Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello, warrior Kings, and welcome to the Warrior Kings podcast. I'm your host, Michael Riggs, here to assist you on your journey to unlocking masculinity, manliness and the warrior spirit within an overall leveling up your life. So again, welcome. Welcome to the podcast. Dude, I just saw a thing called Armored MMA. Why didn't anybody tell me about this? It's MMA in an octagon in full suits of armor with swords and everything. Like knights, like medieval knights battling each other. And I think I just figured out what I want to do with my life. I mean, seriously, dude, I would do that all day long. You're telling me that we can put on suits of armor and battle each other with swords as a sport? Why isn't this everywhere? I mean, I don't know, maybe that's just me. That's like my dream come true, my childhood dream come true. And while we're at it, can we bring back professional jousting too? Because I would love to splinter some lances right across somebody's armored face. Wow. You know what I'm saying?
[00:00:55] But armored MMA, like, where do I sign up? And yeah, man, that's completely new to me. I'm gonna get into that. So if you're new here, my name is Michael Riggs. I'm a full time author, artist and entrepreneur, husband and father of five, and I say all of the things that most men don't want to hear. So if you're not into that, hey, don't subscribe to this podcast. But if you are, if you want to level up every aspect of your life as a man, stick around. Subscribe to this content. Because I impart wisdom every week to men all over the world to assist them in leveling up their lives and discover who they are as men. So push that subscribe button and today I'm going to be sharing with you some success secrets, some things that changed my own mindset over the years. Being an entrepreneur, pursuing many different paths, a couple of things that I had to realize to really begin growing and the things that I was pursuing, that's what we're going to be talking about today. Things that changed my own perspective. And I'm hoping that they can change your perspective too, because I want you to be successful, right? So maybe I can teach you these things before you have to learn them the hard way. And yeah, like I said, we're going to be talking about how I didn't see real growth in my own pursuits until I realized these principles and began applying them. And you know, when it comes to, to success. Everybody wants some form of success in their lives, whatever that means to them, the definition of success. And it's different for every person. Like, my definition of success is completely different than yours. But we all have an idea of success, a place that we want to be, a level that we want to reach in our lives and our businesses and everything like that. And I believe that these principles can be applied to any definition of success. Whatever your definition of success is, this is going to make it a whole lot easier for you to attain that dream, that vision, that thing that you're going after, that level that you want to reach in your life and whatever aspect that is, whether it be in your personal life, your business, anything like that, wherever we're trying to reach success is going to make it a whole lot easier for you. So I'm glad that you're here today, dude. And if you are that guy, someone who's seeking to break through, someone who is seeking success in your pursuits, in your endeavors, especially if you're someone who strives nonstop to make those visions come to life, those dreams to come true, this episode is definitely for you. So, yeah, man, let's dive right into it. I'm someone who gets really, really obsessed with my pursuits. To say that I am hardworking or a hard worker would be a massive understatement. When I have a vision or a dream or a new pursuit or a business idea or anything like that, I get obsessed with that. I work morning to night. Every waking minute, my mind is racing about that thing. And I'm not necessarily saying that that's a good thing here. And we're going to get into why in just a little bit. For example, my first year of being an author, a self published author, I wrote, formatted, edited, published, and promoted eight whole novels. That first year of being a self published author, I wrote and published, published eight books, full length novels. And that was all as a one man operation. I didn't have somebody formatting the book. I didn't have a team behind me. I didn't have a publisher. I didn't have somebody to promote the book. I had to figure all this out on my own. And I figured it out by working morning to night and obsessing over that thing and making it happen. And I've also started multiple businesses. And when I begin to pursue a new path, a new dream, a new journey, a new vision, I tend to go really, really hard at it. Like I said, I work on that thing every waking moment. When I have a vision, or a dream or a new person. I don't stop until I make that thing happen. And that thing, for whatever time I'm doing it or pursuing it, becomes an obsession. And I'm always striving and striving and striving to make something work, to make it work, to make it happen. I've taken absolutely nothing and made it this huge something several times. That's one of my