[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, grow squad, how are you doing?

[SPEAKER_00]: Happy new year to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know my weak late, a dollar short, as they say.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I just wanted to greet you once again as we open up this brand new season of the Eugene Hamilton podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm excited.

[SPEAKER_00]: I had a chance to take the entire month of December off, yeah, yeah, it's never happened for me like that in my adult life, but it's interesting people talk about having kids and having families and how some people view it as a burden and some people view it as freedom, man, I've got so much freedom, I get a chance to spend time with both my wife and my son, and we had a blast, I've got some things I want to share with you as we move forward today, [SPEAKER_00]: I will go our mission as we journey together on this podcast is to simply go grow and glow every single day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray God, thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you that we have an opportunity to dialogue, to discuss, to talk, I pray that you would order our steps order this part order, the minds of my friends who are listening, who are watching, I pray that wherever they [SPEAKER_00]: and your name, amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Today I want to talk about how I stopped I made up commitment to myself this year to stop avoiding hard things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now let's think about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've made a commitment to stop avoiding as best I can.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stop avoiding the things that are going to pull me out of my [SPEAKER_00]: Now, ask yourself, what is there for you?

[SPEAKER_00]: What is there for you?

[SPEAKER_00]: What is that thing for you that you've been avoiding?

[SPEAKER_00]: That you know will be hard, but at the same time, will be life changing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Take a beat, take a moment right quick.

[SPEAKER_00]: Think about that thing for you that you've been like, you know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: I know that I've got to do this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know I've got to do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know that I need to, I don't know, get to the gym.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know I need to take that class because check this out because I remember when I was finishing up my college, my timing college, undergrad, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I say undergrad because during my grad studies, I was not a student on campus.

[SPEAKER_00]: But doing my undergrad time, I spent a lot of time on campus, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't live on campus, but I was, of course, went to class.

[SPEAKER_00]: My graduate work, I did mostly virtual, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: With regard to my graduate work.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm not the last, that's neither here nor there.

[SPEAKER_00]: I remember getting close to the end of my undergraduate journey.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, so close, I could taste it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I paid my dues, I paid all this, whatever, leading up.

[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, there's one more semester left, and I needed one more class.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's so interesting because this class that I needed to take was like an elective, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But I had to have, as you know, so many electives to qualify for graduation.

[SPEAKER_00]: I looked at all the things that would work with my time, because I was working, what I was in college, I had a job, I was doing my thing, to make sure I could have enough money to pay my rent, all that good stuff, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So there was only one class that worked with my sketch.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm from the neighborhood, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so just like this whole pickle ball craze right now, if you look at most pickle ball courts, they're not, they're not in the hood, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, we were just in Dallas for the holiday.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was part of one stop we made, sorry, for the Thanksgiving holiday, this one we were in Dallas, and we went to a place called Chicken in Pickle, maybe.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was, I was amazed at the fact that so many people were out there playing pickleball, eating chicken, I was like, man, this is pretty cool.

[SPEAKER_00]: They made, they made one a consider building one in the hood, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because my people like chicken, they like pickles, but they made, learn and enjoy pickleball.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, be that as it made.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was there and it took me back to my time and undergrad.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because while we didn't have pickleball, [SPEAKER_00]: The class that I took to finish up my electives was Racket Paul.

[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wild.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Racket Paul, for me, my size, my mobility, in a small space with the little ball, a little racket, yeah, Racket Paul was not easy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Racket Paul was hard.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was difficult until I got the hang of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't miss this.

[SPEAKER_00]: While I set outside the door, looking at other people play record ball, while I set outside the door, watching my instructor play record ball, it looked hard from the outside looking in.

[SPEAKER_00]: It looked difficult from the outside looking in.

[SPEAKER_00]: It appeared as if I would never be able to master record ball as I stood on the side line.

[SPEAKER_00]: And whatever it is in your life right now and the true standing on the sidelines of and refusing to jump into the fire, get on the court, get on the gridiron, you refusing, you're watching other people run up and down, go back and forth, master what it is that you're afraid of and oftentimes heart things are all mental.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mmm.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, most times when you think about something hard, like I decided to kick this year off with a 72 hour water fast, I know bananas.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is for somebody who's never fast, it's more than I'm somewhat with only water.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've done the Daniel fast, I've done different types of fast throughout the year, whether it was with church, whether it was with a group of my buddies, whatever it is, I've done different types of fast, [SPEAKER_00]: Strictly water.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've done a juice fast.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've done a smoothie fast, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I've done a fruit fast or fruit and veggie, whatever.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I've done different types of fast, but I've never done a fast where I had no food.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, look at the sink in.

[SPEAKER_00]: No food.

[SPEAKER_00]: Water for 72 hours straight.

