CHAZAQ’s Torah Talks #16: Rabbi Shmuel Reichman - Achieving Your Greatness

Welcome, welcome, welcome everyone to yet another timely Tuesday Torah Talks, Khazak's amazing Tuesday program interviewing and talking Torah with special guest. Today we have with us Reb Shmuel Reichman. Reb Shmuel, how you doing? Baruch Hashem. Such is a khos to be here with you Reb Meir Rub. Khos all ours. You're doing so much great things for Khazak. So you should koiyach. So tonight's topic we're going to be talking about achieving your greatness. And that's really, really exciting. We've been having a quite a few episodes on this topic and it's constantly getting giving you're getting a lot of great feedback. So we're really excited about it. So let's jump straight into it. You ready Reb Reb Reb Shmuel? Ready. Okay. So so let's focus for a moment on the words your greatness, right? What does that mean, right? And doesn't everyone have the same greatness to achieve? Such a good question. Such a good question. So first of all, such is a khos to be here and to all of our listeners, I hope we're going to be able to develop some really deep and inspiring ideas here today. So in terms of the question of your greatness, I I think first of all that there are so many baalei machshava discuss these important concepts. Reb Pal talks about how your job in life is to become you. And the Vilna Gaon says that when you were a fetus in the womb, you were shown not only your unique purpose, but how it fit into the grand purpose of the world and how you're basically in this world to discover who you are and who what your unique purpose is. So there's this general idea that it's not that everyone's the same. It's not that everyone has the same purpose. Not that there's this one, you know, one tonal pull, one demarcation of what is greatness. You have to strive for that, you know, objective greatness. It it is about self-awareness. It's about discovering who you are. And the Rambam says that everyone can be a tzaddik like Moshe Rabbeinu. And everyone says, "Listen, you know, we could all become great, but like Moshe Rabbeinu, is that is that true?" So Reb Elchanan Wasserman says, "Tzaddik means to become your unique, perfect self. And that is different for everyone. So, you can become a a tzaddik not you know, compared to Moshe Rabbeinu, but like Moshe Rabbeinu fulfilled his purpose and found his unique path, get so to speak, we can each fulfill our unique purpose and achieve our unique perfection. But I want to actually if it's okay with you, I want to delve a little deeper into this question because I I think that in general people like to focus on the uniqueness. And I remember when I was younger and I was living in Tel Aviv for a couple of years, I dreamt of becoming great. I dreamt of striving for greatness. I used to ask myself this question, what is greatness? How how how can we really become great? How can I become great? And what does that mean? And I think that uniqueness is obviously fundamental. And And no one's going to question that, but I do think that many people tend to focus on the uniqueness and they forget about the foundation. And I think that the greatest martial for me is a building. If you want to build an extraordinary building, you have to have a strong foundation. If you want to build a skyscraper, you know, hundreds of stories, you got to work on the foundation before you start building it. And And I think we live in a generation where everyone is is obsessed with the uniqueness question and how to find your uniqueness. And And despite the fact that that is so fundamental and so important, we forget about the ikar. And we forget about that which is essential, that which is fundamental towards the foundation itself. And I want to just spend a few minutes talking about that because if you want to build a skyscraper, when if you imagine your life is a skyscraper you can't start focusing on on how nice you're going to make the 47th floor and how you're going to decorate the windows if you don't build that strong, incredible foundation because everything's going to fall down. And you you often have and in my experience, I mean, traveling the world and speaking in different countries and coaching countless clients, I've seen so many people's lives fall apart because they've never built that strong foundation. They never either they're they're burnt out, they're unbalanced. I mean, we all can think about our own life where there are certain aspects in our life which are going so well. And then there are certain aspects in our life which either we're not paying attention to or we want to be working on them, but they're just falling apart. So, let's say you're really focusing on your self-development. How are your relationships doing? And if your relationships are going well, maybe your self-development is going well. Or maybe your spiritual connection with Hashem, maybe that's just, you know, falling on the wayside. Or how are your finances doing? How's your health? So, so often we we don't build a foundation for our lives which take care of it, so to speak, the the platform of who we're going to be. We focus on one thing that we're really good at. We focus on something that we really enjoy, and everything else seems to fall apart. And what I think is really important, especially when we talk about our tafkid and finding your uniqueness in life, especially in Judaism, is before we focus on the uniqueness, which I want to delve into in a few minutes, I I think it's so important to really establish what is the foundation. What are we thinking about when we talk about a foundation to build your life, your tafkid, your unique purpose on. And in Judaism, I think people like to specialize. And to specialize, once again, you need a foundation. So, for example, Judaism, the central aspect of Judaism is halakha. And you know, when I was studying at Reitz Geding Smicha, it was such an amazing zechus, amazing opportunity to delve into all the intricacies of different halakhic topics and to do shimoshan and see how a positive past tense. But beyond halakha, which is so fundamental, there's a whole realm of Judaism which is Gemara Biur, which is not just delving into the practical, but it's delving into the inner dynamic the inner dynamics, the infinite wisdom of Torah. And I was Zoha had the tremendous uh the the privilege to spend years and years learning Gemara being with the Rosenzweig shlita in NYU and to delve into a Sugya, you take a Gemara and you understand how it it it reverberates through all of Shas and how all of the Sugyas in Shas are connected and how you try to really contemplate the inner meaning of Halacha and you try to understand what what is going on here. Of course we do this, but where does this come from? And you source it back and you delve into the theories and ideas and you become you know it's it's it's delving into the source of why we are who we are and what we're doing. But there's a whole 'nother aspect which is okay, in addition to Gemara being what about your character? What about Musar? What about, you know, working on your middos? What about self-analysis and self-awareness and understanding who you are, why you are, how you work, why you work, what are you doing, how can you become more aware of yourself, your weaknesses, your strengths, how to really understand how to align your life with the ratzon Hashem, with Hashem's will. And and then that's not enough. Because then we have Machshava. We have Machshava in where you delve Anyone who's had the opportunity to delve into the the beautiful ideas of the Maharal and the Ramchal, Nefesh HaChaim. We live in a world full of beautiful Machshava and nowadays Reb Moshe Shapiro just passed away Reb Chaim Volozhin