John Cena (91:33)
And it doesn't need to be a world changing decision. I think now, I don't want to say nowadays, I think we always think that, like, the decision needs to change the world. No, it's, you just need to commit and do something. Something. As a 12 year old, I want to start working out and I liked it and I just fucking keep working out. And now I can't live without it. It's part of my life. It's a fabric of my life. But in working out, I've learned structure and discipline, accountability, essentially, budget. If you take in too much and you don't spend enough, you're going to have some excess. Like these lessons that opportunity can teach you if you allow it. Me fucking up the thing I spoke about at the beginning, like, the easiest thing to do is your fault. But if I take it as an opportunity of like, all right, you missed. What did we learn? Where's the gain? Yeah, you can move forward and I can move forward and wholeheartedly apologize to those I've hurt along the way and they don't need to forgive me. That's on their terms. I can't control that. But, man, the sleep is a little more sound at night knowing, like, like in learning this lesson or having this opportunity. Fuck, dude, I kind of trampled on your shit and I'm so sorry. Like, I had such a shitty relationship with my dad and just recently we've mended fences and he's 80, so I'm glad I've done this because, I mean, we don't last forever. He's going, we're all going in the dirt soon, you know, But I just wanted him to be something else. I always wanted that motherfucker to change. I wanted him to be something else. And finally I got out of my own way. The hard thing is meeting that guy where he's at. The hard thing is allowing him to be who he is. Take the weight off my backpack and say, like, yo, I might have needed you to be this in my life, but because you weren't, man, because of your absence in being the dad that I had in my mind, I got all these fucking cool male mentors who kept me, gave me a key to the gym at 15 and said, you better fucking be here in the morning. Morning. And like, dude, I still can feel a key in my hand from Dave Knock, the dean of students at Cushing Academy, who bet on me. He was like, man, if you get your grades from C's to A's and you play two varsity sports, this place cost in 94. This place cost 35 grand a year. We will give you aid, and you will have a place to learn. And that allowed me to become an adult. It allowed me to the opportunity of being in a diverse group of students who. Man, there's, like, royalty that goes to that school. And then there's fucking poor kids. My roommate was a basketball player from Compton. And then we got kids with generational wealth through their naming buildings after. But when it's just like 450 kids in a social experiment, money goes away, and you just. You. You just kick it. So I learned to be friends with everybody. But I wouldn't have learned that in West Newberry, where it's 99.9% white, 1200 people in the small town, no stoplight. You either leave or you never leave. Like, just little. Little things like that. You know what I'm saying? Like, little, like, man, I should do this. And deciding to meet my dad where he's at and be like, dude, whatever I thought you were, you're not. You're just you. And I love you for you. And, man, when we sit, there's some shit that he'll say that's all fucked up. You know, he said some shit yesterday that, like, I don't think Jon's last opponent should be there. And people listen to him. Cause he's a wrestling fan. He's like, in the kind of, like, the weird subculture zeitgeist. And I want to call my dad and be like, what the fuck are you doing? But then, like, no, he's doing what he does. This is him. This is the dad I. This is the John Cena I love. This is. This is the guy I can sit down with. And. And. And part of that is being able to process all that. But the opportunity I get from that, I've learned about my father's story. I've learned about what he. What he wants to do with his life, why he does what he does, maybe what he wanted to do, dreams he didn't have. So I can gain wisdom from there, but it's just. That's the hard part. It's like getting out of your own fucking way to do the thing you really want to do. The easy Thing to do is to hold a grudge against my dad. What I really wanted to do was tell my dad I love him and sit down with him and be like, yo, let's fucking break bread. Yeah, talk about whatever you want. And now we do that, and it's great. But that's like. That's a small example of the easy thing to do is sit on the couch and say, fuck it. Somebody else is right. The tough thing to do is, like, life is handing me a moment right now. And, dude, I don't bat a thousand. I mean, it's more like Major League baseball. I'm hoping 300 gets me in the hall of Fame. Like, if I can capitalize on 30% of the moments that life gives me and squander the other 70%, I believe I will go into the ground being like, man, I earned life.
