And then if you get their life, you are only going to realize that, man, like you said,, that’s not how you do it. So I don’t know if there’s a perfect way to do it, and we all have our own virtues and our own integrity, so I don’t want to tell anybody there’s a way to do it. We have agreed-upon global morality, but however you get to your happy place is fine. If you’re always chasing a thing, you’re just going to keep chasing a thing.
And boy, that was—man, we got deep real quick there. So sorry about that.
No, I love it. Did you have to learn that the hard way in your own life? Was there a time when you, John Cena, were like, “If I just lived in that house, if I could just get that part, everything will be cool?”
I think—and again, I’m just living in my own body, looking through my own lens, but that’s the living of life. Some people come to that realization earlier, some people never get there. From my perspective, it took me basically coming to, like, “Hey, I’m enough, and there’s going to be failures and bumps along the way.” But as long as you define the core values in life, as long as you start by defining what is happiness, in general terms and be grateful that you’re alive and that, hell, we can shoot the for a little bit today. We’re literally talking about a show where I play dress-up and live in an alternate universe. This is all really good stuff.
But I think from my experience, everybody has to learn that. That is the living of life. We have to learn [that]—oftentimes you don’t just read it in a textbook. Delayed gratification for long-term payout. You put aside the bad nutritional choice to work out to look a certain way, or you save a little bit of money instead of spending it so you have enough for a rainy day. These are lessons you live and learn in the trenches of life.
So if you’re asking me did I have to live to figure that out? I sure did. And a lot of what we figured out, a lot of the lasting lessons that we have in life, at least for me, are through failure, through me spending too much early on in my WWE days. Going to quick comfort. Not being as open and vulnerable with people I said that I loved, but really I was just trying to preserve self above all else and not letting anyone into my life.
I mean, there’s a bunch of stuff. So I guess that’s why I love James’s material so much. I think he might’ve gotten into my mental journal and kind of wrote season two out of my brain. But yes, at least from my own lifetime, thus far, I’ve learned the lessons I’ve learned by living. Certainly by absorbing information and hopefully being privy enough to be a sponge and be coachable and knowing that when the facts change, you should change your mind and that’s okay. You shouldn’t be the same person you were yesterday. You should hopefully always be in that growth mindset and want to stay curious and active about life, but you do have to live life. I don’t think all the answers are within the pages of the book. You can’t just read the instruction manual and then expect to have it figured out. You do have to essentially turn the device on, let it function, and when it fizzles out a few times, you’ve got to fix it.
Well, I mean, first of all, I could care less about being anybody’s first, second, third or fourth pick. Opportunity in life comes to you in a myriad of different ways, and if I wanted to be salty about like, “Oh, I wasn’t first pick, that’s beneath me.” I wouldn’t have ever gotten a chance. And keep in mind I got killed off in The Suicide Squad.
Right. You’re already on your second chance, yeah.
Yeah. So, I mean, in filming that movie with James, we developed a friendship and I think I checked a lot of boxes of people he likes to work with professionally. And on top of that, we developed a relationship personally and we do stay in a lot of the same lanes. And again, man, when I get an opportunity, I want to make the people who bet on me proud, and I don’t bat a thousand at that. But at least if I try, then I put myself in a better standing.
