Are You Asking Yourself The Right Questions?

A few days ago I was talking with a new good friend of mine. He is a podcaster and coach who decided to quit his job without any “Plan B” and dive fully into the world of entrepreneurship. He has started to gain some great momentum and is delivering massive value to the planet but he ran into a road block. He is not generating enough revenue to pay back his debts and maintain the quality of life he is striving to create.

He knew my story of leaving a job I hated to work at a dream job, while building my own dream company on the side. He wanted to know how I did it and if I had any recommendations on how he could do it. We dove into the conversation and he told me about an opportunity that sounded fairly interesting to him, but had a great deal of unknowns around it. He would have to change location, time zone, and dive into a totally new area in a totally new country. So I asked him a simple question. “What would you want to do ideally if you had to get a job while building your business on the side?”

He began listing off criteria: location independent, a progressive company, would help him learn skills that would aid him in developing his own company, and so on. I then asked, “What companies that you know of fit this description?” He quickly rattled off 3-4 companies and said how interesting it would be to work at any of those places.

I asked if he had contacted any of them or checked their available job openings and he said he had not. Prior to us speaking he had never even considered the possibility of working for a dream company, a company that totally excited him, and gave him both the funds and freedom to build his business on the side.

I use this example to illustrate a very clear example of the quality of the questions we ask in our lives. Your heart and brain are an incredible problem solving duo. Whatever questions you put in front of them, they will work to solve them as best they can. This works both in the positive and the negative.

“How can I get a job?” May seem like a good question, because the goal is to get a job right? Well if you want ANY job at ANY company with ANY working conditions and ANY work/life balance, your brain will find an answer to that question.

Let’s reframe that same situation and say you asked, “How can I find an amazing job for a dream company that excites me, engages me, and will help me embrace my unique gifts to make a meaningful contribution to this company and the world. A company that challenges me to grow and connects me with incredible people from all over the world. A company that leaves me the freedom to spend time with family, friends and develop a social life outside of my working hours. A company that compensates me in a way that allows me to live how I’ve always dreamt. How can I work for a company like that?”

Guess what, your brain and heart are going to go to work on that question as well and work to find an answer.

What if the answer isn’t readily available? Well lucky for us, we live in the internet age. Time to do some research. Wouldn’t you rather spend 20 minutes, 2 hours, or even a week researching a dream company and a dream role to apply for rather than just defaulting to the jobs you currently know exist that may not connect with the passion in your heart?

So what happened with my friend after our talk? The next day he got back to me and said he checked one of the dream companies and they had a role that was perfect for him and would check more of his boxes for a dream job than he ever thought possible before. All it took was two simple things. A few reframed questions to shift his perspective and him being willing to take action.

I want to ask you, where are you asking questions that scare you, tear you down, or disempower you?

Questions like:

• What’s wrong with me?
• Why am I so stupid?
• Why am I so disconnected with my spouse/significant other?
• Why am I so fat?
• Why do I always mess things up?
• Why can’t I get over my fear of getting to know new people?

With all of these questions your conscious and subconscious minds are going to go out and look for proof for whatever questions you ask. They will go and seek out every shred of evidence to help answer the question you have posed. Let’s see what would happen if you asked the same core questions differently.

Questions reframed (respectively):

• What do I want to improve about myself and how can I get started? 
• Where do I want to grow in my life and learn more and what is one thing I could do today to start that process? 
• How can I connect more deeply with my spouse/significant other? 
• How can I love my body no matter how it looks but also work to get healthier every day? 
• What have I done in the past that I never want to do again? What can I do next time I am faced with that situation to respond in a way that empowers me? 
• How can I start getting over my fear of meeting new people today?

Now imagine your heart and brain going to work on this set of questions. They get excited and engaged to take on exciting problems that empower you to help you become the person you know you are meant to be, the person that already exists inside you that you are working to let out.

