In life, you have two choices. You can build a lifestyle or you can live a bullshit life, but you can't do both. Welcome to the “Freedom Lifestyle Experience”, where we focus on building the lifestyle you want—and now, here's your host, Michael Burns.
(00:16): What's going on guys. Welcome back to another episode of the freedom life experience. I'm your host. Mike Burns been a couple weeks since I've been with you guys. So one thing that I try to do that I, I actually get a lot of feedback from, with my social media. And just the way that I operate is I like to talk about the shit. That's not going well. It's not all rainbows and sunshine and unicorns. And yeah, it's cool to, to post about the cool trips or the house or buying the Ferrari, or, you know, the story behind buying my first Rolex and all of that stuff. Everyone wants to see that. It's interesting. I'll make a post on social media. For example, when I bought the Ferrari, I posted that and there's over, you know, a thousand likes and hundreds and hundreds of comments, but then I make a post that actually is about some real shit.
(01:01): This stuff that is behind everything you go through to be in a position to buy a Ferrari, the stuff that actually matters, the real life stuff. You make a post about that, and you get, you know, 20, 30, 40 likes and a couple of comments. And it's just interesting how society's set up. But anyways, so today I want to talk about hard times, tough times, uh, when shit's going, right, when you're literally saying, when it rains at pours, like when you were getting fucking pounded on kicked in the Dick over and over and over. And that's part of the reality of the Cub up, it's part of the reality of life. And that's what I want to talk about today because when things are easy, they're easy when things are going well, and there's no stress and there's no pressure it easy to sit there and say, oh yeah, I have integrity.
(01:45): Or it's easy to say, yeah, I'm grateful. Or I'm, you know, for me, like my big thing, my entire life, I'm loyal to the truth. Like that's, that's literally, that's my bottom line. Like I'm loyal to the truth, but when shit's easy, it's easy to be loyal to the truth when things are easy, it's easy to have integrity when it's, when there's nothing that's hard there, or you're not taking a major loss, whether it's emotionally, financially, a relationship, whatever challenge that life might be bringing you, that's when you find out who the fuck you are, and that's when you actually have to lean on your beliefs for real. And that's when your core values come into play for real, like when you get tested and you're sitting and looking at a challenge and it sucks, and it's not fun, that's when you find out who the fuck you are and what you're made of, but more than anything, that's when your beliefs and your foundation gets challenged and you're gonna find out like, who am I for real?
(02:38): Cuz it's one thing to say it, well, it's a whole nother thing to walk it. So that's what I want to talk about today. So when these sit situations happen, your world is rocked. Your foundation's rocked. You have, uh, whatever scenario that hits you. That is a lack for a better term, a train wreck in your life, your business, whatever it is, that's when the tide goes out and you see where your pants are at and your foundation and, and everything that I'm talking about. It's when it's gonna get tested. And that's something to really take a look at because the foundation is everything that we're doing, right? Everything that we're building on every day is our foundation. So your foundation is something that you constantly need to be adding to and, and strengthening. But the reality is is as you build this building on your foundation, you build your lifestyle on this foundation.
(03:26): There's gonna be situations that happen. A hurricane comes, a earthquake comes, you know, that, that, that whole you're building your lifestyle. Everything gets shaken and rocked. Well, your foundation's either gonna keep you up or it's not. And what I'm trying to say is when you're, when you're faced with adversity, that's when you're going to find out what your foundation looks like, and you're gonna see the holes and the gaps in your foundation. And the first thing for me that I think we question is what we believe. Whether it's our belief spiritually, like your belief you have with God, create or universe a Buddha, whatever you wanna call it, like what your spiritual belief structure looks like, but also your belief in yourself, your belief in what you stand for and your core values and your principles. And like I said, integrity is a really big one.
