the best meal of your life and then, um, you know, just after you get the tiniest little taste, the, the waiter comes and takes it away and shove your face in a pile of dog poop and that's what it's like every single 0:16:34 - 0:17:05 day. Um And II, I love the work that I do. Um But it just can't compare. It's just not, there's many things I can say about this, but again, I gotta cut it off. Um But I could tell you all about the differences and why they are that way and when it will end, not just for me, but for everyone, but I can't 0:17:04 - 0:17:31 talk about that right now. I have to get back to writing. Um And then, and then during the day, you can bet your butt that I'm tired, I'm tired every day. Um Now God has given me a multitude of tender mercies and he's given me ways to cope with it. But um, I'm torn between these things and if the Lord 0:17:31 - 0:00:00 said, if he came to me and he said you know, you've, you've done this for a while and I can see how it has an effect on your, on each day and your body. And if you want, I can take this back. You prayed for this, but I can take it back and you can sleep eight hours a night for the rest of your life. 0:00:00 - 0:18:59 He wouldn't even get that far. He wouldn't even finish the sentence. Hm. Because not only would I say no, I pull out the big guns, I'd, I'd, I'd pull out all the stops to um, to, I pull out the, the big guns and I do everything that you, that one can do to secure a blessing from God. So I could go into 0:18:59 - 0:19:19 what that means. But basically, I would, I would just lay out, you see, we all have, we all have a deck of cards. I'm gonna teach you a little bit about intercession. Now which see q, this Jesus talks about intercession. So if that's a topic you're interested in, you can find that book we all have about 0:19:19 - 0:19:39 what I'm about to tell you you're not gonna find in the book. This is independent. They're in parallel. We all have a deck of cards and that card, those cards, they consist of the sacrifices we've made in the name of the Lord. All power comes through the name of the Lord. A lot could be said about that 0:19:39 - 0:20:03 . I'm just touching on this in the briefest way. And so when you really want something from God, you pull out your deck of cards. Now, most of you don't have too many cards yet and you need to work on that. But as you live the life of a disciple of Christ, you accumulate cards and it's, it's unmerited 0:20:03 - 0:20:29 suffering that you've carried, um that you've endured in following the example of Jesus. And it's all the ways that other people have deprived you or hurt you in response to showing them pure love. It's all the times you did what justice required to obtain certain blessings in the most temporal things 0:20:29 - 0:20:50 , including in the most temporal things, but received bitterness instead, emptiness, you didn't get what you deserved. You got a lot less than what you deserve and most people get a lot more than what they deserve. But as you become more like God, you'll find that you're more often getting less than 0:20:50 - 0:21:17 you deserve. And uh you know, you're not bitter about this. You're not uh doesn't preoccupy your mind, that's you just store it away in your deck of cards. And the greatest example of this, of course is Jesus. When he intercedes on our behalf, you can read in the scriptures what he says, it's a powerful 0:21:16 - 0:21:42 , it's powerful and that's his deck of cards. And as we follow him, we accumulate similar cards. So not only would I not allow him to finish his sentence. That sounds goofy, not allowing cop. I mean, I would interject and I'd say no, Lord and I'd, I'd take out all my cards and I'd say I have to get up 0:21:42 - 0:22:11 early. In fact, I wish I could get up earlier because, um, there's so much to be done in so little time and I know what the sleep deprivation is buying for other people and I, I see it in with the eye of faith but it will come to pass and I have no doubt about it. I know what I'm doing right, because 0:22:10 - 0:22:38 he's told me. So, what, you know, why do I share all this? You may find yourself needing more time and maybe the answer is in waking up earlier. But that's not why I'm sharing this. Actually, you know, people who are, who are hooked on cigarettes, they say, oh, I can't quit. I smoke two packs a day and 0:22:38 - 0:23:01 it's just too hard. Ok. Well, what if you took one cigarette out of the two packs? Would you, would you be able to handle that? Of course, you could, of course, you could, there's not a person on this planet that can't smoke one cigarette less if they smoke two packs a day. And then you ask, well, how 0:23:01 - 