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January 29, 2025 25 mins

Ever wondered how to break free from life's toughest ruts? Join us as Eren Davis, shares his powerful story of transformation from homelessness and unemployment to a life marked by resilience and success. We uncover the vital role of mindset, the influence of mentors, and the unwavering support of family in propelling Eren forward. Together, we revisit wisdom from Proverbs and offer practical steps to help you overcome your own life's challenges.

Learn the art of self-motivation by taking a cue from an unlikely source—the ant. We unpack the analogy of a star player learning from a fundamentally sound teammate and emphasize the value of humility and continuous learning. This chapter is a call to action for all entrepreneurs and self-driven individuals to push through natural feelings of laziness and thrive without the need for constant supervision.

Finally, we tackle the importance of preparation and foresight in "Preparing for Winter," drawing lessons from the story of Joseph in Egypt. The cyclical nature of seasons reminds us to save during good times for the inevitable challenges ahead. We round off with "Overcoming Laziness Together," where we stress not letting feelings dictate actions and staying committed to personal goals. Join our community and coaching sessions to stay motivated and continue your personal development journey.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
what's up, family?
It's your boy, lewis, and I amglad to welcome you to the
living room.
The living room is a placewhere we level up.
It's a safe place for us tohave those hard conversations to
make sure that we can get toour next level, whatever area of

(00:29):
the next level you need to bein.
And, man, I'm so glad that youtuned in on today because this
is what I love to do, me, and myspecial guest was just talking
about that.
I love to help people and Ilove to take people to the next
level, and so I'm glad that youallowed me to do that with you
today.

(00:50):
But before we jump forward, Iwant to make sure that, right
now, pause this if you have notliked and subscribed to the
living room.
It is necessary, y'all, becauseI wanted to be exposed to
everyone.
I want you to like, subscribe,and then I want you to write a
review.
Let hold on, it got to be agood review, y'all.
If it ain't, just email me andlet me know what I need to do

(01:12):
better, so I don't need you tobe giving me no, like, no ones
or no twos.
You know I'm saying I need youto help me out, uh, because I'm
trying to.
I'm trying to get to that nextlevel.
You feel me, and so, as I'mhelping you, you help me.
Well, as we're getting ready tojump right into our particular
topic on today, I brought my boyback, my guy aaron davis.

(01:35):
He was with us last week.
Uh, he was spitting some crazyknowledge and it was so
wonderful.
I brought him back again thisweek.
You know what I mean.
And so, aaron, welcome back broappreciate you.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Appreciate you.
I'm glad to be here yeah, man.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Um, they our audience .
I want them to really get toknow more about you because I
feel like, uh, you have such awealth of knowledge, um, just
because you've been through alot, and so do me a favor before
we jump into the topic fortoday.
Why does this particular topicabout getting out of a rut?

(02:13):
Why does it mean so much to you?

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Simply because I'm not speaking from a perspective
of somebody who's had it all,coming from a perspective of
somebody who's had it all comingfrom a perspective of somebody
who's been through homelessness,who's been through unemployment
, who's who's not.
Had it all figured out, uh, butjust wanted more for myself, so
uh that's, uh, the reason itmeans a lot to me because I've

(02:38):
I've been pushed back in the rut.
You know I've been uh, going upand slipped.
You know I didn't sat in therut.
You know I've been going up andslipped.
You know I didn't sat in therut, so it's like I didn't been
through these different stages.
So my wealth of knowledge justcomes from my teachers as well.
As you know my life experience.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Man.
It's interesting because one ofthe things that I told Aaron
and I'm telling him on live um,I love his resilience.
Some of the things that he hasbeen through uh has it.
I don't know if I could havemade it out.
You know what I mean,appreciate that um, I don't

(03:15):
think I could have been able toget knocked down and then jump
back up and say, yeah, it hurts,but it's going down.
Yeah, I'm about to go make ithappen Again.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Great teachers.
You know, like you, like youknow my godfather, somebody
who's also a mentor to me, justreally man.
You know family.
I have a cousin I'm reallyclose to, so you know he's acted
as a mentor for me at certainpoints too.
So, just using all thisdifferent information and just

(03:48):
wanting to go in the rightdirection I talked before about
that mindset- yeah.
You know it's, it's, it's vital.
I mean you just, it's justsomething that just starts to
grow in you and you can kind offeel it Um, feel it um, but but
you have to put effort in and uh, and that's that's what I did,
that's how I got here, that'show I got opportunities.
Uh, ie modeling, yeah, you know, uh, I've been a part of an

