Mastin Kipp is the #1 best-selling author of Daily Love: Growing into Grace and his latest book Claim Your Power and has been recognized by Oprah Winfrey on her Emmy-award winning show Super Soul Sunday as a “spiritual thinker for the next generation.”

He is the founder of Functional Life Coaching (TM) and has appeared alongside Tony Robbins, Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, Dr. Brene Brown and others as a part of Oprah’s Super Soul 100, a collection of awakened leaders who are using their voices and talent to elevate humanity.

He leads sold-out seminars and retreats all over the world, and collectively two million people in over 100 countries have been influenced by Mastin’s work. You can connect with him and learn more at mastinkipp.com.

Favorite Success Quote

“Unless you’re in mortal danger, fear is a compass showing you where to go.”

Key Points

1. You Always Have a Choice Between What is Easy and What will Lead to Your Dreams 

In every person’s life, they will come to a hallway, perhaps many hallways where they will be presented with a simple choice.

Will they take the first door on the left, the door that leads to ease, comfort, and safety?

Or will they take the second door, the door on the right that exposes them to danger at every corner but allows them to live their lives fully and completely?

When you take the first door, you make the decision to play safe to avoid doing the uncomfortable things that will drive you towards your dreams, and eventually, you become so bitter and jealous of other’s success that you begin to sabotage yourself and your goals.

When you take door number two, you take a bold step into uncertainty.

And it’s terrifying.

But it’s also worth it.

2. What’s Really Going On? 

If you have found yourself stuck in a rut, unable to break free of the habits and tendencies that have kept your life where it is today, then you need to take a step back and ask yourself, “What’s really going on?”

Peel back the layers of the onion and look beneath the surface.

Maybe you are terrible at relationships and no matter how many beautiful women you bring into your life, they all seem to leave faster than they show up.

Are you really terrible at relationships or is there something in your past, some sort of unresolved trauma or experience that is causing you to subconsciously sabotage yourself?

Is there a deeper reason for the struggles that you are experiencing?

A common one that I see with many men is the problem of laziness and procrastination.

I know so many men who are powerful, excited and motivated about life, but when it comes time to actually go to work, they drag their feet and fail to accomplish even the most basic tasks.

Are they lazy?

Maybe.

But I think the real problem is that their subconscious is telling them that there is an incongruence.

Maybe they are working a job they aren’t passionate about, maybe they are in a business they don’t really love, or selling a product they don’t truly believe in.

Whatever the case may be, you will never be able to fix your biggest problems until you understand the root of the problems themselves.

What’s really going on?

3. Don’t Just Use Your Pain… Transcend It 

Your pain is a powerful motivating force, but it must be used for good.

I see so many men who are burnt out and struggling simply because they’ve spent the past decade of their lives fueled by pain.

Pain is often the spark that can start a fire in your life. But if you aren’t careful, it can also be the fire that consumes and burns your life to the ground.

Therefore, we must learn to transcend our pain and trauma.

Use it to ignite the fire you need to make bold moves and step forward in life and then… Let it go.

Come to terms with your pain, let go of your suffering, and forgive whoever and whatever hurt you.

Pain is a powerful ally.

But it can be an even more powerful enemy.

4. Start with What You Have Where You Are

If you are broke, struggling, and depressed, then this is one of the most powerful pieces of advice that you will ever hear.

You cannot win the marathon that is life until you start running.

And the only way to start running this race is to start where you are with what you have.

You might be living in a 400 square foot apartment with no running water and $50,000 in debt.

Great. Start where you are with what you have.

You might be living a great life but you know that you can do better if you just knew how.

Great. Start where you are with what you have.

There is no better time to start moving towards your dreams than today.

No matter what you have or don’t have. No matter what you lack or need.

Start where you are with what you have.

5. Your Purpose is Based on an Emotional State and Nothing Else

I often hear guys who will tell me that they are unsure of their purpose in life.

But what’s funny to me is that no one seems to have agreed upon what purpose actually means.

In the same way that 30 different people can all believe in “God” but they all have wildly definitions of who/what “God” is, thousands of you reading this will all have different definitions of what purpose is and how you pursue it.

But here’s the thing.

Purpose is extremely simple.

Your purpose is nothing more than an emotional state that matters to you and your ability to express and cultivate that emotional state.

Purpose is the feeling that you get when you are acting in a way that is congruent with what you want.

Purpose is the emotion that you feel when you are expressing yourself at the highest level.

Purpose is a fluid emotional state that can change and shift on a daily basis.

So stop worrying about finding your purpose and realize that it’s your responsibility to cultivate your purpose.