0:23:24 long until you pull out another cigarette, you get to decide, maybe it's, maybe it's two days, maybe it's two weeks, maybe it's two months. It doesn't matter. But if you have a plan and you design a plan, you're no longer actively rebelling against God. You're walking towards him because now you're in 0:23:24 - 0:23:50 the path of improvement and what the devil does. And I wanna be careful with this. I, I'm not saying that repentance isn't all or nothing. It is. It absolutely is. What I'm saying is we're without excuse because the smallest step towards God is a step towards God. So you can, you can complete the analogy 0:23:50 - 0:00:00 for the cigarettes. There is a path to zero. That's the point, right? So no one has an excuse if you want, if you believe that God doesn't want you to smoke cigarettes, there's a path for you to get there and that path starts right now. You could go through your whole life and do the same thing. So, 0:00:00 - 0:24:40 um, how is this connected to sleeping less? Well, I'm not talking about sleeping less. Actually, I'm telling this story to demonstrate a principle. Look at your days, look at your weeks, look at your months, look at your years. There is so much more that God wants to flow to and through you for the for 0:24:40 - 0:25:04 , for your sake, for your benefit. And that is going to happen. As you focus on the benefit to others, you have to be to get to squeeze the all the juice out of this. You have to be an active participant in the process. But as you seek Him with all of your heart might mind and strength, he will flow 0:25:03 - 0:25:30 to and through you blessings better, bigger, more valuable than anything you can actually imagine right now. And as you do that, you're going to have to find more time. Now. The good news is, like I said, that's not gonna be like day one, get four hours less of sleep per night. That's not what I'm saying 0:25:30 - 0:25:57 . In fact, your trajectory might not include getting any less sleep at all, but I guarantee you, it will include changes to how you spend your time during the day and changes to what you're focused on over your entire day, your weeks or months and your years, you have to prioritize explicitly. You have 0:25:57 - 0:26:18 to have a plan, you need to write that plan down, you need to write down what you want out of life and then you need to think about what you're willing to do to get it. And it should be written down on a paper that you can look at every day if need be until you've got it etched into your soul and you 0:26:18 - 0:26:38 live by that document and what you're gonna find is that an awful lot of stuff that you do every day or once a week or every once in a while has nothing to do with the things that you say you want. In fact, an awful lot of that is going to detract from what you say you want because we look at life again 0:26:38 - 0:26:55 , coming back to the s sleep example, who's gonna judge you for getting eight hours of sleep a night? Nobody, no one's gonna look at your cross eyed for that. They're gonna say, well, of course you do that like you drink water and you eat food too. Why wouldn't you do that? Well, it's called fasting 0:26:55 - 0:27:22 , right? Not that all fasting is going without water. But, um, and not that all so fasting actually just means focusing. But um, we'll talk about that another time. But you know, if there is, there are times and situations where you should go without food for God's sake, right? So why not sleep? But 0:27:22 - 0:27:40 those are still extreme things. Look at your day and think about how often you're scrolling through your phone. How many minutes per day do you waste doing that? Is that really contributing to the purpose you've chosen in life? Is that really helping you move closer to the things that you say you want 0:27:39 - 0:28:00 ? Or what about the people that you say you care about in life? So if you're a parent or grandparent, these are your uh Children and grandchildren or your neighbor, God says we need to love our neighbor or your enemies or even strangers, right? Should have inverted that or strangers or even your enemies 0:27:59 - 0:28:21 , you can't love people that you're not thinking about. And if you don't orient your life to the greatest benefit of other people, you for sure. And I mean, explicitly, you say like, hey, for me and all the details about me in my situation in life, what can I do to yield the greatest benefit to others 0:28:20 - 0:28:43 ? I guarantee you if you're not doing that, you don't have a written plan, you're not even scraping the edges of what God could do with you in this life because so few things can be done incidentally that, that there's