(04:12):
improv group, um, okay, here inindiana too.
So, uh, they would just allthese opportunities come from,
just, you know, wanting more formyself and just having that
inner like it's something moreto me than just what I've been
through.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
If.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
I can provide any inspiration.
You know that's.
That's what I want to do.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Man, as you are listening today and you may find
yourself in a rut, I I praythat you will hear some of this
wisdom that we're going to talkabout today.
If you've been rocking with mefrom a couple of weeks ago, we
started this series and westarted talking about how to get
out of a rut and we were usingProverbs as our base point.
Right, and I ain't gonna lie, Ihope you got some great things

(05:03):
last week, but it felt like wecould have had like a whole
nother conversation A wholenother conversation Like we
needed about like two or threeweeks on Proverbs, talking about
guarding your heart, man.
Oh, man Like it felt like wecould have just really deep dive
even more into that.
But what I want you to do as alistener, my job is to just kind

(05:25):
of get you going, kind of, youknow, pump the prime, the pump a
little bit and then hopefullyyou will actually go and read it
some more and give us yourfeedback.
If you go to mynextcoachingcom,man, hit me up and give me some
feedback on what you, whatyou're learning.
But today, today, man, we gotsomething that's going to be

(05:47):
great.
We about to show you somethingin the scriptures that maybe
y'all never seen before, out ofProverbs, that I believe is
going to give us some moreprinciples of how to get out of
this rut, how do we break free.
And it's coming out of Proverbs, chapter six, verses six
through 11.

(06:08):
And if you've been rocking withme, y'all know I'm all about
this passion translation, and soI'm going to read it to you and
then we're going to, you know,begin to talk about it verse by
verse, and then I'm gonna letyou up out of here.
Here we go, proverbs 6, 6through 11.
It says this and enter intowisdom.
The ants have no chief, no boss,no manager.

(06:30):
No one has to tell them what todo.

(06:50):
You will see them working andtwirling all summer long.
Stop piling their food inpreparation for winter.
Verse 9.
So wake up, sleepyhead.
Oh, if you hear me, right nowI'm talking to you.
Wake up, sleepyhead.
How long will you lie there?

(07:11):
When will you wake up and getout of bed If you keep nodding
off and thinking I'll do itlater?
Or say to yourself I'll justsit back a while and take it
easy.
Just watch how your future willunfold by making excuses.
Listen to verse 11.

(07:32):
By making excuses, you willlearn what it means to go
without.
Poverty will pounce on you likea bandit.
Oh, listen to the words of theant.
Oh, man, I'm trying to telly'all.
I can't wait to unpack this.

(07:53):
We got a few minutes, so I'mgoing to start with verse six.
Aaron, I'm going to start withverse six, and it says when
you're feeling lazy, come andlearn a lesson from this tale of
the tiny ant.
Tell me, bro, what jumps out toyou just from those few words?

Speaker 2 (08:15):
You can learn from the smallest insect, if not the
smallest insect.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
But the power in it is just that it's an ant.
It can come out of its hole andsomebody can step on it and
kill it right then, before theyeven got to what they're trying
to get, wow.
So, as this goes, you have tobe able to learn, and we were
talking about the analogy of themost talented player on the

(08:48):
team having to learn from theguy that is less talented than
him, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
So that's the ant in thesituation.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
That's the ant.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
But he's very fundamentally sound.
He makes all the right passes.
Come on, he does all the rightthings, so the coach loves him.
That's why he's on the team,but he's sitting at the end of
the bench.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
And then to hear the thrust of you got to learn from
him.
Yes, you the star.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
But you got to shoot, you got to do shooting drills,
all the shooting drills with him.
You got to do all the defensivedrills with him Because, yeah,
he's slower than you, but hisfootwork better than yours, Come
on, so you have to.
You know there's nuances.
There's nuances that he has andthat he may have learned in his
life, um, that you simply don'thave, because talented talent

(09:40):
has made you, uh, lessfundamentally sound.
You know what I'm?

Speaker 1 (09:46):
saying yeah that's.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
That's what jumps out to me first, like when I first
hear that you can learn from thesmallest um or the the lowest
on the totem pole.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
What jumps out to me, man, as I was looking at this,
was those first four words inthe Passion Translation when
you're feeling lazy, you may sayif you're listening to me,
you're probably like Lewis.
What in the world?
Why does that jump out to you?
Because it did not say ifyou're feeling lazy.

