00:00 Chadwick Sapenter: Welcome to The Art of Hope show. I'm your host, Chadwick Sapenter. Today, we're gonna be talking about the two choices you have in life, you can either make moves or make excuses, but you can't do both. It's gonna be a great show. Thank you guys for tuning in, let's go.

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00:18 S?: Welcome to the Art of Hope podcast, with your host, Chadwick Sapenter.

00:23 CS: If you're willing to dream bigger than whatever your environment is, then anything is possible.

00:28 S?: It's time to create the path to your success by overcoming your past, embracing your present, and outlining your future.

00:35 CS: Today, that goal becomes a reality.

00:37 S?: Every journey begins with the first step. So let's begin, the Art of Hope podcast.

00:46 CS: In life, you have two choices, you can make moves or you can make excuses, but you can't do both, that's it. Make moves or make excuses, you can't do both. Let me tell you something, your bills don't care about your excuses, your family that's depending on you don't care about the excuses that you have. You got two choices, make moves or make excuses, because you cannot do both. Every single day, we're faced with an obstacle and an opportunity. We have two choices, we're gonna obsess over one of them. Are you gonna obsess over the obstacle or are you going to obsess over the opportunity? That's a choice that you have to make because the obstacle's very real, but so is the opportunity. Neither of them are as big as you think, or I'll say this, the obstacle is not as big as you think it is, and the opportunity is not as small as you think it is. They're both real, our perception of each of them is the problem, 'cause we think the obstacle is a lot bigger than what it actually is, and we think the opportunity is a lot smaller. But the truth is this world, this life, we are filled with infinite opportunities.

02:06 CS: Now, I know everybody's starting point is a little bit different. Some people start on the third floor, some start on the first, some start at the penthouse. That's not what I'm talking about. Your starting point is your starting point. A lot of times, you didn't have any control over where you started, but you do control with what you do now. The opportunity to live your dreams, to accomplish the unthinkable, to overcome your circumstances and environment is bigger than you ever would imagine. The obstacles that you... In front of you, a lot of those obstacles are things that we created ourselves, they just exist within our mind. It's all I'm saying is this, is you have two choices, you can make move, or you can make excuses, you can't do both. So maybe you're thinking, "You know what, but Chad, you don't understand. My life is hard, I'm going through this... " or, "Racism is the reason why I'm unable to overcome it, because of... " I don't know, something, or "Because I'm too black, or I'm too fat, or I'm a woman, or I'm from... I didn't go to the right schools, or I don't have enough money," or whatever the hell your excuses is, you can make them if you want to, but I'm gonna tell you, you're not gonna get nowhere in life making them excuses.

03:28 CS: And again, your kids can't eat those excuses, the people depending on you can't eat those excuses, your dreams don't care about your excuses. The more actions you take, the closer your dreams come to becoming a reality. And not perfect... Not perfect pursuit, but pursuit in spite of not being perfect, 'cause you have two choices, you can make moves or you can make excuses, but you can't do both. So you're feeling like, life is just so hard, right? For some of you, life is so hard that all you have is complaints. So to those of you who are going to throw an objection into every opportunity, you are going to be the pessimist that finds difficulty in every opportunity, no matter what. You're always the person to say, "Well, you know, I don't know, I don't know... You know, you should... " Whatever it is... If that's you, let me, I'ma tell you, here's my message to you complainers, to you people who are lazy, to those of you who have already decided that life's gonna be too hard and you're unwilling to go see what can happen.

04:31 CS: And not only that, this is my message to you who are trying to convince other people that they should not try either. You know what, you should just give up. You should just throw in the towel because why not? If you're gonna keep making all these damn excuses, if you're gonna keep blaming your dad for abandoning you when he was a kid, and that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt, but if you're gonna keep blaming him and that's the reason why you haven't done anything with your life, or the reason why you're doing the same thing to your own children, well, you know what, you have your excuses loser, 'cause that's what you are. That's what you are. And it sounds hard and mean, but man, whatever, whatever. You're crying about things you can't control, instead of taking action towards the things you can control, right? You're a loser. You're choosing to be. And listen, you can be a rich loser, you can be a poor loser, you can have all the stuff in the world, it has nothing to do with it.