almost no connection to things that you just do in the moment without thinking about 0:28:42 - 0:29:04 it. And long term benefit, there's almost no connection between those things. So, do you know anyone who's over the age of 30 that is fit, that does not have a fitness plan that does not have certain intentional rules that they live by to that end. You don't unless they're a genetic freak and they exist 0:29:03 - 0:29:25 . But, you know, it's rare and the older you get, the rarer it is if you see a buff dude who's 65 years old, I guarantee you, he's got a, uh, uh, I don't wanna say a diet plan because I hate the way that sounds. He's made intentional choices about what he eats and when he makes intentional choices about 0:29:25 - 0:29:51 how he, uh, exercises and that, that he does and when he does, I guarantee you. So, if all of that is needed in order to maintain a certain reasonable level of physical quality, how can you think that it's not required to maintain a certain level of spiritual quality, let alone to grow spiritually on 0:29:51 - 0:30:18 a predictable slope. Um It's just not gonna happen. So, uh I'm gonna drop a bomb on you right now. Are you ready? We talk all the time about fleeing Babylon, don't we? And about how bad Ba Babylon is. And, and unfortunately, common Christians just think this means not seeing movies of a certain rating 0:30:18 - 0:30:37 or not listening to certain genres of music. That's not what it means. And, you know, if you live by those rules is better than nothing, maybe. But I don't know, I think that's questionable because even then you're gonna think that you've got a lot more than you have and that is really bad. It's really 0:30:37 - 0:31:01 bad because not only are you not engaging in much better things, you're going to turn away from much better things when they come to you, when other people bring them because you'll think you have everything already. And that's really sad. So, here's what it actually means to flee from Babylon. Uh, or 0:31:00 - 0:31:25 a be, I should say here's a part of a much better def definition, escape the tendency to just do what everyone else does and start living intentionally towards improvement in all that you do. It's a simple thing. It's a very simple idea and yet who's going to do it because we're all looking for check 0:31:25 - 0:31:48 boxes and say if you do these five things and you don't do these three things, you're, you've got all there is to have, it doesn't work that way. It's a process. It's a living thing. Jesus is alive. I know that because I've seen him, he's come to me many times. He's spoken to me many, many, many, many 0:31:47 - 0:32:12 times. He's real and he's alive. And if you're going to follow him, it's going to be a process. If you're walking behind a shepherd who's walking, you're going to have to keep walking to stay with him and he's going to go a certain way. He's walking in a straight line. But to us because we don't see 0:32:12 - 0:32:36 what he sees at first, it's gonna be like this serpent time. So if you don't feel like you're doing this in your life, you're not on the path. If you, if you feel like you're standing in a place and you can describe in static terms what holiness is. You're not in the way. It's, these are their qualities 0:32:35 - 0:33:06 that rise above specific rules. They go through principles and they end in character and it's a living thing much more could be said about all of that, but whatever for now, I just gotta, gotta cap it down. Ok. So I'll tie this up here. Um Look at your life, think about the way of improvement, write 0:33:06 - 0:33:31 it out, write out what your goals are for six months from now, one year from now, five years from now and they don't have to be and shouldn't be limited to personal outcomes. The the greatest man is a nat invasion here. The greatest outcomes, um the greatest joy that you will receive will be denominated 0:33:30 - 0:33:52 in the achievements of others. So focus on that. But in order to best serve others, you have to have something to give. That's where the personal improvement comes. If you're just saying, well, I, I think the hardest thing I could do is train for a marathon and run it. Ok. Fine. Right. But how is that 0:33:52 - 0:34:13 going to help you help other people? Now, if someone you love is significantly overweight and you think if, you know, if we train for this race together, I don't really need to do this, but it'll help them and maybe it'll grease the skids for them to develop more into their full potential. Hey, cool 0:34:13 - 0:34:36 . Now we're talking, you see how that works. So, um, I have, I'm looking right in front of me at my written document and I'd show