Four o'clock in the morning I wake up 4:30 4:45. I'm doing some sort of cardio Open these garage doors. It's still dark outside I do this and then I'll have breakfast and then I will go do all my strength and conditioning training at a gym for about an hour and Then I'll go to set We all have it's probably about five hours of sleep It's 4:45 a.m. It's still dark outside Look at that lights just went out and I'm getting ready to kill this AM cardio You can't even see me, but it's gonna be so good. It's bad FOCUS! You do anything you never want to do anything half-ass Especially when it comes to your training get in the intense execute on it and get out For a lot of guys out there and I was certainly one of those guys in my 20s I thought I had all the answers didn't know shit by the way in my 30s I'm still trying to find myself and a lot of guys are out there Hopefully when you hit the 40's you're hitting a nice strike, I'm gonna do it. I need to do this job, right? I need to stay focused on it. I need to give the best offer that possibly can We live down here in South Florida hurricane season But it's time to go to the gym We got to get to the gym and there ain't no stopping us Like I'm gonna be the baddest motherfucker walking it All right, empty gym the way we'd like it It's Sunday. Just finished my warmup. It's paying out to be fun I worked out twice before everyone wakes up. All right workout. Number two I'm out working all my competition. All right, Saturday afternoon empty gym the way we like it. It's late day Which means it's gonna be sweaty painful and fun So, how do you make it how do you overcome the odds I don't know what to say. Really? Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives all comes down to today We're in hell right now Believe me and we can stay here get the shit kicked out of us or We can fight our way back into the light we can climb out of hell or You could be like me dream a pro football get hurt dream over Find yourself with just seven bucks in your pocket So, how did I get here by being the hardest worker in the room? Somebody While worthy And you're able to do something special that No one else in the world can do are you ready to go out there and take what's yours? All of us in life have things we want we don't get what we want we get what we have to have We all get what we tolerate In ourselves and other people, but when you're no longer willing to tolerate something that's when your life changes Everyone in the world has a list of things they think they should do I Should lose weight I should work out. I should spend more time with my kids I should work harder. I should make more calls. I should I should I should I should And then you know what people don't do their sheds and they get mad at themselves. They beat them stuff up about it What changes people is when you should he comes a bust When suddenly the thing you said should happen has to happen. That's when you redeems change It's like if you want to take the island and you're the head of the army if you want to take the island the most Powerful way to take the island is burn the boats Coz' if there's no way to go back it's amazing what happens when it's a must to be something versus or should That's what makes you think Ego is the success inhibitor. You have to do your best not to make decisions based off of ego for sure Success and failure are generally slow processes Either slowly building things up or gradually tearing them down And that's why I say you've got to pay attention You have to watch you have to watch every single second Because those seconds They turn into minutes Then minutes turn into hours and hours turn into days and days turn in two years And so That second That second that just went by that guilted Until the backside And so did that one until those precious seconds. You're either built Or you are detained you are either the ground In that second Second Every second So Second The dreams shattered sent home with seven bucks in my pocket. I was like wait. No, I gotta play in the NFL eventually Those are my big goals. That's my dream You realize that that playing in the NFL was the best thing that never happened because it got me here So my point is look you're gonna get your ass kicked. We're gonna get the shit kicked out of us You got to get up. You got to have faith that the one thing you want it to happen Oftentimes is the best thing that never happened. So have faith. Just keep that in mind and keep plugging away This is it there you've been waiting for I Know you're nervous It's all mine My first game too now it's time to go out there and put it on the scoreboard Now it's time to see who has a heart Now is the time to prove to yourselves and prove to everyone out there that even though you're locked up With somebody You are worthy of something And you're able to do something special That no one else in the world can do We need to go out there and take what's yours what you've worked hard for But one thing that a lot of people don't know that I want to share with you guys is when I was 22 years old I came to this city for the first time. I was playing in the Canadian Football League playing my first pro football game I was playing for the Calgary Stampeders. We were playing the BC Lions. I was so excited two days later. I got cut Dreams shattered sent home with seven bucks in my pocket. I was like wait. No. I got a play in the NFL eventually Those are my big goals. That's my dream You realize that that playing in the NFL was the best thing that never happened because it got