personal talents, is I can take nothing and make it everything. Like I take literally nothing and make it an entire business or an entire vision or dream come to light or come true. And from lack of a better way to say it, I manifest that thing into reality by going, going nonstop until it happens. I've also spent every dollar that I had to make something happen, to make a dream come true, to make a pursuit successful. And I'm not encouraging you to go and do that. But the point that I'm making here is that I will go to extreme measures and strive, strive, strive to make a thing happen, to make a dream come to light, to make it real, to make it successful. And to my surprise, I didn't start to see real growth in my businesses and in my pursuits until I learned to let go, to not strive as hard. You know, I learned to strive a little less. So that's what we're going to be talking about today. I hope you're well, wherever you are, I hope you're killing it. And all of your dreams, all of your pursuits, all of your endeavors, I hope you're really out there going and getting it. You know, I want you to be successful in every aspect of your life. That's why I do this podcast, that's why I'm here talking to you today. That's why I believe that I'm actually reaching men all over the world now, which was my vision in the very beginning. And starting this podcast was to help men all over the world level up every aspect of their lives. So I'm so glad that you're here today receiving this information and we're in this together, man. You're on this journey, I'm on this journey. We're in it together and we're going to figure this out thing out. So the first thing that I want to talk to you about today is gratitude or being grateful. See, a lot of the times, especially as entrepreneurs or people with a dream, people with a vision, someone who's really going for something. We tend to focus on the big picture, and it's easy to not recognize the small wins along the way. There's this end result, this endgame, this big picture that. It's like, once I finally get there, once I finally achieve this thing and make it successful, then I have the permission to be happy. Then I have the permission to be accomplished. We have this big picture vision that's already off in some distant future. Maybe it's right around the corner. You feel like it's right about to happen. You're right on the cusp, right? We're always right on the cusp. It's about to happen, that big picture vision. And right now I'm going to be miserable because I haven't reached that level or that point that I'm striving for, that big picture end result. And like I said, we tend to not recognize the small wins along the way. And once we start to recognize those small wins along the way, along that journey, the more we can feel accomplished and fulfilled in the work that we're doing. And we won't be striving so hard for that end result because we'll see how awesome we're doing right now. I'm killing it right now. I'm really doing it right now. And wherever you are on your path, you can recognize very easily, probably, if you were to do the thinking work, if you were to do the thoughtwork that the numbers that you have right now, at some point in the past, were numbers that you had dreamed of before. Like, I can't wait till I hit 500. I can't wait till I hit a thousand. I can't wait till I hit 10,000, you know, whatever the number is. There was a time where you didn't have those numbers, and now that you have them, you should be celebrating that and feeling good about that and looking towards the future in a more positive way, where it's not like, gosh, I am striving, striving, striving, and nothing is happening. Why aren't the numbers going up? I only have 10,000. Whatever it is, whatever that number is. Those numbers become the new normal, like, as we're growing in that thing. Let's say, for example, you have a YouTube channel. Maybe that's your thing. You want to be successful on YouTube, which many people do, and you want to reach 100,000 subscribers, but you only have 10,000, 20,000. Let's say you only have 500, dude, and you're like, at 1.5. Hundred was the goal at one point, a thousand was the goal. At 1.10,000 was the goal. You're, like, trying, trying to get there. But then once you reach, reach that number, whatever that number is along the way, every time that the numbers go up, those numbers become the new normal to you, right? And they kind of feel a bit smaller because you're always looking for the next level, the next thousand, the next 10,000, the next hundred thousand, whatever the number is for you. And it's taking a break, taking a pause, being in the present moment and saying, wow, 10,000, wow, 500. I wanted this number so bad before. This is awesome. I'm going to celebrate that. And you have permission to be happy and accomplished right now. You can feel accomplished right now. You can feel like you're killing it right now. You're not only allowed to feel accomplished and to feel fulfilled after you reach that big picture vision, the end game, the end result, the ultimate vision. And who knows, maybe you'll reach that ultimate big picture vision and then that number will be the new normal. It's like, how do I get to 2 million now? How do I get to 5 million? You understand what I'm saying? We