 Too many people are ruining a beautiful present moment by bringing a shitty past moment into a beautiful present moment. Your past happened. You can't change it. Today I'm going to talk to you about how to be more calm, how to be more peaceful, how to be more loving, even when shit is hitting the fan. So when things are going crazy, we're going to talk about how to be peaceful. And we're also going to talk about how to change your relationship with everything that's happened in your past. Because one of the things that I see from a lot of people is that a lot of people are still resisting the current moment that they're in. And they're still resisting the past and things that have happened in their past, even though they have absolutely nothing to do with their present moment. And one of the things that I've been told before we dive in and I give you this phrase that I think could possibly change your life. One of the things I've been told is that I'm uncommonly calm in a lot of situations. And I'll give you a couple of situations that kind of make sense for you. The first thing is a pot in my head. There was three situations in pots in my head when I was thinking about this. Number one, there was a time when we were traveling, my girlfriend and I, we were in Chengu Bali and we were in an Uber and in Bali, they don't like Ubers. So literally somebody came out a bunch of this, this local taxi gang is what they call them basically, right? They come out, they start banging on the hood. They force us to get out. They force the driver to get out. They're yelling, they're screaming. It's the middle of the night. It's like midnight almost. And I remember everyone's freaking out and screaming and yelling. And as they're freaking out, I'm going to myself, you got to be calm. You got to be calm. You got to be calm. You can't be the only, you can't be just, just crazy like them. And so I had to kind of take the situation and make it calmer, right? I was in this situation. I can't change the situation. Now I've got to figure out how to make everybody more calm, right? I didn't know if anybody had a gun. I didn't know if anybody had a machete. If there was going to be someone who's going to be hurt or killed, but I just knew I had to be calm because nobody else was. Second time I remember is, I remember when I used to have an office and I had two offices that were right next door to each other and somebody broke into my office in the middle of a meeting. They broke into the office. There was to the side, stole a TV for me, stole a Nintendo Wii that we used to use all the time during team meetings and stuff. And I remember everyone was like, man, you're so calm during the situation. Someone just stole all of your shit. And I was like, yeah, well, you know, maybe they needed it more than I did. And then the last thing that popped into my head was you've heard me talk about it recently is this whole plane situation where the engine of the plane that I was on caught on fire. We had to do an emergency landing and everybody is freaking out and screaming and crying. And I had this, this thought of like, damn, I'm really calm in this moment. I wonder why it is. And so then I started thinking about it. And I think that it all comes down to a phrase that I remember kind of brainwashing into myself when I was younger. And it comes from one of my friends and one of my first mentors, Hal Elrod, and he used to literally say it all the time, got me to say it all the time, and then also at the same time, made bracelets that said it. And the phrase is can't change it. And the reason why this is so empowering is because there's so many circumstances in your life right now that are sending you off the deep end, or that you're worried, or that you're stressed, or that you have fear or sadness around that you literally cannot change in any sort of way. So if we go back to those three examples, the whole Uber situation that was happening in Bali, can I change the situation? I can change the situation. Yes. Can I change the fact that I'm in that circumstance and that situation is happening? I can't. So if I can't change it, what I need to do is I need to figure out how to show up the best that I possibly can to it, right? Because I can't change it. I'm in this circumstance. Everyone's yelling at each other. I don't know if there's guns. I don't know if there's someone's going to get hurt. I just know there's a lot of stuff that's happening in front of me. I need to figure out how to show up the best way that I can, because I can't change the circumstance that I'm in. Okay. So that's the first one. Second one. Somebody stole a TV for me, a Nintendo Wii, and a bunch of other stuff, sound system that was there as well. Can I have my stuff un-stolen? I can't, right? So if I can't change it, the only thing that I can change is how I show up to those circumstances, right? That's the only thing that I am in control of at that moment. And then the last one, with the plane, I can't fly a freaking plane. So if there's a problem, they have to shut off an engine because the engine's on fire. We have to land with one engine. Can I change that? No, I don't even know how to fly a plane with two engines, let alone one of them being out, right? So the only thing that I can change is my circumstance, is not my circumstance, but the