Tricks I Play on Myself
Hello, KMMA tribe, friends, family, students.
I’m Grandmaster Stephen Del Castillo, and today I want to share with you three secrets that I use to keep myself positive, motivated, and optimistic no matter what happens.
So first I want to share a little story about some time I spent with one of my students. This gentleman is a fourth degree black belt. He’s been my student for many, many years, probably 22, 23 years. And he is a very successful businessman, a great friend, and he said something yesterday, which is what led me to preparing today’s message. He actually said, “man, I forgot how great it was for me to spend time with you.” He goes, “I just want to let you know I appreciate how you always have this really positive aura around you.” He said, “you have an energy that just lifts me up no matter what I’m going through.”
So it got me thinking about how and why that is, and it got me thinking about the tricks that I play on myself that I could share with you so you can play ’em on yourself too.
And trick number one is really one of our black belt leadership principles. It’s the 10/90 principle that says that life is 10% what happens, and 90% it about how we react to what happens. And put a little more specifically. And to give another example, I had really bad sleep last night. I wear this awesome ring. So it validated that it wasn’t just a feeling, right? About six hours total sleep, but it was like 10 or 15 minutes of REM and the same kind of deep sleep. It was just light sleep and lots of up night, all night. The point of the story is that that is irrelevant.
That is just a condition, and life truly is 10% what happens to 90%, how we react to it. And one of the practical ways that I make that true, that I keep that true, that I tricked myself to making sure that I have a great day no matter what the circumstances are, is number one, and I learned this particular skill from Grant Cardone, but number one, I start an end every day writing my goals. And so then what happens is it allows us when you do this, when we do this writing our goals allows us to remain focused on the future, on the goal, and allows those goals to pull us rather than allowing the circumstances of the day to control us, to stop us, to pull us in the wrong direction. We can stay in control and we can stay positive and optimistic and motivated and focused and useful and productive…
all of the things. when we stay focused on the goals and the targets and what we want to accomplish instead of the circumstances.
Trick number two, and this could be a tip of the hat to Jen Sincero when I say this, is I’m a badass, but here’s what I mean by that, and this is a trick that I don’t think I’ve ever shared with anybody, that I play with myself when feel bad, when I have the potential to have a bad day or perform badly or whatever. I always go and I say, I am 50% of myself today, but that’s still a hundred percent better than most. And I know that sounds like cocky and arrogant and all those things, but hey, that’s okay. When you’re playing a trick on yourself that causes you to perform in a way that is positive and productive and keeps you from diminishing because of the way that you feel important part of that message, of course, by the way, you notice one of the, in addition to the real message of this thing, there’s this underlying theme that we want to control our situation.
We want to control our behavior. We want to control our feelings and emotions not allow ourself to be controlled as one of the black belt leadership lessons I give here is actually of the thermometer and the thermostat. The thermometer just tells you what the temperature is. We don’t want to be the thermometer. We want to be the thermostat. We want to create the temperature.
And trick number three is that I get excited, and I’ll give you an example of what I’m talking about is this morning I’m sitting there having my coffee with Barb, and I start talking about specific coaching I’m going to do with my team and things I want to do, other things I want to do, and of course, even the marketing and management and planning of events and all the things that I got to do today. But I start talking about ’em in a way.
I start visualizing ’em in a way that I get excited, and then our excitement creates a different emotion that allows us to move forward in a positive, productive, motivated, inspired way instead of any other way.
So what’s my call to action to you?
It’s number one to make it a great day.
Number two, perhaps visit my website. You can find me at StephenDelCastillo.com or TampaKravMaga.com. And if you’re not a part of this tribe yet, then maybe that’s what you want to do.
You can also call 813-948-4844, and one of my amazing team would be happy to get you set up for a two week orientation program.
If you’re already in the tribe, you know what I’m talking about. But the final secrets are these: what we allow, what we listen to, what we read, what we associate with, and who we associate with-the tribe of people that we’re in, as well as our physical, mental, and emotional states. These are the things that determine more than any other thing who we are, who we’re becoming, what we’ll accomplish.
Take control of these things; and we would love to help.
Prepare To Live; Empower To Lead!
Grand Master Stephen J. Del Castillo
Founding Master Instructor, Krav Maga Martial Arts
TampaKravMaga.com StephenDelCastillo.com
p.s. Stay on the lookout because Blackbelt Friday, (like Black Friday but only better), starts tomorrow!