(10:21):
He actually, the writer, wasactually presupposing that, as a
human, you're going to feellazy.
I want to free somebody, man.
Yeah, can I free somebody?
Go ahead.
Just because you feeling lazy,don't beat yourself up on it.
Yeah, one of the things, as I'mone of those type A

(10:44):
personalities that I'm ago-getter, I feel like if I'm
not going, I'm not with it.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
I'm not doing nothing .
I'm not doing nothing, yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
But then there are days man need to.
I feel lazy yeah and I feelguilty natural for feeling lazy
natural right, but here in thescripture that blows me away.
He says when you feel lazy, buthere's the deal.
Here's the deal.
He said when you feel lazy,come and learn another words.
He's saying you cannot allowyour feeling to dictate your

(11:16):
movement.
Can I, oh, y'all make me wantto get my preach?

Speaker 2 (11:22):
Well, you got to understand the risk that the ant
takes when it comes out of thedirt.
So it leaves and it's going ona mission to store up some stuff
for the fam Right, come on.
But it's taking a risk leavingthe hole.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
So he can't allow the feeling of fear to stop him
that's an emotion From leavingthe hole you can't you can't
Because I got to eat.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
I got 5,000 ants back here.
Come on.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
I got to make sure they good.
I got to do it.
It doesn't matter.
What I'm feeling right nowdoesn't matter, but here's the
deal.
I can't feel guilty for feelingit, no, but I cannot allow it
to stop me.
Exactly, here's the deal.
That's what I want you to see.
So if you interrupt right nowand you feeling like I'm in this
rut, I'm tired, I may bedealing with some mental health

(12:12):
issues right, you know what I'msaying.
Don't feel guilty.
Guilty, right, but here's thedeal.
Here goes the good news youcan't stay there.
Yep, uh-uh.
Wow I can't allow my feeling tokeep me where I'm at.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
Because here's what the scripture tells you.
Yes, all you lazy bones, it'sokay.
Come learn from the example ofthe ant and then you will enter
into wisdom.
Come and look at this ant.
We could go deeper in verse 6,but I got to keep moving.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
I got to keep moving.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
So now verse 7.
The ants have no chief, no boss, no manager.
No one has to tell them what todo.
On, aaron, tell me what youfeeling, bro.
Okay, that's some good wordsit's excellent.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
So what it's saying is the ant has moved from.
I'm not being emotional and I'mmoving regardless, and I'm
moving because this is somethingthat I understand, that I have
to do.
I have to do this.
So if, in order to get to thatnext level, like you guys are
wanting to do, you have tounderstand first.

(13:23):
Okay, I got to pick myself upfirst and foremost then, on top
of that, you got to say hey, I'mnot doing this for x, y or z,
I'm doing this for me.
So he's not even doing it forthe 5 000 ants.
Come on back at the crib, right, he's.
He's doing it because it's likeno, this is what I got to do.
I actually don't even know howto operate any other way.

(13:43):
You know what I'm saying, soit's like that in itself is a
lesson to learn.
You, lazy bones, come on.
Everybody has these moments,right.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Everybody's feeling emotional.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
Everybody's kind of going through some form of uh,
mental health right.
Everybody has their, their dealright.
But you have to move out ofthat.
And then you have to pickyourself up and you got to say,
hey, I don't need X, Y or Z tohold me accountable.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
I'm going to do this on.
Can I tell you, man, I've as a,as an entrepreneur, a business
owner okay, one of the thingsthat I look for when I'm looking
at people to connect me with isI'm looking for people that got
self-motivation.
You feel me like I am not hereto be over and trying to
micromanage you.
I don't have time for it.
I got too much going on in myown life.
I got too many things that I'vegot my hand in and if I put you

(14:41):
in a spot, I need to know thatyou can go.
You got some inward motivationand you're not going to be
deterred by externalcircumstances Because here's the
deal.
Can I keep it real with you?
I know this is going to be somehard coaching for some of you.
Life is life and everybodygoing through it.
Can I holler at you?

