Personal Accountability: The Key to Achieving Your Goals

Self-honesty is crucial for personal growth and achieving true potential.

### Embrace Brutal Honesty for Personal Growth and Success
* 🏃 This morning, I completed my cardio and reflected on my journey towards achieving **time and location freedom**, which stems from **financial independence**.
* 🌅 As I did my push-ups outside, I felt **immense gratitude for the lifestyle I once dreamed of**, realizing that the "**dream lifestyle**" is often just **a few honest steps away**.
* ✈ With plans to move to Miami, I acknowledged the challenges like shipping costs and parking issues, but I recognized these as "**good problems**" that come with success.
* 💪 I emphasized the importance of self-honesty, urging others to **stop lying to themselves about their efforts** and to **take responsibility for their actions**, as this accountability is **essential for growth**.
* 🔥 I shared that personal development occurs during the entrepreneurial journey, with every business challenge reflecting **internal growth**, and that achieving goals requires a **relentless pursuit of higher standards**.
* 💡 "You cannot simultaneously hold on to a **better version** and a **worse version** of you," highlighting that transformation requires **letting go of old habits**.
* 🚀 I encouraged others to **reset their standards continually** and to view every achievement as a **new norm**, pushing for **greater aspirations** without becoming complacent.
* 💖 Ultimately, I urged everyone to commit fully to their purpose, as true fulfillment comes from **contributing to others and striving for personal excellence**.

so it's 6:15. Just finished up my morning cardio, my active recovery. I got legs later today. I ran just a mile on the treadmill, but I did a lot of my hip flexor stretching, and I hit some abs, and I did some obliques. So I was in there for, you know, a solid hour. I got here at like 5:15, smashed my 425 wake up as usual. Made a YouTube Vlog for you guys yesterday that I'm going to be dropping tomorrow. I keep having these thoughts circulating in my head, you know, I just keep on pushing the goals out further and pushing the goals out further. But this morning, I walked outside to do my push-ups. I was looking up at the sky, and I was like, Man, I used to come out here every single day and pray and dream about this lifestyle that I have now, and now it just feels normal. The number one thing that I wanted was time and location freedom, and that really only comes through financial.

Freedom. I've gotten like four first-class flights in the past month. I'm going to Miami on Monday, then I'm coming back on Friday, and then I'm moving to Miami that next Wednesday and getting my TRX shipped down there because it costs more money for me to drive it down to Miami than it does for me to get it shipped. Going to go buy new furniture so I can deck out the condo. Got to go get my gym memberships when I get down there, and you know, there's some problems coming up here and there like my truck not fitting in the parking garage and you know, having to just sell all my stuff to tier because it's just a stupid amount of money for me to ship it. And I could pay it, but at the end of the day, I'm not a [ __ ] an idiot, and I'd rather just buy all new furniture. But all these problems that I'm having right now, just like small things like you know, getting getting

ready to pay like you know my quarterly taxes, like all these things that I'm having that like right now feel like such a problem, and the scheme of thinks it's a blessing because if you have to pay a lot of money in taxes, means you're making a lot of money, right? That's a blessing at the end of the day, that's a good problem to have. I've got to worry about moving my stuff down to Miami, that means I'm moving down to Miami, and that's been a goal of mine for two years. And I was just sitting there reflecting because it's like I always, as soon as I walk outside, I just get this feeling of gratitude washes over me. And I was like, man, like I used to do push-ups out here every morning in the freezing cold and like wish for a time like this. That dream lifestyle that you want, it's just on the other side of a

couple things. It's closer than you think, but you have to stop lying to yourself. You have to stop lying to yourself that you're putting in enough effort. You got to stop lying to yourself that you've done enough today, and you can just wait till tomorrow to do that one thing that you know you probably should have done first, but you put it off to last. You got to stop lying to yourself about the fact that it's not the best time to start yet. You got to stop lying to yourself about, you know, you can't start a coaching business because your physique is not good enough. You got to stop lying to yourself about the fact that your story isn't cool enough to document online and start a presence on social media. You got to stop lying to yourself about the fact that you know you're doing enough work because compared to all of your peers and all the people around you, you're a lot farther ahead of them than most people are, right? You got to stop lying