it it's it's delving into the deepest existential questions of life itself. Why are we here? Why was the world created? What's the nature of reality? Who is Hashem? What do we mean What do we mean when we say Hashem? How can we say anything about Hashem? He's beyond words. What are the limitations of speech and thought? And what's the connection between the physical and the spiritual, the finite and the infinite? And one second, there's so many aspects of Judaism. We have Halacha, Gemara, Machshava, Musar, but then we live in a world. This is a newer phenomenon, but still has always been part of of the essential aspect of living a Jewish life is inspiration. You know, we live in a world of inspiration. We have, you know, Charlie Harary in in the non-Jewish world that's, you know, full of inspiration. We have, you know, all the great inspirational speakers. Where does inspiration like you want to be filled with passion and fervor? You want to be living a life of vibrancy. You want to have a It's It's about understanding the power of identity, the power of perception, power of living with purpose. And you know, I've spent years studying the greatest minds in positive psychology and inspiration and public speaking because if you want to help people live a life of truth, it's not enough to just tell them the facts and share beautiful deep ideas of Torah. You have to also inspire a will within the listener that they want this type of life. And for a lot of people, whether that's ideal or not ideal, the truth is not enough. You have to want it. It has to be exciting. It has to be vibrant. They have to be inspired. And I I think one of the most fundamental questions in the world today is madah. It's how do you approach the questions of the physical world and science? And the Ramchal discusses the beauty of seeing the physical as an expression of the spiritual. When he said "Look at the world and the midrash says that Hashem looked into the into the Torah and created the world as an expression of Torah, the physical world, both the physical and the wisdom of the physical world is an expression of the spiritual. And and I can tell you one of my One of the things I like to talk about is how I've studied at Harvard, I studied at the University of Chicago, and there's a minor chazal that if someone tells you that there's Torah amongst don't believe them. If someone tells you there's wisdom amongst believe them. Chachma ba There's no Hm? Chachma ba tamim, yes, wisdom. Exactly. Exactly. So, there's no Torah amongst But if you understand how to see the realms of science and psychology and mathematics and understand how that's an expression of Torah. The Vilna Gaon loved mathematics. The Rambam was was a philosopher. The Ramchal knew you know, studied and and really taught medical students. If you understand how the physical world doesn't contradict the spiritual, but it's an expression of it, then you learn how to live an inspired life in this world and you uplift the physical world to be a reflection of the spiritual. So I I think one of the most incredible questions when it comes to finding your uniqueness is have you first built a strong foundation? Have you really covered the bases? Because of course there's going to be a baal machshava, there's going to be a baal mussar, there's going to be a baal gemara iyun, there's going to be a baal halacha pesak. And you can specialize and find your uniqueness, but if you're not balanced with your foundation, if you haven't really said am I covered on all aspects of the Torah life, then you can't specialize. If you're trying to be you know, let's say you want to be a speaker and you want to share Torah, but you're not inspired yourself. You're not excited about Torah. Who's going to want to listen to you? And if you are a let's say if you're a baal machshava you don't know halacha you don't know gemara, you're not that's not how can that be? That doesn't make sense. So before we talk about uniqueness, I think one of the most important things that I find is that people need to really build a strong foundation. Need to say am I before I work on becoming a master of a certain craft, have I really built a strong foundation in life? And once you balance and once you build that foundation, I think then we can talk about beginning the stage of finding your uniqueness. And I think an important qualification though is that it's not always chronological. It's not that you build so you spend 10 years working on your foundation and then you start building your uniqueness because the what a beautiful idea that you should ask me here some. So the the first part of what you should ask me but there's another person who talks about the the opposite. That in order to get what you should ask me what you should ask me but in order to get what you should ask me you have to have what you should ask. So which one is it? So it's not chronological. They they overflow into each other. When you have what you should ask me when you understand the deepest principles of life that inspires you. You don't have to find you or not as fear of this all. It's a higher level of of year. It's you're just all inspired by what you should ask me but when you're all inspired by what you should ask me you you delve deeper into what you should ask me and you get more what you should ask me and that creates more year. So which one comes first? Okay, so it's a little complicated. Maybe what you should ask me comes first. Maybe you comes first but at the end of the day they're overflow into each other. And the more that you invest into your foundation the more your uniqueness will become expressed and the more that you start really fulfilling your task and the more you can invest into your foundation. So I think it is important that even though we do talk about building the foundation first, it's not like you know you have one stage of your life where you build a foundation and you have another stage of life where you invest uniqueness. That's like the example I like to give is giving. Everyone wants to contribute something to the world but to contribute something to the world you have to invest in yourself. You can only give what you have. You want to give a million dollars to that that's wonderful. You have to first have a million dollars. You want to teach us here that's good. You have to first learn Torah. You want to do that you have to have the gifts to give. So what is it? First you spend a couple of years investing in yourself and then you spend your whole life giving. No, it's it's always going to be back and forth. You're always going to have to continue investing in yourself and then expressing outwards and the more you express outwards the more you're going to be able to invest in yourself. Obviously the first stage in that is investing in yourself but it's a lifelong balance. I'm doing amazing. And then I think I think that the next question this is a question which I think people struggle with the most is that I think everyone who's listening to this has at least once in their life that we all have a unique purpose. That you have something unique to contribute to the world. That gosh that will create you in your way. And almost everyone I've spoken to, especially on a one-on-one basis, has said, "Okay, I heard this. I've no idea how. I've no idea what that means. I've no idea how to find my uniqueness. So, what is what does that mean for me? How do I do it?" And this is where I think that there's no single I give a whole course self-mastery academy cuz I many people like the one fix. Like this one idea is going to change your life. You need a system in life. You need a you know there's no such thing as like one principle that encompasses everything. You need a