Discipline Over Motivation

We share hard-won lessons from five years sober, how canceled fights and closed doors became fuel, and why counting supporters beats counting critics. Our focus stays on discipline over motivation, raising our standards, and leading our family and community by example.

• five years of sobriety as a daily choice
• reframing setbacks into training and growth
• shifting attention to people who want us to win
• coaching our son through a painful team cut
• standards, sacrifice, early mornings, late nights
• responsibility to lead Native communities toward strength
• practical steps: one decision at a time

Transcript

Opening And Purpose

SPEAKER_00 0:19

What's going on, everybody? My name is Dustin Charles Little, and you are listening to a new episode of the Native Viking podcast, Discipline Over Motivation. Alright, so today's kind of gonna be all over the place. Uh, I'm gonna be honest with you, because it has been a minute, a hot minute since I've done a podcast uh and spoken. So there could be some ums and ahs, but let's let's face some facts here. Like, there's a lot of stuff that needs to be said, and there's a lot of people that need a lot of help. And uh I hope that this podcast somehow resonates with you. I hope that I'm able to touch your mind, your spirit, your heart in some way or or some shape or form um through my word and through through the things that I've you know gone through and had to overcome and all sorts of stuff like that. So um without further ado, I just I wanted to talk about what's coming up.

Marking Five Years Sober

SPEAKER_00 1:17

And uh I know we're not there yet, and I'm gonna do a podcast on the day of, but uh March 21st marks five years of sobriety for me. Um and I'll I kind of want to touch on the subject a little bit on a deeper level. Um, I want to do it on a deeper level because um sobriety is not easy, it's not an easy road. I mean, even the first year, the first year is obviously the most difficult. The second year it gets a little better, third year, it's like, what am I doing? And then fourth year, you're like, okay, I got this. Fifth year, I'm I'm this is my life. Fifth year, this is my life. You know, there's been a lot of ups and downs between the first year and the fifth year, fifth year. Um there's been a lot of failures, there's been a lot of loss in my life, there's been a lot of like friendships gone. There's been

Losses, Canceled Fights, And Perspective

SPEAKER_00 2:09

a lot of um, you know, even students and clients that have just disappeared. Um, you know, there there's been fights that have been canceled, there's been injuries that I've had, uh, multiple injuries, and even recently there was there was a fight canceled on me uh at the at the very last minute. So there's been a lot that has been against me. Um there's also there's been a lot that's been for me as well, though. Um and I have to say, like, the things that are for me far outweigh the things that are against me. And it took a friend for me to kind of kind of figure that one

Counting The People Who Want You To Win

SPEAKER_00 2:49

out. Um, it's like in my mind, I was like, man, there's so many people that want me to fail. There's so many people. I I mean I I could just feel it. And then uh, you know, my friend Katie, she goes, she goes, um, yeah, but just think about how many people that want you to win. And oh my god, that one was like a home run. I was like, man, do I ever feel stupid right now? Do I ever look at me looking at the tiny little speck on my white shirt? And then there's like, you know, my friends like, no, look at your white shirt. You know what I mean? And I've used this analogy before. Um, and so that's that's like that's something that I've been really struggling with in life is you know, how much I care about the things that you shouldn't care about. I want to say that again. How much I care about the things that you shouldn't care about. And I, you know, a lot of the times I think about how many people just want me to fail or are just waiting for me to crash and burn, or just waiting for me to lose a fight so they can finally say, ah, yeah, like this guy finally lost a fight. Yeah, well, guess what? I'm not perfect. If I if I ever lose a fight, and it's probably gonna come one day, um, you know, whatever. You know, the fights that I have lost have recreated me, have made me stronger, faster, more intelligent. I've trained harder, I've trained it's trained smarter, I've I've eaten better because of going through a loss. And um so that's you know, that's been that's been a tough road for me is like figuring out, you know, the things that don't matter and the things that actually do. Um and the things that actually do matter are the people that are there for you and the thing, the people that are in your corner, your family, your children, like my my children, my wife, uh my mother and father-in-law, they're always by my side. My brother is always checking up on me. Um, multiple brothers, uh, my dad, you know, I got all my students and my clients, and and uh just it's just ridiculous. It's actually ridiculous for me to think about the people that don't want me to win versus the people that do want me to win.

Turning Defeat Into Fuel

SPEAKER_00 4:58

And I want you to think about that. I want you, if you're listening to this podcast, I want to I want you to think about all the people that want you to win. If you're a man or a woman who has ever struggled in life, maybe you struggle with addiction, maybe you struggle with struggle with trauma, maybe you struggle with eating, maybe you struggle with uh, you know, gambling. I mean, you you struggle with something. We all struggle with something. And there's somebody, and there's a there's more than just somebody. There's a lot of people that just want you to win. They want you to beat that thing, they want you to beat that addiction, they want you to beat whatever it is that's stopping you from becoming the person that you are truly meant to become. And that's just not, you know, I'm not just saying that for some cheesy quote. I'm saying that for real. Like you're meant to become something so great. And I I, you know, in my life, I I've been told a lot of really crappy things, like for real. Like really crappy stuff. Hey, this is the kid that's not gonna make it. This is the kid that's gonna be the first to die. This is the kid that's gonna be, he's gonna overdose. This is the kid that, you know, doesn't have a mother or a father. This is the kid that's uneducated. This is the like I literally I could go on, on and on and on. And uh, you know, and I've overcome. I continue to overcome. I just I can't wait to hear people say, you can't do that. I go, oh yeah, watch me. Watch me do it. And then once I'm done doing it, I'm gonna look back at you and I'm just gonna give you a wink, like told you. And I believe that, you know, all these things that I've gone through and and the life that I have had is a setup for something greater than myself. It's literally something greater than myself. It's so great that it's for you. It's for the person on the other side of this podcast, it's for the one that thinks that they can't do whatever they think that they can do, you know, they can't do, which, which is like whatever. It's starting a business, it's losing weight, it's getting into shape, it's having your first fight, it's getting married, it's it's it's quitting an addiction. So you can. I I'm I'm a testament to things that you can actually accomplish, and I continue to grow. And I'm actually right now showing my son what it means

