50 cents the rapper, wrote the rap “Get Rich or Die Tryin” and it’s much deeper than the title suggests.
Let’s talk about the getting rich part in another post and stay with the “die tryin” part for now so you get a huge take-away that will serve you well along your path of evolving, and developing into a well-balanced man of value.
I have a lot of respect for 50 cent (Curtis James Jackson III ) because he too like me, had no father, and worse, his mom was murdered in the streets while hustling and still, he was able to evolve, integrate, and transform into a man of high value.
Not only is Curtis James Jackson the III a full grown man of value, he is a master at pivoting and reinvention. Got to respect that!
Let’s get into the “Die Tryin” part.
Often while coaching men we come up against a limiting belief that’s at the root of most of their issues. It seems to stem from, being in a state of apathy for a little too long.
The limited believe is, “why try because it’s probably not going to work out.”
My interpretation of that belief is, it serves no one other than our lower self. All our lower-self seems to want is to eat, sleep, have sex if it can, and tip-toe through life in fear, pretending to fit in.
What if we believed, I will set a goal and die tryin? I think now we’re on to something, let me explain.
Something our dads should have taught us if they haven’t is, at the end of the day, as long as you did your best, then that’s all you could have done. So just do your best.
But why?
Because in doing our best whether we win or lose, we get to keep our self-respect and dignity intact. With this, we can be persistent until.
Having self-respect and dignity is rocket fuel for us men and it’s a necessary part of manhood.
“Die Tryin” seems to me a form of, just do your best with much more impact.
Imagine a lion hunting. Does he not do his best? Is he not willing to die trying?
Does a lion see a zebra and think, “Crap, I don’t know, maybe he’s faster than me., Maybe I need a therapist to help me deal with this fear. Maybe I should just do it tomorrow., etc., etc., etc.,” No, he sees the zebra, a food bell in his mind rings and now he starts to strategize. The short version is, zebra – kill for food or die trying.
When just starting out applying the “just do your best” framework, your best is not going to be good enough and so it is. That’s out of your control until you adjust your approach and go at it again.
Something that I found helpful at the end of the day is to give a rating to my activities. For example, I peddle my bike every morning and some days are better than others. How do I know? I rate myself. Today was a 7 out of 10. Ok, cool. Let’s get that to 8 tomorrow. What has to happen to get a score of 8?
What I don’t do anymore is shame myself for not doing my best, beat myself down, hide, regress, or try to bully myself into doing better. Oh, hell no, because that’s not what evolved, integrated men of value do.
Today, it’s not that I don’t care about getting my outcomes, I just care more that I do my best. So even if I die without getting my outcomes, at least I kept my self-respect and dignity intact by giving it my all daily. This to me means to die trying.
Stay Powerful Kings
And if you’re not feeling powerful yet, you surely can work towards it because that’s what highly evolved, intergraded high-value men, do.