system. You need to go through all the different principles that then so to speak connect with each other to develop something powerful. But if I would say that there's one most important the equa the most foundational and fundamental principle for finding your uniqueness, it's developing self-awareness. It's understanding who you are. I mean most people are I wouldn't say horrified, but they're not too inclined to spend time by themselves. We live in the world of you know constant input. You're you're always being You want to have a phone on you. You don't want to have some some way to engage. That's why Shabbos is very hard for some people because as opposed to being the most delightful experience of self of who you've become, there's no you can't have any input of media of whatever it is. You have to really come face-to-face with who you are. It's a disconnected. Don't even connect. Shabbos Exactly. Ah. Ah. Beautiful. I love that. I love that. So, I think that the most important aspect of finding your uniqueness is taking some time to really ask yourself, do you know who you are? Powerful. And and and and why don't you know who you are? Why don't you No one knows themselves completely. But most people really don't know themselves because they've never taken the time to fall in love with themselves. They've never taken the time to spend time with themselves, to get to know who they are, why they are, what what makes you tick, what makes you work. Why do you do what you do? Have you ever decided consciously to eat what you eat, to spend time with the people you spend time with, to do what you do, to think about what you think about, to read what you read? Have you mindfully constructed your life? And then I think the the real next stage is to explore that, to fall in love with yourself, to invest into yourself, to talk to yourself. You know, most people don't talk to themselves, but if you don't talk to yourself, you're not going to know yourself. And you need to You know, most people spend so much time trying to be liked by other people, trying to become friends with other people, they never spend that time doing it with themselves. And I can tell you that if you don't like yourself, there's no way that you can like someone else, and there's no way anyone else can like you. The first and most important foundation is to build self-love. Y'all have to come to be have to come to love You have to love someone like you love yourself. Make sure that first you love yourself. And the next stage is is building continuously building higher levels of self-awareness. To understand that in in the martial arts I like to give is that the the analogy is that most people think that spiritual growth is is moving up. You're transcending. You're you're elevating to higher levels of spiritual growth. I think that another equally powerful analogy is that it's not only about moving up, but it's also about moving deeper and deeper within yourself. And we can go into this, you know, we can spend a whole hour talking about the machshava behind that and the deeper thought behind that. But so much of life is delving deeper into who you are, what makes you you know, what drives you, and you want to explore explore So many people don't know what talents or what skills they could develop cuz they've never tried it. I always say that uh my my ultimate Hakadosh Baruch Hu, guy before my ultimate gratitude to Hashem is that I had so much extra time in 12th grade and I taught myself how to play guitar and piano. So, you know, that's a skill that I never would have And I I was so bad. My dad used to come and sit in my room and and I used to ask him like, "How's it sounding?" He used to be like, "It's got to be better." It was like It was awful. But, after months and months, I eventually was able to you know, think of something and play on the guitar. I was able to start writing my own music. It's a skill I never would have developed if I wouldn't have explored it. And so many people, they they have so much locked within themselves. And they've never explored it. They've never discovered who they are cuz they've never gone searching. That's actually our next question, Reb Shmuel. The fact that in life, you know, people are scared to explore things cuz they don't want to you know, they're they're they're scared of of failure. You know, and they don't want to change because you know, they have fear of failing. So, how does one overcome this fear? What do you suggest? That's such a good question. That's such a good question. So, I will say this. Before we talk about fear, which I want to get to in like 1 minute, I will just say to leave off our last section in terms of your uniqueness, the ultimate goal, which will I think fear really ties so well into this. The ultimate goal, if you were to ask me what's the ultimate goal in terms of uniqueness, it would be to find something in addition to building a strong foundation, to finding things they love, it would be building a life where you build a life around something that you love, something that you're really good at cuz a lot of people are they love things, but they're not good at it. You know, a lot of people love to sing, but they're not such great singers. So, a lot of people um are really great at things, but they don't love it. You have to have both, which is very special. You have to find a way to use what you love and what you're good at to help other people. And if you want to really build a career, which a lot of people like they don't love what they do. They don't do they don't love their jobs. So, the is to find a way to make a living doing that. And I always say that if you can provide enough value to people, then you can make a living doing it. So, if you have those four things, if you love it, you're really good at it, you can help other people, and you can make a living, that's the ultimate goal in terms of finding your uniqueness in life. Now, not everyone is offered to do that. Not everyone wants to have all four. A lot of people, they want to make a living and then do what they love on the side. That's another model. And that's 100% okay. But, for those who want to be able to really have that ultimate synthesis, it takes first having that goal, and then really paving your path. And then I think this ties perfectly into this next question, which is fear. And I can tell you that fear is is it is that which inhibits so many dreams. And so many people, they they don't strive for their greatness, and they don't try to create their ultimate selves because of fear. And I think that before before we talk about fear for striving for greatness, I think it is important to first state that greatness is not always about being in the spotlight. It's not always about being the person in the front lines we said, you know, hitting that that that big, you know, shot in public. Not everyone wants or needs to be the person in the front lines. The person behind the scenes who's making everything run and is sometimes doing a lot more than the person on the front lines. But, nevertheless, there is I would say that which inhibits and that which prevents most people from really striving is fear. And I think we have this question of what what is it that holds people back? Why are people so scared? Well, what is fear? Is fear real? Are people, you know, there's real fear where people are afraid of of dying, you know, you don't want to fall off a cliff. But, what are people so afraid of? So, I think I think the best way to approach fear is to take a step back and ask in general, and I don't want to uh this is one of my favorite topics. We'll we'll spend a few minutes on this if that's okay. Sure, of course. Cuz why don't why don't people strive for greatness? In