(15:02):
Just because you're dealingwith life, don't give you a
right to end up saying like,well, woe is me, and then you,
you drop down and you don't dowhat you got to do.
Right, I'm sorry now.
Now, here's the deal.
There's a balance to this.
I'm not saying that we are notempathetic to your situation,
but what I am telling you youcan't stay there right and you

(15:23):
gotta have inner motivation.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
How many times have you talked to me?
Come on and you told me allright, brother.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
Hey, I understand, I ain't saying, I don't understand
.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
I actually may empathize with that.
You better get up.
You better get up what yougoing to do, stay there.
You know what I'm saying.
So it's just like you said hardtruth, but life is life and
when you deal with that reality,you just got to understand I
have to move like the ant.
I have to do this regardless.

(15:57):
I got to do this because if Idon't do this, what's the?

Speaker 1 (16:01):
alternative.
Hmm, see, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a.
Let me throw something at you,and this is parenthetically.
Some of the people that arelistening to me, um, are
minorities, right, right, someof the people that you may be
listening to me and I got toholler at my minorities right
now.
Um, I know that ourcircumstances that surround us

(16:24):
is not always picture perfect,right, I'm gonna keep it real
with you.
I understand that we didn'talways grow up in the perfect
circumstances exactly, but thisscripture tells me something
here that the ant will move.
I don't need somebody to tellme that I need to get up out of

(16:45):
this.
I should not have to have thegovernment tell me I should not
have to have.
If some of you are in DCS oryou in probation or something, I

(17:08):
shouldn't have to have somebodytell me to go do what I know I
need to do.
I should get myself up and gohandle my business.
But because we don't do that,we allow everybody else to tell
us what to do and we wait onthem to tell us what to do, even
though we know what to do, andso we're like wait, you can't be

(17:31):
like that.
Do you see the lesson?

Speaker 2 (17:33):
from the end.
Oh, yes, A thousand percentAgain.
You know you got to have sometype of self-starter in you.
So even the person that's goingto work the nine to five right,
he has to make a decision, shehas to make the decision.
I'm getting up and I'm going togo to work today and I'm going
to work eight hours.
I'm going to work to 12 hours.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Hey, it is what it is .

Speaker 2 (17:55):
This is America.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
I don't like it.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
Yeah, nobody does.

Speaker 1 (17:59):
If you had a choice Lewis.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
What would you done today?

Speaker 1 (18:06):
You probably slept in with your wife, right?
I'm trying to tell you, I'mtrying to tell you Cuddling is
nice.
You know what I'm saying youknow what I'm saying and my baby
is, that's my girl.
Hey, exactly.
But you know what?
I gotta go work.
I gotta go get it, I gotta godo something.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
I gotta put that potato chip on my back as the
end and I gotta bring it back.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
I gotta bring this potato chip bank man man, I want
to stay with verse 7, but itgoes even deeper.
Verse 8 says this You'll seethem working and twirling all
summer long, stockpiling theirfood Listen to this word in
preparation for winter.
Oh man, aaron, I got to hitthis, and then I'll let you get

(18:43):
to a little bit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, here's thedeal.
This, and then I'll let you getyou a little bit.
Yeah, yeah, here's the deal.
What that says to me, man, isthat you cannot be so
short-sighted that you don't seethe next step.
Here's the deal.
They know that right now, insummer, it may be feeling good,
but they do know this.
You, a dog, winter is coming.
You, a dog summer.

(19:05):
Right now I'm doing good.
Here's a, here's what I'mhearing here, and this is
another thing that I'm stilllearning myself.
Y'all because I told y'all I'vebeen in this rut and I'm in the
scriptures is even helping meout.
The lord is like hey, bro, it'sjust like with, uh, uh, joseph
in the bible, joseph was leadingegypt, but here's why he was

(19:27):
leading Egypt.
He knew that they're going togo through seven years of plenty
.
But here's the deal, what theLord told him through a dream
that he told Pharaoh we got tostockpile during the years of
plenty because there's going tobe seven years of famine.
And he told him here's thewisdom Joe Joseph, if you go

(19:48):
ahead, I'm going to give you alot in the summer because I'm
going to let you take some ofthat and prepare for the famine
in the winter.
We got to learn to get out ofourselves.
Stop getting so caught up inhaving the good times in the
summer and forget that thewinter is coming.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
It is a season, just like everything else is coming,
whether you like it or not athousand percent and again,
that's what jumps out to me whenI hear that is having the
vision and understanding thatthe winter is coming, it's
coming.
So, for example, my independentcontractors out there, right,

(20:28):
you get that big lump of moneyin the summer help me jesus, so
so.
So when you get that big lump ofmoney in the summer, you got to
understand winter's coming, mybrother, winter is coming, so
you got to make sure you gotenough bread put up to where
it's like, hey, I can make itthrough the winter and I ain't
gotta work come on, if my job.