Questions are huge. Not only HOW we ask them but WHAT we are asking ourselves makes all the difference. The mindsets we approach life with are so critical in determining how we go through our day to day experience. A positive mindset doesn’t mean that everything is going to be perfect; it just means that when things go wrong, you’ll be able to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back out there making your unique mark on the world.

I will leave you with this, what is one question you can reframe today to empower you to take action and step into your greatness? Reframe it and take that action. Right now. Don’t wait for tomorrow, do it right now and start showing yourself the love you so deeply deserve. Do this and life will quickly look brighter than ever before.

I love you guys, dream big, take action, I promise it’s worth it.

                                                                    

Brian Drury

Founder of Overcoming Graduation LLC

Creator and Host of the Overcoming Graduation Podcast

Author of the #1 Amazon Best Seller, The First Step

P.S. If there is any way I can be of service to you, please feel free to contact me at Brian@OvercomingGraduation.com. If you would like to learn more about participating in my Coaching Program, visit OvercomingGraduation.com/coaching . I love connecting with exciting engaged people from all over the world! 

Doing what you love, will get you nothing

During lunch with a friend who is an entrepreneur we talked about the concept of “doing what you love”. As a successful entrepreneur he had a lot of insight of why this concept is flawed.

No entrepreneur starts their own business to deal with the book keeping, logistics and filing for taxes. They start a business because they are obsessed about something it can be a product, idea, service or making themselves better. Yet to get to where they want to be, to grow and to thrive, they need to do the shit that they hate for at least a little while. In fact they need at times they need to stop doing what they love, to do what they hate.

Entrepreneur or not, at some point in your life and hopefully many points in your life you will face this challenge.

How many times in your life have you had an amazing idea of what you want to do or who you want to become? It is exciting but then it hits you, all the work and pain that would come with getting there. Your dream becomes a nightmare. If you cannot love every minute of it then it must not be right.

This is a struggle I have with getting in better shape. I am at a healthy weight but I could be at a healthier weight. I know the steps that I need to take in order to become healthier, stop eating so much and eat better food and yet I still struggle with it because I simply am not willing to do the work. In fact I am choosing what I love to do, eat food (bad food specifically), over what will make me stronger and healthier. I am choosing the short-term reward over the long-term goal.

The solution is to be driven by what you love, be so driven that you are willing to do anything and everything that needs to be done.

Take this back to your life, what is something that you have always wanted to doubt getting there has stopped you before. Decide and commit to doing it now.

Focus on what you want, what it means to you and why it is important to you. Be driven by what you love and stop doing what you love.

Fishing for Success

It is impossible to catch anything, without having your line in the water. If you walked by someone that was on the side of a dock. They had their tackle box, bait and a rod but they just stood there. If they said they were fishing, you would call them crazy but that is the way we treat our success at times. We stand and we wait for success to come to us. We worry that we do not have the right talents, skills and drive when all we need to do is cast a line.

The more times you cast your line, the better your chances are at catching a fish. The more times you try the better the chances you are at “finding” success. Success is a process, there are many times that you will do your best and fail. It can wear on you, do n stop. If you stop, you will never get anything.

Fishing requires skills and talents just like success. Build up your “tackle box”, with skills and hard work so that you can be successful in any situation. Stop just trying to catch something, focus on what you really want. Different environments require different skills to be successful.

What you fish for determines how you fish and where you fish. You can spend your entire life on Lake Michigan and never catch a Tuna, no matter how hard you tried. Understand and commit to what success means to you and then build your environment around this. Many times we just get on the boat and cast our line, because that is what everyone else is doing. We can catch more than anyone but we continue to wonder why we are not happy or successful, it is because we are fishing for the wrong things.

How long would you wait for a fish to bite before you moved? Success is much like fishing in the fact that while you may change locations, tactics and what you are looking for, you never stop fishing. So while your outcomes may change and tactics may change, never give up on creating success.

