If I just get this promotion, I'll be okay.
If he or she goes out with me, I'll be happy.
If God blesses this area of my life,
then I'll be able to do more.
Do these things sound familiar?
Have you ever found yourself waiting on something to happen
before you decide to take action?
And if you have, how often has that worked out for you?
Yeah, I thought so.
Well, don't fret, because on today's episode,
we're going over a character who doesn't waste time
and is all about action.
And of course, talking about the future warrior Trunks.
Hey, what's going on, guys?
My name is Nate, and you're listening to the Otaku Liberation,
a show where we help you break free from the chains
that are holding you back in your life
by connecting biblical principles with themes
from your favorite anime.
And the show is called Otaku Liberation.
And it's a show where we help you break free from the chains
that are holding you back in your life
by connecting biblical principles with themes
from your favorite anime.
And the show is called Otaku Liberation.
And it's a show where we help you break free from the chains
that are holding you back in your life
by connecting biblical principles with themes
from your favorite anime.
And the verse I'm going over today is Joshua chapter 1,
verse 9.
And it says, haven't I commanded you?
Be strong and courageous.
Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God
is with you wherever you go.
All right, let's get into it.
So that verse I just read, it pretty much kind of
says, do what you need to do, right?
You've already been called, you've already been commanded.
You know what it is that you need to do,
because it's been placed on your spirit, on your heart.
And now you just got to execute.
I mean, that's all you have to do.
And when I was thinking about that,
Trunks is the best example I can ever think of
in Dragon Ball, right?
And any of you guys who know the story of Dragon Ball,
Dragon Ball Z, things like that,
you know, the typical Saiyan mindset is to,
you know, one, always push yourself and always, you know,
try to be at your best.
You want your best to beat your opponent's best.
And in a one-on-one setting, that makes a lot of sense.
Like if you're, if only your life is at stake
or if it's only your own pride or whatever you want to call
it, if it's just affecting you, then yeah, by all means,
you know, let your opponent, you know, show their final form
or you get to the pinnacle of their power so you can test
yourself, by all means.
But nine times out of 10 in the series of Dragon Ball,
it's not just you, it's the lives of pretty much everyone
in the entire world, sometimes the universe that's at stake.
And those types of selfish tendencies can't be had.
And Goku, Vegeta, and sometimes Gohan have all fallen victim
to this mindset where I want my opponent to be at their best
so I can beat them, regardless of what is at stake
if I lose.
And that, for me growing up as a fan of the show,
that was always a vexing mindset to me because again,
like I said, if it's just you, you're the only one of all,
okay, sure.
But when there's other people involved in that,
there's no need for that type of, not even hesitation,
but type of waiting, right?
And that's where Trunks, specifically the future Trunks,
comes into play where his mindset is the exact opposite
of that.
He shows up, he knows what he needs to get done,
and he's going to do it.
There's no waiting around for them to get stronger.
There's none of that.
He's literally all about that action.
And honestly, that's why he's my favorite character
in the entire series, is because he shows up,
he knows what he needs to do when he's going to do it,
regardless of what everybody else says.
Even if he fails at it, he's still going to keep on going
until he succeeds.
And to kind of give a little backstory on that mindset
and how that shaped who he is right now,
is kind of go back to the beginning,
which is in the future,
even though we're talking about the present, right?
I know it's confusing, but you know, time travel.
So Trunks, for those who don't know,
Trunks is the son of Vegeta,
who I've already done the episode on,
and Bulma, who's Vegeta's wife at the time.
And this Trunks was born into a future
where they had these killer androids.
They were created by this organization
called the Red Ribbon Army, a terrorist group, more or less.
And the androids essentially killed off
anybody who was able to fight them,
essentially because they're robots.
So they don't get tired.
They have limitless energy.
So the fighters who they were fighting were mortal,
and basically just beat him out in a battle of attrition.
And when it came down to it,
Trunks was the only one left
who was even close enough to fight Trunks and Gohan.
Because in this future,
Gohan trained Trunks on how to fight,
how to become a Super Saiyan, things like that.
And he was his mentor, his mentor figure,
because Goku was dead, Vegeta was dead,
Piccolo, Krillin, all the characters who,
we've come to know at this point
where I haven't all been killed off.
