On this day 15 years ago, I was stabbed in the face. Today is the 15th anniversary of that day and I wanted to talk about how I forgave the person who did it and how it changed my life.
00:03:35.340There's a million benefits that that that incident has contributed.
00:03:39.640And to be honest, if it hadn't have happened, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you guys right now and living the life that I live.
00:03:47.500But what I want to talk about is because people have such a hard time grasping the concept of how you could forgive someone who's done something that's so horrible to you.
00:03:57.580A lot of you guys will argue with people, you'll fight with people, you'll hold a grudge over a fucking argument.
00:04:05.440OK, and let me explain something to you guys.
00:04:11.320We like I say all the time, we only have so much energy in our lives and energy is spent on every single thing that we do.
00:04:19.140And if you spend energy holding grudges against people or wishing bad on people or hoping bad things, you know, happen to their lives or spending it in anger and bitterness about why things happen or why people did things to you.
00:04:36.680Guys, you don't have as much energy to live a positive life and you don't have as much energy to move forward or create and build the life that you actually want.
00:04:44.840And a lot of you guys get caught up because it is a very common thing for people to not forgive people when they fuck up.
00:05:12.160And, you know, it's important to realize that when you're not perfect, nobody else is perfect either.
00:05:21.640And so when you hold a grudge and you're angry and you don't want to forgive, there might come a time in your life later where you do something stupid or you make a bad decision or you do something that affects people in a negative way that you're not proud of.
00:05:40.000And so, guys, there's multiple things that can happen here, positive and negative, in terms of forgiveness.
00:05:46.700But I think the biggest thing that you have to understand is that by not forgiving, you're putting an emotional burden that takes away from the quality of your life.
00:05:56.220And so for that reason, you know, when I think of the guy who stabbed me, I don't think of him negatively.
00:06:04.000I genuinely, truly hope in my heart that he's improved as a person, that he's become stronger, that he's become better, and that he's living a good life and that he's learned from the entire experience.
00:06:15.360And, guys, when you, people do you wrong, and you've heard this from the days of Dr. Seuss, you know, when you don't forgive and you don't let people off the hook, so to speak, really who you're hurting is yourself.
00:06:30.980Because, A, you're carrying an emotional burden that you don't need to carry.
00:06:35.280B, I believe in karma, and I think you're creating karma in a way where, you know, when you fuck up, people aren't going to be as forgiving of you.
00:06:43.280B, okay, and C, you're taking the energy that you could be using to produce a positive life and spending it on something that just doesn't fucking matter anymore, all right?
00:06:54.700So I want you guys to listen to me, and I want you to realize, because I get so many DMs and emails from you guys talking about how so-and-so did you wrong, or someone did something bad to you, or someone did something that hurt your feelings or hurt you physically, and, you know, how to get over it.
00:07:13.040And the truth of the matter is, you just got to let it go.
00:07:18.100You know, it didn't take me 15 years to let this man who did this to me off the hook.
00:07:24.880You know, I had to let it go right afterwards, because if I didn't, I would have killed myself.
00:07:30.080If I didn't, I would have been miserable my whole life, and if I didn't, I wouldn't be sitting where I am right now.
00:07:34.740So, guys, when you think about the people who have done wrong, the people who have said things, all right, let's just talk about how minimal it is for people to quote-unquote say things to you, all right?
00:08:33.280You're going to do things that disappoint people and let people down and make people lose respect for you.
00:08:38.460And you're going to need forgiveness, too.
00:08:41.420So, guys, what I'm saying here is learn to forgive.
00:08:45.640Learn to let people, learn to understand that people are human just like you're human.
00:08:50.360And learn to understand that you're going to make mistakes just like they're going to make mistakes.
00:08:54.780And when you start to think of yourself as a human instead of some perfect being, it's a lot easier for you to forgive other people for doing things that are wrong to you, which is going to lift the emotional pressure, which is going to give you energy, which is going to make you feel better.
00:09:09.700And honestly, I think it's going to create better karma for you long term.
00:09:13.080And I know this isn't something that we talk about a lot on here, and it's not necessarily, you know, quote unquote success related.
00:09:22.180But I truly believe it is success related because at the bottom line, it takes your focus off what's important and what your goals are and what you're trying to accomplish.
00:09:29.960OK, and I thought, you know, today being a 15 year anniversary of a very, very pivotal event in my life, it would be a good opportunity to talk about that process.
00:09:42.120Because I think if I could forgive someone who literally took my fucking face away, you could forgive someone who said a few things to you or who did something to you.
00:09:51.940OK, and I know there's bad things that happen, right?
00:09:58.940But the more you hold on to it, the more you're handicapping yourself, the more you talk about it in a negative way, the more negativity you're bringing into your life.