Happiness

There is a story about a man waiting on the top of the roof during a flood and he is praying to God to save him. Two boats and a helicopter come by and offer to rescue him but he refuses because he knows that God will save him. The water continues to rise and in the end he drowns. When he dies he is upset. He asks God “I prayed, why did you not save me?” and God responds “I tried, who do you think sent the boats and helicopter”

We put ourselves in the position of the man waiting to be saved. Every day there are opportunities for us to be happy but we pass them up because we are waiting for something greater and in the end, we kill ourselves and kill our happiness.

We do not take joy in our everyday life. We focus on everything that goes wrong, what we did wrong and the reasons that we cannot be happy and it ruins us. We spend our lives on the rooftop, waiting for something to save us, when we are the ones that can save ourselves.

Dreams are a powerful thing. Dreams can ruin your life if you do not put action behind them to make them a reality.

It is easy to fall in love with your dreams and I think you should fall in love with your dreams but what you need to fall in love with more is the process of getting there. The hard work, every day activities and the struggles that you face getting there. When we do this, we shift our mindset from waiting to being engaged and we truly start living.

When was the last time you fell in love with your life, exactly as you are? The same person that has failed, that is not where you want to be and still can improve? When was the last time you fell in love with your job, everything that is wrong with, everything that frustrates you and all the things that you wish you did not have to do.

We spend our whole lives waiting for happiness, expecting it to come to us once we reach a certain level in our life but in reality we need to find happiness at every level of our life.

Find joy in the life you have and you will find more.

Investing in your future

If you only invest from the age of 20-30, you would have a bigger retirement than if you invest from 30-70. This is the magic of compounding interest.  It is pretty amazing but the great fact is that it goes beyond your investing for your financial future and it can be applied to everything you do in life.

When you save for your retirement, you do not want to put it off this same rule applies to reaching your goals. Stop putting off action to reach them and start today.

It is hard to start investing for many people because there never seems to be enough money. How can a 100 dollars a month do anything for us? This is the same way we see our own future. How can a spare 15 minutes help us achieve our dreams? We would need a day, a week or a month to truly make a difference. If you are alive and breathing, you know that blocking off a month to just focus on what you want to do is near impossible. If you want to do it, you can find a way but that is a different story.

Consider this. If you invest just 15 minutes a day in a year’s time you would have over 90 hours in towards reaching your goal. Just like investing in your retirement, it is not so much how much you invest but the fact that you invest something. You need to make an effort to do it.

If you invest consistently, you will get a greater return on your investment. Consider the example before. If you just invest 15 minutes every other day, you would only have 45 hours invested. You would be half as close to your goal.

Make it a priority to not only invest in your retirement but to invest in reaching your goals. Everyone has things that come up and something that goes wrong. At the end of the day, the choice lies with you. Will you invest or will you not. Your circumstances are not an excuse.

Every month, I have money drawn from my paycheck to be invested into my retirement. I never see it so I never miss it. Apply this lesson to reaching your goals by making it a habit. Always set time aside to focus on reaching your goal.

In every investment, you get something in return. It may not be the return that you want but you will always get something back. If you invested in Google, Coca-Cola and Enron, you would have dramatically different outcomes in pure financial terms but you would still gain something from all of them. When you invested in Google, you found something that worked well and out-performed; Coca-Cola was stable and returned expected results, nothing crazy. Enron, you learned what not to invest in. Not necessarily what industry to not invest in but what to watch out for in investing. This is like your life and how you choose to invest your time. We worry about making the best choice, when all we have to do is make a choice. If you did not invest any money with any of the organizations you would still have your money but you lost all the potential to grow.

You've been served

Driving we had to pull over, because of the rain pouring down on the highway, I was on my way to complete my first ultramarathon. It was cold, dark and rainy, the perfect weather for a run, right? We pulled into the parking lot; we put on our headlamps and made our way over to check-in.

It is time to start; we get to the start line. The rain was less intense. Trying to climb up the hills and not fall and then slip and slide your way down made for an even bigger adventure. There were many times that I wanted to stop but I couldn’t, I had promises to keep. Eventually the sun came out and it turned out to be a nice day, in fact I think we may have had fun.