have the tendency to let the success become the new normal, and then there's just another level after that. So it's about gratitude, being grateful for what we have right now. If you have 500 subscribers and you want 100,000, just be grateful for the 5500 subscribers. Is 500 what I said? I think so. If you have a thousand, be grateful for the thousand. If you have a million, be grateful for that. Quit striving for that end result big picture. Stop only striving for that big picture end results. Be grateful for what you have right now and realize that that was just a dream not that long ago. And now you have it and celebrate that. And the thing about being grateful, the thing about gratitude is that it cultivates abundance. And I'm not going to get too much into the spiritual side of that, the spiritual aspect of that right now. But there is a spiritual side of that, spiritual aspect of that. That the more that you're satisfied with what you have, thankful for what you have, grateful for what you have, you will see increase in everything in your life. Like if you just take a minute and look around at your house, even if it's not that big picture in result mansion that you want, or apartment in the city or whatever it is that you want, whatever success means to you, if you just take a minute where you are right now and look around and be like, wow, I'm right here, right now. This is awesome. Like, how do I have all of this? This is amazing. This makes me feel good, you know, gratitude. Feel that gratitude in every fiber of your being, and you will begin to see increases in your life. Because if you're not happy with what you have right now, why would you be given more? You understand what I'm saying? Like, you have to be grateful for where you're at right now, what you have right now to see increase in your life. And it's a mystery to me, dude. I'm not saying that I know exactly why that is or what it means, and it's not a formula. It just tends to be that way. That the more grateful you are from my own personal experience, the more you will see increase in your life, in your endeavors, in your pursuits. Be grateful for where you are right now and for what you are doing right now, the level that you're at. Unless you're in some sort of nightmare situation. Like, I know that some people go through terrible things. They live in terrible places and in terrible circumstances. I'm not saying that, like, if it's really, truly, honestly terrible and dangerous and scary, that you should be grateful for that. But on some level, maybe you can be grateful for some things. Like you have feet that walk you. You have lungs that breathe, that you have eyes that see that you are alive today. You understand what I'm saying? Just gratitude cultivates abundance. It cultivates growth. It cultivates increase. Be grateful for what you have while you have it and stop focusing only on that end result, that end super mega awesome dream. Feeling like that. You can't even be happy until you get there. And kind of like I mentioned before, it will never be over. There's never a real big picture in game result. Like, if you reached 5 million, you would wonder how to get to 10 million. It never ends. Like the next level. The next level. The next level. I think that while we're at these smaller levels in the beginning, if we learn to be grateful for what we have right now, imagine how grateful we will be when we reach those big millions, those big numbers, that end result, big picture vision, because we've trained ourselves to be grateful for that, right? I'm not going to get to what was once my ultimate dream and feel unhappy. Still. I've taught myself to be happy along the way with what I have, even back when I had nothing. Don't make the mistake that once you finally reach a certain point in your life, a certain point in your journey, that end result, big picture vision, that you will finally have the permission to be happy. You need to be happy right now. You know, maybe someday you'll realize that nothing can make you happy, that you're insatiable. You don't want to be insatiable, man. You want to be full. You want to feel full. You want to feel full all the time. Hungry and full. I'm ready to go and get it, and I'm just super happy where I am. Like, if it never works out the way that I want it to, I'm still super awesome, and life is still super awesome. Like, that's what it's all about, being grateful for what we have, right? And like I said, gratitude cultivates abundance. Gratitude multiplies abundance. Gratitude cultivates increase in our lives because it is a high vibration, positive, spiritual thing to feel grateful for what you have while you have it. It's all happening right now. Enjoy the journey. And I know that that's one of those cliche phrases that people say, but I think that it's one of those cliche phrases, and it took off so much, and you hear it all the time because it's actually really good advice to enjoy the journey. The reason why that's an affirmation on, you know, little house decor and stuff like that is because it's a good reminder. You know, you can't discredit that because it became a cheesy, cliche thing. You should enjoy the journey and be reminded of that. Remind yourself of that. There have been multiple times in my life and in my own journey