Training His Son After A Setback

SPEAKER_00 7:21

to do this. I'm I'm like, I'm beyond upset with some circumstances that are going on in our lives right now where he didn't get to make a certain team, which he was more than qualified. And I said, son, take this and use it. I said, Look, let's go and train. Dad's gonna show you how to train. And we've been training our butts off. We've been doing running drills, we've been doing sprinting drills, we've been doing batting and pitching and all sorts of drills, drills that is just leveling up, grounder drills, you know, IQ drill, everything. Dad stepped up and he's like, let's go. It's time for you to understand and learn what it means to work hard based off of somebody's opinion of you. Somebody thinks that you're not qualified enough. Okay, go ahead and show them. And that's what I believe. I believe, like in my life, people have told me, hey, Dustin, you can't read very well. Oh, yeah? Okay, I'm gonna go read a whole bunch of books and I'm gonna show you I can read well. And it took me a while and it took me a lot of embarrassing times to sit in a classroom. And the teacher said, Who wants to read the next paragraph? And I just shoot my hand up because I'm just I'm so competitive. I really want to do it. I want to be good. And so I would sit there and I would read a paragraph and I would do my very best not to screw it up, but then I would screw up. I'd pick myself up as soon as I screwed up and I'd try to read perfect again, and I would do it, and I would screw up, and I would do it, and I would screw up until I finally got to that full paragraph and I and I read that paragraph like a champ. There's so much that that uh that we have to overcome in this life. There's so much adversity, and uh, I welcome it. You know, I'm glad I had a hard life. I'm glad that uh there was so much against me because it really taught me how to overcome. And it's and it's gonna help me to help you overcome. Because all those times that you've been told no were just setups for success. Was really just um was really just a setup. Every time that you've been set back, every time that somebody's closed the door on you, they made you just a little bit stronger. They built the callus to be just a little bit harder so that each time you stepped up in front of the door and knocked on the door and said, Hey, I'm ready for this, there finally is going to come a time when you get your moment. My son will have his moment, I will have my moment, I will continue to have moments, my wife will have a moment, my little girl who's four years old, she's gonna have her moments because she has got a father who does not quit, who doesn't give up, who never lays down in my mind.

Work Ethic, Sacrifice, And Standards

SPEAKER_00 10:22

I always think that that you you only really get a limited amount of time. Why do you think that I train so hard? And for those that know me, why do you think that I go as hard as I do? Why do you think I do as many reps as I do? Why do you think I'm doing as much road work as I'm doing? Why do you think I'm going early in the morning swimming laps? Why do you think I'm doing what I'm doing? Is to become the craziest and the best version of myself that I could possibly be. To uphold a standard, to have a code of ethics, to be a real man, to show up day in and day out, despite how I'm feeling, despite my feelings, despite being sore or having to wake up super early, despite feeling despite feeling like I'm losing time and moments with my children. Because there are things in my life that need to be accomplished. There are goals that need to be hit for me to take my family to certain places, and that requires sacrifice. That requires the early mornings, the late nights, that requires the hard work, that requires the road work and the studying. That requires to taking taking the hard fights, that requires me traveling to, you know, wherever I need to, Brazil, Alberta, you know, where wherever I need to, Toronto, in order to be able to do the things that I've got to do, to build the resume to become the man that I need to become. And I ask you, what are you required to do for yourself in order to show the rest? In order to show your wife, in order to show your

Responsibility To Community And Leadership

SPEAKER_00 12:31

children, your nieces and nephews. Heck, even show the community that you're in. One of my boys just talked to me just the other day. He said, We need more natives like you. We need you to continue to lead the Native American people away from drugs and alcohol and into strong leadership roles to become champions, to be seen, to be heard. And I believe that that is my responsibility. I believe this podcast is a part of doing this. It's a part of it's a part of the whole process. And I hope that when you when you listen to this, you're inspired to understand and believe that you have what it takes as well. You have dreams, goals, and aspirations. Despite, I don't care, I don't care how old you are. I don't care how far behind you are. I don't care about none of that. What I do care about is the fact that you just take one step. That's what I really care about. That you're brave enough to put your foot ahead of the other. Because that's what it takes. It doesn't take a jump, it doesn't take 20 steps for the first. It just takes one. One step. One foot in front of the other. One good decision, one bad decision. Two steps forward, one step back, three steps forward, one step back, five steps forward, one step back. It's never going to be easy. You're always going to get pulled backwards. But I tell you, and I'm going to tell you that it's worth it. I'm going to tell you that if you choose discipline over motivation, you can have whatever you want. You can be

One Step Forward: Practical Encouragement

SPEAKER_00 14:39

whoever you want. That building, that business, your wife, your husband, you want a family, you want kids, you want a house, you want a car. Whatever it is that you want, if you choose discipline over motivation, you will win. There's no other way. You can't not win. Thank you guys for listening to the first episode of the Native Viking podcast Discipline Over Motivation.