5 key quotes from Kevin Hart on perspective
“Miss me with any bullshit. I’m smiling because I have no reason to be angry because I don’t have to be here.”
Kevin Hart needs no introduction. You’ve almost certainly seen him grace your screen. But I think his biggest impact lies off stage and off camera.
In the wake of a serious car crash in September 2019 that nearly killed him, Hart has a new perspective to share with the world.
As part of a promotional tour, Kevin Hart recently appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience. You might not like Joe Rogan and/or his podcast, but I find that every so often, Rogan and his guest(s) have eye-opening conversations that can change your perspective or give you new insights.
Here are five quotes from Kevin Hart’s appearance that you can internalize to change your perspective on life.
19:35 “It’s got a game-like quality to it, this game called life. If you continue to put your mind to it, the game opens up new levels.”
Whether it’s a video game or board game or sports game or any other kind, playing a game often unlocks new potential in your brain. You must internalize the circumstances around you and adapt your strategy accordingly.
Kevin Hart isn’t the first person to compare life to a game. Albert Einstein did so a century ago. The comedian and the physicist are both on to something.
How exactly can you gamify your life? Here are eight steps to consider:
- Banish your fear of failure
- Establish the mission
- Embrace the grind
- Reward yourself
- Push yourself incrementally
- Aggressively seek support
- Deal with unfairness
- Remember: you are in control
25:30 “Why are we comfortable with letting the world just go by?”
You don’t have to be as prolific as Kevin Hart to find happiness or fulfillment. But it’s important to not let the world go by.
As a comedian, Kevin Hart constantly observes the world around him. Employing a strong sense of self-awareness, he understands how he can play the game of life well, with unyielding curiosity and no lack of assertiveness. He keeps his feet on the pavement, but he keeps his eyes on what he can see around him.
Life is too short to let the world define you. You shouldn’t be comfortable wasting your time on frivolous pursuits or drowning yourself in worry and regret. Hart grew up in abject poverty, raised mostly by his mother and intermittently by his father, who was addicted to cocaine. Hart embraced the grind and ended up climbing his own Everest.
34:20 “If I can keep beating myself, then that means I’m in a battle with the only person that fucking makes sense…and that’s me. I don’t care about anybody else.”
This quote reminded me of behavioral psychology research that used money as a proxy for how envious we are of others and how deeply we care about beating the competition. Research has shown that most people would rather earn $50,000 if everyone else earns $25,000 instead of earning $100,000 when everyone else earns $250,000. We all have a little Michael Jordan in us.
Evolution imbued a deep sense of competition in all of us. Without the creature comforts of civilization (and even with them, sadly), humans can’t get enough of fighting for every last resource — food, shelter, and mates among them.
But life isn’t about everybody else. It’s about you.
Happiness and fulfillment are purely internal forces. You have no one to blame but yourself if you don’t play the game of life well.
39:20 “This is my machine, so I’m taking care of the engine.”
Kevin Hart came perilously close to death last year. He broke his back in multiple places and spent weeks recovering in a hospital.
On the podcast, he credits his diligent exercise habits with mitigating the impact of the crash. Doctors told him that his core strength enabled him to escape an outcome that a weaker body would have likely suffered: paralysis.
He then details how people often question his dedication to exercise. He says that the car crash crystallized his reasoning: you never know when you’ll need your body to save you.
I’ve come across plenty of self-help or personal development articles extolling the virtues of health and wellness. For some reason, Kevin Hart’s explanation resonated with me more deeply than any other.
55:00 “If you come close to that light, when you do and if you are fortunate enough to come back from that light, you value life differently. There are no bad days for me.”
By “that light”, Kevin Hart refers to the specter of death. Now that he has stared death in the face and had almost everything stripped away from him in the blink of an eye, he no longer has bad days. He cherishes the gift of life firmly, knowing how close he was to losing that gift.
It shouldn’t take a car crash for you to appreciate every day and every moment. Be grateful for what you have and understand that in an instant, things either in or out of your control could take everything you have away from you.
I’ll wrap it up with one final quote from the comedian slash philosopher to keep in mind as you go about your day.
“Miss me with any bullshit. I’m smiling because I have no reason to be angry because I don’t have to be here.”
If negativity dominates your mentality, either temporarily or permanently, remind yourself that you don’t have to be here. It’s a gift and a privilege to live the life of your dreams.