that I thought that I was miserable, that I thought that I was striving, that I thought nothing was working. I felt desperate and hopeless. And now looking back, those were some of the best times in my life, some of the best periods in my life. Some of the times that you look back and you're like, if I could only just go back there for a minute and just feel that again, be in that again, you know, everything that was happening outside of my striving now not being there is romanticized in my mind, and I was just missing it because I was striving, striving, striving the whole time, trying to make something work, and I wasn't making it. And then the numbers weren't going up, and I felt desperate and hopeless. And I'm like, wow, if I had just looked around me, that was a beautiful, awesome time. What a time to be alive. We see this ultimate vision in the future, this in game result, and we forget what we have right here, right now. And the next thing that I want to talk to you about today is letting go, and we will be talking about that right after this quick ad break. Thank you guys. Stick around. Hey, what's up, dudes? I'm just cutting in here for a quick second. If you didn't know, this podcast is sort of an extension of my book warrior, unlocking masculinity, manliness and the warrior spear within. That's what inspired me to do this podcast and expand on that work further because I wrote the book to teach men all over the world how to level up their lives as men, what it means to be a man, what it means to be a super awesome guy. And this book is seven levels to become your best self as a man and what it means to be a mandehead, all that sort of stuff. The seven levels in the book are the primal, the listener, the wise man, the lover, the protector, the warrior and the king. Through these seven levels, you will learn pretty much everything I learned on my own journey, from my life falling apart, being a nightmare in my own life, to leveling up my life and becoming the best possible version of myself that I could be. And now I'm living my dream life. I'm married to my dream wife. We have three awesome sons together. Life couldn't be better. So I want to teach you how to level up every aspect of your life. This podcast is free wherever you're getting it. I'm glad you're here getting this information, but if you want to expand on this journey further, the warrior King book is a great starting point to leveling up your life as a man. So if that's something that you're into, definitely check it out. And it could be the starting points, you breaking through and accepting yourself and believing in yourself as a man. And now let's get right back into this episode. Hey, welcome back. So now we're going to be talking about letting go. So like I talked about in the beginning of the episode, I'm a guy who strives and goes too hard. And morning tonight works on a new pursuit, a new dream, a new vision. I get obsessed with it. I don't stop working. I work all the time. And I'm still pretty bad about that to this day when I have a new pursuit or a new dream or new vision, like this podcast for example. Now I'm at the point where I have multiple endeavors, multiple dreams, multiple visions of businesses going all at once, which only increase the work. And so it is really morning tonight. I'm constantly going. Sometimes in my sleep I'm dreaming about the things that I'm pursuing and the work that I'm doing. And I very recently learned that all of that stress and all of that striving and all of that trying to go harder, harder, harder isn't actually making anything happen any faster. And that might go in against everything that your logic tells you, right? Like, if I need to make this thing happen, I need to be going, going, going nonstop. And that's how I felt. And that's still on a lot of levels how I feel. But to my surprise, when I let go a little bit, when I stepped back and relaxed and stopped striving, striving, striving, going, trying to force it to happen, I actually began to see things take off and grow. I actually saw increase in the numbers. I've seen the numbers go up. I've seen the income go up, right. And I say to my surprise, because like I said, it goes against everything that my logic tells me as an entrepreneur to go, go, go to make the thing happen right now. I mean, if you're somebody who's really gone after something, you know that we gotta go, go, right? I mean, life isn't forever. We don't got forever to make this thing happen. And we've made sacrifices to make this thing happen, so we gotta make it happen. We feel like if we're not going morning tonight, we're not making any progress and we're not making the thing happen. But I'm telling you right now that very recently I began to let go. I began to relax. I began to not strive as hard to take a more casual approach. You understand what I'm saying? And to my surprise, that's when I started seeing things take off. I started seeing those numbers go up. I think that that striving, striving, striving is actually fear and disbelief. And I have to make it happen because it's not going to happen. I'm not believing in it happening, so I have to make it happen. I don't have faith that the thing is going to work out, so I have to make it happen. I better be going, going, going nonstop. And so I let