And it was just Gohan and Trunks.
And so that type of dystopian era that Trunks lived in,
it forced him to mature quickly.
He had to grow up at a pace quicker
than his present counterpart has.
He didn't have, the only family he had was Bulma and Gohan.
And everyone else was dead and killed off.
And that, being growing up in that type of scenario,
it really helped Trunks decide,
okay, this is do or die time, right?
There's no time for hesitation.
There's no time for, you know,
essentially freezing up in your process.
Like you need to make a decision
about how you want to live your life
and what you need to do to accomplish that, right?
In this case, it was taking on the androids.
So when Trunks decided he wanted to fight,
he's like, how am I going to get there?
So Gohan trained him.
And even though Trunks wasn't ready to fight,
he was willing and he was definitely willing
to go out and at least attempt.
And, but unfortunately, Gohan ends up dying to the androids,
which, you know, inadvertently caused Trunks
to turn to a Super Santa, which, you know,
their powerful form or things like that,
for those who don't know.
And that, and then that moment is when it really
kind of hit him home.
So, okay, these things need to go, you know,
they've taken literally everything from me
and there's no, I can't sit back and keep letting this happen.
So, I mean, it helps to shape his decision-making
and he started planning, okay, what am I going to do?
So how am I going to do this?
And, you know, him and his mom came up with the idea
to go back in the past to, you know,
help Goku and Vegeta in the past.
So this future doesn't come to pass.
And, because the main part I want to get across
is that he planned, right?
Because when we were talking about taking action
and doing what it takes, that doesn't mean, you know,
you just go, you know, boss of the wall, full tilt,
you know, just flying by the seat of your pants, right?
No, that's not what we're saying.
I'm saying to take the time to think and plan out,
plan some milestones.
Now, you don't have to take each and every step
you're going to take or each and every moment of the day,
things like that, because then you'll never,
you're never going to get started
because you're too busy planning all the time.
But what I'm saying is maybe draw like an outline,
couple bullet points, a couple, you know, goal markers,
you know, for something that's a month away,
two months, six months a year, things like that,
and then work backwards from there.
That way you can take the action,
but you're not just going in blind either.
If that, you know, hopefully that makes sense
for you guys.
And again, in the approach that Trunks took,
he knew he was like, okay,
I can't beat these guys by myself.
So let me at least, let me figure out a way
to prevent this from happening in the first place, right?
That's the problem solving.
That's figuring out, that's figuring out
what the end goal is.
And then he immediately went to work.
They built the time machine.
He went back to the past and he started helping them out.
And again, so that's really, he had no hesitation.
He wasn't waiting to take the action that he needed.
You know, he didn't, and again,
back to the whole sand mindset where they normally wait
for people to power up and things like that, you know,
Trunks has never waited for a photo to power up.
He doesn't sit there, you know,
just embasking in his own glory.
He's like, he's very realistic.
He's like, no, this needs to stop.
It needs to happen now.
And I feel like we can learn a lot from that, right?
Cause how many of us have had, you know,
goals or dreams or visions, whatever you want to call them,
that, you know, like a future or a life
that you envisioned that like, yep, I want to do that.
I can do that.
I know I can, but you never pull the trigger.
You never go forward with it.
You never decide to execute on just the first step,
not even a whole plan.
Like you don't have to have the whole thing planned out,
but you are too afraid to take the first step.
And so now the dream is always going to be a dream
and you're going to wake up one day and realize
that you've wasted all this time
because you're waiting for the perfect moment
that's never going to come.
I mean, that's the reality of it, right?
You wait for a perfect moment.
You say when the stars align, when I get this bonus,
when I get this promotion,
when I get in that relationship, you know,
all these, you know, when, when, when I, when I, when I,
instead of just like, I am, I'm going to do this now.
I'm going to do this, you know, do these three things now,
do this one thing now, whatever it is, right?
We all have our own goals.
We all have our own lives
and things we're trying to strive for.
But I know for me, I'm honestly, case of point,
this podcast was one thing that I felt like
God put a vision on my heart for it to, to start it,
to share honestly something I've been doing now,
thinking about my entire life,
whereas looking at anime and the characters in them
and really dissecting them and how they think and the,
and their, you know, morality, their personalities,
things like that, and what motivates them
and find pieces that I can relate to.