(04:17): But all of those things, when we get hit with adversive, whether somebody, like I said, someone dies, relationship ends a bankruptcy's happening, whatever it might be. These beliefs in our foundation is gonna get rocked in that moment. And, uh, you know, my buddy Tyler Tober, I've been talking with quite a bit, um, as he and I are on this journey together, but he uses the term reps, like, just like, if you're are in the gym and say, you're doing bench press, you're doing reps, right? The more reps that you have, the stronger you're gonna get. Well, and that's really what life brings you, whether it's a small situation, a medium situation or a full scale fucking meltdown, blow up in your life, going on. It's those reps that you have, or haven't been doing, they're gonna show you where your foundation's at, but it's are the reps that you're gonna do in that moment.
(05:03): That's going to build and strengthen the foundation that you have, which is who you are as an individual. So today I'm talking about mindset, but I really wanna talk about a lot of the spiritual stuff today and the trust going through a process and, and what that looks like and how you handle adversity. Because what I know for sure is every time I've had a struggle, when I look back, you know, they say hindsight's 2020, which is true. You never see that shit when you're in the middle of it. Right? So every tough situation that I've had in my life or my business, when I look back on it, that was a pivotal moment because either it, it shifted the direction that I was going and in a deal or in business or in life, or, you know, different relationship, whatever it is, adversity and struggles are always on the other side of it, our biggest lessons and guides and teachers.
(05:53): And it's easy to say that after the fucking fact, but when you're going through it, when if you know, that's true, then you can shift your mindset. When you're in the middle of a situation that's really inconvenient. It's really hard. It's devastating, whatever it is, if you can take that same understanding that you know, will be there in the future and, and be present. So now I'm living in the present moment and you can acknowledge, okay, this fucking sucks, but based on history and based on what I know to be true in my life and everything, that's gotten me to where I'm at now, I know that every time previously I've faced adversity, it was a gift in some sort of way. And on the other side of that, I came out better, stronger a different scenario. It was something that happened to happen. If that wouldn't have happened, it wouldn't have made me redirect to go this way.
(06:42): So when you can acknowledge that and sit with that and be with that and know that that's the truth and stay loyal to it in the moment, no matter how inconvenient it is, that's mastery. And that's what my whole show is about. You know, personal accountability and staying loyal to the potential. So when you're in the middle of whatever situation is blowing up in your life, your business, if you can just get to that spot and say, okay, like I know this is going to be a process. I understand this is going to be a lesson. And the best thing that I can do right now is can acknowledge that I can stay present with it. And I can know that all I can do right now is make the best of the scenario that I am in. And something that, again, that my buddy Tyler Tober told me the other day, there was just a really strong sentence.
(07:32): He said, all you can do is make the best decisions you can right now with the data that you have currently. I'll say that again. So all I can do is make the best decisions that I can right now with the data that I currently have. So what does that mean? It basically means make the best of what's going on right now, make the best decisions that I can with the data that I have in front of me, current, and for me, a, a big lesson that I've been getting served up hard the last six months, and really that I've been working on my whole life. But as I go through this spiritual experience that I'm, I'm on, I'm such a type, a driven guy like I'm, you know, fairly successful in life in business. And nothing has been given to me. I've always had us at work and, uh, hustle and grind and, and just fucking grind it out and make it happen and will things to happen.
(08:26): So everything that's going on in my life and my business, I'm for the most part, I'm in control of it, or stuff's gonna happen that, you know, you don't want to, but I still grind it out. I have the grit, the determination, the commitment of being successful. So I, I grind it out. I figure shit out. I make it happen and I will it to happen. But there's a whole nother part of life where I'm learning is there's also letting go of trying to control things that you cannot control. And again, this isn't business stuff. This is just life in general, but for me and anyone that's type a, and you're sitting here taking accountability for your life. Like I talk about and staying loyal to the potential. Like I talk about, well, that is backed by a lot of fucking action and hardware work and commitment and everything that falls below my iceberg logo that nobody sees like all the shit.
(09:20): And then you see what's above the iceberg, which is all the results. So to go from that thought process and mindset and, and way of operating, and then also understanding that there's another part of life and business and everything where there's situations that we can can't control. We can try and influence 'em the best we can, but there's a lot of stuff that's purely out of our control. And it's real easy to get caught when, especially when that shit's not going your way, it's really easy to get caught up in the emotional piece of that, of wanting to control something that you can't control, no matter how much of an emotional attachment you have, have to it. So for example, we have this contractor that burned us for 90 grand, and I can't control that no matter how much I want to influence him and like threaten him with, with different things and there's gonna be consequences.