[SPEAKER_00]: And one thing that leading up to that time, [SPEAKER_00]: I go back to my time and record ball.

[SPEAKER_00]: As you go back to your time, facing whatever mountain you thought was in your path, I go back to that time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I say to myself, I almost psyched myself out of doing it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: And because of my brain, because of my mind, because of what, let me out, excuse me, not because of what somebody else told me.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was because of what I kept telling myself.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, oftentimes you and I miss out on the development and the growth that is required of us or that is required so that we can reach new heights [SPEAKER_00]: See, most of us are on the other side of our goals and our dreams, either we're on one side because we're afraid to climb that mountain and the other's of us on the other side of that mountain because we chose to look at that mountain as just another thing on the to-do list and it's not going to do any good to sit down here in this valley and just complain.

[SPEAKER_00]: I took that record ball class.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mastered record ball.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, in a matter of weeks, I was like top in the class, in a record bar, and it was just a step I needed to complete my requirements for graduation and walk across the stage to get my undergraduate degree.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, what if I said to myself, you know what, nothing fits my schedule?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because once again, I just tell you a few moments ago that the only class that fit my schedule based on my work hours and the other classes that I had to take to finish that semester and graduate on time, not on a class that worked with their record book class.

[SPEAKER_00]: There were other classes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't give me wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I would have had to miss work.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would have had to, you know, do too much to my schedule.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was right where I needed to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's any what my point is.

[SPEAKER_00]: What if I had made it, because we can always make excuses.

[SPEAKER_00]: This morning when you got up, there was something that you were supposed to do that you made an excuse for.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's beyond us, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Some days you get up in the morning and you say, you know, it's too cold outside.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to go to the gym.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or someone wanted you wake up and you're like, oh, you know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't feel like eating healthy.

[SPEAKER_00]: right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's too hard to make all that stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can just eat this little bitty egg McMuffin or whatever you got quick popping a microwave boom boom boom when you gone.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what do I do?

[SPEAKER_00]: What do I do?

[SPEAKER_00]: What do you do?

[SPEAKER_00]: When it's time for you to finally face that hard thing, so you can reach your desired outcome.

[SPEAKER_00]: I heard a famous speaker, just two weeks ago talk about the fact that too many of us said goals.

[SPEAKER_00]: We set up goals, or we talk about goals, or we jot down goals, or we sit around, we talk about our new years, resolutions, what we're going to accomplish this year, what we didn't accomplish last year, that we rolled over to this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: We do all those things, which are great.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we missed the mark when we don't put a system in place [SPEAKER_00]: It's great to say, hey, I'm going to lose 50 pounds in 2026.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's great.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if that's all you put on your vision board and you never leave the vision board and put together a system to reach that goal, you're setting yourself up for another setback.

[SPEAKER_00]: See, when we, when we choose to go ahead and do those hard things that will make us and help us become the person that we know we were born to be, what we're choosing to do is not just put something on the wall so that we can put a picture on Instagram and say, I did my vision board, I did my vision casting.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here is what I'm going to accomplish.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's thing to do now, [SPEAKER_00]: People that reached their desired outcome are not so much concerned with putting up the goal.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're more concerned with putting together a system.

[SPEAKER_00]: If I put up that 50 pound goal on my vision board, I've got to now sit down with my journal, sit down with my notebook.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've got to sit down with my iPad.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've got to sit down now with my computer [SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I'm gonna cut out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I'm gonna stop eating.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's how much water I'm gonna drink.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's how many sodas I'll give myself for the month.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, sometimes the cut ourselves out cold turkey.

[SPEAKER_00]: I said to myself, you know what, remember one time I had this guy that I was working out with, you know, we had some goals.

[SPEAKER_00]: I said, man, you gotta give me at least two cookies a week.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: I said, man, I can eat all day healthy stuff, but I don't want to crash and burn.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I had to balance that thing out for me every eight to teach us on.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some people are super extreme and can do that and can stay extreme until they reach their goals.

[SPEAKER_00]: But one of the things I'm always interested in is not just reaching the goal.

[SPEAKER_00]: How can I maintain the goal?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I missed code to reach that desired outcome.

[SPEAKER_00]: How can I stay there?

[SPEAKER_00]: I think I was scrolling on IG and I saw somebody talking about how fast they lost a million dollars.

[SPEAKER_00]: How fast they went through, I did not lost, but how fast they spent the money.

[SPEAKER_00]: And one guy commented below his statement, it is so much harder to keep a million dollars than it is to make a million dollars.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, oftentimes we find ourselves reaching out goals and then our discipline goes out the window.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the reason why I did that 72 hour water fast is because my discipline had gone out the window.

[SPEAKER_00]: I isn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: I blamed everybody, everything, my responsibilities travel.