And then things I can apply to my own life, right?
Cause I know a lot of people specifically, you know,
like fitness people, you know,
they can say Dragon Ball in general,
but specifically Goku and Vegeta have encouraged them to,
you know, train hard in the gym
and may work more in their martial arts, you know,
just that mind, that grind, that grind mindset.
And what I wanted to do is making a broader thing
from just, you know, those specific characters
or this specific anime and just,
and turn it into something that people can,
can readily relate to.
Not everyone can see those types of things, right?
When you, when you're watching the show,
so you just want to watch, just to watch it, right?
And you don't want to dissect and do all those things.
And so, and I get it, trust me, I do.
So that's why I figured, hey,
why not do it for the people out there, right?
And I just, all, all that I could do is just pray
that you guys learn something from it
and that it motivates you in some form or fashion.
But if I was, if I would,
you got caught up in all the details, like, okay,
how am I going to sound on the mic?
You know, are people going to like the way,
like the way my voice is?
Are they going to relate to the message?
Which anime should I do?
You know, should I do this character
or maybe I should do this?
You know, all the what ifs and the questions
and all the, the mind fog that comes with it.
And I caught myself before I went down that rabbit hole
and it was like, okay, nope.
All I'm going to do is, you know,
just get the equipment and start recording and here we go.
Right. And, but again, granted,
I didn't just do it by the seat of my pants.
I wasn't just randomly doing it.
I have outlined for each of these episodes that I do
when I choose the anime and I choose the characters,
I go in and I find, A, what's the theme I want to do?
Which character best fits that theme within,
within the anime?
And then I look at their personalities, different things
from the episodes.
Sometimes I rewatch, rewatching the anime
so I can get a better feel for the characters.
And then I find some, some verses in the Bible
that talks about these things and trying to all
put it together in a nice, you know,
wrap it up in a nice bow as best as I can. Right.
And whether it hits or misses, I don't know.
All I know is it's my job to hit record
and start, start talking.
And that's just, that's been my experience, you know,
just that's been close to my heart and here recently
is just, again, just don't be afraid to start. Right.
Any of you start off wrong, at least you'll know
so you can start over and do it the right way.
But if you never start, then you'll never know.
And honestly, that's where our biggest regrets come from
is not doing something and being wrong
is the regret of not doing it in the first place.
And let you guys sit with that for a minute
because I'm sure you think about so many times in your past
you know, the what it could have, should have, right.
Very, I mean, I wish I would have done this, man.
I could have done that, but I didn't.
I should have done this, but you know, this got in the way.
You know, whatever the excuse was at the time
it sounded good to us in the moment.
But now we're looking back on it, you know,
two years, 10 years, 15, 20 years later.
And now you, now you're stuck in the
what it could have, should have phase, you know,
trying to beat yourself down and, you know,
and I don't want you to go there and to stay there,
but it's good to go back and to really understand the past
so you can have some insight,
but not let it hold you captive there, right.
Cause we need to learn from our mistakes.
We need to learn from our past.
That's one of the ways we get better, right.
That's not the only way we get better in all honesty
is to learn from the mistakes and to be willing to make them
and not be afraid to make them either.
I know it's easier said than done.
Trust me, I'm still working on it,
but don't let your past hold you back.
Don't let it hold you in that, you know, in that regret.
Because, you know, we're all striving to get better
at least 1% each and every day.
And if we dwell too much on the past
and we're going to end up living there
and we end up going backwards.
And I don't want that for you guys, I really don't.
So what I really want you guys to understand is to,
you know, be adaptable, be adaptable,
respond to the current situation
and then change accordingly.
And one of the ways that Trunks did this
is that when he went back into the past
and he, you know, he made sure Goku survived
the heart disease that would have killed him
and he started finding the androids,
but things were different than what Trunks grew up
and what he remembered, right.
Cause when he initially came back to the past,
he thought, honestly, he thought he knew
what was going to happen because, you know,
again, he's from the future.
And I would say about 95% of the time he was right,
but there were certain things that were different
that he didn't account for.
Like for instance, there were, I think I told you,
like three other androids that he didn't know existed
when he went back to the past.
