From the Fresh Prince to Suicide Squad, the Philly-born star has managed to always live his best life. Whenever Will Smith has an interview, he drops gems to help anyone improve their circumstances.

He has three kids who, for as eccentric as they are, are clear examples of Will’s powerful and positive influence. Will Smith also appears to be the most approachable man in Hollywood.

Seemingly humble and positive, he offers a perspective on life that everyone could use. His wisdom is never hidden as he takes every chance possible to spread knowledge.

To celebrate his 49th birthday we’ve put together a guide to living your best life as Will Smith lives his. He’s tackled topics from fear to living unrealistically, so here’s more of his teachings.

Hopefully this’ll change your life and put you on the pursuit to happiness.

“Fear tells you dumb shit”

“I’m motivated by fear… Fear of fear. I hate being scared to do something. I think what developed in my early days was the attitude that, I started attacking things that I was scared of.”

Will Smith believes that fear has no benefit to your life in any situation. Although it may be hard to overcome, defeating fear allows you the ability to feel secure.

When recalling a time he feared skydiving Will said, “You realize at the point of maximum danger is the point of minimum fear… God placed the best things in life on the other side of terror”.

“There are so many people who have lived and died before you you will never have a new problem. Somebody wrote the answer down in a book somewhere. Just the idea that everything you need to know, someone has written it down.


 You can’t be scared to die for the truth.”

Whether that truth is your own or someone else’s, it’s best to accept it and not fear it.

“Being realistic is the most commonly travelled road to mediocrity”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBU3qybhTPs

“It just seems like such a ridiculous idea to me to embrace the idea that its not gonna happen or that’s not real for that to happen. As soon as you say it now you just made that real.”

Not pursuing something because it isn’t realistic is the quickest way to stop yourself.

Doing something that can easily be done isn’t worth doing. Realism only factors in current reality but something that hasn’t been achieved yet, can’t be realistic.

“It’s unrealistic to walk into a room and flick a switch and lights come on, fortunately Edison didn’t think so. It’s unrealistic to think you’re gonna bend a piece of metal and fly people over an ocean in that metal. That’s unrealistic. But fortunately the Wright brothers and others didn’t believe that.”

“No matter how talented you are your talent is going to fail you if you’re not skilled”

“Talent you have naturally, skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft. I’ve never really viewed myself as particularly talented, where I excel is ridiculous, sickening, work-ethic.”

Work beats out talent 100% of the time. When you hear people say “I’m not talented, I’m skilled” it’s to emphasize that point. There are millions of people who will be more talented than you, it’s up to you to outwork them.

“The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is – I’m not afraid to die on a treadmill – if we get on the treadmill together there’s two things – you’re getting off first, or I’m going to die. It’s really that simple.”

“You don’t try to build a wall – you say, I’m gonna lay this brick, as perfectly as a brick can be laid”

“It’s difficult to take the first step when you look at how big the task is. The task is never huge to me, it’s always one brick.

 If you get your priorities straight it’s really simple.”

Too often ideas fail because of a lack of planning. The bigger picture is always more attractive, it’s way nicer to imagine a finished project.

Without focusing on the first brick as Will said you’ll always miss a step, winding up lost. “If you do the math ahead of time, its not an issue in the moment.” 

“There’s no reason to have a plan B because it distracts from plan A”

“I think that there’s a certain delusional quality that all successful people have to have. You have to believe that something different than what has happened for the past 50 million years of history, you have to believe that something different can happen.” 

That delusion that Will mentioned can be dangerous but is oftentimes necessary to overcome the realistic mold.

To double down and believe in yourself is always the first step to success. No one will see it like you when whatever it is you’re working towards is just an idea, but as you push forward it becomes clear.

“I believe that I can create whatever I want to create.

The first step, before anybody else in the world believes it is you have to believe it.”

Truly words to live by.