From Money Demons to Spiritual Awakening | Mark Matson EP 829

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:12people like to try to compartmentalize things in their brain like oh this is money this is my relationships this is my life this is my whatever but money doesn't work like that it's got tentacles and it's like a thread that goes through the carpet of your life it touches everything so when i have a money demon i also usually have a relationship demon Mm-hmm. When I went through divorce, I thought, okay, you're going to lose half of all your stuff now, including your company that you built. So that was less than ideal. That was a money demon. But I also had another money demon or relationship demon related to that is that I had grown up most of my life as an atheist.

0:56And took classes in college about how there's no God and all this garbage. And so then when I went through the divorce, I mean, I was gutted. I mean, it was dark. I'm a bad father. I wasn't seeing my kids. I'm going to lose my company. It's going to be like, this is going to be the worst thing ever in my life. I got depressed. And then I was talking to a buddy on the phone. So I lived in a world, a screen, as there is no God. And I'm talking to a buddy of mine and he's like I'm probably crying he's like well are you ready I said ready for what he said are you ready to admit there's a God and it's not you oh and I'm like uh yeah I am or you could have said see there is no God because I'm divorced half my money's gone my business is gone my kids don't like me right you could have also gone and stayed in that belief yeah I could just stayed there and if there was a god why would he let this happen to me yeah right well i knew because i was a sinner and i didn't believe in god but he but you know what all of the in this and a screen sometimes can change slow or sometimes it can go fast but i knew instantly i could not live in a world without a god anymore wow i just it was empty if it was devoid and it was hopeless and i didn't have any doubts or questions all the intellectual gymnastics i had been doing my whole life went away and he said get on your knees and let's pray and i was in that hotel room and started praying and and i went from a screen a world of no god to a world of god and that's made all it's made all the difference kind of like the master screen that fits into the other screens wow screens are powerful and people will literally die to keep their screens like my grandpa did he died he died um he came to visit us only one time at our house in cincinnati it was august it was a cool for August.

2:49He walked in the front door. We had about maybe like an 1800 foot square house. It wasn't huge. He said, how many, he looked at my dad in front of his whole family. He said, how many people did you have to rip off to get this out? Oh my gosh. That was his first thing. That was the first thing out of his mouth. Jeez. His screen, his framework, his mindset, when he saw something, he said, you did something wrong to get this. Yep. There's no way you could have done something good to be able to afford something like this. man and i know my dad wanted to be proud of him that's tough and right in front of his whole family and he said george miller mary lou and i were on our own business we worked really hard we tried to build a good family uh for uh of a good house for our family and a nice home and and he said well you can tell yourself whatever you want that'll let you sleep in oh my gosh he said but all i see is a big shot you think you're better than me and it got really heated after that for about five minutes.

3:48He left. He never came back. And three months later, he was dead in his little teeny shack he lived at in West Virginia. How old were you during that time? About 13. Wow. I mean, that's a memory that's still alive in you today. I'll never forget that day. 47, 48 years ago, right? That was a memory that your grandfather had with your father and your family. what psychological screen did you create in that moment that stuck with you that benefited you and one that didn't benefit you yeah well because money essentially that that you know your dad tried to break a model of his father's to do something good but it hurt the relationship with his father that's right it caused him maybe he could think it caused him to die maybe maybe not but it could be like it was so bad that he died alone because he had no family and he didn't want to be around me whatever he made up with his mom so what was the benefit from you in seeing that experience versus you know a negative benefit the benefit in that was that dad stood up for his family well that's powerful and stood up to his values and what he believed about america um and about freedom and about entrepreneurship uh and about helping other people and never expecting anything from expecting anything free or that you're you didn't earn um and and that always stuck with me on on the other hand when i will when i was a kid i didn't go through some stuff you know i i had trouble studying in school and trouble reading so i made up i'm stupid and you know i'd ask a girl to the dance and she wouldn't say no you know and i think oh, I'm not handsome enough, or I didn't get to be the captain on the football team.

5:41And so I started like, I'm dumb, I'm not handsome, I'm not attractive, I'm not man enough. And that was early on. That was like eighth grade, and I got bullied in school. And so I had all these, in my strategy, I heard your podcast with Pivot. My strategy was not unlike yours, which was to win at all costs. Whatever I was going to do, if it's going to be sports, if it's going to be grades, if it's going to be drama club, if it's going to be whatever, I got to have the lead role. I got to be the captain. I got to, you know, win state championship and discus. I mean, I got to do all this or I'm not worth anything.

6:14And it got me through a little bit in life, but it ultimately would be a failed strategy. Right, exactly.

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7:17Again, have an amazing day, and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.