it to you, but it wouldn't make sense to anybody but me and probably my kids, um, uh, of course, my wife would get it, but I just, I have a vision at the top and you want 0:34:36 - 0:35:01 that to be one sentence. Um, and, uh, and then you break that down into subcategories of what that's going to take and you just keep breaking it down until eventually you end up with specific tasks that you can do that are measurable that you can check off and say I did this and that body of tasks, your 0:35:01 - 0:35:24 goal in this process is to write a list such that if you were to do all those things on the schedule you've set to do them, you believe fully that it will achieve the vision that you've set. And so usually between the tasks, the vision and the tasks, you have specific goals that are measurable. And again 0:35:23 - 0:35:49 , the goals you enumerate those with the objective of saying if I've done these things, I will consider my vision fulfilled. I'll be on target, right? So, um for me, uh well, I don't want to get into that because I don't want to cloud or influence your um your process with this. But um this is something 0:35:49 - 0:36:17 that I look over frequently and it, you'd be amazed at the granularity of guidance this provides in your daily life. Um And you'll find that if you really care about something. Um and you put it on the list, it will provide power to strengthen you against doing things that you shouldn't be doing and 0:36:17 - 0:36:34 it will provide power to strengthen you to do the things that you know, you need to do. I mean, after dinner on a day that I'm particularly tired, maybe I don't want to go in the garage and fix this one thing. But I know exactly where that belongs in my vision. And so I get to ask myself, well, do you 0:36:34 - 0:36:55 really want the thing you wrote on the paper because if you do, you need to get off your butt and go in the garage and fix this thing. And so that's what I do or, um, you know, I'm really tired and I really just wish I didn't have to talk to my one son about this one thing today. Well, and so part of 0:36:55 - 0:37:20 this, I know I said I'm wrapping up but these things are, this is what really matters. This is leaving Babylon. Um, part of, uh, part one skill that's very useful in this is learning to distinguish between, um, creation and execution. They're, they're two different things. And I don't mean execute like 0:37:20 - 0:37:42 chop someone's head off. I mean, execute as in doing, we have different states and a creative state is like brainstorming, uh creative problem solving just really opening up your mind and doing the deep dive on that. But execution is like, hey, I need to be a robot and get this done. And, uh, I'll tell 0:37:42 - 0:38:03 you a story of when one of the earliest memories I have of when this clicked for me, I was at basic training and it was summertime in the South and we were crawling on our hands and knees or doing a low crawl for those of you who've been initiated. And, uh, we were in our uniforms and the sleeves were 0:38:03 - 0:38:22 all the way down really hot. We weren't allowed to roll them up that I recall anyway, it was really hot. And the whole entire day, all we were doing was crawling across this football field that had, uh, barbed wire over it in a lattice and we were just crawling all day long and you can imagine how much 0:38:22 - 0:38:41 sand gets in your sleeves. Our elbows and knees were just ground beef is disgusting, but more than that is painful. And so, um, it's so funny, like, only the army would take an entire day to teach people how to crawl on the ground, but you'll have to give them credit for getting their point to cross 0:38:40 - 0:39:01 . Um, anyway, the awe, the beauty of the lowest common denominator for training experiences drove me nuts. Anyway. So, after an entire day of this, they teach you this and then you practice all day long because, you know, you have to practice this for some reason and then there's a, that you have to 0:39:01 - 0:39:20 wait till it gets dark and then, um, they, they light off all these artillery simulators. And so it's like, and, uh, they're shooting machine guns over your head and all that would be really cool. There's flares going off. Uh, it would be really cool like some kind of military fireworks if it weren't 0:39:20 - 0:39:42 for the fact that you, one are exhausted, two, your, your arms and your elbows are hurting like crazy. And three you have to crawl under this barbed wire while they're doing it. They're just trying to get you ready in case we ever have to invade Normandy again or whatever. So, um, as this is all happening 0:39:42 - 0:40:08 and it's nighttime now, I'm halfway