00:00I found out it is not what they say about you that limits you the most.
00:04It's that you might believe them and start saying that to yourself.
00:10There were many, many, many people who said that I would never be anything.
00:17I just chose not to be one of them.
00:19And as long as it's not your mouth that says it, you can overcome theirs all day long.
00:26So the thing that's interesting about me was, even as a man of the cloth and as a pastor and as a mega church leader,
00:36most people describe me that way because that's how they met me.
00:40As we speak, I've got two films coming out on Lifetime.
00:44I've done five movies with Sony, grossing $500 million at the box office through a for-profit company.
00:54I've written 40 books, 10 of them have been on the New York Times bestsellers list.
00:59Don't, what I'm getting at, I'm not bragging, I'm going to make a point.
01:04Don't let people describe you because if they do, they will incarcerate you.
01:09And it's all right to say he's a preacher.
01:12But if you put a period where I believe God put a comma, you limit me down to how you understand me.
01:19I'm a person and a person has more than one gift, more than one talent, more than one pursuit.
01:29And if you've got a great job, that's good.
01:32But there's more in you than what you do.
01:35And to explore all of the possibilities and all of the potential.
01:40Do everything.
01:43Do everything.
01:44And do it scared.
01:46Because you're going to be scared.
01:48Every time you get out of your comfort zone, it is horrifying.
01:53But it is also titillating.
01:55And it is also inspiring.
01:58And it is also nerve-wracking.
02:00But you are never more alive than when you're outside of your normal.
02:07Your glands secrete different types of hormones when you're outside of your normal.
02:14Your brain starts spinning.
02:17Your blood starts rushing.
02:19Your adrenaline increases.
02:21Most of us are dying of boredom.
02:24There are people listening to me right now who drive home and circle the block two or three times before going in the house.
02:35We're dying of routine.
02:39And we were made to be adventurous.
02:41We don't roar like the lion.
02:44We don't move like the jackal.
02:46We don't slither like the snake.
02:48We don't bite like a viper.
02:50However, our only weapon that's been given to us is our brain.
02:56Our brain is our weapon.
02:58And when your brain gets locked down to living within the confinements of other people's expectations, it starts to wither.
03:09It ceases to be.
03:10I had a therapist tell me one time,
03:13your body will do everything that it did when it was a baby.
03:16The reason you can't do it as you get older is that you stop doing it.
03:21And so when I say don't drop the mic, I guess I'm kind of saying don't stop doing it.
03:27Keep moving into awkward positions because if you don't do that, your body will freeze to the level of its usage.
03:36That's true of the brain, too.
03:38That's true of your innovation.
03:40That's true of your creativity.
03:41So when I'm talking about don't drop the mic, get scared sometimes.
03:46Get where you're not the boss.
03:48Get where you're walking to a room where you're not the teacher.
03:51Walk into a place where you don't know the rules because then you become broader and you become more interesting.
03:57And you become more global and more usable in diverse circumstances and situations.
04:04Don't let people limit you to what they think is appropriate for you.
04:10Do everything that you are gifted enough to do.
04:13Now, there are some things I will never do.
04:15I will probably never conduct a symphony.
04:18You know, I won't.
04:20I made straight A's in music theory and I love music, but I probably will never conduct a symphony.
04:26But whatever is in your inventory is all you can produce.
04:32First of all, you have to recognize you have a tree and stare at the tree till you look at what it could be.
04:38It's much like raising a child.
04:40You look at a child and you look what he could be, what she could be.
04:43What your responsibility is to take what you have been given and turn it into something that it was not when it was originally handed it to you.
04:53You know, and to shape that and mold it and sand it and nail it and glue it and put it together and work with it.
05:00That's the work of men.
05:02It does require an investment.
05:04It does require a commitment, especially when you come up in an age that everything is controlled by a button.
05:10Process sounds hard.
05:12But the best things in life require a process.
05:16And if you run from the process, you alleviate the promise.
05:21In order to get to the promise, you have to go through the process.
05:25In the process of going through all of that, guess who gets the most?
05:31It's not the table or the tree.
05:33It's the person who shaped it.
05:35Because you say, oh, I didn't know I could do that.
05:39Maybe I can make a chair.
05:40Maybe I could make an automobile.
05:43Without what I'm talking about, we wouldn't have airplanes.
05:47We wouldn't have spaceships.
05:48We wouldn't have television.
05:49We wouldn't have, we wouldn't be zooming.
05:52We wouldn't be communicating like we're doing right now.
05:55If somebody hadn't taken what they were given and making something more out of it.
05:59Everybody listening at us right now has been given things that if you can either leave them as trees and sit up under them and drink lemonade.
06:09Or you can say, I could make a house out of this.
06:14Our forefathers took trees and built houses and chairs and tables.
06:22We cannot be the generation that suddenly says, that sounds hard.
06:27And we stop being innovative and we stop being creative.
06:31Because if we do that, we will lose respect for ourselves.
06:35Because we didn't make a difference.
06:38And we left it as a tree.
06:40And this is important.
06:42I think this is really important.
06:43Especially for men, but maybe for women too.
06:47We keep trying to hold on to our last season.
06:52Without discovering the beauty of the season we're in now.
06:58We're in the gym.
06:59We're running.
07:00We're doing everything we can to hold on to 20.
07:04As if something were wrong with 40.
07:09Instead of exploring 40 and re-pivoting.
07:14It's the word.
07:15Pivoting into the beauty of 40.
07:17There's a beauty at 80.
07:19If you sit down and talk to an 80-year-old man who is happy.
07:25There are things that he's happy about that a 20-year-old man hadn't even touched yet.
07:31He doesn't even have a clue.
07:33He doesn't even know that exists yet.
07:35And so seasons, stages, and ages have repercussions on how we get along.
07:42And so we are constantly in motion.
07:45We are constantly evolving.
07:47We are constantly becoming.
07:48And we must not despise that transition.
07:53Because number one, it's inevitable.
07:56It's going to happen anyway.
07:57And number two, you will miss the beauty of wrinkles.
08:03You will miss the beauty of the beauty that comes to be a grandmother.
08:19There's a beauty and a charm and a finesse and a wisdom.
08:23But we are so obsessed with what was.
08:27And I think that is something to be said.
08:29If you are leading and if you are living, we have to deal with cross-generational realities.
08:37Even though we might all be people of faith or we might all be atheists or agnostics or whatever we are.
08:43We are at different stages of life.
08:45Putting yourself in fouls where you describe yourself this way or that way is a limiting idea.
08:53Because I am a person of faith does not mean that I don't have moments of doubt.
08:58Because you are a person of doubt does not mean you don't have moments of faith.
09:04It took faith to sit down in that chair.
09:07You didn't look up under it to be sure it would hold you up.
09:10You just plopped yourself down in it believing it would hold you up.
09:13You cannot exist without faith.
09:16It's impossible not to have faith.
09:18You don't send somebody out to see if your car will start before you jump in it.
09:23And so we are not that far removed from one thing or the other.
09:29But once we learn a label and we teach what that label means, now we are trying to live up to being in that label.
09:36And you might be at a different stage where your soul opens up to an idea that you never thought you could listen to.
09:44And a black guy from Dallas who is twice your size, bald-headed, gray-haired, preaching and get something out of it.
09:54Keep talking until somebody listens.
09:56Keep singing until somebody claps.
10:00Keep painting until somebody stares.
10:03You have a gift and don't lock it up inside the convenience of a small group of people.
10:09You have a gift of a small group of people.
10:33Amen.
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