Stop Complaining, Do Something | The Sean Trace Show

Last week was rough.

I found myself overwhelmed, frustrated, doom scrolling, overthinking, and honestly questioning where my energy was going. So instead of sitting around complaining about the world, I decided to do something simple.

I cleaned up the street in front of my house.

That’s it.

Marcus Aurelius once said:
“Stop talking about what a good man should be and be one.”

That line hit me hard.

We spend so much time arguing online, complaining about bad people, bad systems, bad news, and bad behavior. But at some point, you have to ask yourself:

What am I actually doing to make things better?

This video isn’t about cleaning a street.
It’s about responsibility.
Integrity.
Fatherhood.
Energy.
Action.
And trying to become the kind of person who contributes instead of just consuming.

The street will probably be dirty again tomorrow.
But maybe that’s not the point.

Maybe the point is showing up anyway.

If this resonated with you, subscribe and join me on the journey.

#MarcusAurelius #Stoicism #SelfImprovement #Mindset #Motivation #Fatherhood #PersonalGrowth #Discipline #Action #TheSeanTraceShow

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's up guys? Uh last week kind of sucked for me. It was rough, and there's a lot going on, and uh I was wondering like about being on track with things in life, and I went back and started reading some Marcus Aurelius. Now, Marcus Aurelius said, stop talking about what a good man can be and be one. All around, I see people doing stuff that's like really uncool, and I I look at the news and I see all of this stuff in the news that just messes with my head. And I can sit there and think about it all the time, or I can take action and do something. And you know, today I decided I want to do something nearby because I can't change the whole world, but I can change the front of my house. So decided to clean up some of my street, get out there and do my part to make this world a better place. So bringing you guys with me, let's get out and make the world a better place. It's amazing how much stuff gets everywhere. I'm not doing this for other people. I'm doing it for myself. So many times you can get overloaded with life. All the stuff we see in the news. You know, and if you aren't careful, all the stuff that you see on TV will make you feel crazy. It's not because the street needs saving, but because we do, you know. Being a dad and a business owner, I'm struck by a couple things. Uh, one of the things that's wild is we only have so much life force, you know. Every day you're gifted with a certain amount of time, and when that time's done, it's up, you know? And there's not more. You can rest and uh recover, but a lot of it gets pulled out into directions that aren't necessarily what we want, you know? And these days, the doom scrolling and all of the extra energy that gets pulled into all of this bullshit is really challenging, you know? I do it too. I catch myself building in public and talking about growth. I catch myself thinking about what should I post today? Honestly, it's a bunch of people trying to act like they're doing more than they are, have more going on than they do. But it a lot of it's empty, you know? These business people that sit there and talk to you about all this fun stuff that they're doing with their lives and creating, and to me, I'm just struck by the fact that at the end of the day, what's really meaningful, you know? I'm trying to figure that out. But one of the things that I know is a core belief of mine is my why. And my why is a little kid named Eilani. She's one of the core reasons that I do pretty much everything I do. I think about Ilani, and I think about how I can try to make a better world for my kid just by being present, helping out. Yeah, the irony is it's I'm gonna help try to clean up the street, but it's gonna be dirty again tomorrow. Well, and that's the way it is, that's the way the world is. But isn't it better to use our energy on something that has value that after a while, you know, you can look back and say, hey, I made a difference. That's what I think. You know, and honestly, the truth is becoming a dad becoming a dad changed a lot of the way I see things. Becoming a dad became a core part of how I'm changing the world a little bit at the same time. Because at the end of the day, we can be a part of the problem or we can be a part of the solution, you know. I don't know about you, but I'd like to see this world be a little bit better place and be part of a solution. Because right now, there's a lot of people contributing to the problems, you know. And being a dad also made me realize something else. I don't want Eilani growing up in a world that's full of people that are just taking and not helping. And what can we do? Well, I grew up with a dad that taught me about humility and service and giving back to the community. Things that actually make a difference, you know? There's people out there that are doing stuff that can actually make the world a better place. And maybe, you know, it's asking about what you can do to help be a part of that. And I see a lot of people talking, you know, there's lots of people talking. But at the end of the day, we don't need more people talking. We need more people doing. We need more people out there getting action and being involved and helping out. I'm a businessman with my own company and I want to build something good. But the reality is, is if you're building just to build and not thinking about how to do it in a balanced way, what are you doing? We have to think about how to do things with integrity, with respect, with care, with actual appreciation about what's going on. Thank you, eh? You know, at the end of the day, what do we do? Can you help? Or are you just contributing to other people's mess? Are you contributing to more bullshit? It's like being a fire. If you can uh be a flame and other people can start catching fire from the flame that you light, it goes a long way. You know? It goes a long way towards helping out and making the world a better place. You might not be able to fix it overnight, but you can do something to change it. Do something to change it steadily, piece by piece. I want money, I want nice things, but I want it because I want to be able to make a difference. I want to be able to make change. One of the things I keep asking myself these days is where is my energy going? Is it going into stuff that's meaningful? Is it going into stuff that's making a difference? Is it going into stuff that just wastes my time? We can work hard, we can work with people, we can do a lot of good in this world. But if you're spending your energy on people or things that are not worth your energy or time, I would ask you, maybe you want to look at that. Maybe you want to ask, is this worth my time and is this a good use of my energy? If you're running a business, is your business investing in people that are worth the time of you and your business? Is the energy that you're putting out coming to you? Is the energy that you're putting out helping actually make this something better? This street will be dirty tomorrow. It will. Sadly, people are gonna throw things on the ground, trash will come back, but then we show back up and we do it again. My whole point is we can complain about the way things are. We can complain about bad men, bad women, bad people. We can complain about the way things are, we can complain about how people take, we can complain about people that are shady, we can complain about pretty much anything we want to. But complaining is not gonna clean the street. Complaining is not gonna make the world a better place. Complaining is not going to change our neighborhoods. Complaining is not going to make things better, it simply magnifies the problem. But if you can get out and identify one problem, one thing today that is something you can take action on, one thing today that you can have an impact on, one thing today that you can make a difference on, then you're part of the solution. And if we can get more people that are trying to be part of the solution, that's gonna go a long way to making our planet a better place. So, yeah, I hope you guys are having a beautiful day. I just did my part in cleaning up my street. Looks a little bit better, a little bit cleaner, a little bit nicer. See you guys next time.