Success

Don’t Water the Street: Creating the Right Mindset

Don’t water the street: creating the right mindset. Success is based on work. If you’re not willing to do the work you’re probably not going to have very good results. It all begins with your mind though; you have a thought about something that you would like to accomplish. You start off with a dream about being wealthy or losing weight and having a different body. How about living in a mansion instead of your studio apartment that’s worse than the apartment you lived in at college? Now that you have this dream; How are you going to go about turning it into a reality? If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you’ll know that how is not really important. WHY is the most important part of the equation.

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Don’t Water The Streets

This is where your thoughts come in. If your mindset is right and you’re thinking positive thoughts, then HOW to obtain your dreams will come to you. You will see an ad, or maybe bump into an old friend and they will give you inspiration. You might even overhear someone talking and it gets your mind thinking. Don’t worry, if you are thinking positive thoughts, you will know it when it happens.

This business started because I listened to a podcast that was recommended to me by a friend I hadn’t seen in 35 years. I didn’t know what a podcast was! Now is the time to take your seats because here comes Story-time. I wake every morning very early, way before the sun rises and after enjoying a talk with my Lord and Savior and spending some time in meditation, I exercise.

Sprinklers

At that time of the morning, several lawn sprinklers turn on in my neighborhood. I have one neighbor whose sprinklers are mostly facing the road. He even has one sprinkler that shoots from halfway in his yard all the way to the other side of the street. This sucker doesn’t even oscillate, it’s just a steady stream of water in one place. It caught my attention because I have to divert my path completely across the street to keep from getting soaked. The only grass that receives any nourishment is a thin strip, maybe six inches wide.

don't-water-streets-green-grass-blades — **What do your DREAMS look like?**

A Lush Lawn

Watching this guy’s sprinklers water the street got me thinking that this is just like bad thoughts. You will only be able to accomplish your dreams by thinking positive thoughts. Dreams, like grass, need to be nourished and watered. If your irrigation system is adjusted correctly then most of the water lands on your yard and nourishes your lawn. The grass grows healthy and full, chokes out all the weeds, and you have this lush green lawn that’s the envy of the neighborhood.

Feed Your Dreams

If you water your dreams with positive thoughts then they will grow, flourish, and choke out those pesky “Doubt Demons”. On the other hand, if you’re watering the street your lawn suffers and nothing grows. Grass does not grow on asphalt. If you’re constantly giving into negative thoughts you might as well be watering the street because nothing is going to grow.

Begin a daily habit of affirmations. Write them down on an index card and carry them with you always. Read them first thing in the morning, several times. Throughout the day pull out your index card and read them over and over. You need to program your positive thoughts into your subconscious.

Adjust Your Thoughts

Just like you adjust your sprinklers to only water the grass, adjust your positive thoughts to water your dreams. They say you have to do something 10,000 times before you get really good at it. I’m no scientist but maybe that’s how long it takes before your subconscious mind takes over and you start doing and saying the right things without thinking about it.

don't-water-streets-old-typewriter-goals

Good Times

Throughout my military and law enforcement career, we went through constant training. Whenever we would make an arrest or execute a search warrant, my actions were automatic. I don’t have a clear memory of what happened from the time after we arrived at the residence, up until the house was cleared or the person was in custody. In that time-space, I was operating with my subconscious mind and doing what I was trained to do without having to think about it with my conscious mind.

Operating In The Subconscious

One day my partner and I were taking a break at Starbucks and sitting outside when two people ran out of the store next to us. The owner ran out saying that he was robbed. My partner and I ran after them and after a little while, I realized I had my gun in my hand. I had no recollection of unholstering my weapon. The answer to your next question is, yes, we caught them. One of them became completely winded, gave up, and just laid down next to the street. The other one we found hiding under a house and wouldn’t come out, so we called out the K-9 unit. He crawled out and was completely cooperative once the dogs got there. Good times, good times.

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No More

Alright everybody, no more watering the street. Start your affirmations, repeat those things you want in your life until they come true. This is the point where a lot of people sabotage themselves because it doesn’t happen quickly enough for them. Keep in mind this isn’t McDonald’s and you can’t order a new lifestyle, drive up and pick it up at the little window.