(20:49):
If I work a construction job,come on, you know what I'm
saying so it's like, but theseare things that take
conditioning too yeah we wantyou all to also understand this
takes conditioning.
I'm telling, I'm talking from aperspective of a brother that is
you know what I'm saying goingthrough it in the rut, like you
said, picking myself up, butjust having that vision of, oh,

(21:10):
I know it won't be like thisforever.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
It's true, the snow, might the snow, it might be
enough snow to where it lift meup to the top, to out the rut
come on, but I, if I'm notpreparing myself for even that,
you know um, it's real, you cancome up short, you can come up
short, you can come up short.
So I want to stay there, butI'm going to read 9 through 11.
Right, so here is what it says.

(21:34):
So wake up, sleepy Dang.
I'm trying to.
I can't even get past it.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
Wake up.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
You know what we're going to have to do part two of
this.
Yeah, for sure, off just ofthis one.
Come on, yeah, okay.
Oh for sure, off just of thisone, off of this one, because I
know it's almost time for me toget up out of here, but here's.
I gotta tell somebody wake up.
Yes, you are in a rut and thatrut has lured you to sleep
because you've been in it for solong.

(22:01):
You've been in a space for solong that you haven't had
prosperity.
You've been in a space for solong that you haven't had
prosperity.
You've been in a space for solong that you have not been able
to do what you know that youcould do.
So what it done it has made yougo to sleep and we're sleeping
at the wheel, peeps.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
Now let me say this what about the guys?
This is for the guys, too thatare picking themselves up and
then they're falling right backdown.
Come on, this is for the guys,too, that are picking themselves
up, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, and thenthey're falling right back down.
Come on, this is for that guy,too.
Yeah, that's me.
I'm that guy.
I pick myself up a milliontimes, come on, and I fall right
back down.
Why?
Because you got to changehabits.

(22:39):
Come on, you have to changehabits.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
And that's what he is meaning by wake up, wake up,
wake up.
You cannot stay where you are.
There is more to life thanwhere you are.
There are blessings that God islike.
I got them here, but you can'tget them staying asleep.
Yeah, you got to wake up,sleepyhead.
And if you wake up and nolonger be lazy because again, I

(23:05):
the feeling don't feel, don'tbeat yourself up because of the
feeling, because the feelingsare actually an alert from your
body to let you know, hey,something is wrong yeah so ain't
nothing wrong with the feeling,but here's the deal.
Here's gonna be that champion iswhen I don't want to go get up
and work at six o'clock, I gottaget up anyway.
I cannot let the feelingdictate what I'm gonna do.

(23:28):
Yeah, right, and hey, here'sthe deal.
Y'all we at the end of today'slesson, and I'm but I wanna show
you that I'm empathetic.
I don't want you to think thatI'm perfect.
I don't want you to think I,even though I'm teaching you
this and we're talking aboutthis, I don't want you to think
that I'm doing it all the timethat's why you?
can come to the living room.
It's a safe place, yeah, it's aplace that we can say you know

(23:52):
what, man?
Oh, this was a hard one, lou.
Yeah, I know it, man, but wecan move forward together.
Yeah, together we gonna pickthis up, because right now you,
you know, I'm on verse nine andI still got like three more
verses to go.
So, holler at me next week.

(24:13):
I want you to jump on here nextweek and I promise we're going
to finish this one next week,because I don't want to leave
you, I don't want to go beyondmy time, but hey, if you have
not liked and subscribed to thispodcast, I need you to go do
that right now.
Right now, I want you to gogive me a review and if you want
to go deeper, if you want to becoached by myself and our team,

(24:38):
I want you to go toMyNextCoachingcom and hit me up.
Look at some of the programsthat we offer, because we
believe every potty has a nextlevel.
You got to go get it though.
Right, aaron?
It was awesome, bro, always,brother, it seemed like you got
to come back here again nextweek, man, I got to come back

(24:59):
again Because we ain't done yet,let's do it.
So for Louis and Aaron, comeback and ho.
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty

I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

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Dateline NBC

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