addition to fear, cuz we're going to go into fear, but I think that before we talk about fear, there are so many people who have never even considered the possibility that they are capable of striving for greatness. And I think that the number one reason for that is because they don't have an empowering identity. I mean, when you look in the mirror, how do you see yourself? For all of our our our listeners, how many of us naturally wake up in the morning and say, I am capable of greatness. I'm destined for great things. For most people, as long as they're surviving, as long as they think, okay, you know, all the bad things that happened to me, at least I know I shall loves me, that's enough. But do people really think they're capable of greatness? Of changing the world? Of impacting others, inspiring others? I think that so many people they struggle either because number one, they've never decided who they are. They don't have that self-awareness that we talked about. They they don't you know, people only wake up at a certain point in life where they say, who am I? But but way before the midlife crisis, we have, you know, when you're a teenager, when you're a young adult, we're we're in a society or in sleep by culture, you you worry about what your friends think, what your parents think, what your teachers think. Yeah, you know, so many people I remember had a colleague who came crying to me once. And he said he just came from a funeral and they were talking about all of this person's legacy and what he stood for and what he, you know, fought for in his life, what he stood. And he's telling me like, I've never asked myself these questions. I don't know what I stand for. I don't even know who I am. So, I think the first question that we need to ask ourselves is are we Have we ever chosen identity? And I think that a lot of us need to start with that. We need to like really start thinking, who are we and what do we want to build in life? I think even those who have built an identity or or have things they want to do, they still don't do it because either they don't think it's possible. I remember in order to be safe most parents will tell people to be normal, to be practical, not to strive for greatness, not to be a dreamer. No parent wants their child to fail. So it's really strange. Very often the people who love their children the most will try to crush their dreams cuz they don't want them to fail and be homeless and not have a pot to piss in. So very often it's the parents that that society that holds people back from really striving because and and then people grow up thinking that they're just normal. That they're not capable of doing something extraordinary. They're not capable of making a difference. They're they're convinced they're normal. They don't think they don't have that self-confidence, that self-worth that they need. And I think that when you're convinced that you're not capable of greatness how many people will try? How many people will will will actually strive for it? And I think that the lie that a lot of people then tell themselves is that I'm I'm comfortable with being okay. I I I like being okay. I like being normal, being average. I don't want to, you know, go outside of of my comfort zone because I I think that very often at that stage we convince ourselves that this is just who I am. This is this is who I've always been. This is who I am now and this is who I will always be. And that it's people with a fixed mindset. They don't allow themselves to be flexible to say I'm elastic. I can become anything. I'm a I'm a literal aspect of the I'm infinite now. Like I'm me. I'm I do my thing. I'm I'm comfortable where I am and we basically come to believe our lies that we tell ourselves which is that this is who I am going to be. And I think that if we really want to take it now in the direction of fear I think that there are multiple aspects of fear. There's the fear of fear of failure. What what's going to happen if I try and I and I mess up? What will What will my friends think of me? What will my parents think? What will What will my spouse think? What will my children think? What will I think of myself? And then I think there's a fear of the pain and struggle of if I actually do this, if I actually commit, I'm going to have to give things up. If I go on a diet, I'm going to have to give up all the foods I like. If I start exercising, what about that time? What about I don't know. I don't know. It's painful. If I I want to become a talmid chacham, you know how little I know now? You know how hard it is for me to delve into a sugiyah in Gemara? I can't I can barely, you know, understand the the basic shot, let alone the rishonim, let alone Rashi and Tosafos. How am I supposed to do this? And obviously, you have the famous midrash that that tzaddik looks at the mountain and says, "Wow, it's a mountain. You know, I get to climb up a little more every day." And the rasha says, "I'll never get to the top. What's the point of trying?" But that's a genuine fear. Is that you know, I don't It's painful to go through that experience. Why would I want to overcome so much challenge I can just play it safe and stay in my comfort zone. And then I think the most underrated aspect of fear is that some people are afraid that they might actually succeed. And what if I succeed and I'm not capable of handling it? You know, what if I succeed and it's just too much for me? I'm just not ready. And you know, you know, I would say that a lot of people their vision of themselves is too small. That they say, "I want to strive for this dream, but I'm not I don't want to be in that dream because that's too much for me. I can't handle it. The pressure is too much. I'll be so, you know, I won't be able to the anxiety." So, I want I want to delve into the into this topic of fear cuz I think it's a great topic. I will just say that I think there's a couple just to finish off the topic of greatness cuz one of my favorite topics. When I was in Shalvein, I begin I begin to really thinking about like why why isn't everyone great? Why don't we live in a world where everyone is spending all day, every day, striving for greatness. And I became really just like in love with this topic of what drives people. Why do we do what we do? Why Why is it there are just a few people that are striving for greatness and they have to, you know, go out and inspire everyone else? Why isn't everyone doing this? And I think that part of it is really it feeds into that exact narrative, which is that so many people they desire, they want to be normal. They want to fit in. And if you want to be great, that means that you're going to be different and then people are going to judge you, they're going to look at you, they're going to say, "Oh, you think you're so good. Who do you think you are?" Or you know, you're going to lose your friends, you're going to lose so much of what it means to be normal, and people aren't willing to give that up. They want to be safe, they want to be accepted. I mean, if you think about it, it's more of an existential question, but people wake up in their lives and they say, you know, "What's going on? Like, I exist, but why do I exist? Why am I in this world?" And for so many people, in order to feel validated, in order to feel like they're doing the right thing in life, they have to feel that everyone accepts who they are and why they do what they do. So, if they start doing things different, if they start making new decisions, a new lifestyle, everyone starts to question them and then they start to question themselves. And many people don't have the self-confidence to really believe in the truth of striving, so they rather just play it safe and just kind of tuck