(10:08): And you know, how much I go outta my way to build relationships and trust him. And I'm showing up a hundred percent in my core use in the way that I operate. And this dude is doing the total opposite and I can't control it and I'm gonna lose 90 grand. And then, you know, anger comes up and all the emotions that come up that are tied to that, and it fucking it'll ruin your day, your week, your month. And that's just the emotional piece and the mental piece. But then also I'm losing $90,000 of real fucking money as well. That's, it's a frustrating situation. Or if you've got a partner in business or life, and you're sitting here going along, keeping your end of the deal, doing what you agreed to do, and you're doing your situation, your deal, but then the other person isn't, or they have a change of heart or they're going a different direction, or they decide, Hey, like I don't wanna do this anymore, or, well, I'm not gonna keep up my end of an agreement or a deal, even though I made it, you can't control that no matter how much you want to.
(11:04): And no matter how big the consequence for you is, we can't control what other people are doing. And we can't control certain things that are happening. So that circles back to, well, what can I control? And that's where like trusting this process and the things that I'm talking about come into play. You know, so for this contractor situation, it is what it is. The money is gone. However, what I can do is I can start focusing on the controllables, like, okay, I understand this is happening and it fucking sucks, and I don't want to deal with it, but it is what it is. And you, you can't in that, like if you're gonna be, you know, personally accountable, which is the foundation of my message, you can't just sit there, not doing anything. You have to, you have to take personal accountability and stay loyal to the potential, which is making the best out of the situation that you have.
(11:51): So we reroute and we go get a couple of bids and we hire new contractors and we just, we do the best we can with what we have best, make the best decisions we can with the data that we have. It's gonna cost what it's gonna cost to get the house where it needs to be, and it's gonna be what it's gonna be. And all we can do is focus on being as quick and efficient and effective as we possibly can in the scenario and do the best that we can. And there's nothing layer there left for us to do, right? Yeah. We're gonna Sue the guy and get a judgment on him and all of that stuff. And there's gonna be some, you know, some real life consequences, but at the end of the day, that doesn't change my situation, cuz it is what it is.
(12:26): Same thing. If you have a, a business partner, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a husband, a wife, and you've got your relationship, you've got your thing that you're doing. And the other person decides, Hey, they're, they're gonna do something that's totally outta your control. Whether they don't want to be in the business anymore. They don't wanna be in the relationship anymore. Maybe there's some dishonesty or unloyalty that happens. Anything that basically someone else decides to do that affects us. It's out of our, our control. You have to be able to learn how to let go of that and focus on the controllables. And that's one thing that I've learned from my mentors, specifically, Mark Evans, he talks about focus on the controllables and control the controllables because if you're out there in life and business, focusing on shit, you can't control. You're gonna get fucking nowhere and you're gonna get there really quick.
(13:15): And really what I'm trying to say here and what this all kind of funnels back to is trust the process. And you gotta understand that pretty much everything that we do in life, in business, relationships, health, and fitness, all of it is a process, right? So you don't just go from point a to it be. Or if you're learning a lesson in life, you don't just wake up in the morning and say, oh yeah, I'd love to learn the lesson of trust and cool. Now, now I just got the trust lesson. You have to go through a whole process for you to arrive at the feeling and the emotion of trust or forgiveness or a accomplishment, whatever it might be, these lessons or these emotions that we're looking for, or just these, the, these life situations that happen. It's a process. You have to go through it to get through it.
(14:08): And it would be awesome to just hit the easy button and be like, fuck, I just wanna wake up and come out on the other side. But if that happened, then you wouldn't get the lesson and you wouldn't have gone through the process and you wouldn't have had the experience experience as one of my core values in our lifestyle companies. Everything is about the experience, the experience that we're providing to the client, the experience that we're having, like what, what is the experience that we're experiencing in this life here? Like everything is about the experience and the experience that we choose to have is part of our lifestyle. So you're gonna have your lifestyle. Are you gonna experience your lifestyle being fucking broke and having a shitty attitude? Or are you gonna experience your lifestyle, building a lifestyle and, and having the experiences and going through the processes and feeling all the different emotions and all the different accomplishments and doing the cool trips and buying the cool houses and the cool cars and the watches and donating and, and being able to, you know, build the lifestyle, whatever that looks like spending time with your family and your kids or your dog, like doing what you want to do when you want to do it on your terms within basically within reason, understanding that you have to go through a process to create that type of lifestyle.
