what up, dope and welcome back to I'm growing man. It's your man, john d, in the building we are in the month of march, I'm telling you this year is going by so fast and it felt like it just started. But, um, I got a question the other day that I've been like thinking about how I could write it, but I was like, let me just get out here and talk about it. And the question was what do you consider a fulfilling life? You know, before I got on this journey, I thought I was living a fulfilling life, and when I say that, I mean I was in a career I wanted. I wanted to work hard, to move up, have a family. We've done a few things here and there, more than your average family gets to do and I thought I was doing good, you know. But fast forward, after being on this journey I've been talking about.

This podcast has been inspired by the journey, and the life that I have now is so fulfilling that I talk about it on a podcast. I mean, think about it. I'm here trying to translate information that I've learned, that helped me enter a part of my life where I wanted to share, and that's what it is. I feel like I remember people used to say if your dreams don't scare you, you're not dreaming big enough. I want to know what those dreams are. I don't know what they are, but I know the things that I want to do. They don't scare me. I just feel like the only way it could be done is if I put the effort into it and, being that our life, we don't know the expiration date. All you could do is worry about today and I have different parts of the day that reminds me that I'm supposed to be present, journaling, reflecting constantly throughout the day, outside of the things that I'm already doing to constantly throughout the day, outside of the things that I'm already doing to, you know, hopefully develop later, but it's helping me evolve as um, evolve as a man that intentionally wants to get better, and that's the message that I've been driven on, given, because I feel like every day has been like an eternally great feeling. You know I don't I'm not going to say and lie and say that I think about, I'm so blessed every single day, but I do think about where I could be if I was not on this journey and I think about all the things I used to do and I did a lot of things. I've done a lot of things and nothing compares to these last five years, six years yeah, I've been on this journey for about six years now and I'm as confident as I've ever been.

And the reason why I wanted to answer this question is because a fulfilling life to me is when you intentionally work on improving your day toto-day to create a product that you don't even know that you're capable of doing. And when I say that when I changed my diet, I developed this clarity of making poor decisions. I was making poor decisions on a daily basis and I didn't know I didn't have to live like that anymore. But when I did, my diet sparked this generator inside of me. They maybe wanted to find other ways that I can improve, and all it came down to was I was waiting for somebody to teach me to do what I'm doing. I thought that I should have had a father or mother or a family guru or something to the extent where I was going to be fed information. I was looking to be spoon fed. I was. You know, I mean when I'm looking at my life and I'm like, why am I here? You know, I'm blessed to be at any point in my life. I was blessed.

But now it's so intentional, like for me to come on here to describe what I consider a fulfilling life, to hopefully engage some of the viewers to think that maybe I could do something like that. Because I'm telling you, once you get started and you really understand what it can do, nothing can stop it, because it becomes your way of life, and when I say way of life I really mean it. My distractions are intertwined with the things that's going to improve me as a person Like I'm always constantly trying to find ways to make sure I don't make a complete fool of myself. Sometimes I can get really engaged in a conversation because I feel like I've done so much information on it, but when I deliver, it sounds like this wah-wah, wah-wah, wah-wah, and that's the reason why I'm working on communication. So the fulfilling part comes with me knowing that as long as I keep searching and intentionally finding information to improve my performance, I can't do nothing but create a result that I don't know I'm capable of doing because I'm constantly working. It's not like I've seen somebody do this. If you do this, this will happen. So I am the test dummy, and when I say, test dummy. I am in control of the things that keep me entertained, the things that drives my my urgency to improve.

I used to always want to be the best in everything I wanted to do. It didn't matter Whatever it was, whether it was shooting a paper ball over a little trash can in the classroom. I wanted to be the best. And now I'm working to be the best version that I can create. And I can't become the best version unless I'm working on it. And I can't become the best version unless I'm working on it. And the routine that I've created. It's consumed me to the point where I look for feedback from any and everywhere, because I am trying to. I don't want to say I'm chasing anything, but I just want to see how good I can feel if I keep working on something that I'm enjoying doing.

