You Cannot Ascend While Anchored To The Past

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Transcript

Hello wonderful people, and welcome back to Struggle2Success Podcast.

Wow… we are here with another episode, and I am grateful that you're here with me wherever you are — on the road, at home, getting ready to go do another shift… 8, 10, 12, maybe even 16 hours. Trying to work through life’s problems.

I appreciate you. Thank you so much.

Today we’re talking about being one foot in and one foot out.

I mentioned this in our previous episode, and I thought to myself, let me expand on that a little bit.

So what does that mean?

It’s a metaphor. It means you’re able to see your circle from the inside, and now you’re also able to see your circle from the outside.

In my past, I was fortunate to have moments like that. But it took effort, intention, and sacrifice. You have to step out of your comfort zone, be vulnerable, and be willing to make mistakes.

But these mistakes were different.

They were progress mistakes.

They were mistakes made in new territory — mistakes you could learn from that would benefit you now or later.

Here’s the real challenge.

Sometimes you’ve outgrown the mindset, but you haven’t outgrown the circle.

And that space in between?

That’s dangerous.

That’s the place where we expose ourselves to more hardship than necessary, because you're mentally evolving, but socially you're still tied to the old patterns.

There’s a powerful idea in the book Atomic Habits that changed how I think about growth. James Clear says:

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you want to become.”

Every action.

Not once.

Not occasionally.

Every time.

So let me ask you something.

When you keep showing up to the same environment, when you keep entertaining the same conversations, when you keep normalizing the same patterns — what are you voting for?

Because if you say you want discipline but your weekends look like distraction, you’re casting conflicting votes.

Growth isn’t what you say. Growth is what you repeat.

James Clear also explains something else.

Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior.

Your surroundings influence you quietly whether you admit it or not.

You can have ambition.
You can have goals.
You can even have discipline.

But if your environment constantly reinforces the old version of you, then the probability of old outcomes increases.

Not because you’re weak.

Because you’re human.

Environment reduces friction for certain behaviors.

If shortcuts are normal,
If excuses are common,
If stagnation is comfortable,

Then regression becomes easy and elevation becomes work.

Another principle from Atomic Habits says we imitate habits from three groups:

The close.
 The many.
 The powerful.

Meaning we copy the people close to us, we copy what the majority around us does, and we copy who we admire.

So if your closest circle normalizes mediocrity,
If the majority of conversations revolve around gossip and distraction,
If the admired behavior is recklessness instead of responsibility,

Then every time you try to grow, you’re swimming upstream.

I want to speak directly to some of my younger brothers and sisters listening.

You might say, “These are my people. This is what I get down with.”

And that’s real.

But then you can’t complain when you see other people level up.

Because sometimes those same people you grew up with will get an opportunity, and suddenly they leave the circle.

I’ve seen it happen.

People who were tight for years.

Then one person has an epiphany. They see something different. They take off.

And everyone else is left in the same circle wondering what happened.

I once saw a picture that stuck with me.

Two lizards on a tree branch.

One lizard had all four claws wrapped tightly around the branch — locked in, secure.

The other lizard had stretched forward, reaching out with his front legs while only his back legs were still holding the branch.

That image represents a leap of faith.

If you keep clutching the branch, you’ll stay exactly where you are.

But when you reach forward, you enter the uncomfortable space of growth.

That’s when you say:

“I don’t know what’s out there, but I know I can’t keep doing this.”

As they say:

“I’m tired of being tired.”

Sometimes you leave certain environments feeling drained.

Not because you're better than anyone.

But because you're misaligned.

We’ve seen this story before.

One example that always stuck with me is Aaron Hernandez.

Elite talent.
 Millions of dollars.
 Playing at the highest level.

He elevated financially, but socially he stayed connected to environments that didn’t match his trajectory.

You can reach the stratosphere professionally and still be anchored socially.

And when proximity pulls harder than purpose, potential collapses.

Not because opportunity didn’t exist.

But because influence compounds — good or bad.

This is the hardest part.

History makes you feel obligated.
 Shared struggle creates loyalty.

You don’t want to look fake.

You don’t want to look like a sellout.

You don’t want people to say you changed.

But the truth is:

You did change.

And that’s the point.

Sometimes staying in circles that don’t align with your growth isn’t loyalty.

Sometimes it’s self-betrayal.

You can still love people.

But love doesn’t mean letting proximity dilute your discipline.

Ask yourself this:

Is your environment making growth easier or harder?

If every time you show up somewhere you have to fight the room, that’s friction.

And friction eventually wears people down.

You don’t eliminate bad habits with willpower alone.

You change the environment that triggers them.

Being one foot in and one foot out socially is unstable.

At some point you have to align your circle with your direction.

Because you don’t rise to your intentions.

You fall to your environment.

And every time you show up somewhere, you’re casting a vote for who you’re becoming.

So ask yourself this:

Are the people around me reinforcing my evolution, or reminding me of who I used to be?

Because you cannot ascend while anchored.

Growth requires alignment.

Wonderful people, this is Struggle2Success Podcast.

Real growth is strategic.

Until next time, remember:

Life is trials.

Stay focused.

Thanks for checking out this episode of Struggle2Success.

To connect with the show, you can email us at struggle2success.p@gmail.com
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Make sure you like and subscribe so that you never miss an episode.

And remember:

Life is trials. Stay focused.