go. I stepped back. I relaxed a little bit. I stopped striving as hard. And ever since then, numbers have been rising. If you're listening to this or watching this right now, you are here listening and watching to this because my numbers have been going up because I've actually been reaching men all over the world with these messages. You're here today because I let go because I had faith that this thing was going to work out. That it has a purpose, that there's a purpose for this thing, that it's my purpose. I step back, let go, relax. And the numbers started rising. Another thing is everything happens in the proper timing. Like if I assess my life from young adult until now, I can see that it's all part of a story that's playing out and leading me somewhere. Like we talked about before in past episodes, you'll have many different purposes along the way that are leading to your ultimate purpose. And it's all happening in a certain timing. It's almost like it's been written for you. I don't believe that that's how it works. I don't think that we have like a pre destined destiny that's laid out for us and we're just living it out like robots. No. But I do feel like everything is happening in a certain timing. And if I look back, also some of my dreams and endeavors of the past that I wanted to happen so bad. And I was striving, striving, striving for and working hard every day, morning, tonight, wondering why it wasn't working. If those things had worked out then I wouldn't be where I am right now. So I was kind of being protected from those things. Everything happens in the proper timing. In the right timing. You understand what I'm saying? There's certain times in my life that if I had been a multimillionaire like I wanted to be at the time, I would have just crashed and burned and ruined my own life because I didn't even know half of what I know now. And I wouldn't have been able to handle it. I wouldn't have been able to handle that level of success. And in the end, those things that I pursued, I don't want to be doing those things anyways. I have no interest in those pursuits or endeavors anymore. So it's trusting the timing. It's trusting God's timing. It's trusting that everything is going to work out and have faith in that. Instead of step back, stop striving as hard. And I'm not, and I'm not telling you not to work hard at going after your dreams. You have to work every day to make your dreams happen and come true, to make a vision come to life. You have to work hard every day to make that happen. What I'm saying is mostly the internal struggle, the striving that got to make it happen right now mentality. It's more of an internal thing. It's. I have to let go a little bit and just watch it happen. I have to have faith, faith in this thing and that it's going to work out and that it's going to happen someday. Faith and belief make things happen. If you want to know about the power of, I have some episodes about that, so I'm not going to get too far into that right now. Maybe I'll do another episode soon. But belief is how things happen. There's so much power in belief and you're striving and you're trying to force it to happen is fear. It's disbelief. It's not having the faith that it's going to work. It's saying, I have to make it work, right? I got this. I got to make this thing happen. And I really think that that comes from a place of fear and disbelief and self doubt. Because if we believed in ourselves fully and we had confidence in our endeavors, we wouldn't be striving so hard. It would be effortless. It would be like, it's just happening. I don't know how it's happening. It's just happening. It's just working and having that faith to step back and relax and stop striving so hard, still working hard, but, you know, up here in the head, not striving so hard. Not forcing so hard. Just having faith that it's going to work. From my own experience, I have seen great increase in my endeavors and in my pursuits, so I highly encourage you to try it. And, you know, I was watching a Myron golden talk recently, and I don't have direct quotes from it because this is just coming off my memory. But he recalled asking a really successful guy, he's like, are you trying to be successful? And the guy kind of laughed and was like, nope. And Myron golden said the same thing. He's like, I'm not trying. I'm not striving. Like I said, this isn't direct quotes. This is just from my memory. But he said, I'm not trying or striving to be successful. I just am. It's effortless. I just have faith in the thing and it's happening. Right. And I think that that was one of the seeds that was planted to lead me towards letting go and relaxing and having faith and just letting it be effortless and believing in the thing. I think that that was one of the seeds. Was that Myron golden talk that I watched on YouTube, but that was a while ago. So like I said, I don't have direct quotes from that or anything. I just thought I would mention it so you have to believe that it's gonna work so much that you can just let go and watch it happen. Work hard, but don't strive, don't chase, you know? And like I said, that's more of an internal thing. Like, you, you could really work morning tonight if that's what you need to do for your business, for your dream to come true, but let it