(15:16): So really trusting the process is what I think a lot of people don't understand or that a lot of people that that's where they give up or they quit because we want these things that we want. And when we're sitting there thinking of out it like, oh yeah, it'd be cool to make a million dollars a year. Well, there's a fucking process that you have to go through to make a million dollars a year. And it's not just going and running the numbers like, okay, that means I have to make 85 grand a month basically, or 88 grand a month, whatever it is, there's a whole process of who do I have to become to be capable bowl of the individual that has the capacity to generate a million dollars of income. It's not just writing it down and like, yeah, I'm gonna, I gotta go to work.
(16:00): And I gotta, you know, I gotta close this many deals and blah, blah, blah. Like there, there's a whole process of the person that you have to become and the disciplines that you have to build and the, and the traits and the values and all of the shit, like all of this building, this foundation, like you gotta build a nice, good, strong foundation to become the dude that's capable of the output of a million dollars a year, or you want to attract the perfect spouse or the perfect partner. Well, if you don't have core values and integrity's not important to you or hard, work's not important to you or relat ships, aren't important to you or all of those things, aren't important to you. Well, there's no way you're going to be able to attract the person that you're looking for because you haven't built a foundation to become the person that is gonna attract that type of person or the health and fitness.
(16:49): Like if you haven't built the foundation of eating good and, and drinking water and cutting out bullshit food and cutting out alcohol and, and not eating all this shit and going to the gym and maybe hiring professional help and getting a trainer and doing the program and going through the process. Well, you don't go from being 300 pounds to 180 pounds because you, you decided, oh yeah, I'm just, I'm gonna do this. And you rode it down and you meditated about it. And now you're gonna lose 120 pounds. That's not how it works. You gotta go through the entire process of becoming and building the individual that is going to be capable of producing or attracting whatever result it is you're looking for on the back end. So I'll bring that back to, you know, what I'm talking about hard times, like when you're having a hard time or a hard situation, or not, even if you're having a hard time or a hard situation, really what I'm talking about and saying is when you're saying like, step one is acknowledging, okay, this is where I am today.
(17:45): Like I'm right fucking here right now. And being totally raw and honest about it. This is where I am for real and whatever you do, or don't like about where you are. You gotta get honest about where you are and then you look at, okay, well, this is where I want to go. Or this is what I want to build. This is what I want to create. This is what I want to attract. This is a connection with God that I want to have, whatever it, it is. You gotta acknowledge where you are. And then you gotta see where you want to go. And the process of where you are to where you want to go, getting there, that's called a process. And the thing about a process is there's no shortcuts. Like it's called a process because you have to go through the process.
(18:26): And another piece of the process is, and realizing that time is one of the equations to a process like you cannot, I mean, you, you can try and delegate and you can try and be efficient and you can try and get some little hacks, but you cannot cut time out of a process. And I think that's one thing that we all struggle with, no matter how big or small of a goal, basically dealing with a situation that we don't want to be in, or that we don't want to be dealing with, or just living a life or a lifestyle that we're no longer satisfied with. And we're saying, fuck, this, I, this is not what I want. There's so much more out there for me. Like, I'm, don't want to do this shit anymore. When you have that moment of like truly acknow, like, because you have to have desire, right?
(19:13): If you don't, if you, if you don't have a desire or a passion, or you don't have like an inner wanting and connection for whatever it is, you're writing, you're not gonna get there because there has to be the passion piece for it. In my opinion, you have to have the desire piece for it, in my opinion, to really like, I mean, there's things you can just go do numbly and you're gonna get results. Yeah. But like for building a lifestyle and, and having the spiritual shit dialed in and the money piece and the relationship piece, and you're happy for real, you're not just telling yourself you're happy. Like, um, that's gonna be a process. You can't just numbly mindlessly, go through that. So, anyways, guys, I know I'm kind of all over the place with this, but I'm really just trying to hammer home down on this.