I had promises to keep. My first ultramarathon was the first time I really ran for someone else. I ran for my friend’s son Isaiah, who was diagnosed with cancer. My strength came from him, his courage, his ability to keep fighting every day and to never give up.

Running does not have to be a zero sum game. I tell people the reasons why I run and who I run for and they get this entranced look on their face. The response I hear most times is that running is too personal, they could never give up a passion they have for someone else.

When you run for someone else, you do not lose anything; in fact you gain everything that you could imagine and more. Every race that I have done for someone else, it was also a personal gain for me. I got so much more out of it, than those that I ran for.

I met and continue to meet some of the most amazing people because I chose to run for someone else. These people are selfless, inspiring and crazy individuals you will ever meet. It goes beyond the actual people I run for and into their community that supports them, all of these people are incredible. I never would have met them if I would have believed that I could only run for myself.

Forget the running, apply this to everyday life. Start to serve others and help others. When we help others that is when we truly begin to live and experience life, we get to see how wonderful the world really is and all the potential that is out there.

We feel guilty when we feel good about helping others, how stupid is this? We put ourselves through a guilt trip when we feel good about doing the right thing. We can help others and at the same time help ourselves.

You are going to get mistreated, abused and hurt but it pales in comparison to the true friendships and impact that you will have when you start to serve others.



When I started running for and serving others, is when my potential truly became unstoppable.

7 Tips to Get Unstuck

Motivation and inspiration are some of the most powerful tools in the world. It is motivation and inspiration that has helped me get started on every great thing that I have done, however there is a downfall, motivation and inspiration are a spark, not a fire.

Many times in my life, I have been inspired, ready to act, had a great start only for it to die off. The reason it died, is not the fault of the inspiration but it is on me. It is hard to keep it going. For far too long I saw this as a negative thing but now I see the truth. When inspiration wears off, it is an opportunity to prove how bad you want it.

Here are some of my tips on how to make that happen.

1) Focus on why you started and what you want to accomplish: No one likes to do the hard tasks, all that stuff that seems pointless at the time but in reality creates the cement that holds your business together. It is hard to sit down and work on the areas of business that do not excite you. It is easy to get lost and the monotony of it all.

Instead of just looking at you having to work on your financials, respond to emails or follow up with customers and vendors, think about the impact. The act itself may be boring and painful but if you are up to date on your financials you are likely to be more successful. Checking and responding to your emails, helps you stay on top of your game. When you follow up with your vendors you are building business relationships that are critical to your future.

2) Make it part of your daily habit: When we start something new or that we are dreading, it is hard to get started, we feel out of place. Not because we are unqualified or stupid but because it is not part of our daily routine. The reason why new things are so strange to us is because you are unfamiliar with them, if you practice it daily, it will begin to feel natural.

3) Eat the elephant in the room for breakfast: Do the tasks you are dreading right away. The longer you think it over, how much it will suck and how bad it will be, the worse off we are. If we constantly think about having to do it, it drains our energy, our creativity and drive. It does not allow us to be giving the world the best version of ourselves

4) Just do it: I struggle with this in writing being a perfectionist. Remember is that you have to start somewhere, it does not have to be perfect, you can change it, add to it or even erase it when a better way comes along but you need to start somewhere. There is power in knowing that the first few times it is going to suck but it will continue to get better after that.

5) Use the buddy system: It is not just for scouting! Create an accountability buddy and agree to hold each other accountable. It is easy to lie to yourself but it is hard to lie to someone you admire and are close to. That being said, at the end of the day it all comes down to you and your choice. If you choose not to do it, you have no one to blame but yourself.

6) Set Deadlines: Deadlines are scary but they also give you a timeline to complete the tasks by. It may be hard to know that you have a limited time to complete a task but it also helps motivate you to act. Do not see a deadline as a course but as a guide to create your to do list from.

7) Ask for help: A majority of the people in this world want to help you and do not want to see you fail. Our ego tells us that we should not need help and that we should be able to figure it all out on our own. This is where we get into trouble. Do not let your ego get in the way of your success.