Give Your Dreams Time To Grow

Dreams take time and we are not in control of when they come true. You can’t see the grass seedlings when they’re under the soil and it’s usually at the point where they’re about to break through the soil that you get frustrated. You begin thinking and saying they will never grow and point the sprinkler back at the street. A lot of people get frustrated when they don’t see results and turn to negative thoughts and words. If they’d only kept the positive thoughts for one more day, one more week, or one more year their life could be radically changed.

Do you have a time limit on your dreams? How long are you willing to wait to achieve the life that you want and deserve? Some people seem to have boatloads of success when they are children while others don’t have success until they are in their 60s and 70s. Some people graduate from college in three years, some in five or six (You can put me in the latter timeframe). Both of them still have the same diploma.

Success is success. If you’ve ever graduated from college, you might have put your dreams on hold for those four years. A lot of people take 4 plus years to get a college diploma but will give up on their dreams after a few months. If you create the right mindset and don’t put a time limit on it, the universe is at your fingertips and you can live your dream lifestyle.

I appreciate every like, follow, comment and share. Keep’em coming.

“This train is moving on, you can get on, you can get off, but the train keeps moving on! We are going to the top of the mountain!”

April 24, 2020July 22, 2021

InspireChief1 Comment

Draft Day

Today is the first round of the NFL draft. It is a day that will see several young men’s lives change dramatically. I look forward to watching the NFL draft every year because you get to see their dreams come true as it happens. You see the emotions they go through as they get the phone call from the NFL team that is selecting them. You see the emotions of the families that are there with them. What you don’t see are the countless hours in the weight room, the infinite number of sprints they have run, or the endless hours they spent studying in the classroom. What you don’t see is the countless miles the families put on their cars driving their kids to practice, games, or camps. You don’t see the time the families might’ve had to put in working a second job to pay for equipment or fees. The families do all this to help their children achieve all their dreams. Draft Day is special for them.

When their name is called and the tears flow, you know this is the culmination of a dream that they have had for so many years and worked so hard at. For most of these young men, their dream started when they were children lying in bed. They held onto the dream probably through many ups and downs, successes and failures, until tonight. Tonight their dreams become reality. These are dreams that most of these young men have and they learned to write them down several years ago. Recently, former NFL running back C. J. Spiller was elected to the Clemson University Hall of Fame. Spiller said he wasn’t surprised by this selection because he wrote down his goals and dreams as a seven-year-old in Florida. His mom keeps that same note and has it locked up in a room. He looked at that piece of paper every night and one of his dreams was he wanted to go off to college and leave that program as one of the best ever. I’m sure that the young men selected tonight, on Draft Day, will have a similar piece of paper with their goals and dreams written on it and their moms will keep it forever.

This makes me think about my life and how I arrived at where I am today. I don’t remember if I ever wrote anything down but I do remember that I used to read a lot. As a kid, I was always reading books about adventure, space travel, and explorations. I was always fascinated with the military and read a lot of books about World War II. My favorite books though were mysteries by Alfred Hitchcock. I would spend hours reading these books and loved pouring into the investigation of solving these mysteries. My life up to this point has turned out just like the books that I used to read and the dreams I used to have. I was an officer in the U.S. Army, investigated and solved mysteries as a Special Agent with DEA, and had many adventures in the jungles of South America and on the streets of US cities. Not everything I dreamt about came true in my life though. I, like probably every other sports-minded child did dream of one day playing in the NFL. That dream didn’t materialize….., maybe I should’ve written it down.

A vast majority of the men selected today will feel humbled, honored, and gracious when they hear their name called by the Commissioner. It is a pleasure to see them when they speak give thanks to God, their family, their coaches, and everyone who ever help them achieve this dream. Unfortunately, there are usually one or two who expected to be drafted earlier than they were and are unhappy. When you see them on camera they have a scowl on their face and you can tell that they are angry. Now, I’m sure that they think that they are the best player and feel slighted that so many teams passed them up, I can understand that. What I cannot understand is how they cannot feel gracious enough to put the other feelings aside. I’ve heard it said that less than one percent of all boys playing high school football will make it to the NFL. Just having the talent to be in that small pool should make you one of the most thankful people alive.

