Why It's Never Too Late to Win

Ben BeeriIt's never too late to have a good day. If you're struggling and you're going to work, and you're leaving work at 5:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m., your day could just be getting started. Ben Beeri: It was interesting. My brother sent me over like a lead to purchase some memorabilia for our company. And it was a good lead. And I was able to make an attempt to purchase these items for our company. And went to go and buy it and we have certain tools that we use to purchase this stuff and this is an auction and a bidding process. And the tool malfunctioned. And we were unable to secure the purchase of this item. And it wasn't damaging, but it was a missed opportunity. One that I would have liked to have, preferably. I'm like, man, it's like, okay, whatever, because I didn't sleep well or what happened. Okay, day's not off to a great start. Great. Okay. Now I'm gonna go for a swim. Let me go for a swim. Let me try to get a win up on the scoreboard for the day. Go for a swim. I'm struggling energy-wise, body's not moving the way I'd like to go. For some reason my goggles won't stay on. And I'm sitting there going like, can I get some kind of win today? And I'm like, okay, I see what's happening here. I'm getting my fucking teeth kicked in. I need like an artificial win. So I normally swim 1800 yards, which is slightly over a mile. I decided to push to 2000 yards. So let me swim 200 extra yards. So I can at least feel like I got a win, right? Okay, finish that. All right, artificial win, right? Kind of lied to myself, got this win, right? And get out of the pool, check my phone. Supposed to have a lunch meeting that day. Business meeting, canceled. And I'm like, huh, okay. That's unfortunate like we're gonna work on some things that were meaningful there. Hopefully we get it rescheduled, whatever, but missed out on memorabilia for my company. Tough swim, canceled lunch. I'm like, okay, Ben, we need to get a win. One win up on the scoreboard, like let's have a good day. And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go do some cryotherapy. I'm gonna go, process of cryotherapy is you step into this ice chamber. It is negative 175 degrees with a feeling of extreme winds. You're in there for three and a half minutes. It is cold. You better not have anything on your body that is wet or sweaty because it will freeze and you do not want that. And it is difficult and in order to get through that it is important for me to be in a place where my breath is regulated and I'm calm and I'm comfortable and I could not get myself in a state where I wanted to walk into this cryotherapy chamber. Like I could not get my mind in a state. I'm like, I am just taking L after L after L. At a certain point in time, I knew I had to be somewhere at 4:30 that day. We're supposed to do a recording for something. And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go do my cryo because I know I need to do it. Not because I have built up the state of mind to do it yet. But because A, I'm not a bitch and I'm going to go do it, and B, I need something that appears as a win on the scoreboard for today. So I don't feel like I just had a totally bad day and I'm an utter failure. Step into the cryo chamber, just like every other time. My three and a half minutes pass, is it cold? Yes. Do I die? Obviously I'm still here. And that doesn't feel like a win to me. It was hard. Swimming the extra couple hundred yards was hard, but it didn't feel like a win. Show up to the recording at 4:30 that we were supposed to do. We had some internal issues that kind of delayed us for a little while. We weren't able to start until 6. And I'm sitting here going, I'm like, from the time I woke up in the middle of the night at 3, 4 a.m., couldn't sleep for a couple hours, like, woke up in the morning at 8 a.m., like, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., I'm getting my fucking ass kicked. Like, it is not a good day. I am not having a good day. And it is okay for me to be honest about that with myself. I will acknowledge to myself that I am not having a good day. But, 6 p.m., we get the cameras rolling on the recording. Thought we had an awesome recording, we had an awesome podcast, we had a great conversation, we had a great time. Finish around 7. Had such a great time recording. I had such great people around me. I had a couple members of my team with me, I felt like we put some good work in. All of the sudden it was 7 p.m. I'm like, wait a minute, I recognize this feeling. We make some real, real, real shit happen tonight. Get some dinner, sit down, eat some dinner. We're in for the long haul tonight. I've already seen this, I already know how it's gonna happen. Sat there and really just collaborated together, ate dinner, worked till 12:30 a.m. By the time I left at 12:30 a.m., I just had the best fucking day. Like I had the best day. Like I went home, I was excited, there was more stuff to do. I didn't fall asleep until 3 a.m. I ended up working until 3 a.m. And I'm sitting there, and really thinking. My last thought before I went to sleep is I'm like, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., I had a bad day. Like if that was it, okay at work, close the door, all right I'm heading home, fuck this. Bad day. Like, going to sleep not feeling good about myself. Bad day. And then I got my win on the scoreboard. And my win was that I stayed in my day long enough for it to not be a bad day. Something good happened. Not only did something good happen, something great happened. And I went to sleep excited at 3 a.m. I swam 200 extra yards than I normally do. So I swam 2,000 yards. Like how capable is my body? I did cryotherapy for three and a half minutes in negative 175 degree weather. I am fucking capable. We recorded a kick-ass podcast and it was fun. Like we had a great conversation, it was inspiring. We sat, we had dinner together, it was meaningful. We got to collaborate on a project and work on something until 12:30 a.m. And then I got home and for two hours I was in a flow state and I was able to continue working and compounding on what I had built during that day. And the entire day I was just sitting there thinking, can I just get one win on the scoreboard? Meanwhile, I had all these different wins. I just didn't see them as wins because of the state of mind that I was in, because I decided to start the day off in a victim state of mind because I didn't sleep well. So my swim wasn't a win. My cryo wasn't a win. Having the lunch canceled, that was tough. Losing out on the piece of memorabilia, tough. By the way, I also found a few other pieces of memorabilia to add to our collection, to add to our inventory to make available for our customers that were even better than the one I missed out on. But I didn't let myself see a win and see it as a win until after I reflected on the day as a whole. And I think the greatest lesson I took from that is your state of mind matters. How you view things matters. And it really only affects you if it actually affects you. Because when I got out of the pool, I didn't see that as a win. When I got out of cryo, I didn't see that as a win. When I bought a few pieces of memorabilia for our company, I didn't see that as a win. I just saw that as an obligation. We had some delays, we couldn't start our podcast on time, I'm seeing it as a loss. Lunch canceled, loss. And the only thing that really changed was how I saw things. And ultimately I just decided when I went to sleep, I'm like, you know, today was a good day. Today was a good day. Today wasn't a good day. Today was a great day. That was the only difference. Nothing actually changed in the facts of the day. What changed was the state of mind that I was in and how inspired I was. And now I realize that the next time I have a day that is difficult or maybe some things are not going my way, I know that that might just be my best day ever setting itself up. It might start off on the wrong foot and I may not have full control over that, but I can control how I land, make sure I'm on both feet, end the day on a good note, and really be in a place where I can feel good about the day and build momentum going forward. Build momentum for who I'm becoming as a person. And that's what matters. It's never too late to have a good day. If you're struggling, and you're going to work, and you're leaving work at 5:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m., your day could just be getting started. Your day doesn't end until you decide it ends. And for me, if I would have ended my day at 6 p.m. that day, I would have just been a victim and I would have went to sleep, and I would have woken up a victim the next day. But instead, I stayed in my day long enough for it to carry on and for me to experience that I was actually having a great day, and instead of going to sleep a victim, I went to sleep a victor. And the next day, I woke up, and I felt like a victor. And for those of you wondering the translation of a victor, it means you're a fucking winner.