This Is How We Do It: A Pep Talk

by Kevin Hart

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.

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

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?

We are living in the most shit-talking time in human history. There has never been so much shit talked and spread so quickly. And it’s easy to talk shit. The problem is that all this shit-talking makes it harder to achieve something in life.

surthrive

You can decide to feel miserable and feel limited, or you can decide to feel optimistic and feel expansive, with an enduring sense of possibility. You can decide to see the worst intentions in somebody, or decide to have empathy and understanding for what led them to act that way.

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.

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.

Your arrow is going to land where you’ve set your sights. If you lower them by indulging in fear and negativity, then that’s where you’ll end up. 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.

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

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 life is hard. But you know you can handle it and that every storm will pass.

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 what to do and what not to do based off the things you did.

flow. 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.

It hasn’t even occurred to them to drop the ultimately self-harming tools of blame and victimhood.