So I'm in the middle of the tree.
I'm literally bare hugging it with all my might.
I am in so much pain.
I look down and I see the floor literally just a few feet below me and I look up and
I see my goal, the top of the trunk.
So I can try and reach up and grab it but I can't get through it yet.
And so I'm literally just bare hugging this in so much pain because I am shirtless.
And so the bark is literally scratching at me, cutting me up, like literally cutting
me to pieces and like getting my legs all, I'm only wearing shorts.
That's all I'm wearing.
No shoes, no shirt, no underwear.
But I'm in the middle of the tree.
So much pain.
Look down, I'm like I barely made any progress.
Look up, I got so far to go.
I'm like, and I start to slip.
No, this is all that I want to do.
All my only goal is to climb this tree.
I'm starting to slip and I'm like, no, no, no.
And I muster all of my might and I grab, pull, lift, repeat.
And I keep going up.
It is burning me.
Like I'm literally getting scratched all over my legs, all over my stomach, everywhere.
And I'm doing this, it literally takes like, it feels like an eternity, but in hindsight
it probably only was like a minute or two of climbing.
My arms are sore.
I haven't taken a rest day from lifting in like literally like two weeks maybe.
But I see my friend right here and I don't want to fail in front of him.
This is our goal.
This is our challenge.
We've been climbing trees over the past couple of weeks.
None this hard.
But progressively the trees have been getting harder and harder and harder.
And this was the most difficult tree.
All the trees before we could reach the trunk just by jumping or at least just grabbing
and reaching it.
But this tree, no, no, this was a different story.
This was the type of tree that you walk by and never think that you could climb it.
You think to yourself, oh, that's a nice tree.
Never climb it though.
Like that's not a climbing tree.
There's a climbing tree and then there's a tree.
A climbing tree is the type where you can reach the branch.
And a tree is anything else, including that too.
So we're walking around looking for a tree to climb for that day because we're like,
oh, let's climb a tree a day.
And we spot this tree.
And I'm like, we're kind of like walking by, walking by the tree, looking for a tree.
And we both kind of like walk away.
We're like, no, not that one.
But that's what we're saying to ourselves in our mind.
But I'm like, you know what?
Let's do it.
Let's do this tree.
So we start like, we're both like, what are, what are you talking about?
Like I'm literally saying that to myself and he is saying that to me.
And then, but I feel like I think what actually happened was we're both like, oh yeah, let's
do it.
Even though in our minds we're like, dude, what is this?
Like how are we going to climb this thing?
So I go first.
I'm literally like, I jump up and I hold and I'm like, dude, what am I doing?
And then I'm like, this is the only way I can think to do this.
So I start like literally bear crawling and I get up halfway and I'm like, dude, this
hurts so bad.
I don't want to do this.
And I remember that my friends watching.
So I'm like, no, I'm not failing.
I'm not failing in front of my friend.
I'm doing this.
So I go up again.
I go up, I go up, I go up and I'm like, and I finally reach the branch and I am so relieved.
Reach it, pull myself up and I'm just chilling.
I am relaxing.
It feels amazing.
I literally just fall down into the branches.
I'm like, oh, oh my gosh.
I look at all my cuts and I'm just like, oh, let's go.
But then it's my friend's turn.
He's got to prove himself now.
I just did it.
Now he's got to do it.
So he's like trying, he's trying.
He tries a different method.
Instead of literally bear hugging, he literally like, he literally like wraps his arms around
and then holds his feet like this and then like climbs up like that.
And then he literally gets up.
He gets up the same too.
He has his struggles.
He's like, I'm not going to fail.
I'm not going to fail.
He gets up.
We're both chilling on top of this tree.
Not a climbing tree.
Yet the reward was immense.
We probably sit on top of that tree for maybe like two hours just because it feels so great.
And we literally just sit there, talk and just relax.
And I found a spot on the tree where I can genuinely lay down like it's a bed.
And so I'm literally just laying here like this.
And my friend is like right above.
He found his like comfortable position.
We're just chilling.
We're just talking, strategizing business, talking about how we just did this thing,
how we thought it wasn't possible.
And this tree exercise was so valuable because we have been reading this book, Reality Transurfing,
which has literally torn down all of our limiting beliefs or taught us how to tear them down
in the future.
Even though that wasn't really the objective of the book, that's what happened.
We'd both been studying this book for months at this point.
And we're like, you know what?
Let's do this.
Let's do some transurfing exercises.
Even though there's nothing in that book that says climb a tree.
But we're like, you know, let's just do it.
Let's prove to ourselves something that we think is not going to like not possible, but
then let's do it anyways and achieve it.
And we climb this tree.
We are both thinking like, dude, what is going on?
Like, am I serious?
Like, we're not going to be able to climb this thing.
But we do it anyways.
And we prove to ourselves like, oh, we can actually achieve a lot more than our mind thinks
that we can.
Like so much more.
It's like that exercise was so valuable.
Just climbing a tree, climbing a difficult tree.
And we were talking about that for pretty much weeks and we're like, oh, we climbed that
tree.
We climbed that tree.
Like we proved ourselves that we can actually achieve things.
We can actually achieve whatever we want.
But then we kind of forgot about it.
Like, we stopped talking about it.
And then I remembered it last night.
I was like, we climbed that tree.
We can achieve way more than we think that we can.
Like so much more.
It's actually insane how much you can achieve if you just try.
And just trying is not enough.
Like I just tried and I got halfway up and I started to look down and started to slip.
And I was like, oh no.
Like I'm my fail.
I'm my fail.
You have to endure through.
You have to endure through the pain.
And so I did.
I pushed through the pain.
I was literally getting cut.
I had scars on my abs for weeks.
Scars on my leg right here and here for weeks.
But I pushed through the pain just to achieve it.
And it reminds me back when I was playing video games.
It's funny because I always thought that video games was like the worst use of my time.
Or at least I never, like I thought it was just a complete waste.
But it actually reminds me of a lesson that I learned playing Minecraft.
Where I wanted to create this awesome world.
But it's very tedious to do so.
Like you have to sit for hours of repetitive motions.
Literally doing the same exact thing, sitting in your chair, clicking the same button for
hours.
And you have to endure through that pain, that boredom, that tiredness, that tedious
work.
And what came as a result after months of this was a very noteworthy world.
A very nice world that someone could look at and be like, wow, that's a good world.
That's an accomplishment.
It's all about endurance.
It's all about trying and then persevering.