way I actually feel in that moment and how I show up in that moment. And so if you think about this phrase, it can be super powerful for you because there's so many things in your life that cause worry, frustration, anger, sadness that you literally cannot change. I'll give you a very simple example that probably happens to every single person at least once a week. You ready to see what that is? Traffic, right? If you're stuck in traffic, and I've done both of these, you can be frustrated and pissed, and you can grip the steering wheel until you can see the whites of your knuckles, then you can scream and you can cuss about how you're going to be late. You can do that, and that's completely up to you if you want to do that. But can you change the traffic that you're stuck in by doing that? No, even if you don't do that, can you change your traffic? You can't. The only thing that you can do is just go along for the ride. That's the only thing that you can do in that moment, right? So when you think about that, and you're sitting there in your piss, and I've been here, but I'm like, I'm late, I hate being late first off, but I'm late, and I've got this going on. I've got to do this, and I'm late, and I'm pissed off now that I'm late, and I put myself in this situation. Maybe I left on time, and now I'm in this situation. I've been really pissed off in this situation, but nothing that I can do in that moment will get rid of all of the traffic. So I've got a choice to make. Either I can be really pissed off and angry and frustrated or worried in that moment or sad or whatever the hell that it is, or I can take a step back and say, hey Rob, you can't change it. You can't change your traffic, can you? No, you can't. There's nothing you can do. You don't have a, you know, Tesla doesn't make an airplane yet, so I can't just take off into the sky and get to my appointment that I need to get to. Okay. I'm either going to be late pissed off or I'm going to be late and happy. And so what would I rather be? I'd rather be happy. It's just my choice. I don't know about you, but I'd rather be enjoying my life and enjoying my circumstance in life versus being pissed off and worried and frustrated all the time. So what can I do? Okay. I could take myself out of the, out of the, the worried and frustrated and pissed off mode and I can say, okay, I can't change this. If I can't change it, what can I appreciate about this moment? Well, why don't I put on one of my favorite songs? I'm going to listen to a song that I love. What else can I look at? All right. You know, I can look at the sky. Oh my gosh, it's a beautiful day out right now. It's the sun shining. I can appreciate that. There's so many things that I can appreciate in a moment that I was really pissed off at 30 seconds ago. And so if I can't change my circumstance, if I can't change the fact that I'm stuck in traffic, I can change the way that I feel in that traffic in the way that I feel in that traffic will dictate how I show up. So I can show up pissed off and frustrated that I'm late and people can see it on my face and I can put my body through all of this, this stuff that it doesn't need to go through or I can just say, you know what, let me take a step back. Let me put on some good music. Let me find out what I can appreciate and let me show up the best that I possibly can. So if you're in the middle of a situation and you just ask yourself this question, can I change it? I can't. All right, I can't change it. What can I love about this moment? Because the only thing that you can really control in this moment and in most moments is literally your reaction to the moment. That's it. Like we, we so badly, almost every person that I meet has some form of a control problem. I'm one of the people to say this as well. I have a control problem in many aspects. If you're listening to this is a pretty good chance you have a control problem in some aspects of your life. But the crazy thing is, is we can control almost nothing in our life, like literally almost nothing we can control. And if you think about that, you say, okay, what is the things that I can control at every moment that I'm a hundred percent sure of? My reaction to the way I feel about what's going on, how I personally show up, how I think about these circumstances. And one of my favorite quotes is from Victor Frankl. Maybe you've heard me say before, but you need to get it brainwashed into your head. And Victor Frankl wrote a book called Man's Search for Meaning. Victor Frankl was a psychologist who was, who was a Jew who was put into Auschwitz and was watching people get, I mean, some of those brutal things you've ever heard of if you read the book. And one thing that he says in the book is that between stimulus and response, there's a space. And that space in that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. So let me explain the quote real quick. Between stimulus and response, there's a space. So that means something happens I'm stuck in traffic, whatever it is. Then I have a response. Most people act like their response they're not in control of, which is complete bullsh**t. You're in control of your response at every moment. It's just most of the time it just comes up so quickly because it's just programmed into you. It's something you've done over and over again that you don't even notice it, right? So between stimulus, something happens and response something and I react to that something. There's a space and in that space is our power to choose our response. You get to choose how you're going to respond. It might be a millisecond, but it's still a choice. Do I want to get really pissed and start screaming at her? Or, because I've been down that road and I know what that looks like, do I want to show up with love? Or do I want to get really pissed off and frustrated about the traffic? Or do I want to show up and go, you know what? I don't want to put my body through all of that stress. And in our response lies our growth and our freedom. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. And I think that in this quote alone, it shows you the path of personal development. And you've heard me say before, there was times before I used to get really angry about stuff and I would stay angry for a week, weeks about one thing that happened. I would continue to be angry about something that happened days ago or five or six or seven or 10 days ago, even though it has nothing to do with this present moment that I'm in. Right? I'd stay pissed off for as long as I possibly could. And I try to justify why I should be pissed off, right? So something could happen. Stimulus response would go for a week. I'd be pissed off. And then I started reading a little bit more and trying to work with myself and try to get better and trying to meditate. And then something would happen. Stimulus in response would be, I'd be pissed off for five or six days. Okay. That's, that's still not good as I want it to be as good as I want it to be, but it's still better. And then you work on yourself a little bit more in personal moment. And then it goes to a few days, then it goes to a few hours and hopefully, you know, personal development and personal mastery of yourself means something happens and there is no response because you have mastered and fortified your mind that it doesn't matter what happens to you. You're going to be fine. And the response is always the way that you want it to be, maybe loving, maybe caring, maybe that's how you want to show up. And that's the person that you want to be. Well, if that's the case, if we could get that to be our reaction for everything, no matter what is just full acceptance, love and trust. I would say that's self mastery, wouldn't you? So the path of personal development is wrapped up in there between stimulus and response. There's a space and when you can master that space, you master your freedom and you master your growth. You know, and we can't change them. We can't change the majority of things that are happening to us around us and we can barely control ourselves. And a lot of the worry and the stress, the anger, frustration comes because people are resisting and not able to change the situation outside of them. So perfect example of what we're in right now. If you look at everything that's happening with COVID, like I can't change COVID. I don't know how to do any of that. Like I just, I speak into a microphone. That's what I'm good at. I don't know how, I don't know anything about viruses or what's going on in the world or if the stuff that's happening is true or if it's not happening and if the conspiracy theories are true or if they're false or if what we're being told is true or false. I don't know any of that stuff. I do know that I can't change the circumstance of, hey, there is lockdowns, hey, there is mass need or I can't change any of those things right now. So what can I change? The way that I feel about those things, how I show up in my personal response to everything that's happening around me. That is the only thing that I can change. So if I can't change my circumstances, what do I need to do? I need to change my response to my circumstances because life is all about mastering the reaction. That's it. You know, if you're stuck in traffic, if you have COVID going on, if somebody breaks up with you, if somebody dies, if, you know, hits the fan, whatever it is, all you can control is how you show up as a person. Now, does this work for the past? Because as I mentioned in the beginning of this episode, some people are still hold holding on to the past, even though the past is not in this present moment and the past will never be in this present moment. So does this work, this idea of can't change it for the past? Absolutely it does. Because if there's one thing that I'm sure of, it's that you don't have a fricking time machine. If there's one thing that I'm sure of, I mean, I'm actually, I'm not sure if you don't have a time machine because I don't go to your house, but you may have a time machine. Okay. I'm sure that I don't have a time machine. So if I'm worried and frustrated about things that happened to me in my past, I don't have a time machine. Maybe you do. I can't go back and change what happened to me in my past. That is one thing I'm sure of that can't change it is a hundred percent true for your past. Cause there's nothing that you can do unless you happen to be in, you know, back to the future and you have the car, you have a Delorean that'll take you back to the, back to the past, right? So no matter how mad I get, no matter how pissed, no matter how much I cry about my circumstances and judge