Breaking your own barriers
I recently attended our annual sales conference and was trying to find a way to present to my team a form of motivation that would help break those barriers that we all experience when trying to progress, no matter what it is that you do. Instead of giving a motivational speech I opted to throw in comments during different sections of my presentation. I have realized that leadership needs to be constant and not just when its needed, so why end off with a motivational speech when you can lead by constantly sharing a positive outlook. I cant recall where i heard the phrase but it is something that i will always remember.
" there is no such thing as luck. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity "
No matter what it is that you do, do not have a Plan B, because it will always distract you from Plan A. The first step is before anybody in the world believes it, is that you have to believe it. You have to believe that something different can happen rather than feel you an affect to all the things that are happening. Make a choice, you just decide… what it’s going to be, who you going to be and how you going to do it. JUST DECIDE. And from that point the universe is going to get out of your way.
The road to success is through commitment and through the strength to drive through that commitment when it gets hard. It is going to get hard and you are going to want to quit sometimes but it will coloured by who you are and who you want to be. When you wake up in the morning, and your life means something to someone other than you. That you have a purpose, if you don’t go do the things that you going to do, people’s lives will suffer. To live in service, not to you but to live in service to humanity, to live in service to your family, to your faith, to your city, to the world, that is the purest form of joy. If you are not making someone else’s life better then you are wasting your time.
I have never thought of myself as particularly talented, where I excel is ridiculous ongoing work ethic. While the other guy is sleeping, I am working. While the other guy is eating, I am working. There is no easy way around it, no matter how talented you are, your talent is going to fail you if you not skilled. Talent you have naturally… skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of developing your talent. Greatness is not this feature that only the special among us will ever taste, it is something that truly exists in all of us.
I end with words taken from the movie 'Coach Carter', words originally written by Marianne Williamson and also used by one of the greatest leaders of our time, Nelson Mandela, "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. Playing small does not serve the world because there is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people wont feel insecure around you. We were all meant to shine as children , it not just in some of us , its in every single one of us and as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give others the permission to do the same as we are liberated from our fear."