For the love of the game.

Have you ever met someone and noticed how much passion and drive they have for being successful and wanted to be like them? I have and one of the things that I have noticed is their passion and love for what they do, it is something that cannot be made up or you can spot a phony from a mile away.

Notice a clear distinction, I did not mention that they just had a passion but they had a passion for what they do. The excuse that I am just not that interested in a subject so I will try less hurts no one but yourself. Life is full of shit that you do not want to do but you have a choice, you can do it with passion or you can half-ass your way through it, use your whole ass. Successful people know that you need to be all in, all the time.

What I see about these people is that they are not so obsessed about a successful moment but rather are very obsessed with the constant opportunity for success and for the ability to grow from it. They are not obsessed with success but they are obsessed with becoming better at every chance they get.  They realize that championships, multi-billion dollar companies and to be the best is not made when everyone is looking but rather when no one is looking. It  is made when it is easier to quit, to give up when the pain sets in or when you would rather be doing something else.

A friend runs a business that sells nuts, bolts and fasteners to medium sized businesses. It is hard to believe that anyone could really get that excited about it and yet he thrives in the environment. It goes beyond what his company does, he has a passion for being the best, working hard and making amazing things happen, with that attitude you can be successful anywhere. These are all about the attitude not skills or talents. Anyone can learn to live with passion if they want to.

Have you ever heard someone say “All it would take is one big break and I would be set?” This is an example of looking for just a moment of success. They are not so much obsessed with what they are doing but rather with just being successful so they can be done. People that are focused on the growth want that big moment to propel them to even bigger moments of more growth and opportunity. They are not obsessed with winning but they are obsessed with improving everything that they can to win more. Many of us get it wrong; we spend all this time trying to be successful without putting the effort into what will make us successful. You win a football game by scoring more points than the other team, what this means is that you need to not only score but you need to stop the other team from scoring. To break it down further what this means is that you need to practice the components that make up your offensive and defensive line. That is how you win and that same concept is how you become successful

Michael Jordan made a multi-million dollar salary for numerous years. Even getting paid  $10,000,000 would for most people be making it big but he kept going and at his peak he made $33,000,000 in one year but that did not stop him. He had a love for the game he was playing, not for being successful. Clearly money did not drive him but what drove him was his desire to be the best. 

Warren Buffet has been named one of the richest men in the world, and still working at 85 has a love for the game. He could have quit years ago and lived easily off what he worked so hard to get and yet he did not, he kept going and kept creating more success. He loves the challenge and the ability to grow from what he takes on.

Oprah Winfrey is one of the few people whose first name is a household brand. She is a multi-billionaire who has mastered the media for years. She could have given up years ago and retired but she is still in the game, even without her television show. While she may have experienced plenty of success, she was not looking for a onetime event but rather a lifetime of growth.

Focus on growth.

What I learned from Ironman

Ironman some say it is the toughest thing you could ever do, to me it is one of the greatest things you will ever do. I love endurance athletics because you get to push your mind, body  and spirit to new limits and all of the les

sons that you learn while you do them. Here are some of the lessons that I learned about life and success from completing an Ironman.

Focus on where you want to go. I signed up for Ironman being a very poor swimmer and now; I am just a poor swimmer. I can always get better and that is the point, I can get better. I knew my weakness and what it would take but I focused on where I wanted to go Stop waiting for the right time because there will never be a right time. There will always be something wrong. Stop waiting for when you are ready because there will always be an excuse. Forget what you do not know or what you cannot do, you will get there, just commit to getting there.

One small step. Is how you complete an Ironman, change the world or change your life. One step after the other. An Ironman  is really not that complicated. You just need to keep going. One stroke after the other, one pedal stroke and one foot in front of the other, if you just keep moving you will get to your destination, never give up. It is a balance of figuring out how far you have to go and focusing on that next step. Just keep moving in the right direction.