myself for the way I act in the past. And I wish that I would have done it differently. I cannot change it and you can't change it either. So how many people listening to this episode right now are carrying an underlying bit of anger, frustration, worry, sadness, anxiety around something that happened to them in their past and they're ruining this current beautiful present moment that we're in by bringing a past moment into a beautiful present moment. Your worry, your fear, your anxiety, your stress, all of those crappy emotions will be in direct proportion to the amount that you're resisting the way that the world is. Your past happened and if you're anxious, if you're worried, if you're sad, if you're fearful, it's usually because you're thinking too much about something that you can't change in the past or something that you can't change in the present moment. Once again, too many people are ruining a beautiful present moment over something shitty that happened to them in their past or what they think could possibly happen to them in the future, which you can't change the future as well. So if you can't change it, why not just learn to love the present moment that you're in no matter the circumstances? Wouldn't it be nice just to be calm and peaceful and loving as much as you possibly can be? I don't know about you, but that sounds nice. I would love to be calm and peaceful and loving as much as I possibly can. But if I'm resisting and resisting and resisting the past and oh man, I should have said that. If I would have said that, she wouldn't have broken up with me and this wouldn't have happened or the present of, oh this, I'm in lockdown and COVID sucks and this thing and I'm tired of it. I don't want to be this way anymore. Can't change that either. Or the future, I can't change the future because the future is not here. The only thing that can change is the way that I think in this current moment and the way that I feel in this current moment. And if I can master my reaction to the stimulus in the response, that little reactions in the inside, I can go, okay, before I respond, let me think about how I want to respond. Let me take that little gap and make it just a little bit longer so that I can figure out what it is that I want and ask myself in this moment, am I okay? And 99.9% of the time when you ask yourself in this moment, am I okay? The answer is yes. Okay, that should calm me down a little bit. I'm okay in this present moment. Okay, next question. In 10 years, am I going to remember this moment? Most of the time, what you're freaking out about, you will not remember in 10 years. Why ruin a current, beautiful present moment with something that you won't remember in 10 years at all. You probably won't even remember it next week. It's literally means that little that you probably won't remember it last next week, but you're ruining a present moment because of it. You have at this moment, if you listen to this podcast, if you're watching this on YouTube or Facebook or Instagram, you have food, water, shelter, clothing, and probably a couple of people that love you. You're good. Like you're set. Just let that click into your brain because our brains always go into survival, survival, survival. Something's wrong. I've got to survive. Something's wrong. I got to survive. Reset it. Take yourself out of that moment. You've got food, water, shelter, clothing, a couple of people that love you at least, a couple of people that support you. You're good. Take this present moment, find out what you can enjoy with it, enjoy with it, and then put on a calm song. Find your song that's like your anxiety song, your frustration song, your worry song. When those emotions and those feelings come up, go to that one song over and over again. For me, it's been the same song for like 13 years at this point. The song is out of Africa theme song. It's just like this song that chills me and it's, I've been doing it for so long. I've basically trained my brain into calming itself down when I put that song on. I used to when I had an office and hundreds of sales are up to work under me and I would hit the fan. I would go into my office, I close the door and I'd put that song on and I'd just take some deep breaths and within four minutes I was like a complete state change. So in this moment, am I okay? So I can't change it, right? Okay, cool. In this moment, am I okay? I am. In 10 years, am I going to remember this moment? I probably won't. I have food, I have water, I have shelter, I have clothing, I have a few people that love me and I'm going to put on a song that's going to call me and I'm going to try to figure out a way to change my response to my current circumstances so that I can live in this beautiful moment and not ruin it. Because everything in your life you can barely control and if you can't control it and you can't change it, remind yourself of this episode, remind yourself of these steps, find the song and change your state into a beautiful state instead of getting yourself into a state of suffering. Hey, thanks so much for watching this video. If you want to learn even more about Master Your Mind, click right here and watch this video as well. I want you to think about the things that are making you anxious and ask yourself this question, do I have any control over those things?