be. That's just what you're doing. That's the work that you have to do that day to make the thing happen. Right? You're not, like, striving and pushing and pushing and pushing, man, and stressing. That's another thing. Stress is extremely, extremely detrimental to every aspect of your life. So if you're stressing the thing and trying to force it to happen, that's not healthy for you. Striving and striving too much also cultivates burnout. Burnout is when you're working really, really, really hard on something and it's not paying off. You're not seeing the payoff from it. So let's say. Let's go back to the YouTube example. You start this YouTube channel, and you have to work really hard. It takes a lot of time. A lot of people don't realize that, that content creators have to work a lot to make those videos. I mean, it takes hours upon hours. You got to shoot the thing, edit the thing, color grade the thing, post it, do all your analytics, all the things. So there's all this work involved, and you're working, working, working, and you're expecting those numbers to rise, but sometimes they don't rise right away. So you keep putting out another one. Keep putting out another one. Strive, strive, strive, push, push, push. Numbers still aren't going up. And then you say, God, I can't do this anymore. And you feel this. You feel this sleepy feeling and every fiber of your being that's like, I can't. I don't feel like it. I don't feel like doing this anymore. I'm not seeing any payback for this thing. That's what burnout is. And that can be applied to any endeavor, any pursuit, or anything that you work hard on that doesn't have a payoff. That's what they call burnout. And this striving, this constant striving and not letting go and having faith, enjoying the journey, having fun in this moment, being grateful in this moment. That's what creates burnout, is not being here right now in it grateful. It's happening right now. It's super awesome. And I'm really doing it right now. Striving, looking at that big picture in results. Super awesome vision, multimillionaire mansion on the beach, whatever the thing is for you. Apartment in the city, just the numbers. 100 million subscribers. You know, whatever it is. And you're not going to be happy until you reach that point. That's what creates burnout, is I can't do it anymore. I'm never happy. I'm never satisfied. Learn how to be satisfied right now. Let go. Have faith. Watch the thing happen. Watch those numbers go up. Just be like, man, I knew it. I knew it all along. Why would I not know it if I didn't believe in the thing? Why am I even doing it in the first place? You have to believe, and believe deeply in your heart and soul that that thing is what you're supposed to be doing, at least right now. And that it's working. It's gonna work. And that where you are right now is super awesome, and you wouldn't have it any other way. Find. Find peace in your purpose. Find peace right now. Stop striving. You know it's gonna work. So let go and let it work. And remember, it's not your timing. You can't make it happen. You can't force it to happen, especially if it's what you're supposed to be doing. If it is your calling and the purpose of your life, it is God's timing, and it belongs to him. It does not belong to you. You can't make that thing happen. You have to have faith that it's happening. So thank you guys so much for being here today, watching and listening to this podcast episode. I hope that this inspired you in some way. I hope that it's inspired you to let go a little bit in your striving, in your pursuits, in your endeavors, in your dreams. And I know, man, like I said before, we got a go go, right? We got to make that thing happen. I know the feeling. I know it well. I know it deep in my soul. I know it in every fiber of my being, deep in my heart. That hard work. I gotta work hard, right? But work hard, don't strive. Let go a little bit. Have faith that the thing is gonna happen, and it will. Trust me. So, like I said, I hope that this inspired you. If it did, definitely stick around. Subscribe to this content to my regular listeners. After you're done listening to this, I need you to do me a favor. We're growing everywhere, exponentially. This podcast is blowing up everywhere except for YouTube. And I don't know why that is. Maybe because it's a masculinity podcast. And, you know, I don't know if it aligns with the things that the people at YouTube believe in, so maybe this kind of content is blocked. I. You know, that's just me speculating. But that channel has not grown, and the podcast has grown faster than I've seen anything grow before. So if you're one of my regular listeners and you want to support me, pause this. Go to YouTube. Search the Warrior Kings podcast. Subscribe to that channel. I would greatly appreciate it because maybe that would boost it in the algorithm or something like that. Or at least you would be around to watch some of our. Our videos sometimes, which, I don't know, I think they're pretty good, but. Yeah, man, it's great to have you guys here today. I love you. I'm proud of you, and you are going to do great things in this life, man. I really, truly believe it. Don't give up. Don't stop. Keep going. But stop striving and I'll catch you guys on the next one. Thanks, guys. Bye.