Everyone travels at a different pace, but all that matters is getting to the finish. It does not matter your pace as long as you keep moving forward and meet the deadline. We get too caught up in trying to keep up with everyone else that it ends up hurting us. As I said before I am a poor swimmer. If I were to try and keep up with the great swimmers I would be dead on the bike and the run and I may not cross the finish line. This happens in real life. We see the success of our friends and we get happy for them but we get mad at ourselves. We tell ourselves that we should be there and we should be that successful. If we would have just worked harder and done more, we would be there. We look at all of our failures and tell ourselves we are not good enough. We stop, give up and are out of the game. Remember that your pace is your pace and you will get there. Whether that be crossing the finish line or reaching another goal that you have, you have what it takes. Some parts will take you longer and others will take you shorter, just focus on getting there.

Ask for help. Surround yourself that have the same passion as you but have different insights. My friend Kare Anderson is an expert in this area. How can your differences help the people around you and how can their differences help you? From reading this post you know that I suck at swimming.  I take every opportunity that I can to learn how to be a better swimmer. I also take every opportunity I can to help push people past their limits to live more. I will help people in any way that I can, not for the recognition but to see that person grow. It is amazing to see that your investment in a person can truly become a lifetime of change. Even it is not a lifetime, just for a moment it is worth it.

Embrace what sucks. Stop doing what is easy and what does not hurt. It is okay to become broken, worn and be filled with pain, because that is where all the growth happens. We think that when we fall or when it gets hard we are weak and that is a lie. The truth is that we are truly the weakest when it becomes easy. There is no challenge so there is no growth. Whether we want to believe it or not, we are tough enough to do anything that we want. Stop looking for the easiest way out because it is the easiest way for a reason, there is little value in taking the easy way if any value at all.

Thank the people that help you get there. Ironman is amazing for a number of reasons but one of the biggest ones for me are the volunteers and the spectators. Here are people that get up early, stay up late, stand around for hours, travel, take time out of their day, cheer for you and help you and they do it all for you and ask nothing in return. I know that you have those people in your life. Remember to thank them for being right there with you before, during and after your journey. Far too often we focus on proving everyone wrong that told us we could not do it, we waste time that we could be focusing on those that knew we could all along.

Forget about the medal. I get joy in the experience and the relationships that I get to build during not only these events but during the training. I have made some of my best friends over endurance events and you can talk these people about anything. Medals get lost and they get dusty, these friendships, memories and lessons will never fade. Not only do you get to see how great you are, you get to see how great others are and how far they can go. The takeaway for this in real life is to stop focusing on the extrinsic values and start to focus intrinsic values. Do not be successful just to be successful, define why you want to successful and what will motivate you to get there

Your end result is all about what you put into it. We hear a lot about overnight success stories. The success is not due to luck but because the person that had the success stayed up all night and working their ass off. This is not only true for endurance events but in life as well. If you are not getting where you want to go; give some more, try harder and try it a different way. You cannot expect excellent results when you only give mediocre effort.

Remember why you started. When it gets tough and when it starts to hurt, remember why you started. When it gets easy, you start to enjoy it and you begin to smile, remember why you started. When you feel like giving up, remember why you started. Ironman is a journey and life is a journey.  Making a choice to live bolder is a journey. There will be times when you want to give up but don’t, always remember why you started; it will fuel you to accomplish anything that you want. Always remember why you started.

Show your appreciation. Ironman is amazing for a number of reasons but one of the biggest ones for me are the volunteers and the spectators. Here are people that get up early, stay up late, stay around for hours all for you and ask nothing in return. I know that you have those people in your life. Remember to thank them for being right there with you before, during and after your journey. 

Your end result is all about what you put into it. We hear a lot about overnight success stories and my guess is that it is not due to luck but because the person that had the success stayed up all night and gave everything that they had. This is not only true for endurance events but in life as well. If you are not getting where you want to go, give some more, try harder and try it a different way. You cannot expect excellent results when you only give mediocre effort.