through this field and I just stopped crawling and it is for a half a second maybe. But in my mind, it was like a year because I paused and I had this existential. Um, I don't know, I went into like a liminal state. Um, and I just, I snapped out of the whole, we're 0:40:07 - 0:40:35 all just a bunch of turtles crawling up the seashore. And I thought, what are you doing? Like, why are you here doing this? This is so stupid and, uh, it hurts and this is just a joke. Why are you doing this? And I thought, you know, I made the decision to be here and, uh, in spite of the weeks of information 0:40:34 - 0:40:55 I've gathered, I don't have anything to change that that's relevant to change the reasons I have to be here. And so I have a choice now and that choice is to just do what I need to do to get this done, to get to the other side of this football field. Or, uh I could stand up and leave right now. There's 0:40:55 - 0:00:00 not, you know, the, the bullets are fake. There were blanks. I could literally just stand up and walk off this field and tell these guys where they can go and go home and go do something else. And I knew I had that power and I knew it was a choice that I had to be there and it was like a mechanical, 0:00:00 - 0:41:39 you know, like the black and white Frankenstein movie switch flipped and it is my hand that did it and I could flip it back any time and I turn off my brain and I just crawled like a turtle through the field. And thereafter, there have been a million situations like that. I mean, daily basis for many 0:41:39 - 0:42:07 , many, many, many things that I've had to do with work with school, whatever. Just knocking out ridiculously tedious, terrible, hard things, mentally and physically and emotionally. And you just have to learn the difference between writing a plan or modifying a plan or, um, instantiating a thought or 0:42:07 - 0:00:00 modifying a thought versus just knocking something out. And if you really wanna be productive in life, you have to do this on a daily basis, a weekly basis, maybe a monthly basis. Um, but every once in a while for longer term and that's what this vision is that, that I highly encourage you to write. 0:00:00 - 0:00:00 And once you get some practice with it and you're living according to it because you don't want to be a hypocrite. You won't have any power trying to help people. If you're a hypocrite, uh, sit down with your spouse, sit down with your kids and help them to do this as well. It will change your life. 0:00:00 - 0:43:12 So um masterpieces aren't made by accident, they have a design. And so um if you're trying to intentionally deprive yourself of sleep, just because it sounds like a good idea. One, you're crazy. Two is not gonna work. But if you have a purpose, if there's a meaning behind it, if there's a, there's a 0:43:12 - 0:43:30 reason if there's something on the other side of that tunnel that's brighter than where you came from, there's a reason to go through it. And um the tunnel is going to be long when you're, when you're on the, on the beginning, I actually, I have a picture of this somewhere. I went through a tunnel when 0:43:30 - 0:43:47 I was back in Baltimore a couple of years ago for a visit. When you're standing on the entrance, it seems really short and it's, it could be a warm summer day. But as you take every step in deeper into that tunnel, it gets cold, dark and wet. And when you're in the middle, it's gonna seem like the entrance 0:43:47 - 0:44:12 is like six times the length of the entire tunnel away. Somehow it gets further away. You have to master the ability to, to switch off and say I decided to go through this tunnel before I came in and though it doesn't feel so great right now, I don't care. I'm just gonna do this and you do it. And that 0:44:12 - 0:44:40 is a perishable skill that you have to work at every day, you can start your day with some post. Its this video is sponsored, you know, and you take your long term vision, your long term goals, your short term tasks, you break that down. These, these are my priorities for the day. You'd start with the 0:44:40 - 0:45:08 most impactful one, highest impact first, all the time. And what you'll find is this frees you, you rise above the power of your day to mess with you because you start early with the most important thing and no matter what happens to you for the rest of the day, that one is on the books, it can't be 0:45:07 - 0:45:30 taken away. And what happens is through living this way continuously. You gain such confidence that you're doing the best that you possibly can. Now you're learning the whole time, you're getting better at getting better the whole time. But you gain such confidence