This Is How We Do It: A Pep Talk

by Kevin Hart

the energy of positivity is so rarely felt in this world that when people come across you, it feels like an oasis in the desert. They’re just drawn to you.

At any given moment, you can step outside yourself and ask, “What energy am I giving off right now? How am I treating other people? How are other people receiving me? Am I giving and grateful to my environment, or am I taking and negative? Am I letting other people’s negativity get the best of me?

Reengage your positive mindset, make a new choice, and watch life respond.

If you’re not living in a state of growth, then you’re acting like you’re on your way out, and your emotions will follow suit. You might have already noticed that happen when you’re living your life from a place of stagnation. It does not feel good. Like a river, you are meant to be continuously moving and flowing. Sometimes very slowly, sometimes very rapidly.

When people stop moving in life, they stop getting these internal hits of feel-good chemicals. They have to start relying on other ways to artificially stimulate them, like video games, alcohol, smoking weed, social media, or watching porn. We get addicted to these things in a desperate attempt to compensate for the fact that we’re not really living our lives.

That’s the best response to anything. Practice it: “You’re not going to hurt my feelings.” Nonreactive.

For most people, motivation is temporary. It’s something they occasionally get from the outside.

But to bring consistent enthusiasm and action every day is a choice you have to make for yourself.

Your future rests on no one else’s shoulders but your own. So learn to carry a bigger load, and you’ll have a bigger life.

Sometimes those distractions come from inside your own head. You may try to throw yourself off because a part of you wants to avoid the hard work, the discomfort, and the risks of failure, criticism, or self-criticism. Don’t listen. Don’t look. Keep your eyes on the prize.

What is the prize? Well, that’s for you to decide. You can’t keep your eyes on something you haven’t defined. And that’s one of the biggest problems for most people: they don’t know what they’re after.

The other thing that takes my eyes off the prize is wasting my time staring at the obstacles in my way. All that does is slow you down and have you thinking about the problems rather than focusing on the prize on the other side.

Where you look is where you’re going to go.

It takes time for trees to bear fruit.

A life of greatness is like a boxing match with unlimited rounds.

If you love the game, that means that you love the fight. If you love the fight, you love the constant triumph over your own mind. You gotta beat yourself—that’s who you’re boxing. You’re going twelve rounds with yourself. So whenever you find your mind leaning into the direction of giving up, you gotta get your brain back in the corner, give your mind a pep talk, throw some ice on your face, make sure you shake off any tiredness,