to yourself, acting like that's okay. I get very comfortable when I lie to myself, but where I was eight months ago and where I am now, there's a separation of effort, there's a separation of time, and there's a separation of the fact that I stopped lying to myself. And I'll be honest, it seems easy, seems comfortable to lie to yourself. You wake up and, Man, I didn't get enough sleep. It's so much smarter for me to just sleep in, go back to sleep right now, and then, you know, just get up. I'll be well-rested, and I'll be fresh, and then I'll start on my task that I wrote myself. It's really easy to act like that, to truly believe that, but bro, your subconscious isn't stupid. It knows, it knows that you should wake up at the time that you set your alarm. Doesn't matter if you didn't get eight hours of sleep. You told yourself that you were going to wake up at this time, and nothing matters more than your

word to yourself. You can keep lying to yourself and making yourself feel better, but you're just making yourself feel worse because your subconscious isn't stupid, bro. It knows you have more to give. It knows you have more accountability than that. It knows you have more consistency than that. It knows you're smarter than that. It knows that you know deep down, truly, that you need to start right now. It knows that you don't actually believe that you need to wait, that right now is not the best time to start, but you act like you believe that. You believe the little whispers that the worst version of you is telling you so that it doesn't die for you to become the best version of you. The best version of you is sitting inside of you, waiting. It comes out when you push yourself to the max physically, when you push yourself to the max mentally, when you get those mental, physical, and spiritual wins throughout the day. And you're pushing yourself, he starts to reveal himself. You

start to get in a higher state of frequency. You get more energy, your thought process is better, you start to have more drive, you start to have more ambition towards your goals, and it starts to come out. But every time you lie, you're just covering it back up. You're just covering it back up. You're just telling your potential, No, I don't want you right now. I'm okay with what I have. To become a version of you that you've never been, you have to destroy the version of you that you've always been. You cannot simultaneously hold on to a better version and a worse version of you. You have to replace the bad habits with good ones that become building blocks to your success, and that doesn't come without brutal honesty. And it's so easy to just lie to yourself in the moment. It's so easy. But you gain so much freedom when instead of lying, you just take responsibility for your actions. Just take responsibility. You'll realize that it actually becomes a hundred times easier when you just admit that it's

your fault. It's not somebody else's fault. Someone else isn't the reason why you can't wake your ass up in the morning. It's not because of where you live. It's not because of some YouTuber's video that you stayed up watching last night. That's your fault, dude. It's your fault. How long are you going to just live in a web of lies? And it's tough to hear. It's tough to look at yourself in the mirror and be like, Wow, I'm just lying to myself. Everything I'm doing, I'm lying to myself. I've been there. I've been there plenty of times. I still catch myself during the day, Oh, bro, like you've done enough. You can take it off now. That scares me. That scares me because I know just like in life, one little white lie turns into a massive accumulation of lies, a massive accumulation of lies, and you'll find yourself in this huge sedentary trap of movement with no progress. You feel like you're moving.

around but you're not going forward. You're just running in place, brother. What the [__] is the point of expending energy trying to solve all these problems, putting yourself under stress, having all these goals but not moving? And that's what happens when you lie to yourself. The best time to start your business is right now. The personal development will come during the process. Entrepreneurship is the greatest personal development that you could have because every single time you get to a bottleneck in your business, that bottleneck is not solved until you solve something within yourself. Your business is an external representation of you, just like your physique is an external representation of your mind. All of these things that we're able to carry that aren't really given. I mean, you can give a business, but you can't really give a piece of you, right? I can't go buy this physique. I work for this [__] physique every morning, every single day. I work for this physique every single two hours when I'm tracking my meals, when I am tracking my

macros, and I'm locking that in. I work for this physique because I have to hold myself to the highest level so that my fitness clients can walk the same path as me. In business, there's decisions I don't want to make, there's times when I want to get up and stop working, there's calls that I don't want to take, there's people that sometimes I just don't want to help. But if I truly want to walk in alignment with my mission of helping as many men as I can achieve financial, physical, and mental freedom, expanding them into the greatest version of themselves they can be, I have to hold myself to an even higher standard. 'Cause if I slip, you guys fall. That's why I wake up at 4:25 still. There's entrepreneurs out there, and they're like, Oh, I break all the rules of entrepreneurship. I wake up at 3:00 p.m. and I stay up till 5:00 a.m. And I'm

eating KFC. That okay doesn't mean I have any less respect for those people, but for me, I don't know about you, for me, I feel like a failure if I don't do the work. I feel like a loser if I don't flip over every single stone. I might still be as successful without doing those things, but up here, I would crumble because I'm not pushing myself to the highest standard. Everyone does all these things to become successful, and then they stop all those traits, and they wonder why they stay stagnant. I wonder why you stopped laying the building blocks for your success, so you started to stay at the exact same level, and that's okay for people that like to just make a little bit of progress and stay there, but for me, I can't. I have to be the greatest version I can. I have to help more people. I have to make more money. I have to make more sacrifices. I have to hold myself to an