And as well as, you know, with Cell,
who's the main villain of that saga and his existence
and his transformations that came after us, right.
So there were things, there were bumps in the road
that Trunks didn't account for, but he didn't dwell on it.
He didn't let that, you know, break his stride.
He took into account, he said, okay,
so this isn't exactly what I expected it to be,
but let me take in the zoom information,
go back to the drawing board and see how much of my plan
do I need to change, if anything at all.
And I mean, Ozzy, the game plan really didn't change.
He went back to help Goku and them, you know,
they trained and then they overcame these new obstacles,
right, I mean, because at the end of the day,
they all, they won.
And that's something that I really think we should all
really focus on is just being adaptable
because we can't see the future, or at least I can,
maybe you can, you know, if you can, you know,
write in the comments and tell my fortune, please.
But I know for the vast majority of us,
we can't see the future, right?
We can make educated guesses as best as we can,
but at the end of the day, you know,
life is gonna do what life is gonna do, right?
We can't make something up, we can make our own,
we can make our own future by focusing on the present, right?
And that future is one, what we think in our heads,
you know, both the future and the past, honestly,
they're both glorified in some form or fashion,
and the future is always better than what we think
it's gonna be, and the past typically is,
oh, sorry, let me backtrack.
The future in our minds is better than
what it's actually gonna be, and then the past
in our minds is worse than what it actually was, right?
Because we don't remember everything with 100% accuracy.
And so life throws us those curve balls
and that layoff happens, the breakup happens,
and say the divorce happens,
when things like that we don't foresee.
That's when the test happens, that's when we realize,
okay, are we going to just retreat into our minds
and just be by ourselves and just be stuck in this place?
Because I don't know about you,
I don't wanna be stuck in a place of pain.
That doesn't feel good to me.
I don't want to be there, but so many of us,
so many times when we do get hurt,
when we do, whether it's our own fault,
somebody else inflicted that pain upon us,
we choose to stay there.
Now I'm not saying to not grieve
and to not take that time, by all means do it,
because we have to process those things.
But if we stay in it, then all we're doing
is just making it worse and hurting ourselves.
And some things are easier to move forward from than others,
and some things are gonna take more time than others,
but you still have to, you still gotta move forward,
because life's gonna go on.
The earth's still gonna spin,
the sun's still gonna rise and fall,
and we just can't, we can't dwell on it.
Because in the end of the day, it's not productive,
it's not gonna do anything,
it's not gonna change what happened,
and it's not gonna change you going forward.
So I really, really, really encourage you guys
to just really take in the aspect of being adaptable.
Rolling with the punches, taking everything in stride
the best as you can.
And if you can't do it by yourself,
find someone who can do it with you, right?
Find some good friends or family,
whoever it is that you trust more than anything else
to just be there with you,
to help you get through that difficult time,
get through whatever it is that life threw at you.
And don't hesitate, right?
Once you take the time, once you reflect,
once you decide that you're gonna get back out there,
that you're gonna move forward, go.
Just go, move.
Don't sit there, don't try to wait
for the perfect opportunity that's never gonna come.
Get up, move your feet, and go forward, right?
And then you wanna plan it out, have a rough draft,
and then make revisions as you need going forward.
You know, again, nothing's perfect,
you're not perfect, and I'm not perfect.
None of us are perfect.
And honestly, that's the beauty of it all, man.
I mean, it's exciting when you think about it
in a new light, it's like, hey,
I'm not sure what the day's gonna bring,
but I'm gonna take everything in stride,
and hey, I might learn something new,
whether about myself or about the world.
And I can use that going forward, right?
And that knowledge may come up later on
and help you out.
You just never know, right?
So again, the summary and the moral of this story is that,
you guys, don't hesitate, don't be afraid.
Take your challenges head on and really just move forward.
Just move forward, don't be afraid, just keep it going.
All right, so thank you guys for tuning in
to today's episode.
I pray that you got what you needed out of it,
and hopefully that you learned something new about yourself
and what you can do going forward.
I hope you guys subscribe to the podcast and leave a review.
I love reading you guys' comments,
and it helps me improve each and every episode.
And always remember, you are the main character
of your story, and that story doesn't end until he says so.
All right, a few less.
And I'll see you guys next time.