Comedian Ron Funches on How Using a Vision Board Changed His Life

This vision board, this ultimate vision board, the ultimate thing is a show and movies and stuff like that. Is there anything that you have made manifest that's actually happened because of this vision board? Yeah, yeah, my house was one of my first major vision board things. I put that when I didn't have a house living in my apartment. And what it does for me is just kind of... It focuses me, it gives me a direction instead of just being this guy who doesn't have his hands on the rudder or whatever the fucking thing that steers the boat. And so I was like, oh, I want to get this house. And so in order to get the house, I had to stop just like not paying attention to my money. I had to stop just buying random sneakers every week. I had to start being like, OK, I need to build my credit. I had to pay these old bills from when I was 20 and didn't pay those off because I didn't think I'd ever have fucking money. So who cares if I skip out on this rent? You know, I had to go back and undo all these things so that I could get to that ultimate vision of getting the house. And then we end up I have had my house for two years now. Fucking love it. I put that I wanted to be on Reno 911 in there and I taped that. I don't know if I got cut out or not because it's, you know, six minute quibby thing. But a lot of things I put on my vision board end up happening. That's interesting to say that you had to go and like redo things that you fucked up. Like what made you what brought you to that decision? Was just that if I wanted to move on a lot of ways in my life, the same with my like dealing with my ex wife and things like that, I had to go to therapy. I had to start. I wasn't trusting anyone. I was like anyone who wants to hang out with me. It's just because I have a little bit of money or because I've been on a couple of shows or didn't that. And which is so ridiculous. Like, no, most people don't even fucking know me, you know. So but some people did. And then sometimes that would happen. People will be hanging out with me just because they thought I could introduce them to a fun party or someone else cooler than me. And I had to stop looking for that and being so worried about that. And I had to go and do just a mindset. I think this rapper, I also really like walk a fuck a flame. Many people talk about this. I just changed my mindset from a survival mindset to a thrive mindset of like, oh, I am. OK, I am fine. So I can go ahead and just take care of this business. I'm going to get more work. I'm going to get more jobs because I've proven myself. It's not a fluke. You know, it's not a one. It's not a mistake that they made in hiring me. They, you know, I'm going to be here. What made you like what? What did you come up with this idea to sort of correct your mindset? Was it just like realizing personally that the way you were looking at things was wrong or did you read something? It was just mostly that things in my life were getting better, but I wasn't getting happier. I had more money. I had anything I could buy video game wise, all that stuff. I was having a bunch of sex, but I wasn't happier. I was still lonely. I was still like, um, not doing all the things I wanted to do. I was chasing things just for money, you know? Um, and so I had to just kind of take a step back and go like, okay, like don't just chase every single thing you see, figure out what you really go back to like when you started stand up and like, what do you want? And all I wanted when I started stand up was to be able to pay my bills and do the things I want to do. And that hasn't changed. Was this a gradual process? Yeah, for sure. For sure. Like a couple of years. So you just realized, was it like you're sitting in a hall? This was not from reading anything's just from you recognizing that something was wrong. It was me recognize something was wrong in me and me watching the people around me, me watching, um, people with more success than me, me watching, just seeing that like, oh, like, okay, I feel this way and I have this little bit of money with it, but maybe if I get more money, I won't. But then meeting people with millions of dollars and being like, oh, holy shit. Like some people still don't have their shit together, no matter how much money they have. And some people know who exactly who they are and they know what they want. They are, they are happy within themselves. And I wanted to be that. That's, it's very interesting that you recognize it and made the adjustment. You know, that's a sign of a strong mind. You were, you were able to recognize that the current patterns that you were operating under weren't weren't, they weren't fulfilling your needs. So you had to like assess, but then also move forward and make a change does very difficult thing to do. Yeah, it's difficult, but that coincide with weight loss. Um, it's probably a little bit after the weight loss, but that's the weight loss kind of gives me the motivation for it. You know, like my whole life has been motivation for every other step I take, you know? Like I came from just being a college grad dropout with son who, when I was 20, he was diagnosed with autism. I was 23. I didn't have any money. My ex-wife was more of an albatross around our thing. Like, you know, I have full custody of my son. So it was just like, I got to figure this shit out. And once that we had a little apartment and everything, I was like, okay, well, I fucking figured this shit out. I get my health together. And that was a big one. Cause my, my doctor even told me, she was like, you know, there's so many people. I tell all the time, just diet, exercise, diet, exercise, you need to lose weight. You need to get better. You're going to die. I tell this to the people all the time. And you go, you know how many of my fucking patients have done anything about it? And then she says, you, that's it. You're the only one that I know that I've talked to about this. Who's just done it through diet and exercise. So you have a, she was just like, you have a strong fucking mind. So I took that to heart and I was like, well, fuck, if I can do that, if I can lose 140 pounds fucking throw, you know, I would work out, throw up and, and my, you know, I get this more to my trainer. He would just be like, all right, you throw up. Let's. Yeah. Can you breathe? All right. Let's get back at it. You know, you know, where a lot of times people would throw up and they'd be like, okay, well, that was enough for today. You know, he, he would never push. He, he told me day one, he's like, you're, you're a very strong man and we're going to just unlock what you've been covering up with bad decisions. That's a, it's so true. What your doctor said. And it's so interesting when you think about the goals that people have, like one of the major goals, if you asked Americans, like what are they, what do you want to do besides be successful, have a family, have a career. They want to lose weight. But what I said at the beginning of this podcast, you've done one of the most difficult things a person could do. Cause you didn't just lose weight. You lost a fuck load of weight and you kept it off. And that to me is so it's such a, it's the craziest thing. It's cause it's like, it's not like gaining weight, right? Like gaining weight requires you got to eat all that food. Like you gotta, like you gotta really get after it. Like if you really want to gain weight, man, you gotta fucking put on that, you know, you gotta be there to eat. You got to get it done. People have no problem with that, you know, but the not eating, you're literally asking someone to not do something. Just don't do something. And it's harder to do than to do something. Yeah. And then the exercise is maybe even harder to do than to not eat. Those are two really difficult things to do that you need to do both of them in order to really get your health in order in order to really lose weight. And everybody knows it. Yeah. Everybody knows it, but nobody does it. Yeah. And then they always want to know what's the trick? What's the trick? What's the trick? No fucking trick, bro. There's no trick. Trick is to walk through that door. Especially with exercise. It is just like a door. Like, and that's what my wife said to me. She was like, Oh, you went from, she's like, you were a guy who didn't exercise and now you're a guy that exercises. She's like, there's no part of you that gets up and goes, Oh, this is hard. Why am I doing this? She's like, this is what you do because this is what you do. And the hardest part is making that transition because you go through that first three weeks and you're just like, I fucking hate this. Why the fuck am I doing it? You're looking at, you know, back when we could go to gyms, you're looking at other people going, Oh, well, they're fucking attractive and this and that. And I'm not, yeah. And I'll never be like that. You know, and you just got to get rid of all that. I hate that. I hate it when I see that in comedy. Cause I just mostly cause I'm used to it. I go, I know where it comes from. And I had that in myself when people are like, I don't exercise. I don't know. And they're so fucking proud of it. You know, I'm just like, well, okay, we'll see you in 10 years when you've changed your fucking mind and are, you just aren't successful. So, you know, that's the thing I would tell young me, like everything I've done. I'm like, well, that's my process. And I'm glad everything, I wouldn't change a thing. The only thing I would have done is told young me like, Hey, motherfucker, if you want to be successful, you just gotta be healthy. So just get, get at it.