3 Truths About Making Your DREAMS a REALITY | The Mel Robbins Podcast [ENCORE]

(ticking clock) (upbeat music) You have to be the hero in your own life. There must be some mission, some purpose, some dream that you have that is greater than the day-to-day things that are going to weigh you down. And there will be times that you want to give up. Those moments are what define your life. Last year, I met a woman who was about to give up on her dream, and luckily, she met me, and I gave her the coaching session of a lifetime and reminding her that failure is not an option. Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to an absolutely heroic episode of The Mel Robbins Podcast. Ah, it is my favorite time of year. I am in such a good mood. What time of year am I talking about? Graduation season. I love graduation season. First of all, do you remember your graduation? You got the robe on, you got the cap on, maybe you were smart enough to get those braid things that people get that are really smart. Everyone's celebrating you, your family comes into town. You finally finished your final exams, you're done, and you've got this casserole of human emotions. You got the sadness, you've got the excitement, and your whole month is all about the last, the last time you're going to get together, the last time you're with your class, the last time you're doing this. And then that, of course, leads to a whole new season of firsts. Oh, it's the first time you're going to do this thing and the first time that you're going to do that thing. It's such a cool moment. And beyond your graduation, I don't know about you, but I love graduation ceremonies. Give me a commencement ceremony and I am a happy camper. Why? Well, you can't sit at a commencement ceremony and not feel inspired. First of all, can we talk about the music? Ah, give me some Pomp and Circumstance, people, and I feel like I'm going places. I suddenly feel as if I have royal blood in my veins, right? It's so regal. (Hums Pomp and Circumstance) I feel like I need to do something important. I mean, e- even that song and a robe, you could be wearing a tank top and running shorts underneath and you feel like you've just earned a doctorate. And so, the music, it just sets the scene. And my personal favorite part of a graduation ceremony, I bet you can guess it, that's right, the speakers. Whether the speakers are just a recent graduate, or it's the valedictorian, or the, the student that the fellow students elected to speak, or it's somebody famous and successful, you cannot hear a graduation speech and not think about your own life. I can't ever remember attending a graduation and not wanting to sprint out of there and go change everything about my life. And just last weekend, I heard one of the best graduation speeches I think I've ever heard, and the speaker was Kevin Feige. He is the chairman, the president, the guy that runs Marvel Studios. So, for our Avenger fans out there, Black Panther, Iron Man, Kevin Feige, he is so fricking cool. And you want to know something even cooler? His entire commencement address for USC, it was superhero themed. How fricking cool is that? Not some generic, "Here are five takeaways about resilience," kind of bullshit. No, this was personal, it was hilarious, it was poignant, and there were lessons that he shared that I feel personally more applicable to my life than even the graduates sitting there, and so I want to share a few of those lessons with you, okay? So first of all, I love this, failure is never the end of a hero's story, and it shouldn't be the end of your story either. Second thing that he shared with us, in life, always lead with a yes. That's what a hero does, because the world is always going to say no. Your friends are going to be critical, your boss is going to have their own agenda, the world says no. You know what a hero says? A hero says yes. A hero says, "I can find a way." A hero says, "Yes, it's worth the risk." In fact, how many times in a superhero movie is there that scene where they're going over and calculating the odds of a mission, and the odds of the mission being successful are one in a trillion? What does a hero say? "We got to try. I'm going to take those odds," because a hero leads with yes, and that's what makes you a hero. Forget the superpowers, forget the weapons that you may have. What makes you a hero in your life is your ability to say yes, to pick yourself back up, to go for it even when the odds are against you. That's what is going to make you a hero. And listening to him just last week, I was reminded of a simple truth. You have to be the hero in your own life. There must be some mission, some purpose, some dream that you have that is greater than the day-to-day things that are going to weigh you down, and you've got to be your own hero when it comes to fighting for that thing that you care about. And there will be times that you want to give up, and those moments when you want to give up, those moments where you think you're about to fail, those moments are what define your life. I'll never forget that line that Kevin Feige said, "Failure is never the end of a hero's story." Oftentimes, it's the beginning of one, and that brings me to the episode today. Last year, I met a woman who was about to give up on her dream. See, she had always dreamt of being a touring standup comic, and in her wildest dreams, like this is the big one...When she allows herself to be the hero of her own life, she's got a series on Netflix. That is what she's been fighting for. And she had been working hard on this dream for 20 years and she was about to give up, throw in the towel, "I'm done." But what did we learn? That failure is not an option when it comes to your dreams. And luckily for Barbara, she met me right as she was about to give up and I gave her the coaching session of a lifetime. And what you're about to hear is me picking a woman back up and reminding her that failure is not an option. When you are in the fight of your life to make your dreams come true, you gotta do whatever it takes.