those dreams and those ambitions and that real drive to become great, they tuck it in the back of their back of their minds, the back of their consciousness. And every time they hear an inspirational speech, they it gets woken up again and they say, like, "Maybe I should really go for that." But then, you know, then they fall asleep and then, you know, the next day they go right back to it. And I will just say that one or two last points, cuz this is such an incredible topic. One or two last points is that there are people who do try. There are people who do try, but they still never reach their full potential. And there's a couple reasons. Number one is that there are people who who they they want to be great, but they really only want this to be good enough. So, when people look at them, they say, "Oh, that's a good guy. That That's a That's a ton of or that's a So, she's such a She has such great So, they don't actually want to become great. They want to become great enough though when people look at them they think, "Wow, that's a special person." And that's not motivated by greatness. That is motivated by wanting other people to accept you. So, it's a different version of wanting to so to speak be liked by others, but as opposed to just being normal Again, you want to be the role model. You want to be someone who's better than everyone else, but not too good cuz if you're too good, then you know, who knows what will happen. People will won't like you. And another one which is a little nuance is so many people they strive for greatness, but they constantly compare themselves to those around them. So, they want to be the greatest in the room. And what they do is they don't compare themselves to who they were yesterday, which is the ideal. You say like, "Who am I? Where am I going? Who do I want to be?" And you constantly compare yourself to yourself. You say, "Okay, what can I become? Who What is the absolute max that I can become?" Now, I'll tell you the secret is I must be sure there are no limits to what you could become. But what people do is they say, "When I walk into a room, I want to be the smartest in the room. Or I want to be the, you know, the funniest in the room. Or I want to be And they all they want is to be better than those around them so that when they look at those around them, they have the self-confidence to say, "I'm the best." But you're playing small because number one it that by definition limits who you're becoming cuz as soon as you hit being the best in the room, you stop growing cuz what's the point? You're better than everyone. And there's, you know, the greatest kadolam they never stop. The greatest people, they never stop cuz they're never looking around. They're never saying, "Okay, I'm the god of the lord or like I I I'm done." No, it's it's you know, you have the opportunity every day to become more and you fall in love with the journey itself. And and and if we can just build one or two more stages there, those who do strive for greatness but and and they keep pushing but they give up. And the reason they give up is because everyone who is genuinely strive for greatness they experience plateaus. They they hit a brick wall. They lose the inspiration. They get tired. And when you get tired it's so easy to give up. You you find yourself striving you say like this is why am I doing this? What what's the point of it all? And you you might forget why you started in the first place. You might say, you know, I've come far enough. This is enough for me. And then I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to talk about how I'll talk about this too. How God will take away the inspiration at times so that you have to genuinely earn it cuz easy it is so easy to to, you know, talk a big talk, play a big game and to really push and be inspired when everything in your life is going well. When your health is good and your finances good and you know, your relationships are going well and you're you know, being great ideas and Torah, you're coming up with great novel ideas and everything in your life is going well. It's it it it's so easy. But what about when things are hard? What about when you lose the inspiration? When things start to fall apart where, you know, you lose a loved one or you get sick. It's not easy. And what happens? A lot of people they slow down, they stop, they take a break. And and breaks are great, but what about when you just say, you know, maybe I'll lower my my Maybe I I maybe I'm not supposed to be striving for these great things. So, there are hustles that's really gives you those challenges to really make you earn it, to make you deserve it, to to allow you to put everything you have, all your all your strength, all of your all your power to really invest yourself into it. And a lot of people, even if they are striving, they'll slow down or stop at that stage. And I'll I'll leave off and this is for for I want people to think about this cuz this is this is maybe the most the most powerful reason why people don't become actually great. Is there are people who have achieved levels of greatness, levels of success, but they're not really pushing to the max. So, they might be a rush of Shiva, they might be a min of hell, they might be a rebbe or or a post sick. They might be doing great things, but they're not they're not going to the max. They're not pushing into the unknown because they're doing what is so to speak is is easy and known for them. So, if you're if you're already a leader, if you're already let's say you've spent 25 years striving for greatness, what happens if you take that next step? First of all, people who are already on the front lines, people who do great things, it's really hard for them to continue growing cuz if you want to start a new thing, if you've been a leader for 20 years, you want to start at the bottom of a new aspect of your life, what happens if you look like a fool, you mess up? No one wants to go from being a leader to looking like, you know, they're starting from the you know, no I've I've built my whole life. So, a lot of people they stay safe and so speak what they're good at and they don't continue going into the unknown because that means that you know, and that's like, you know, Adam and Eve. There's different approaches when he started his journey, but you know, 48, you know, depending on 40 depending on which opinion of in Torah, which opinion of the Midrash, to to when you're at an old age to start something new, to be willing even after spending your whole life doing something great, to then say, "Okay, I know I've mastered this, but now I'm going to start doing this. Now I'm going to start from like where other people are 18 when they're starting that category, and and I'm going to look like a like what happens if people you know, have a video of me trying this, and you know, it gets out that you know, I look like a fool." So, there are people who are not willing to walk into the unknown. They will stay doing what is so to speak easy, what is known to them. It's a relative comfort zone, cuz other people look at them once again, and they say, "These people are good. They're old. These people are extraordinary." But for them, they know they're staying within what's comfortable, what's easy. And I think that the true aspect of greatness, the true infinite nature of what it means to be in this world is that you are never done, and you are never finished, and there are no limits. And you can literally achieve anything. If you spend enough time, enough focus, enough of a mood, enough faith in God, you can achieve anything. But let's get back to the question of fear. Because I think that fear it is and and Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, I think