What would life be like if I grew up in a family where my mom and dad were gangsters? What if I had a 4.7 GPA in high school and got a full scholarship to Harvard? What would life look like if my parents were multimillionaires?
00:00:00.00030 seconds. One time for the underdog. Ignition sequence start. Let me see you put them up. Reach the sky, turn the stars up above. Cause it's one time for the underdog. One time for the underdog.
00:00:16.860I'm Patrick Bedevia, host of HITM, and today we will talk about the worst question you can ask yourself.
00:00:22.240Go something like this. You know, what if I had a 4.7 GPA in high school and I got a full scholarship to Harvard? What would life look like? What if I would have married my high school sweetheart? What if I wouldn't have married my high school sweetheart? You know, what if I was a cowboy and I grew up on this ranch and I wore cowboy hats and I had this buckle and I spoke.
00:00:46.860I walked like a cowboy and I went horseback riding all the time. What would life look like? What would life look like if my parents were multimillionaires? We lived in this 10,000 square foot home. I went to private school, you know, drove a, you know, Maserati to school. I was the coolest cat in school because my parents were so rich. What would life look like? What if my parents wouldn't have gotten a divorce and they would have stayed together? What if I didn't grow up in an environment where there was war and everything was fine and it was peaceful? What if I would have grew up in an environment that was hostile? Would have taught me more toughness?
00:01:16.860You know, what if I would have joined the military? You know, what if I would have joined the military? I would have been pretty interesting. What if I would have become a cop? You know, what would have happened? What if I grew up in a family where my mom and dad were gangsters and I was a thug myself and, you know, I was a gangster in the area as well, you know.
00:01:32.860What if I grew up in a mobster family and I ended up becoming a mobster? What would have life looked like? You know, what if I wouldn't have bought that business that went out of, what if I would have never bought that one stock that everybody told me to buy? I should have never bought that stock. What would have happened? I would still have my $173,000. What would have happened?
00:01:53.820See, all those questions have to do with our gift of imagination. And the gift of imagination is a very, very unique thing we've been given. But it's a very strong weapon if you let it loose. Let me explain to you why.
00:02:07.400See, imagination has a negative and it has a positive. And generally, the question starts the same way. We start off with, what if I would have married someone else? What if I would have made some difference? What if I would have had different parents? What if I was taller? You can never control this because it's already been made decisions of. All we can do is learn from it and move on and make better choices.
00:02:34.580The other kind of what if is, what if I decide to change my diet and I lose 30 pounds? What will life look like? What if I learn to communicate better with my family? What if I work harder? What if I travel the world? What if I do this? Positive imagination, possibilities, unknown, looking forward to tomorrow, looking forward to waking up in the morning. It's still the same gift of imagination, but you control which side of the imagination to use.
00:03:02.480See, Marcus Aurelius, who taught Stoicism, he was the Roman Empire between 161 AD and 169 AD. Many people taught Stoicism, Seneca, Peticus, but he was mainly known for it. And what he talks about, the basic fundamental of Stoicism is this.
00:03:17.340Think about what you can control and stop trying to do things that you cannot control. You can't change what you cannot control. See, if you're playing poker and you've been dealt a certain hand, you've got to play with that hand.
00:03:31.340You can't say, I wish I had a better hand. Of course we wish we had a royal flush, but that's the hand we got.
00:03:36.260And Stoicism is play with what you currently have today, make better decisions, make better judgments, improve, and happiness will come from focusing on what you can control instead of focusing on things you cannot control.
00:03:52.580And if you want to be happy, it's best you focus on things you can't control.
00:03:56.260Thanks everybody for listening. And by the way, if you haven't already subscribed to Valuetainment on iTunes, please do so.
00:04:01.920Give us a five star, write a review if you haven't already. And if you have any questions for me that you may have, you can always find me on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.
00:04:11.120Just search my name, Patrick David. And I actually do respond back when you snap me or send me a message on Instagram.
00:04:18.020With that being said, have a great day today. Take care everybody. Bye-bye.