05:27 CS: It has everything to do about your mindset, even if you, if externally, you appear to be successful, right? All of the material things that people would lay on you to say these are measures of success, the car, the house, the money, you wear the right clothes, you can go to the right places, you can buy the right things, and you can put on 20 masks, 'cause that's essentially what we use trinkets for, not all of us, but some of us, that's what we do. Even you, if you're still using your past or whatever label somebody has placed on you as an excuse for not being the best person that you can be towards the people that love you, about going full hard and towards those dreams. Now here's the thing, when you're successful, some of those dreams, we may suppress for the opportunities just to build some cash. Now listen, there's a time where you gotta say, "Eh, I can't really do that right now, I gotta work." But then there's the time where we get enough money and we have enough and we have plenty of money, but we still aren't pursuing those things that we know in our heart of hearts that we should be going after, you too are a loser.

06:39 CS: But really, really, here's the thing: Hardships happen, life can kick you in the face, but you gotta dust yourself off and you gotta get up and you gotta go after it, you gotta get up and you gotta go after it. Dealing with a divorce, you still gotta love your kids, man. Baby momma tripping, you still gotta love your kids, man. I'm kinda all over the place right now, but my point being is that wherever you are in life, is that you either gotta make moves or you gotta make excuses, you can't do both. Those of us who decide to make moves are going to find out that we can quickly overcome the circumstances that we're involved in. Those of you, and I'm being clear, 'cause I'm not the one that's gonna be making excuses. Those of you who have chosen to make excuses, you're gonna get the results of those actions. You're gonna win, you're gonna win the excuse battle and you'll look up and have a sad ass life and be blaming other people forever, and it's never gonna be your fault, you have to own it, you have to own it. If you succeed, if you succeed, to God be the glory, if you fail, that's on you, you have everything that you need.

07:43 CS: If you live in this country right now, if you're in the United States of America, you're here. I don't care if you're in the projects, I don't care if you're in the suburbs, don't care if you're in the penthouse or in a mansion, it doesn't matter, if you are here, more specifically, if you are here and you have a device that allows you to hear my voice right now, you're one of the luckiest people in the world, you're one of the most fortunate people in the entire world, of however many billions of people, the 300-plus million people right here in the United States, we have no excuse. We don't all have the same starting point, but we have no excuse. It's up to you how you perceive it, everybody keeps telling you that it's okay for you to be a victim, it's not. It's a lie, man. It's a lie. It's not okay for you to blame the other people, whoever they are, right? And now, they're making up all these damn words to try to describe why you have to stay behind. I'm telling you, you don't listen to me, man, woman, child, listen to me, you have the opportunity to do whatever it is that you set your mind and your heart towards. Period. Period.

08:58 CS: Each of us do. All of us have the opportunity to go after those things. Don't let anybody give you a list of excuses on the ski slope downhill towards low expectations and mediocrity. They will load your back with every single excuse, and the part of the reason why it's done is so that you don't feel bad when you don't go after it and you don't achieve, now you can always blame somebody else. It can be one of the -isms or the -ists, somebody who was racist or sexist, racism or whatever it is, right? And man, listen, not to say that those things don't happen, there are racist people, there's sexist people, there are people who mistreat people all the time, that happens, right? That is not an explicitly American thing, no specific group in America has the right or the trademark on racism or sexism or abuse. Period. No gender has the lock on the exclusivity of any type of abuse or mistreatment of other people. All of us know people and have been around people that mistreat other people. I hope you're not one of them, but maybe you are.

10:17 CS: So it's not to say that those things don't exist, because they very well do exist, but what I'm saying is that, even though those things may be real, it's still not an excuse for you not living up and becoming who it is that you're supposed to be, because if you allow those things to become excuses, we allow these excuses to rule our hearts and our minds, then what we decide to do is to succumb to failure, and failure is not about reaching a specific destination, but it's about giving up. So what I wanna encourage you today is, listen, don't give up. Make moves, don't make excuses. Make moves, don't make excuses. Make moves today, make moves today, choose, take that step, call that person, apply for that job, right? Leave that job, right? Go do it, make moves, make moves, don't make excuses. Excuses do not help you. Those are anchors weighing you down, tripping you up. Make moves, don't make excuses, have an amazing day, go crush it today. We will not make excuses today, we will not blame other people for our shortcomings, we will own it, we will own it, we will own it, we will own it, and then we're gonna do something to change it. That's who you are, that's who you are, that's who you have to be.

11:40 CS: Nothing is gonna come easy, no circumstance is going to change without you taking massive action and throwing those excuses away, get rid of them. Each of us have the responsibility to get rid of those excuses. Make moves or make excuses, or shut the hell up. Period. Those are your only two choices, make moves or make excuses, that's it. My name's Chadwick Sapenter, thank you guys for tuning in. Listen, leave a comment, let me know, what excuses are you getting rid of today? What moves are you [12:13] ____.

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12:36 CS: Not perfection. Pursuit, not perfection. Let's go.