me here So my point is look you're gonna get your ass kicked. We're gonna get this kicked out of us You got to get up. You got to have faith that the one thing you want it to happen Oftentimes is the best thing that never so have faith. Just keep that in mind and keep plugging away Can't play football forever I played for ten years You can't be in the ring forever. You can't be in the Octagon forever. You can't be in a boxing ring forever Football field but you can always train and get better and push yourself Just bring it that's it just bring it I'd say that my everyday life and in terms of my challenges and things like that Okay in between sets as I'm working out and as I often do in between sets I slide into your comment section Nice ins I read your comments just so we could stay connected and I always know what's on your mind and I can address it So somebody just asked me a cool question said DJ you're on top where could you possibly go from here? And you always talk about out working your competition. Who's your competition? It's a great question. Thank you for the compliment. By the way I'm fortunate enough to be on top But anytime you reach the top you always want to make sure that you have the desire to raise the bar and take the brass ring to places It's never been that sticky with being on top just because it's never been done doesn't mean it. Can't be done And in terms of competition great question Everyone's my competition but the fundamental key that I've learned over the years is I'll share with you. My number one competition is me It's always you versus you. You've got to be the one to get up every morning be disciplined put in the Consistent daily hard work because that gains success no coach no trainer no mentor no, boss can do it you versus you No, I wanted to be something and it was important to me to be something that was important to me that I didn't fail but By the way, and if I did fail at least a bit, what was also important was a lesson? And I didn't realize that until I got older because you know when you're in it you're in the grind You don't really recognize those things when you're younger But I could recognize them now and the importance of them now and in just in terms of the drive and the determination a Lot of it was experience to get your ass kicked get back up and you put the gloves back on and you swing away All right, Saturday afternoon empty gym the way we like it tripping over here It's late day, which means it's going to be sweaty painful and fun And say that nothing good happens in the 4 a.m. Hour well, I can guaran-damn-tee of this it's 4:45 a.m It's still dark outside. Look at that lights just went out and I'm getting ready to kill this AM cardio Train twice, I'll get my cardio in and breakfast and I'll go hit the weights clanging and banging we call it You know the masters make the hardest things in the world Look easiest and in the moments where you push yourself when no one else is around those moments have a tendency to lead to success Often times when I see kids and they have been labeled all their punk kids True But there's good in him and we got to see that potential and I enjoy that today seeing the potential in kids just like He did especially kids who are kind of wayward And they've been going through it. I know what it's like you are most powerful most important is when we just embrace who we are is just believing in yourself and embracing who you were born to be Whether it's three o'clock in the morning, by the way when we're talking in London I was hitting up at 3:00 because I had to be on set by 4:00 So whatever time my call time is though some directors and not producers whatever it's all my costume So my call time is at 7:00. Then you back your clock up four hours and then that's when I get out and train twice Just wrap that for a and cardio there's no substitute for hard work I Get up super early Generally, I have this thing where I like beating the Sun up not just in terms of what Sun comes up I have to get up and How do I do it? It's just important to find balance and I try and do things really then. I've really enjoyed Doing and a lot of times, you know It's like in life right life brings like drama and you got to deal with this person and your relationship here, you know Work 12 hours a day 14 hours a day get up at 3 o'clock in the morning I don't know if there's a golden rule I can tell you this that I believe anything is possible, right? I live in the world a possibility and I also believe that anything we can accomplish anything With our two hands and just putting in the work with our two hands and also you hear this often But it's really really true you got to find something if you love what you do and find and be passionate about what you do and find something that you Could be passionate like it really helps. You know, it gives you that motivation when you wake up in the morning Consistently being told that whatever it is that you want to do You've gotta get after you You've got to get after there's no substitute for hard work hard work always pays, you know, those type of mantras over time And those are your examples of you know what it's like to get beat down what it's like to get just in terms of Just in terms of the struggle what it's like to be evicted out of your apartment what it's like to have your car repossessed and watch your parents go through that is is I think is defining as as a kid You know, I grew up there was a period of time where I was making a lot of mistakes David I was I was getting arrested multiple