This Is How We Do It: A Pep Talk

by Kevin Hart

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. —Maya Angelou

Stand up tall and confident and proud, as you should be at all times, and listen to what I have to say.

Yes Sir🥹🫡

Energy flows where attention goes, and some of that attention is just emboldening the negative forces in the world. There are many reasons for this, but one is because people who can’t get positive attention often opt for negative attention, rather than getting no attention at all.

For example, everyone makes mistakes, but a mistake is not a bad thing unless you decide it is.

These experiences are nuggets of gold, and with perspective they contain valuable wisdom. All you had to do to get them was fuck up.

I’m always building on the past, growing, and moving forward.

For me, there’s no such thing as relaxation.

Simply because there is no such thing as bei...

it. I truly want you to understand that success is earned. It’s not given.

I am driven by the same thing I want you to be driven by: big questions. If your questions are big enough and positive enough, you can transcend the ordinary. Here are some of the questions I ask myself: What am I building? What is the endgame? And when I get to the endgame, is it really the end? When I die, what will other people talk about? What will the conversation be like? What is the legacy I’m leaving for my children?

Whether you want to change the world or just your world, it’s the same thing.

I did it my way. And in doing it my way, I achieved things I never dreamed or imagined that I would be able to. I also failed and didn’t do some things. So I went back, and I redid them. And whatever people may say, I appreciate my individual journey.

I want you to look in the mirror right now and say, “I’m proud of myself.” Really feel a deep respect and admiration for your grind, your will, your effort, your blood, sweat, and tears. Because all those things are you. ...

What path are you on now? Who chose that path? Where is it ultimately leading if you don’t change anything? Whose approval are you seeking? How far will you go off your path to get it? What decisions are you making out of fear? What decisions are you making out of joy? If you are marching to the beat of a drum, who or what is beating out the tempo? The only path that leads to the ultimate you—because beyond goals,...

Repetition breeds competence. At first, you might forget you have these weapons. You might fumble and be slow on the draw. But as you practice and keep reminding yourself to wield them, they will become second nature. You’ll pull them out by force of habit, becoming more skilled and precise in time. They will become instinct. They will become part of you.

No matter what you are trying to do, you’re going to face negativity.

You have to risk negativity, risk banishment, risk hatred to have a life worth living.

surthrive

Remember these three words: Mindset. Is. Everything.

It all starts here. How you interpret other people and your environment, and how you feel about yourself and your direction in life, shapes everything that you do. It’s all a function of your mindset.

Positive mindset is so key because when you have it, it makes you completely free. It means you have somehow figured out a way to think about the bright side, no matter what. You don’t let yourself get stuck walking in circles, dwelling on the negative. You keep your head up and keep moving forward.

But if you take a second, you can always take something positive from the negative.

Because all your major downs in life are just preparing you for the major ups. Every chapter has a lesson that builds on the one before. That is, at least, if you have your eyes open to see it.

Understand that all of the shit that you go through is only preparing you for the moment where that educatio...

With a positive mindset, you can’t be stopped. You can’t be knocked down, at least for long. How can you be held back when every obstacle becomes an opportunity? When every trial and tribulation life throws at you becomes a gift to make you grow and become stronger? This is one of the ...

Instead of coming from a negative place and looking at those moments as a “failure,” he called them “temporary defeats.”

Jail today doesn’t mean jail tomorrow. Divorce today doesn’t mean you won’t get married again. Getting fired doesn’t mean you’ll never work again. Nothing short of death is the end of the world. It’s not over. Don’t give up. It’s a long life that we live.

How do we take advantage of this one life and make the most of it? Keep a positive mindset.

When you depart with the automatic mental position of wanting to be the best possible version of you that you can

be, you will succeed.

If you raise them, stay positive, and keep your aim high, you’ll end up at that level. You just need to have the confidence and believe in yourself enough to raise your gaze up that high.

The gravity of this world will pull you toward a negative mindset 99 percent of the time. The constant static of negativity is deafening.

It’s just noise. It nurtures self-doubt, judgment...

But positivity is creative. It’s generative. It’s beautiful. It’s inspiring. Positivity uplifts and encourages. Positivity creates options and possibility. Positivity is movement. Posi...

The higher you climb, the more attention and pressure you’ll have coming at you. And so the more di...

must be. Otherwise, the world is going to tea...

A positive mindset isn’t about feeling like you’ve got sunshine and rainbows on the inside all the time. Sometimes you need to move through harder feelings and tougher times. But throughout that, positivity means not collapsing and giving in to feeling resigned and defeated. Sometimes ...

I stand in front of you as a man who has been in every type of storm that you can imagine. I’ve been blown in every direction, and after the wind stopped, after I was left sitting there by myself, I chose to get up, bru...

Anyone can do this if they really understand the true meaning behind life. There’s a start and there’s an end. We all start in the same place. Then we get older and it ends. All of the stuff that happens in the middle, for those of us lucky enough to have one—it’s all helping us to basically be a fucking great example to th...

Somebody’s gonna get all this shit that you did, that you went through. Kids, family, friends, strangers, whoever. They’ll see it and they’ll understand it, and they’ll make life choices off your example. They’re gonna know...

So the reason why I get up, the reason why I’m not affected, the reason why I keep a positive mindset is because I know that my kids are going to be able to take all of this. And I’m not talking about the money. I’m not talking about a lifestyle. I’m talking about the ...

Because you can have it all and not have a good mindset, and th...

It’ll be lost, because you will be easily affected. And if you’re easily affected, that’s a really tough thing, because that’s what people prey on. We live in a world where they...

I’m not supposed to be a movie star. I’m not supposed to be a successful comedian. I wasn’t supposed to make it out of the hood. I have no education. So how did I do the things that I do? How am I a CEO? How am I running a company or companies? I went to community college for two weeks. How is this guy achieving all the things he’s not supposed to do, according to what people say? Because he’s not affected by the conversation of others. I’m only affected by me. Point blank, point blank. Develop a positive mindset. Try to simply understand what it really can do for you. Turn the negatives into positives, man. I did.

What-is-ness is accepting everything for what it is. When shit inevitably happens: it is what it is. You are at peace with the nature of this new reality.

Get with what is. Ditch your stories and judgments about what is, and just be with it. Work with it. Move with it. Anything less than that is a complete goddamn waste of your time. All you would be doing is indulging negativity and staying stuck.

In the words of Bruce Lee, “Be like water.” He knew the secret to life—to staying centered and strong—was flow.

How are you going to learn if you can’t let yourself be wrong? How are you going to create the future if you’re stuck in the past?

People can spend days and even years complaining about something that happened to them or why something is the way it is. It hasn’t even occurred to them to drop the ultimately self-harming tools of blame and victimhood.

Oh I know!! That was me for 3 years straight, starting from 2019-2022. I was sexually harassed and been in one of the most abusive relationships ever at 15 years old back in 2018. All I did after the situation ended in 2019 was dwelling on it and pulling myself down continuously and I had hard time finding myself. The situation got me so stuck but I had to pull myself out of it by force in 2023 because it was affecting my focus in college, not allowing me to be the best I can be, and it was making me settle for less than my self worth.

They’re acting like entitled, stubborn-ass boulders, not water. They’re stuck in a fixed position. Inflexible. Immovable in all the wrong ways. Thinking they deserve something different or better than what they’ve been given.