even higher standard. I have to set unreasonable expectations for myself 'cause I can't be one foot here and one foot here. I'm either two feet, both arms, my whole head and body in, or I'm out. I'm out. I have to be in because if I'm not growing at an exponential rate, I'm dying. Every piece of me has to be full-fledged in motion towards the greater part of me that I'm achieving. And the more work I put in, the faster that [ __ ] runs. The more effort, the more time I put in, the better I get, the faster that [ __ ] runs. Because if he doesn't, it becomes easier for me to catch him. My goals have to get bigger. My goals have to get more insurmountable. My goals have to get more insane, or I'll crumble. And I cannot get there by lying to myself because it'd be a lie if I told myself, Oh bro, just push the wake up to 7:00 a.m. I've thought about it lots of

times I could still make the same amount of money. I guarantee you. I guarantee you. And that's almost even harder than when I started this. And I correlated the fact that if I missed my wakeup, I was never going to be successful. That's how badly I wanted it. I convinced myself that if I missed my wakeup, I would never be successful. And that's how I made sure that I didn't miss. And for some of you guys, that's too farfetched. But guess what? I'm [ __ ] farfetched because my goals are farfetched. And I'll do anything that it takes, anything that is required of me to achieve them. And unless you have that mindset, you're not going to get where I am. But I want you to. I want you to beat me. Otherwise, what kind of teacher am I? Because if people aren't using me as a stepping stone to stand on my shoulders to achieve Greater Heights, then I've done nothing. A lot of these coaches out here, they want to just stay above you.

and just feed off of you. I want other people to feed off of me. I have to be a key component in others' success. I know it will benefit me long term, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what benefit I get from it if I'm not contributing to others, if I'm not contributing to something greater than me. Again, I'm dying, and it's so easy. I can literally be like, Man, I could wake up at s, and I'll tell myself, Oh, you would work so much better. You'd be able to stay up a little bit later 'cause, bro, I'll be honest, I'm a night owl. I stayed up for so many years all night long, 4:00 a.m., right? Just thinking, having thoughts, sneaking out, just going on drives, all this stuff. My best and most creative thoughts come in the middle of the night, and I bet I could get so much work done during those hours, but if I don't sacrifice in the morning, my vices come.

knocking at my door. If I don't sacrifice in the morning, Laz comes knocking at my door. If I don't sacrifice in the morning and instantly start taking mental, physical, spiritual winds, greed comes knocking at my door. Temptation comes knocking at my door, and unless I'm fully suited up with the armor of the Winds I took previously in the day, I'll be devoured by those Temptations. And that's just me knowing myself. One of the most important things in entrepreneurship, one of the most important things in personal development, is to know thyself. 'Cuz if you don't even know yourself, you don't know how to keep moving forward. It's just a guessing game, and this is not a guessing game. This is about collecting data and acting in the smartest way on that data so that you can most efficiently and effectively move forward. And if you're not doing that, brother, what are you doing? Consuming energy, consuming food, consuming media, just consuming, consuming, consuming. We are beings of creation. The reason why you don't move forward if you're not creating is

because we have to be an outflow of energy, not an inflow. The information that we take in, we must repackage, recreate, and put out in a greater format. Otherwise, you feel like your presence on this Earth is pointless. That's why we have children, that's why we create businesses, that's why we solve problems. But in a world of laziness, lies comfort, everyone lying to themselves thinking it's okay to act on all these foolish impulses. That's why men are struggling, that's why men can't even make any money, can't even hold yourself to a higher standard to wake up earlier. Come on now, some of you guys listen to this, you think you're past that, but you're not. I promise you, you're not. I make $50,000 a month, I'm not past that. I wake up every morning, still would do the exact same morning routine that I did when I had less than $1,000.

in my bank account. That's why I continue to progress at the rate that I do. I mean, I might not be as big as other creators, but that wasn't my goal. My goal is to help as many people as I possibly can. I could make content that I would just like strategically placed to go viral, but I'd feel empty. I might make more money, but I'd feel empty. So, I'm not in line with my mission. My mission is to genuinely pour out into every single person that comes across my videos on YouTube, whether it be on Instagram, watching my stories during the day, seeing my morning push-ups at 4:25. Everyone that comes to me for coaching, whether it be for fitness coaching, whether it be to scale their business to $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 a month online, whether it be for my one-on-one mentorship to where they can personal develop and develop their finances, because your lifestyle will never exceed your level of personal development, no matter what you're doing.

