Why You Lost Your Initiative (And How to Get It Back)

You know, I think I may have stumbled upon, one of the most underrated superpowers there is. And truthfully, it's something that nobody even talks about. It's initiative. Not talent, not intelligence, not connections. Initiative. When's the last time you, you thought about initiative? And once I started thinking about it, I realized that initiative may be the starting point of almost every success that you and I have ever had, and the absence of it is probably the reason why we've grown complacent. All hands raised Look, everybody talks about discipline. Everybody talks about motivation. Everybody talks about confidence. But bro, hardly anybody ever talks about initiative. Why? Because initiative is basically invisible. Nobody congratulates you for taking the initiative. There ain't no trophy. There's no applause. It's simply doing the right things without being told what to do. Initiative is permissionless, and this is where I think people get trapped. People have initiative when they start something. You have had initiative. You got the promotion, you lost weight, you got the relationship, you built better credit You created a new opportunity. So when that was ahead of you, you fought for it, you attacked it, and you got it But then you got comfortable, and that comfort slides into complacency And when complacency is at the forefront, initiative is gone. It's died away I don't think people fail because they didn't have initiative. I think they fail because they stop exercising it Initiative is like a muscle. You gotta use it. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. When you ignore it, it gets weaker. It atrophies You don't lose initiative overnight. You lose it because you stopped using it And just like any muscle, you, you don't build muscle by reading about it. You build it by stressing it, by working it out, by adding That tension every single day. Bro, it, it's the most underrated superpower there is. I'm telling you, when you bring this to the forefront and you really think about this, listen to this episode maybe a few times, and really begin to put initiative at the forefront of your mind, but then start exercising it, oh my God, watch what it creates. Initiative just doesn't produce results. It produces qualities. These qualities are like boldness because with initiative, you're willing to move first. You're not waiting on perfect conditions. It creates courage because you act before you're certain. Like everybody else is sitting on the sideline, everybody else is like talking about, theorizing what they're gonna do, and you're just like, "No." You bust a move. You're not reckless. You're bold. You're courageous because you're, you're exercising that initiative. Initiative creates curiosity where you're like, "Hmm." Everybody else is expressing… They're making statements of doubt, and you're turning those statements into curiosity and you're like, " What if? Well, well let's try. What if?" And you go on this exploration. Initiative creates creativity where you use what you got instead of bitching about what you don't have. You just, you find these little nuggets along the way. It's that childlike curiosity, man, that we long to go back to. It's all through initiative And because you're trying these things and you're courageous, you're bold, you're curious, you're creative it also forges your faith Because you act without any guarantee. You don't even know how it's gonna play out. But you develop a trust in yourself that, " Shit, I'll figure it out. I'm gonna be all right." That's what initiative does. These are the qualities that you get. It's permissionless. You don't need anybody to give you these things. You can't read about them. You gotta earn them along the way. But oh my God, how your whole life is gonna change, and the benefits that you get with it See, every time you take initiative, it exposes you to new experiences. These experiences, you develop a- another, a new skill set and adapt it to your old skill set. You develop new ways of thinking and figuring it out. You, you deepen your curiosity. You use your creativity. these experiences give you better, better judgment. You make better decisions, and you create bigger opportunities. You draw on other experiences,'cause these just compound. And bro, these opportunities come from areas that y- you didn't even foresee. I mean, like, you were like, "In a million years, I wouldn't have ever dreamed this." You develop higher connections with people because people start gravitating to you 'cause it's like, man, you, you're the get it done kinda guy. It's like GSD across your chest, get shit done, And because you're bold, you're courageous, you're creative, you're curious, you have a faith about you, like you just figure it out It opens you up to more experiences. It creates other opportunities which bear more responsibility, but people wanna give you responsibility. That responsibility creates influence, and this is where people start calling you a leader. Not because somebody promoted you, but because people naturally gravitate to people who consistently take the initiative That's what initiative will do for you. That's what initiative is waiting to do for you. But first, you gotta bust a move. You gotta do the right things without being told what to do This is why I finally understand why Napoleon Hill in The Law of Success, chapter four, why he paired initiative with leadership. When I first read that, I'm like,"What is initiative and leadership? Why are those two paired together?" This is where I realized, you can have a title without initiative, but you can't become a leader without it Leadership starts long before somebody gave you the authority Leadership begins the moment you consistently lead yourself So here's my challenge As soon as you hear this Before you try to unhatch this grand plan or anything, just ask yourself and see it in the moment, where can I take initiative today? Where can I take initiative, like, right now? You take things on. It's doing the right things without being told what to do So you do things not because somebody expects you to, not because somebody asks you to, not because you're being paid for it Because that's who you're becoming you keep the initiative always at the forefront of your mind. See, everybody else they're waiting to be told what to do because they've lost their initiative. They went for something, they relaxed, they got comfortable, they have no initiative. And now they're just being told what to do, and they get yanked around and, and this is why people have a very unsettled, very average, frustrating life. They lost the initiative. Again, it's a muscle. Never lose that initiative again. You hear this, and the good news is you don't have to announce it to anybody. You don't have to take anything on that's, like, monumental. You just have to see the opportunity, see where you can just bust a move. Is this the right thing to do? I'm not gonna wait for anybody else. Do it. Boom. Bold. Boom. Courage. How can I be creative? What question-- Instead of making a statement of doubt, how can I turn this into a question? I, I don't know how this is gonna play out, but I know I'm gonna be all right. And the experience it opens you up to and the opportunities it opens you up to, oh my God, mind-blowing. That's why I say, man, it's an underrated superpower. It's the greatest underrated superpower. Everybody's got it. Very few are using it. You will. So just spot it. Love to hear about it. I'm on all the socials. DM me, man. Where did you take initiative? Where have you done it consistently? And I hope sometime down the road that you'll say, " I took the initiative, and I was consistently taking the initiative, and I began to lead myself, and that leading of myself opened me up and exposed me to more experiences, more opportunities." And then others began to see the results in my own life because I was running my own race and people gravitated to that, and then I got to help them. And then as I helped them, they told more people about it, and this thing get bigger and bigger and bigger. That's what a true leader is. But first, you gotta start with yourself. All right, let's get out of here. Keep it simple. Keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough. Peace.