this this really hits the nail on the head, cuz I think this is so many people, they live their lives in fear. And everyone on the outside pretty much looks the same. But on the inside, everyone is going through their own battles. And everyone is Everyone is scared, and and I will tell you that I when I was much younger, I used to be, you know, scared of public speaking, and scared of building genuine, real relationships, of being vulnerable, letting myself be seen, of of not being good enough for my friends, not being good enough for other people. And so many people they struggle with this, and they live their whole lives caged with fear. And I I just began asking myself when I when I was younger, like, "How do you overcome this?" We talked about like greatness and why people don't don't do it, but okay, that's great. How do you do it? Like, how do you overcome fear? And I want to share some some ideas with you. I I These ideas they they changed my life as you can clearly see, I'm not scared of public speaking anymore. Crush barriers is incredible. Um but so many people they they really understand that fear is holding them back, but they want to know how to overcome it. So, I want to I want to go into this for a few minutes just to share a couple of ideas. And I think that before we go into the different aspects of fear, most fear is not real. Most fear is something that we create in our minds. And there's genuine fear, like if I like we said, if you're on a cliff, you know, you're scared of falling off because if you fall off, you're going to die. So, it's that's a good fear. That's a rational fear. But most fear is just fear of uncertainty. Like, what's going to happen? I don't know what's going to happen. Or you're scared of being vulnerable. Like for a for a lot of people they come to me they're dating and they're having a really hard time being being open with the person they're dating to share who they are, what they believe in, their values, their vulnerabilities, their weaknesses because what happens if someone sees who you really are and they judge you. They don't like what they see. A lot of people they never really open up because they're afraid that if they open up, they'll be crushed. They've never actually been crushed, so they don't even know, but they're just afraid of the what if and they can't build a real relationship. So, whether it's relationships, whether it's being vulnerable and sharing your actual thoughts with other people cuz a lot of people if they shared themselves with other people and they were rejected or knocked down, they feel like they are knocked down. And then, you know, they they they live their whole lives locked up. And a lot of people don't want to put themselves out there. They don't want to be, so to speak, vulnerable to what other people think. So, they stay safe. they stay quiet, they don't really share themselves. And one of my favorite lines is that fear stands for false evidence appearing real. False evidence appearing real. The it's just an excuse that we make. We make these excuses and when we make excuses we usually get to keep them. We get to keep our limitations. And I think that the first and most important way to overcome fear is to recognize that it's a mental construct, it's an illusion that we create to protect ourselves. And if we we learn to attack the things we're scared of. If we learn to meaning for anyone who's overcome a fear, before we actually talk about how to overcome it. The moment that you realize that your fears are just illusions that you create, you start questioning what in what I spent my whole life not doing all of these things that I could have doing been doing because of these fears that aren't real. And the moment you start realizing that all the things that are holding you back, all of these these paradigm shifts that you could make, all of these the perspectives and perceptions that you have on these things that aren't real. That you say I can't do that, that's not for me, I'm not capable of that. No, no, that wouldn't be good. All of those things aren't true. You realize that you can actually do anything. And Yeah, there's there's so many great stories about this. The one person one time told me a story that every day on the way back from work, he would take a different a different path home because when he went during down a certain block, there was this really angry, you know, it was like a bulldog. It was really angry bulldog and he was really scared of the bulldog. And for for months, he took a different path home and then one day he went down that path and the bulldog chased after him. And he was scared the bulldog was going to like rip his face off, so he was like running as fast as he could the bulldog caught him. And when the bulldog came up to him he saw the bulldog and there was no teeth in the bulldog's mouth. So for months and months and months he's been running away from something that has no teeth. And I thought that that's literally the greatest master of fear. We run away from all of these things that we think are going to destroy us, they're going to rip us apart, and they have no teeth. And amazing, amazing. I got to tell you small the inspiration is two thumbs up. And and and you know we'll jump to the the next question which is you know one road block to greatness is pushing things off. People right now listening, the audience, I know for a fact the thousands of people they're all like, you know, okay we're ready. But some people are saying you know you know right now I'm in the middle of school, you know, I'm in the middle of you know I'm about to give birth maybe a mother is saying or maybe I'm about to you know you know the summer is coming maybe I they're pushing it off but we know in ethics of our fathers it says if not now when. So once we are inspired to improve like we all are right now, how do we act on the moment? Ah, that's such a good question. That is such a good question. So here here's what I would suggest. I would suggest that number one you want to immediately you want to immediately take control of that inspiration. So the moment that you have that inspiration I would say that you know if I were to be honest inspirations great. Inspiration, dreams, they're fantastic. But at the end of the day they're just that. They're dreams. Inspiration. And a dream without goals is just a dream. An inspiration without goals is fleeting. And I think we live in the world just like we talked about how people love unique as people love inspiration. But my biggest pet peeve, you know, I have I love inspiration. I love delving into Halakha and Gamara, and Mussar, and you know, Mada, and the world that was As much as other inspiration, my biggest pet peeve is that so many people they just want the inspiration. And that's I would say I don't want to be harsh, but that is one of the biggest lies that K'vod Shabbat allowed us to live with him. Because a life of inspiration is really nothing unless you act on an inspiration. And the real goal is to make the dreams and inspiration a reality. And the way to do that is immediately write it down. Set up concrete, tangible steps so that you can act on an inspiration. And I would say that have huge goals, but then make bite-size goals. So, have a I would just give a talk to to a graduating class. And I was telling them how you're you're about to go out into the world, and this is a time of dreams, but create huge goals, like lifelong goals, but then create yearly goals, then create monthly goals, then weekly goals, daily goals, so that your year is heading towards your ultimate life, your month is heading towards that yearly goal, your week is directed towards that monthly goal, and each day is towards your weekly