Welcome to Real Talk with Reginald D. I'm your host, Reginald D. On today's episode, we're going to talk about letting go of the past and start focusing on your future. People never get ahead because of their past. Most of the emotions you experience is actually a byproduct of you being triggered by your past. You need to put in the work to move beyond your past hurts, because if you don't, there's a great chance that you will continue to live a life in reaction to whatever triggers those emotions. You are allowing your past to affect your present and your future. You are experiencing your present and your future through the lens of your past. You won't ever live your full potential that way. Don't let your past define you. You can't let your past experience dictate where you are going. Where you are going is bigger and greater than your past. This next chapter in your life is greater than any setback you ever had. You have to understand that your emotions is sometimes like a physical wound. You learn to live with it and not knowing that it affects your quality of life drastically. Quit treating your life like it's not a big deal. Because it is. Stop pretending that things are okay. Stop accepting mediocrity in your life and act like it's okay. Because it's not. Greatness is your purpose. I need you to seek that for your life. God said that I know the plans that I have for you. And let me tell you this about God. Nothing in his plan is mediocre. So you got to stop thinking mediocre and being mediocre. If you keep doing that, you will never align with the plan that God has for your life. You will end up missing your greatest opportunity. You got to keep going and put in your best every day, no matter how tough it gets. Don't lay down. You will miss your moment. I remember one time in my life that I was down and out. My life wasn't going the way I wanted it to. I was depressed and financially struggling. So one Sunday, I woke up and said to myself that I'm not getting out of bed and going to church. I didn't want to be around people or nothing. I just wanted to lay in the bed and do nothing. It was all because I was depressed and worried about how I was going to pay my bills and things like that. So I laid in the bed for maybe 20 minutes. Then I finally got up. Once I got up, I felt different. Then I said to myself that I'm going to push myself and go to church. Well after church, I went to this gas station that I'd never been to before to get gas. A man came up to me while I was pumping gas and said that God told him to bless me. He gave me enough money to cover my rent for three months. I'd never seen this man before in my life. God blessed me because I had the will and determination to get up. If I would have laid there in the bed that morning, I would have missed my moment of blessing. If I would have kept laying down and quit on that one day, I would have missed it. So you got to understand that you can't lay down and quit when things get tough. You can't do it one day because that one day may very well be the day that your breakthrough is coming. Get up even when you don't feel like it. Get up even though you feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. Let me tell you this. Once you get up, then you will start feeling empowered. That's what happened to me. As long as I laid in that bed, I felt defeated. But as soon as I got up, I felt like I could keep going. Keep going and see what's next. Don't stay still. Each day is a new day. The average human being has roughly 12,000 thoughts per day and sometimes more. 90% of human being thoughts are repetitive. They are the same today as they were yesterday. That's why people keep falling back in the same old rut. It's only because they don't have new thoughts for a new day. Quit thinking and dwelling on the same stuff. Your life will end up being repetitive. Start thinking differently. Start dwelling on different stuff. Start bringing positivity into your life. Learn something new about yourself. Trust me, some of y'all will get a kick out of that. Now listen to this, out of thousands of thoughts that humans have every day, 75% of those are negative. Think about that. Imagine how miserable people are when 75% of their thoughts are negative. Imagine how better people's life would be if they flipped it and made 75% of their thoughts positive. I need you to think about that for your life. How much better would your life be if you take the negative thinking about your life and start having positive thinking about your life? Do you know you will have less anxiety if you think that way about your life? You keep thinking negative about your life only because you don't believe in you. God believes in you. Other people believe in you. I believe in you. But until you believe in yourself, you will never get what you desire for your life. You will not get what your life deserves. You're powerful. The reason you don't believe it is because you don't utilize your power. Once you utilize the power within you, then you will understand how much power you got. But the first thing you got to do is utilize it. That comes with trusting and believing in yourself. And stay focused. I need you to remember this. Wherever you focus is where your attention goes. And where your attention goes, your energy follows. Stop trying to fit in where you don't belong. God is taking you to another place in your life. Quit trying to fit into your past. You have outgrown it. It's time for you to walk into something new. It's time to start walking towards your future. Listen to me, you are too gifted to stay where you are in your life. You are gifted man. You just got to do whatever it takes no matter how tough it is. I would rather go down a rough road that's going somewhere than an easy road that's going to a dead end. You can't tap out when life is taking you through hell. Guess what? You've already seen it before. You know how to overcome it. You have two kinds of people in the world. You have those who can do and those who can't do. Those who can do puts in effort and do what it takes to get things done. Now those who can't do don't put in the work and they lack effort. Now it's not that they can't do, they just choose not to do. Those who can't do talks about the ones who can. At the end of the day, you need to ask yourself this question. Can you or can you not? Are you the one that's going to sit on the sidelines and talk about other people's success or can you step up and be the success story that other people talk about? It's all going to depend on your focus and your effort. Check this out. Everybody wants to find paradise in their life. The problem with that is finding which way to go to get there. That's why it's critical to stay focused. Without focus, you will have no direction. And with no direction, you will eventually end up lost. Let me say this about you. You've been tried. You've been battle tested. You've been through the storm. You've been through hell in your life, and you're still here. You are still standing because what you have inside of you is real. The power inside of you is real. The fire inside of you is real. So don't ever question yourself. You have been tested and you are living proof that what you have inside of you is the real deal. You are a conqueror and an overcomer. Be grateful for your challenges. That's what makes you. When you think you got it bad, there is someone out there that wished they had it like you. This is where people get confused. Once they decide to walk in greatness, their life becomes different and they don't understand it. If you are going to be different, then your life is going to be different. See, I had the most friends when I was the worst version of myself. But when I chose to be a greater version of me, a lot of my friends went away. It wasn't because we fell out about something. I was just going in another direction. That's all. I also need you to know this. Always focus on the thing that's going to be helpful to you. If you focus on things that are not helpful to you, you will be persuaded and end up losing your power. So you have a choice in this thing called life. Your life will have a completely different meaning if you don't choose what emotional state that you want to live in. The founding fathers of America declared their freedom and then fought for it. They wasn't a free country when they signed the Declaration of Independence. They declared it and then they fought with all they had to win their freedom. In life there is no difference if you want to be great. First you got to envision it, declare it, and then fight for it. That's it man. I'm going to leave you with this. I need you to understand that you are living in your greatest moment right now. Are you going to let the fire of success and greatness burn inside of you? Or will you let the fire go out? It's time for you to step up and claim your seat at the table of greatness. Strive to become the person that everybody wants to know, the leader everybody wants to follow, and the success story everyone talks about. Thanks for tuning in to Real Talk with Reginald D. If you enjoyed the show, please share with anyone you feel that needs to take this journey with us on being a better you. See you next time.