times by the time I was 16, I was arrested maybe seven or eight times Fighting theft doing a lot of things that I shouldn't have been doing I was really lucky that I had a couple of people who along with my parents Who saw the potential in me? Even when I didn't see the potential in me, and it was until I got older had a little bit of luck a little bit of success that I started to understand the value and the power of someone giving back But some people call you the best pure athlete in wrestling today Let's start off with a bit of your history when you broke in you were packaged as a part of a wrestling legacy your father Is rocky Johnson or sweet ebony diamond as Canadian fans know him. Tony Atlas was a family friend all kinds of family roots Were you ever concerned that you wouldn't get your chance to prove yourself on your own terms? No, no I was never ever concerned about that because Nor was I ever concerned about trying to fill their shoes because of my dad's they were just too big You know as my grandfather as well, but at the same time I always knew that one time one day whenever I got the opportunity. I was just gonna make it happen Persistence and hard work I Knew one day it was gonna happen when I made up my mind to get involved in the business that I have a passion for that I grew up in I Knew that there's gonna be there's gonna be a time where the success the success will come and that's through hard work and in consistency It's as you know, the same old story things like that. So it's it's Surprising to a degree, but I was well aware that it was going to happen I'll start with this Two hands putting it'll work No, there are remarkable people who come into the world from time to time and there are people who do find out over decades long Periods what they could be like if they were who they were if they said if they spoke their being forward When I was fifteen years old I had a very important person my life come to me and say who's your heel and I said I don't know I gotta think about that. Give me a couple of weeks. I come back two weeks later This person comes up says you're here. Oh I said I thought about it. You know who it is I said, it's me in ten years. I Didn't start out thinking this is gonna replace my income this is going to be I just did it as a passion project And I think if people have a regular day job if you could just find some one thing that you do as a passion project And just keep building on it. Just keep at keep watering. It keep adding fertilizer. Keep giving it attention Keep giving it focus So I turned 25 ten years later that same person comes Mingo. So you're a hero and I was like not even close She said why is it because my hero's me at 35 So you see every day every week every month in every year of my life My heroes always ten years away It's soul-killing they're stuck in traffic all day and then they're stuck in a cubicle after that There are so many people that are working all day long doing something that is deeply unsatisfying And and almost painful to them And They be get stronger and stronger and stronger and we don't know the limits to that. We do not know the limits to that I'm never gonna be a hero I'm not gonna paint that I know I'm not that's just fine with me because that keeps me with somebody to keep on Jason Where does it start? What's the anchor? What's the anchor? I can have all these ambitions But the key with me is just always finding with the anchor is getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning every day before anybody else and Grounding. My thought process is Nd no one will outwork me No one The weather the winters do it they do it and do it and do it And do it until the job gets done you Know if you take people and I've told you this and you expose them voluntarily to things that they are avoiding and are afraid of you know that they know they need to overcome in order to meet their goals their self defined goals if you can teach people to stand up in the face of the things they're afraid of they get stronger and You don't know what the upper limits to that are because you might ask yourself like if for ten years if you didn't avoid Doing what you knew you needed to do. What would you be like? So I turned 25 ten years later that same person comes being this. So you're a hero and I was like not even close. I Was 41 years old. I was unemployed closed. The second restaurant was an $800,000 loss. I Don't I mean that meant our entire home equity line it meant Kids come I get just choked up. Just thinking about how Terrifying it was and so I found myself at the age of 41 like just feeling like a complete failure And So you could say well in part perhaps the reason that you're suffering Unbearably can be left at your feet because you're not everything you could be and you know it You knew that there was more in store for you, but you couldn't figure out how you closed that gap How do you find the power that's in how do you discover your greatness? How do you solve these problems? And people that are trapped in bad situations One of the problems is you feel like this is your future and you can't get out of that There's no hope there's no light at the end of the tunnel. There's no rainbow And if you feel like that that alone can be incredibly defining and limiting And so if your life isn't everything it could be you could ask yourself Well, what would happen if you just stopped wasting the opportunities that are in front of you? You be who knows how much more efficient ten times more efficient 20 times more efficient? You
