Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
To join Movement Makers, DM Evan on Instagram at instagram.com/evancarmichael
Asked how having his one word earlier might have changed his path, Evan explains that his word, belief, includes belief in himself, belief in what he is doing, and belief that things will work out. He says he has always been drawn to stories built around that idea, and names Seabiscuit, the film about an undersized horse, an oversized jockey, and a broke owner who somehow find each other and keep winning, as his favorite movie. He admits he actually quit on his business partner at one point and then showed up again the next day, which he attributes directly to a shortage of belief at that moment. He says it could have been a lot easier if he had figured out his one word sooner. Marty shares that his own word turned out to be belief too, discovered through a period of feeling emotionally bankrupt even though he never went financially bankrupt.
Evan then describes a pattern he has noticed after running the one word exercise with tens of thousands of people, that the word people land on is always something positive. He says he has never had anyone come up with death or kill as their most important value, it is always something like belief, freedom, or belonging. For Evan, that consistency reinforces a core belief of his own, that humans are fundamentally good deep down. That leads him to a follow up question, why do good people sometimes do bad things, and his answer is that they are simply in a lot of pain. He connects this directly back to Marty's own period of financial and emotional struggle, guessing that Marty was probably short or rude with people during that time without meaning to be.
From there Evan builds his framework for handling negative comments, starting from the premise that people are good and therefore any nastiness comes from pain rather than malice. He describes his own channel as built around belief, with very few negative videos, which makes it stand out even more when someone comes to a positive video just to leave something nasty. His conclusion is that if someone's highlight of the day is leaving a hateful comment under a message about believing in yourself, that person is probably dealing with a lot of pain in their own life. He is careful to say this does not excuse the behavior or mean you should encourage it, but it does change how it lands emotionally for the person receiving it. He admits he has not found a way to fully eliminate the sting of one bad comment among ninety nine good ones, because attention naturally jumps to the negative one.
Evan explains that running this filter does something practical, it shifts his internal reaction away from rage or resentment and toward something closer to empathy. That reframe, he says, is not about being naive, it is about protecting his own state of mind so a single comment does not derail an otherwise positive day. He treats this as a direct extension of the belief framework, since believing people are fundamentally good requires him to look past a single nasty comment to whatever pain might be underneath it. This is presented as a practical coping tool, not just a nice sentiment, something he actually uses when a negative comment lands on one of his videos. It becomes another way his one word, belief, shows up in an ordinary, everyday moment rather than only in big decisions.
The bigger takeaway is that identifying your own one word gives you a lens for interpreting other people's behavior, not just your own decisions. Evan's answer reframes haters as hurting people rather than enemies, which removes some of the sting without requiring you to accept or excuse what they said. For anyone watching who deals with harsh feedback online or in life, the invitation is to run the same filter, assuming pain rather than malice behind cruelty. That does not mean tolerating harm, it means choosing where you place your emotional energy. Evan and Marty both frame this as one more place where discovering your one word earlier would have made painful chapters of their lives easier to move through.
#Motivation #Shorts #EvanCarmichael
To join Movement Makers, DM Evan on Instagram at instagram.com/evancarmichael
Asked how having his one word earlier might have changed his path, Evan explains that his word, belief, includes belief in himself, belief in what he is doing, and belief that things will work out. He says he has always been drawn to stories built around that idea, and names Seabiscuit, the film about an undersized horse, an oversized jockey, and a broke owner who somehow find each other and keep winning, as his favorite movie. He admits he actually quit on his business partner at one point and then showed up again the next day, which he attributes directly to a shortage of belief at that moment. He says it could have been a lot easier if he had figured out his one word sooner. Marty shares that his own word turned out to be belief too, discovered through a period of feeling emotionally bankrupt even though he never went financially bankrupt.
Evan then describes a pattern he has noticed after running the one word exercise with tens of thousands of people, that the word people land on is always something positive. He says he has never had anyone come up with death or kill as their most important value, it is always something like belief, freedom, or belonging. For Evan, that consistency reinforces a core belief of his own, that humans are fundamentally good deep down. That leads him to a follow up question, why do good people sometimes do bad things, and his answer is that they are simply in a lot of pain. He connects this directly back to Marty's own period of financial and emotional struggle, guessing that Marty was probably short or rude with people during that time without meaning to be.
From there Evan builds his framework for handling negative comments, starting from the premise that people are good and therefore any nastiness comes from pain rather than malice. He describes his own channel as built around belief, with very few negative videos, which makes it stand out even more when someone comes to a positive video just to leave something nasty. His conclusion is that if someone's highlight of the day is leaving a hateful comment under a message about believing in yourself, that person is probably dealing with a lot of pain in their own life. He is careful to say this does not excuse the behavior or mean you should encourage it, but it does change how it lands emotionally for the person receiving it. He admits he has not found a way to fully eliminate the sting of one bad comment among ninety nine good ones, because attention naturally jumps to the negative one.
Evan explains that running this filter does something practical, it shifts his internal reaction away from rage or resentment and toward something closer to empathy. That reframe, he says, is not about being naive, it is about protecting his own state of mind so a single comment does not derail an otherwise positive day. He treats this as a direct extension of the belief framework, since believing people are fundamentally good requires him to look past a single nasty comment to whatever pain might be underneath it. This is presented as a practical coping tool, not just a nice sentiment, something he actually uses when a negative comment lands on one of his videos. It becomes another way his one word, belief, shows up in an ordinary, everyday moment rather than only in big decisions.
The bigger takeaway is that identifying your own one word gives you a lens for interpreting other people's behavior, not just your own decisions. Evan's answer reframes haters as hurting people rather than enemies, which removes some of the sting without requiring you to accept or excuse what they said. For anyone watching who deals with harsh feedback online or in life, the invitation is to run the same filter, assuming pain rather than malice behind cruelty. That does not mean tolerating harm, it means choosing where you place your emotional energy. Evan and Marty both frame this as one more place where discovering your one word earlier would have made painful chapters of their lives easier to move through.
#Motivation #Shorts #EvanCarmichael
