I am successful, but not proud of myself

The other day I was flicking through YouTube. I was  looking for a motivational video to listen to whilst washing the dishes. I came across a shortened version of an interview between David Goggins and Robert Kiyosaki. 

During the interview, Robert Kiyosaki said something very interesting. 

“I am successful, but I am not proud of myself” 

 

To put things in perspective, let me tell you a little bit about Robert Kiyosaki. 

Robert Kiyosaki is an author and businessman. He has written more than 26 books, including the international self-published personal finance book ‘Rich dad, Poor dad’. He is said to own at least 10,000 apartment units, earning at least one million dollars a month tax-free. He owns a portfolio of at least 40 private oil wells. He is said to be worth at least 80 million dollars. He also spends a lot of time running I b businesses that teach financial education. He runs a podcast, writes books and also runs workshops and seminars. Kiyosaki also served in the US Marine Corp. as a helicopter gunship pilot during the Vietnam war. 

The easy path 

In the interview, Kiyosaki talks about his inner wimp. The side of you that encourages you to take the easy path. The voice that tells you to stay in bed and not do the morning workout. The voice that tells you to order a takeaway rather than cook a healthy family meal. The side of you that craves to just go straight to bed rather than wash the dishes and put them away after dinner. 

I have recently talked about building my own morning workout habit. Getting up when the alarm goes off at 5:50 am. Being outside stretching by 6:00 am. Going for a jog, doing hill sprints and lifting weights. Every morning I have to battle with the voice of the wimp inside. Other the past few weeks, I have managed to ignite the wimp’s voice. There are a handful of times though I haven’t.  

One morning I went to the toilet and thought my stomach felt a bit funny. In that case, I better not go for a run. Better safe than sorry. What a wonderful excuse. Can’t train when you are poorly. It’s not a good idea. Later that night on TV, I watched a group of celebrity’s train to swim the British Channel. I think one celebrity had food poisoning and had been throwing up and had been in the toilet all night. He still got in the lake and swam for 1 hour to keep up with his training. 

What was my excuse now? 

I think I had been listening to the voice of the wimp. I had found an excuse to not do the workout. Why because getting up at 5:50 am to do a workout is hard. Nobody wants to do hard things like that. 

The hard path 

Then there is the other voice fighting for you to do the things that you don’t want to do. That tells you to take the difficult path. Because when you reach the other side, you are on the path to becoming who you want to be. You know you will feel good about yourself when the task is done. You will feel a sense of pride that your actions are aligned with who you want to be. 

David Goggins calls this going to war with himself. And he does this every day. 

Each morning when that alarm goes off at 5:50 am, I have to remind myself why I am doing the workout. That you want to be fit and strong. You want to get rid of that dad bod that has crept up on you. Getting up and doing the hardest task of the day, makes the rest of the day easier. You will have more energy for the rest of the day. The benefits of revving up your metabolism will last the remainder of the day. 

Then the voice changes and becomes simple and direct. Like a drill sergeant. Just sit up in bed. Just walk to the bathroom. Go for a tinkle. Walk downstairs. Put on your running clothes. Turn in your running music. Stretch. Go outside. Stretch. Walk to the post box. Start jogging. 

The voice just keeps barking the next task throughout the workout. One step at a time. It carries me through to the end.  

I get through the workout. I feel a sense of pride having completed it. I feel I have more energy during the day. 

The voice of the wimp does pop up during the workout though. 

The hardest path 

David Goggins also mentioned that he always takes the hardest job in the task. For instance, when he was doing the training for the Navy Seals, they would be required to carry a boat as a team. He would always take the front of the boat as it is the heaviest.  

He didn’t want to listen to his wimp’s voice. He didn’t want any excuse to take an easier path. He wanted to take the hardest path. The hardest path so he knew he could have done no better. That he never listened to the voice of the wimp. 

I have heard the wimps voice on my morning workout. ‘You better stop halfway and do some stretching’. An excuse for a break from the jog. ‘The grass is too wet to sprint up that hill’. That normally kicks in when I am starting to get out of breath. ‘You better not lift any more than that, you don’t want to injure yourself’. I am only halfway through my weight sets. 

We can feel pride in getting up and doing the workout. But that pride can be tainted if we don’t complete the full workout. Especially if it’s because we listened to the voice of the wimp.  

David Goggins mentions doing a whole workout except falling short by one pull up. Short of what he had committed to completing. He felt himself giving in to the voice of the wimp. Finding excuses for himself. So he went back to the gym later that day. Completing the full workout. Correcting his excuses. 

I know I have fallen short in workouts. Doing hill sprints but struggling to get up the hill because the grass is wet. Giving up after a couple of failed attempts. Not doing the full ten reps I had committed to. Choosing to give in to the voice of the wimp. Choosing to give up too easily. I know I have not completed the full weights routine I had committed to. The weights may have seemed heavier that day so you don’t do the full set of reps. I might have felt a twinge in my back so I ease off, not wanting to get injured.  

Takeaways 

We all have hopes, goals and dreams that we wish to achieve. To achieve them, the tasks we need to do can be hard. We have a battle, a war of voices in our head. 

There is the weak wimp’s voice encouraging us to take the easy path. When Robert Kiyosaki talks about ‘being successful, but not being proud of himself’, he refers to always taking the easy path. He gives in to the voice regularly. He may have been proud of himself in the past but building self-pride is a daily task, a daily struggle. 

There is the drill sergeants voice that pushes you to do the task you need to do. The task that will take you where you want to go. To be the person you want to be. If you listen to this voice, it will help you achieve those tasks and build your self-pride daily. 

Once we have listened to the drill sergeant voice and start the task, the wimp’s voice will come back. It will encourage you to cut corners. It will encourage to stop when it gets hard. It will encourage you to procrastinate and put things off. To build the biggest amount of self-pride we need to fully commit. To do what we set out to do. No corners cut. No stopping. No procrastinating. To know we have our best. That we did what we set out to do. 

Finally, I would like to leave you with the following Cherokee story of the two wolves: 

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” 

 He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.” 

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” 

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.” 

 Footnotes 

Here is the short version of the interview with David Goggins and Robert Kiyosaki: 

WHAT’S MISSING IN A MAN’S LIFE – David Goggins w/ Robert Kiyosaki 

The full interview can be found here: 

How To Accomplish Your Goals | Give your 100% NOW – David Goggins & Robert Kiyosaki 

Beware, there is some swearing.