[SPEAKER_00]: I blamed everybody in everything except Eugene.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's a rhyme.

[SPEAKER_00]: I blamed everybody in everything except me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I said to myself, Eugene, you do all this good talking.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stand in the mirror.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at yourself, you got disparate in certain areas of your life, but man.

[SPEAKER_00]: Once you get control of that appetite, man, your mind is going to be off the chain, sharp with the never, and I can attest to the fact that once I've finished that 72 hour water fairs, although I was ready to eat.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't get dumped, people be lying.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I don't, no, no, I was ready to eat after 12 hours.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not good to twist it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm afraid to eat at the five hours.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, day two, I got strong.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, day two, I got weak.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's keep it a thaw, wow.

[SPEAKER_00]: Day two, I was like, where is the burger?

[SPEAKER_00]: Where?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, because it's funny.

[SPEAKER_00]: I chose to do this fast at a time where my son was at home and my two nieces with the house.

[SPEAKER_00]: They eaten chicken nuggets and french fries and she's pizza.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm smelling all this stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: I go, so my desire outcome is more important to me than a chicken parmesan on Angel hair pasta with white sauce, my goal, I just made myself hungry, my desire outcome is more important than that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to encourage you, is it, I'm not trying to be super deep, just go do the [SPEAKER_00]: Whatever it's in your way, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever it is going to stop you because once again, most of us, if not all of us have rolled over some things into 2026, then we didn't accomplish for whatever reason.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I want you to stop doing that.

[SPEAKER_00]: When I try to figure out why I didn't, or when I try to do the pity party, the blame game, you just didn't, you didn't accomplish it.

[SPEAKER_00]: For whatever reason, [SPEAKER_00]: You can blame, you can, you can point the finger, stop it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't reset as I'd outcome.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a new year.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a new month.

[SPEAKER_00]: Put some systems in place.

[SPEAKER_00]: Put some boundaries around that desire goal.

[SPEAKER_00]: put some boundaries around your time, put some boundaries around whatever space you need to think and to make sure you reach the desired outcome.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to be so passionate about where it is that you're going.

[SPEAKER_00]: So passionate about making sure that you're in position to reach the desired outcome that [SPEAKER_00]: You decide how to come.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this year, I've made a commitment to help you join me because in order for you to go, growing, to low, you got to do some hard stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I don't, here's the funny thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your heart and my heart are not the same.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please, I think we've heard the quote over and over again, comparison is the thief of joy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stop comparing your journey to somebody else's.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your journey may appear to be harder, you listen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your journey is different.

[SPEAKER_00]: My journey is different than your journey.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, we're not here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Trade and war stories.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not here trying to up somebody else and oh, that wasn't it, that hard, that might, that didn't, no, no, no, no, no, no, I want you to commit, to putting together a system.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does the system look like?

[SPEAKER_00]: For me, based on the goals that I have, Jesse Isler, I'm just mentioned, [SPEAKER_00]: on a podcast he was doing about the rule of 100 right and talk about this is rule of 100 if you do something for 100 hours [SPEAKER_00]: Carver not just a few moments a day over an entire year.

[SPEAKER_00]: If in fact, you find yourself putting in at least 100 hours, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You'll find yourself ahead of 95% of onlookers who are looking at that issue.

[SPEAKER_00]: Looking at whatever it is that you're trying to accomplish and thinking about doing it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're saying, no, no, no, no.

[SPEAKER_00]: If I want to become a master at, become a better reader, let's say, better reader.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's spend 15 minutes a day reading something.

[SPEAKER_00]: That 15 minutes a day, I'm not really good at two quick math, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you spend five, six days a week doing that thing, let's multiply that times four weeks in a month, multiply that times 12 months in a year, you'll find yourself becoming a master in areas that you thought you'd never master.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not reading is one thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It could be soccer.

[SPEAKER_00]: It could be piano.

[SPEAKER_00]: It could be whatever it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Fifteen minutes a day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Put together a system that says, you know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to make sure that I spend enough time on this thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, because we oftentimes look at things like there's so massive break your system down into bite size pieces.

[SPEAKER_00]: And watch your change of life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, I hope that you were encouraged by [SPEAKER_00]: this podcast that I hope you encourage by this episode.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hope you will share.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, as we kick off this new season, I want you to just look at these new things happening.

[SPEAKER_00]: I may have a guest, oh, hint hint.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, may have a guest or two this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to be expanding what I do, what I offer you information that I share with you and the value that I add to your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: So go ahead and like, go ahead and subscribe, go ahead and share as we kick off [SPEAKER_00]: and make sure that we find ourselves going, growing, and glowing every single day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Until next time, take care of yourselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, peace.