And when people say, you got to just follow your heart, follow your mind, you know, if you know your purpose, you'll go for it. Well, my purpose is just to improve and it's just made everything in my life so much better. And when I say so much better, like my day is broken down into increments, where I am constantly doing something, and my day job when I work with kids, I teach math, another language that is very difficult to deliver, when, when you're still trying to learn the language. And when I say that I can do math, I can teach it. But I want to. I want to be able to deliver math where other people can hear and be like I wish he was my teacher. And when I say that, it's because I think all teachers want that.

But you have to actually work on that craft every day, and I don't think teachers do that. There's no slight to them, because nobody said hey, you should probably work on your craft every single day. And I think a lot of people may look at their craft as a job and after you put so many hours in, you may as well just put that effort into you master the craft. And when you master the craft, you're constantly working at it because you're trying to improve what you wanted to master, because it can always get better. There is no peak on like, okay, you can't get any better than that. It can always get better. And that is why my life is so fulfilling, because I know that my kids and my students are watching me and I have to be the example that I thought I should have had growing up. And what's more fulfilling than that when you have eyes on you at all times and some people could say it's pressure, but it isn't.

I'm a teacher, I do this and the idea that I'm able to be impressionable to somebody else's kids because I'm hoping to just plant a seed, because when they leave me, I want them to always know that my intent was to give them all the information that I had within context. All the information, because we, as adults, always think about what we could have done if we would have had this information before. Well, you have all the information now, 10 years from now, and you hear this message what did you do to improve your happiness, your fulfillment, your energy, living the way that I do now? It makes me wonder why other people didn't do a better job with telling people to just keep working and refining a specific craft, just like entertainers. They're really good at what they do because they keep your attention. We should have been so good in anything you know, but I do believe communication is the key to everything. But I do believe communication is the key to everything, and being that one of the fulfilling parts of my journey is that I'm working. I'm going to work on it every single day, like I have like videos I have to watch, you know, and I feel like at some point I'm going to take as much information as I can and be able to use it and apply it where people will understand why communication is so important. And I hear people talk about they say it's really important, but what are you doing to work on it?

I was talking to my wife, me and the family. We bowl now and we've been bowling for some time and we're doing it a little more consistent. And I remember when I was really bowling I averaged like 183 at one point, but I was only going during the games, like going like three games a week. I wasn't practicing or anything and in my head I thought I was really good. I was like, why am I not getting better? And it just made me realize like I didn't do any extra practicing. And then when the season was over, it wasn't like I was practicing over the off season to improve, to come back for the new season. So now we as a family, we want to be able to keep that with us, because all of I mean the kids bowed this past season and we saw so much growth and we said that you know when, when it's possible, we're going to join leagues as a family and bow, and we think that you just think about that.

My life is so fulfilling that I'm able to actually be in the moment and create moments with my family. With my family. I remember growing up and we probably had two or three moments total that I can really recall as a family, where nobody was mad and I can't even really think of them right now and I'm just like being nice but to be present in it. That's fulfilling. So what's fulfilling to life? When you can find a routine that you don't have a problem doing, where it's constantly working on something but it has to be every day. And you know what, the more and more you put time into that routine, your product changes over the course of time. At some point you're going to develop something you didn't even know you were creating and it's going to drive you even more to be like man. Where can I get more time to invest in helping this thing develop? And I know I said that a lot of times, but the amount of work you put in will always create something. So just imagine if you put work in every single day for the remainder of your life. At some point it's going to become really good and if you're taking care of your body, you're going to reap the benefits of all of the labor you put in. And you know some people I guess labor sounds like real work, the labor that I put in.