goal, which is really towards your life and goals. So, your whole life becomes oriented to achieving greatness. You want to construct a life, create a lifestyle. That means surrounding yourself with people who are like-minded, who understand your values. That means you know, creating a environment within your house. People don't want to eat unhealthy food, but they have unhealthy food lying around their their whole house. You want to eat healthy, surround yourself with healthy food. You want to be positive, surround yourself with positive people. You want to learn more, surround yourself with Sefarim. Create a life environment of Torah, of thought, of growth. And it's so easy to talk about it, but so people they they like the inspiration phase, but we need to act on it. And that's the key. So, you want to create concrete, tangible action points. And the next step is create external accountability. That that's a life changer. For people who want to work out, what happens when you're tired? What happens when the alarm goes off at the you know 5:00 in the morning, 6:00 in the morning and you're like, "I don't want to go." What happens when it's you start to lose that inspiration? So, when you have external accountability, you have a khavrusa to learn with, you have a a workout partner. No one wants to be Number one, you want to keep that identity if we committed to this together. Number two, you don't want to let him down. Right? No one wants to be the person that says, "Oh, we're going to work out then." Or when I could do it. "Oh, we're going to learn every night." But then I don't show up. So, when you create something external, as much as this is something really important, ideally in life, we would be self-motivated. Do everything from internally, internal will, internal motivation. But of course God sends you challenges to push you when you're not going that direction yourself. But sometimes we need to create those external pushes ourselves. Create external accountability. Create a a commitment that makes it that it's not just about what I want, but I have to do this now. And the And the next thing I would say is start talking about it. Tell people, "Well, I'm going to do this." Because what happens you start telling people you're going to do it, there is no way you're not going to do it because no one wants to be seen like a liar. If you committed to getting healthy, you don't want to be seen with a Snickers, with a Kit Kat, with an ice cream bar. You know, you want to maintain the identity that you convinced yourself and other people that you have. So, as much as it's amazing to do everything internally, you want to make sure that it's also working from the external motivation as well. And I would say feed the inspiration. Keep that inspiration going. I I listen to motivational inspirational content every single day. I read it. I want People always ask me, "When are you going to stop?" I'm going to stop when I die. That's when I'm going to stop. I'm going to go into There's never a point where you're you you have like the inspirational cavity for the rest of your life. You need to feed it. As much as you're going to continue learning and continue focusing on growth and working all aspects of your life, you never going to so to speak have enough inspiration. You have to keep feeding that so you know, feed the flame. You know, keep keep keep inspira- keep inspiring yourself. And and realize and and this is really I'll just end off back to in a question of fear just a couple quick points. Number one, have an inspiring why. Like know why you're doing what you're doing. If you there's a great line, if you know why you're doing what you're doing, you can overcome any how. If you have a real purpose to life, if you know what's motivating you, why you're doing this. You wake up every morning, it's hard. Life isn't easy. Life is really hard. But if you know why you're driving to do it, you can overcome anything. And if you and back to our question of when you really are scared of something, just break it down to simple steps. Acknowledge that yes, this is this is scary, but really it's just one, two, three, four, five steps. If you say like Okay, how do I get in good shape? That's overwhelming. How do I become a ton That's overwhelming. You break up the small steps. Okay, I learn one amud a day. I learn couple halachas a day. I exercise No, it's the start of a little slow. Exercise three times a week. That's doable. So, if you create this overwhelming, you know, oh my gosh, how can I do that? Of course you're not going to do it. But if you break it up into small steps, if you make it achievable, and then you take responsibility for your life. There's a great line. It's by Earl Nightingale. He says that all of us are self-made, but only the successful among us will admit it. So, it's it's a great line. Obviously, Hashem's the iker. Hashem is responsible, but there's a powerful kernel of truth in that. That we have to take responsibility for our lives. We have to First of all, realize that you can do it. Realize that you could figure it out. So many people they they don't believe that even if they try, it's not it's impossible for me. You can figure it out. It's possible for you. And I would say just to give a couple things which really have helped me is you want to build mastery over what you want to do because so much of what holds people back really is so much of fear is doubt. You don't you don't really know if you have no idea what the how to do it if it's going to work or it's not going to work out. When you immerse yourself in it, when it becomes who you are, when you become so engrossed, you know, when someone gives a sheer, when someone does a real time of a they don't come before the sheer they say I have no idea what I'm talking about. No, they have become the soldier. They have become the Torah. They have no doubts before they give the sheer. Of course they of course they want that or they want but they don't doubt their abilities cuz they know who they are. And when you immerse yourself in it, you have no doubt and and that's really immersion. So many people they dabble, you know, they a little bit here, a little bit there. You want to immerse yourself. And ultimately you want to have a moment that you know despite all the styles, all the effort I put in, you have to really have that moment that is going to help you as you walk into that unknown, as you really go for it that is going to help you succeed. Rabbi unbelievable wow, what inspiration. You know, many many can't stop themselves from making excuses but we know from the story in the that the matter depends on me alone. How to remove how does one remove the excuse button from from their minds, you know, many people are finding excuses. What do you suggest? It's a great question. That's a great question. We just we talked about we mentioned second ago how first of all when you make excuses, you get to keep your limitations. So a lot of people say, you know, I'm not I'm not unhealthy, I'm just thick boned. So okay great, you're just never going to get in shape. You you convince yourself that I I can't you know, I'm I'm not I just I don't have a sharp head. I'm not like that. Okay, great. So, you're never going to come down to When you make an excuse, number one, you get to keep it. But, why do we make excuses? Why? Meaning, of course, if you make an excuse, you get to keep the limitation that you made an excuse for, but why do we do it? So, number one, it it it's hard to grow. It's hard. It's uncomfortable. We don't want to leave our comfort zone. And once again, we're afraid of failure. We're afraid that, okay, what if I try and then I mess up? What if I try and I succeeded and it's not what I wanted