(19:52): And I don't have a whole lot of notes today. I'm just kind of spitting it straight from the heart, but I've, I've got, like I said, I've got multiple things that I've been dealing with for the last six months that are really challenging on all fronts of life, but I'm gonna read you some of my notes that I just keep in my iPhone, that I write down and, and, and read regularly. So one of them is don't worry, worry, make the best decisions you can with the data that you have lean into the truth and that you are in a process. And time is part of the equation. I am guided God in the universe, know the best path for me. I have to state my intentions and be in alignment with who I am becoming. Then be that and energy right here right now.
(20:35): I'm gonna say that again. And this for me, you know, like I've done self development heavily for the last probably 15, I don't know, 12 to 15 years, 15 years. But the last three years I've really stepped into my spiritual work. And I'm not talking religion. I'm not talking, God, I don't go to fucking church. I don't read anybody's book. None of that stuff I'm talking about, true spirituality, like your relationship with God, your creator, the universe, whatever that looks like for you, spirit. I don't care what you wanna label it, cuz that's all it fucking is, is a label. And it's about the energy behind it. And I wish this world would get more in tune with that. It's about the energy behind it. Not all the fucking labels, but anyways, the last part of that is I have to state my intentions and be in alignment with who I am becoming.
(21:21): Then be that man and energy right here right now. And that to me is everything I'm trying to talk about with staying loyal to the truth and being personal personally accountable and staying loyal to your potential, right. Truth and potential are kind of similar things to me. So that's pretty much my show for this week guys, but hard times find all of us, you know, and, and maybe it doesn't have to be a train wreck of a situation, but life isn't fucking easy. I, I don't believe it was designed to be easy. I definitely think life is designed to be joyful and, um, amazing. And for us to fill all of the emotions. But the bottom line is, is most of our lessons that we get don't come from rainbows and unicorns and sunshine. Most of our lessons come because we have to be shaken up and our foundation has to be rocked a little bit and we have to be faced with challenge and adversity and through looking adversity in the eye and acknowledging the adversity and seeing what is the lesson here.
(22:26): And even if you're not getting the lesson now at some point in time, it will come or maybe you'll never fucking know what it was. But what I do know is on the other side of struggle and adversity and just tough times as always for me looking back have always been like some of the biggest teachers in lessons in my life that have served me tremendously in business, in Finn relationships, friendships, all this stuff. So anyways, I appreciate you guys. I love you guys. The whole point in my podcast is I'm just trying to share with you guys what I'm doing, what I'm learning, I'm trying to build this lifestyle brand out. And that's really what everyone wants. Like everyone of you listening to this, you're, you're looking a lifestyle and the lifestyle's different for everybody, but that's what we all want. Because at the end of the day, if you drill down what is a lifestyle like we are all looking to be loved and, and to be happy and to feel fulfilled.
(23:22): Like that's what we want. Love acceptance, fulfillment, happiness, and your lifestyle that you create is what's gonna deliver that to, you know, so for me, love business. I love creating, I love structuring deals. I love feeling accomplished. I love the money, all of that stuff, but I also love the relationships more than anything. And the connection with people and talking about the real life, shit like we're talking about today. So anyways, I appreciate you guys listening yesterday. My Instagram's back. So they vanished my original count for like four months. Then yesterday I got a notice on my phone and all of a sudden, like people were liking a post on my old Instagram. So at Michael dot burns, B U R N Z is my Instagram. That's back. I'm gonna switch my account back over to that. Just cuz it's more established. I, I want to connect with you hit me up on Instagram at Michael dot burns. I'm on Facebook at Mr. Michael Burns and uh, share the show guys, share the show, hit me up. I want to interact with you. I'd love to hear topics you want to hear about. Yeah. Outside of that, we'll see you guys next week. Go build that lifestyle and I'll talk to you later.
This is ThePodcastFactory.com