People

When I lived in Green Bay, there was a gym I used to go to and every once in a while I would be working out next to two people. I can remember a majority of what their conversations were about, I was interested not because it was inspiring but because it scared me. It seemed that all they would talk about is how much their kids have been disappointing them, what their kids have done wrong and ironically why their kids never seemed to want to spend time with them (hard to believe that someone who puts you down, is not on your list of favorite people). This brings me to the topic of the post, surround yourself with people who will bring you up, not put you down.

In my life I have been lucky enough to have the vast majority of people in my life support everything that I do, so vast in fact that I cannot even name one person off the top of my head that has ever told me I cannot do something and I cannot tell you how much that means to me. Many times in my life a friend of a friend has helped me out without really knowing me and yet they invested in me.  I know that all of the support has made a huge difference in everything that I have done and will continue to do. Take time to find the people in your life that have constantly supported you and thank them. One of the best ways you can thank them is by not only supporting them but supporting other people as well.

If you can’t help someone, then do not spend any time bringing them down. When you feel the need to point out what is wrong with someone, my suggestion would be to find what you can improve in yourself. You will never get better by pointing out what is wrong with everyone else and ignoring where you can improve.  Do not spend any time with the people that bring you down or tell you that you are not good enough. It is not you that they do not believe in, but rather they do not believe how great they can be, so instead they focus on other people. As much as it sucks to get rid of these people, you need to do it to go further faster. You can always reach your full potential but it is better to not have someone weighing you down, that could be lifting you up.

As important as it is to keep the right people in your life and get rid of the wrong ones, the most important thing and the biggest success factor is how much you believe in yourself. If you do not believe in yourself no matter how much anyone else does, it will not matter and if you believe in yourself and no matter how much someone tries to bring you down, it will never happen because you know better.

Most importantly one of the things that you need to remember is that you matter, and that you are enough. I know this may sound cheesy and cliché but it is the truth. It is my belief that many people put this idea down simply because they do not believe in themselves and are afraid of how great they could be. They see all of their insecurities and everything that they have done wrong and they believe that it defines them. They surround themselves with people who do not support them but bring them down and it is a never ending battle to fight trying to prove that you are good enough until you believe it yourself.

Lifes Little Lessons

Let me tell you about my day. To begin I woke up late, yes my own fault. I get out to my spot and it is blocked by a company van that is repairing bricks at our complex. My first thought is “Hey why in the world would you park in front of a garage at 8:00, seems really silly to me.” I find the guy and have him move the van so I can get out. I pull out and get on the main street, stuck behind a school bus SERENITY NOW! I finally get to work. Everything is fine until I pack up for lunch. I spill my water bottle all over my desk. The cap was not on (yes I am a winner). So now I am angry I am mad, at what, life.

Now why do I tell you this? For one looking back at it I find it so funny that I got upset and that all this happened and guess what I am still alive. Stuff so small gets in our ways everyday, because we let it.

The final point I want to make is what happened at lunch. I went to get Chinese, as usual after eating I got a fortune cookie. I open it and my message reads “windows of opportunity rarely open themselves”. IT HIT ME. There are so many times in life and in business where we are looking for the opportunity to come smashing through a window and hit us in the head. However we forget to realize that every moment is an opportunity to learn. Lets just review my few key opportunities I saw as a reason to be mad.

1) Waking up late: I need to plan better, I should not rely on a machine to tell me when something needs to be done. Think of how disrespectful that truly is to the people you love.
2) The Van: How many times have you thought about what you want? What good does it do you? Not a whole lot in the long run. One of my keys to happiness is to help others get where they want to go. I will not be a van blocking the way
3) School Bus: I should really have another route. How many times have you gone into life and business with a set plan with no other alternatives? It is a sure to be a failure (an epic one at that?)
4) The water bottle: How many times have you taken on a project without really knowing what is going on to the point where it could destroy everything? Why do we do this? I agree there needs to be some adventure however if you are not secure (like the cap) do not take the opportunity

Thanks have a great night!