or it's too much for me or there it really gets back into everything we've been talking about. Most people don't even think it's possible for them. They don't think that they're capable, so they make these excuses. You need to have a paradigm shift of how you see yourself. You need to start convincing yourself that you are extraordinary, you are capable of greatness, you are infinite, you are connected to the infinite, you have unbelievable talent within you just waiting to be discovered, and you want to surround yourself with with the right people. Uh so much is the story we feed ourselves, the the the identity we reinforce. And to realize you can change your identity, you can you can choose to change your self-talk. I can I cannot tell you how many people they say the most horrible things to themselves. And and it's enough that, you know, we can't control what other people say to us, but why would you want to tell yourself? Why would you want to Like, a lot of people look in the mirror and they're like, you know, they say they don't like who they are what they see. And you have to realize that there's nothing that you cannot do. And you can change how you see yourself, how you talk about yourself. You can change your identity. I I'll I'll just share one quick story. Sure. One of my favorite stories. There was a boy who was who was in a math class. It was a graduate math class, and he fell asleep. He was, you know, went out nights later till midnight, whatever it was. He was, you know, really studying away, and he he fell asleep. And he woke up, and there were two math problems on the board. And he wrote down the homework and he went home and he spent the whole weekend trying to work on these math problems and he couldn't. He couldn't figure them out. He just read the textbooks, did online research, asked the No. Couldn't figure them out. Spent countless hours. You know, spending all of Thursday night and then, you know, obviously after his night seder and then he, you know, was working on it before Shabbos and then he would spend most of Shabbos, spend Sunday and he was so furious that he's not going to be able to solve succeed in this homework problem. And Sunday night he cracked one of the problems. Cracked the problem. And then he came and but the other one he just couldn't he couldn't figure it out. So he came to class and he had a little a little sheepish head down. He went over to the professor and he said, "Sorry professor, I was only able to solve one of the problems." Professor said, "Which What are you talking about? Which problem?" "So the homework problems." "I I didn't give any homework. You didn't hear I I I I said there's no homework for the weekend." He said, "Well, what are you talking about? What about the two homework problems on the board?" The professor said, "What?" And and he started looking over the the work. And the professor turned white in the face. And he said, "That wasn't homework. Those are two impossible, unsolvable math problems that no one's ever been able to solve. You just did the impossible. Now, why did he do the impossible? Because in his mind that was homework. He was supposed to do it. He didn't hear that it's impossible. He didn't hear that you're not even supposed to try. He didn't hear that no one's ever done it. He just saw a math problem. And so many of us, we start with the narrative, with the story. If you hear that it's impossible, if you convince yourself it's impossible, if you know that you're not supposed to try, you're not supposed to do it, we don't. We make these excuses because it's easy and because we don't want to go into that unknown. But if you stop telling yourselves those excuses, stop telling yourself that you're not capable, but realize you can do anything. That's the idea. Klal Yisrael took Avraham above the mazel, above the stars. What does that mean? The Gamorah says it was Hashem saying in mazel Israel. And the first thing they say that that means that there is no limits. There is no mazel. Mazel is nature. Those are the rules of cause and effect, natural logic, mathematics. Those rules don't apply to you once you realize that you're connected to Hashem. So if you if you change your identity, realize you can do anything. Then all limitations start to fade away. Unbelievable Reb Shmuel. Wow, what inspiration, what chizuk. I wish we could just go on and on forever because this is like such a I I was so so inspiring me too. This is incredible. But unfortunately, the time is is wrapping up and we're going to ask you one final question which is if you could leave us with one final thought about this topic we have tonight to our broad audience. Always the best question to end on. Honestly, I I would tell you that the best advice I ever got and it came at a turning point for my life which as simple as it sounds is the most powerful advice you can ever hear. And it's never give up. Never. Ever. Ever give up. Because as hard as your life is, as much as as we're all going through, and no one knows what you're going through because no one understands your experience of life. No one knows what you've gone through. No one experiences your emotions. No one knows what you're thinking. No one knows what you're actually going through. Never ever give up. And I would say tell yourself two words. Tell yourself it's possible. That That's it. Is it guaranteed? No. Is it possible? Is it possible for you to achieve your greatness? Is it possible for you to achieve your dreams? Is it possible for you to achieve that extraordinary life that you dream of? Is it possible? Yes. Because when you live with the possibility, your entire life changes. Cuz everyone wants to know what's guaranteed, what's safe, what's practical, what's automatic. No, no, no. Don't live your life that way. Live your life with asking yourself those two words, is Well, asking yourself, is it possible? Those are three words. But telling yourself two words, it's possible. And when you realize that you really can achieve anything. You can achieve anything you set your mind to. And when you live your life, you know, 100% hishtadlus, 100% emunah. People often ask, like, how much hishtadlus, how much emunah? And it's not like, you know, some hishtadlus, some emunah. It's 100% hishtadlus, 100% emunah. You have to go all in, 100% immersion, every single day. And you have to also realize that 100% concentration. It's not some and some, it's a paradox. You live your life all in. And when you live your life like that, then you realize that anything is possible. Then you live such an amazing life because you really strive. You spend every day, and it becomes the most extraordinary life imaginable. But remember, never give up, and anything is possible if you put your mind to it. Shh. Wow. Reb Shmuel Reichman, I'm so impressed. What chizuk, what inspiration. Achieving your greatness. We can all do it. We can all become great, as we heard so eloquently, so beautifully given over by our dear friend Reb Shmuel Reichman, shlita. Yashar koach. Thank you very much, Reb Shmuel, for the inspiration. Uh, you know, Reb Shmuel is constantly giving shiurim, the the classes, the lectures. It's all over the place. So many people are being inspired. We appreciate your time. And uh, but as a chiyuv, we want to remind our audience every single Tuesday, baruch Hashem, we have these inspiring, timely Tuesday Torah Talks, Chazak's Tuesday program. Baruch Hashem, it's on many, many uh apps and many different podcasts and all these different options on social media and online and all these different websites. Please make sure to like, to share, to forward so everyone could be inspired. And we look forward to having the complete redemption to come speedily in our days. Amen. Amen.