that you're putting your money where 0:45:30 - 0:45:53 your mouth is that anxiety, depression, all these things, they just evaporate you. You can't have any doubts when you're living this way, doesn't mean you don't revisit things and change your mind and make better decisions. But you have zero guilt ever. There's none, there's no space for it. You're living 0:45:53 - 0:46:17 in a way where it's impossible. And the thing is is that the, the, the things to do will keep piling up because that's the way life is. But through relentlessly focusing on the most important ones you will get. So much more accomplished than you can ever imagine doing in any other way. And it's just 0:46:17 - 0:46:39 like a river that flows through you and you will. Um Yeah, you'll find this, you'll find this happening all the time. So, so no one really has any clue uh who I am or what I do. Um But the closest person is probably my wife, maybe my kids. Um and I've worked really closely with other people too. Like 0:46:39 - 0:47:01 my phd advisor. We worked together for seven years or so. Uh, while I was getting my master's and phd that we'd meet at least weekly and he knew what I was doing at work. Um, but not my, only a little bit about my personal life, um, like the fact that I was remodeling my house at the same time and he 0:47:01 - 0:47:20 knew I was in the National Guard because I had to be gone for that from time to time. But he'd make these comments all the time and he still does to this day. And he says, um, you are by far the most productive person I've ever met and I have no idea how you do it and he's not blowing smoke. He is genuinely 0:47:19 - 0:47:43 perplexed and it, it, every time we catch up, it dominates his experience. He's just like, I don't understand how you do this and, uh, it's a mystery. So that's the kind of productivity you can achieve by applying the things I've told you about in this video, they're really simple things, but it takes 0:47:42 - 0:48:08 discipline and you really have to stick to this paradigm of making a plan, sticking to the plan and distinguishing between editing the plan and uh just justifying, breaking from the plan. Those are two different things, right? It's, it's not quitting if you have discovered something better, but everything 0:48:08 - 0:48:33 else is quitting. Right? So, um, when I was, I was in high school and if you've watched a bunch of my videos that you probably heard me mention I have asthma, I didn't know I had asthma for a really long time, but I've had it my whole life and in high school I decided that I wanted to wrestle and I joined 0:48:33 - 0:00:00 the wrestling team and we didn't have a good wrestling team. So that was just kind of like, hey, anyone who wants to can be on this team. But, um, it really kicked my butt because almost all of the practice was just doing cardio and I couldn't breathe. Um, but I thought I was just a fat kid. So, um, 0:00:00 - 0:49:15 after, uh, I think a week of this, maybe, I think it was just one week I quit the team and I was just like, man, I get home, I can't even think I'm so tired and all I wanna do is, is, is sleep for like a week and it was five days a week, uh, for hours and I got through the first week or something. And 0:49:15 - 0:49:35 I just, I was like, I'm not doing this and I quit. I felt so terrible because I quit because I wasn't willing to do what it took to, to really do everything I could. And most people would say, like, we had every reason to quit. If you can't breathe, why would you keep doing it? Well, I never passed out 0:49:35 - 0:50:00 . I never passed out. Um, I didn't get hurt. It was just uncomfortable, right. So the following year, like that whole 12 months, I was gearing up in my mind and I said I'm gonna join the team again and I'm not quitting this time. Um, I will, I didn't even want to wrestle anymore. Um, but I, um, I didn't 0:49:59 - 0:50:26 want to quit. I wanted to get to the point where that level of physical exertion didn't control me that I controlled it. And so the next year I joined the team again and, um, I didn't quit for two weeks, but I kept going and I, I, um, I got to the point where I knew I could do it and when I had full 0:50:25 - 0:50:48 confidence that I could stay in this as long as I wanted to, I quit. And, um, but I quit because it didn't have anything else to offer me. There was, there were better things that I could do with my time. I didn't quit wrestling because, um, it overcame me. I overcame it and I decided this wasn't actually 0:50:47 - 0:50:59 what I wanted to do. And, uh, that's, that's a big difference. So, anyway, lot of, lot of thoughts in this video. So I hope something hits onto something here.