I don't know what I would do if I didn't do my routine anymore. I really wake up like I try to wake up at four, but I'm always waking up before three. I don't use an alarm but I need to figure out how to make sure I get my hours. But I study language, communication, I write and I meditate all these things before I go to work. And I was thinking what would I do if I didn't do that anymore? I don't even know what I would do. I don't know how to replace that time because I enjoy what I'm doing so much. I do want to incorporate more exercises, flexibility exercises because the other day I just took a step and I pulled a muscle in my back and it hurts so bad and I was like I'm going to know. I was like I need to make sure I got to. You know, be more, uh, mindful when it comes to stretching, and you know, because the body just not, as it's not going to recuperate as fast and I don't even really do too much other than walk. But I love the routine that I have because it's allowed me to create a space where I can come over here and share my life and show everybody there's a part of life that they don't really talk about too much because I don't really believe too many people have entered it.

But if you work on yourself on purpose every single day, like just, let's say, you just dedicate five minutes a day. Five minutes a day, so what's that? Uh, 35 minutes a week. It's over two hours a month, so that's 24 hours you invested over the course of a year. And I said five minutes. Everybody should be investing anywhere between four and five hours to themselves. And when I say investing, I'm not talking about watching television, catching up on any. I'm talking about really working on something that you want, something you want to materialize because of your own effort.

Sometimes, when I reflect, I think about who I used to be and where I was when I first started this journey, and just maybe, let's say, a year ago, six months or even yesterday, my mindset is to improve the day before and all I can do is just enjoy today. You know, people say can't wait to get home so I can go to sleep or do whatever Like. When I get home it's working on my craft or spending time with my family, and to me I feel like it's turned me into a kinder soul. I look, I was watching this. This, this, this podcast is about some Koreans who, who were African they were born in Africa, grew up in Africa and one of the guys was talking about how certain countries is just real fast and like. He said he was like behind somebody and they were moving real slow and he wanted him to speed up and he was like, were they moving too slow or am I moving too fast? And I thought about it. I used to be moving, I was all over the place.

Now I feel like life is slowed down and when I say slowed down, it's allowed me to appreciate my past mistakes. It's allowed me to appreciate them so much that I think about ways to be proactive, to reduce the mistakes for my kids, and I know they're going to make the mistakes. I don't want you guys to think that I'm pondering and stuff like that. I'm thinking about ways that I can create conversations with my kids, and I know they're going to make the mistakes. I don't want you guys to think that I'm pondering and stuff like that. I'm thinking about ways that I can create conversations with my kids without a mistake happening, just going through my life. This is what I thought. I felt like that because of this, when you have those conversations with your kids, your kids will be more open to having conversations with you about things that they're going through, because your kids are a better version of you. But that does not take away the things that they got to go through and don't know how to share with you, being their parent. And that's another reason why my life is so fulfilling, because I know that I could become so much more of a better parent. I'm always trying to figure out what I could do to put my kids in an opportune way to benefit everything through their own effort, not to take advantage of anything, but to put in the work where doors are open, and that's what I believe in. You put that work in and I believe that's the reason why my life is so fulfilling at this point. I think I've earned it to this point where I can talk about it. People are like he just started this journey. I did, and I'm excited about continuing moving forward.

I try not to think about anything negative and I've had some thoughts of some negativity, just wondering where they come from. But you can't stop everything. But I know that even those negative thoughts, if you get rid of them and replace them with things that you want to do or things that make you happy, it'll stop the trickle down domino effect of being unfocused, because negative feelings will distract you from what, how important you are. And you know how negative negative feelings will make you think that other people aren't pulling for you, that it'll make you feel like you think that they're supposed to look a certain way, for them to support you. But nobody wants you to fail. They just have their own life too, and a lot of times people get kind of caught up in the idea that whoever's supposed to be close to them is supposed to do something. But hey, life be life, and if they're on the same path that you're on, they're trying to figure it out too.

So for all of you guys who's looking to have a more fulfilling life, I can guarantee this. If you work to improve yourself on a day-to-day basis, your life will become more fulfilling, because you'll realize how important you are. You'll start taking care of it. You'll start learning more information so that you will be able to leave your mark on the world. Think about this how many people do you know personally will leave a mark on the world, and why isn't that person? You Y'all make today better than yesterday. Don't worry about anything you can't control. G-a-t-a Get after that action or that action will get after you. Be great on purpose Boom.