here my goal is to provide, but brother, you can't achieve that level. You can't achieve that mindset. I can't achieve that mindset if I'm lying to myself. I have to constantly look myself in the eyes, look myself in the mirror, and face the blunt truth. And it hurts, but as soon as you accept, as soon as I accept, I take responsibility for this situation. I take responsibility for these consequences. I take responsibility for these actions. It no longer hurts 'cause I can accept exactly what is in front of me, and now I can change. The reason you're in so much pain and turmoil when you lie to yourself is because you're trying to believe that you're not the reason. And if you're not the reason, why would you change? If it's external, why would you change? You have to understand that it is internal. Find a solution to every problem and stop looking for a problem in every single solution. The work that you do will work on you more than you will work on it. Don't work on work just for the

outcome or the income work on work for what it's going to do to you. The things it's going to move inside of you. Stop lying to yourself. Take accountability for your actions. It doesn't matter where you are. The very first step that you have to take. And brother, I'm not speaking to those who are just trying to break their porn addiction. Brother, I'm talking to those who have already been making progress and are complacent in the fact that you made money online. You're making $10,000 a month, right? You've got some fitness clients. You've got a social media following. And you're comfortable. You're lying to yourself again, thinking it's all good because you acted on the goals a little bit, but you never reset your standard. Thinking it's okay because maybe you're close to your dream lifestyle. How long is that going to last? How long's that fulfillment going to last? That car doesn't feel very fun anymore. Sometimes it does, but you don't

get that same feeling when you go out to eat. You don't have to look at the bill anymore. That's nice. But what's next? Have access to the women that you wanted before. That's nice. But at the end of the day, you fall asleep next to a woman that doesn't actually know you, doesn't actually know your heart. What's next? Your business is growing, but like, are you fulfilled? What's next? Only so many supercars you can get. It's nice. I want a supercar. I'm going to get a supercar at the end of the year. But at the end of the day, if you're empty, if your heart's empty, if your mind isn't constantly being quenched by the fact that you're fulfilling yourself eternally through pouring out into others and holding yourself to a higher standard, what does it matter? Take action now. Reset your standard every single time you get to a new level. Stop celebrating, stop even celebrating big wins that you get, and make that your norm. Oh, made 12K yesterday. Normal. Did

like 20K last week. Yeah, I should be doing 30, right? It's a slippery slope. You can start to compare yourself to others, but I don't compare myself to others. I compare myself to me, the version I know I could be. And then I don't get upset because I'm not being like, Oh, I wish I had what they had. I'm knowing, Man, I'm not giving it all that I do have. And once you make that change and you fully commit to it and you dive all the way in to what you were put on this Earth to do, nobody can stop you. I love you boys. Stay aggressive.

How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome When You Go All In | Aggression Talk Ep. 63

JohnMarkStevenson

The speaker has completed their morning cardio and is preparing for a move to Miami, reflecting on the journey to their current lifestyle.

They express gratitude for their achievements and emphasize the importance of financial freedom for achieving time and location independence.

The speaker encourages others to stop lying to themselves about their efforts and to take action towards their goals.

Lying to yourself may seem comfortable, but it only creates a separation from your goals and potential.

Your subconscious knows the truth and craves accountability and consistency.

To become a better version of yourself, you must confront your lies, take responsibility for your actions, and replace bad habits with good ones.

The Importance of Commitment in Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is a powerful tool for personal development, as business challenges reflect internal struggles.

Holding oneself to a high standard is crucial for success, as it sets the tone for helping others and achieving personal goals.

Continuous effort and setting increasingly ambitious goals are essential for growth and avoiding stagnation.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of a strong mindset and discipline in achieving goals, correlating success with waking up early.

They express a desire to help others succeed and contribute to something greater than themselves.

The speaker highlights the need for self-awareness and data-driven decision-making in personal development and entrepreneurship.

The Importance of Being an Outflow of Energy

We must repurpose and share the energy and information we take in, or else our existence feels pointless.

Many struggle due to laziness and self-deception, but personal growth and success come from taking responsibility and facing the truth.

The speaker's mission is to help others through coaching and mentorship, emphasizing that personal development is key to achieving a better lifestyle.

The Importance of Accountability and Continuous Growth

Taking accountability for your actions is crucial, regardless of your current success.

Complacency can lead to a lack of fulfillment, even after achieving financial and personal milestones.

It's essential to reset your standards and continuously strive for growth, rather than celebrating big wins and comparing yourself to others.