When I see people who aren’t appreciative of what they have been given, I become more gracious for what I have. I have been given a wonderful, beautiful life, with a future full of unlimited possibilities. If you can’t be thankful for where you’re at right now in life, how do you expect God to reward you with a better life in the future? One major point that the ungrateful players forget is that no women will be selected tonight. There are women coaches and women referees in the NFL but no women players. I fully believe that soon there will be women players in the NFL; they will experience Draft Day. As the father of two daughters, I can see that women can do anything they set their minds to. They just have to change their mindset and flush out all the negative things they have been told in the past.

Draft Day is special and is going to be a great night for these young men; I can’t wait to watch it. It will be different because of the pandemic but will still be exciting. It will be the culmination of one dream and the beginning of another. They will be checking off one goal accomplished and writing down a list of new goals and dreams they can start working towards. How about you, have you written down your dreams and goals? Are you reading them every day, several times a day? If not, today is a great day to start!

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Works Cited

Hood, David. “Hall of Famer: CJ Spiller Takes Wrong Call, Learns He Is in Hall of Fame.” TigerNet.com, TigerNet.com, 22 Apr. 2020, http://www.tigernet.com/story/Hall-of-Famer-CJ-Spiller-takes-wrong-call-learns-he-is-in-Hall-of-Fame-18749.

https://www.tigernet.com/ezoimgfmt/farm8.static.flickr.com/7540/15482116420_13155049a3_q.jpg?ezimgfmt=ng:webp/ngcb6

April 23, 2020April 3, 2022

InspireChief4 Comments

A Flying Rat’s Ass!!

No apologies! This is a topic that I’m very passionate about. If I offend you, then you need to look inward at yourself. I’m not mentioning anyone by name. I don’t give a flying rat’s ass.

How do you value other people’s opinions? Are you caught up in the way someone else makes you feel? Can what someone says to you determine if you can have a good or bad day? If so, listen to these words carefully. I don’t give a flying rat’s ass what other people think of me. I know that I’m a good person and that I treat others in the same manner as I would want them to treat me. It has no effect on me what other people think of me or if other people don’t believe that I will accomplish what I set out to do. I learned this lesson a long time ago. When I was a child growing up I had lots of friends and thought that everyone liked me. Then I found out that some people didn’t like me and I never did anything for them to feel that way. I realized then that some people are just going to like you for who you are and some people are not going to like you for who you are. That doesn’t change who you are. You are you, no one else, embrace it.

“You create your own universe as you go along.”
– Winston Churchill

When I was in the military, every year we would get performance evaluations from our superior officers. I would read them and take note of my shortcomings because I respected the men who wrote them. After I left the military and began working for the government I was given the gift of having a bad supervisor. This man hated life and was negative and demeaning everywhere he went. Early on in my career with DEA, I volunteered for a special operation to go live in the jungles of South America and search for cocaine labs. This entailed almost a year that I was out of my office training with the U.S. Army Rangers, attending Spanish-language training, and working in the jungle. I got back to my office after my first tour in the jungle and my supervisor gave me a bad evaluation. He said I didn’t have enough arrests or seizures. I never figured out how I was supposed to arrest someone if I wasn’t there. Maybe this moron didn’t even know I was gone. Now I had received excellent evaluations from my supervisors during training and on my deployment to South America, but he didn’t take any of those into account. Therefore, I was evaluated on what I did in his office even though I was 3,000 miles away. I know he gave me a bad evaluation so I would quit the program and not go on another deployment. It didn’t work, I went on three more deployments within the next two years. Every evaluation he gave me after that I never read. When he would call me in to discuss it I would sign it and hand it back to him. The first time he asked me, “aren’t you going to read it?” My reply was no, I don’t value your opinion. I know what kind of job I do; I know if each day I’ve given it 100 percent or less than a hundred percent. Your opinion of me carries no weight with me. In other words, I didn’t give a flying rat’s ass what he thought of me.

I know when I look in the mirror each morning the kind of person that I am, what I’m going to accomplish, what I’ve already accomplished, and you need to be the same way. Who is looking back at you when you look in the mirror? What are you going to do to move forward towards accomplishing your goals? Nothing that anyone says to you should have any effect on whether you succeed or not. Only you can decide that. If some lunkhead in the gym makes a negative comment about your weight, just smile at him because you know exactly what you’re going to look like in a few months. Make sure you thank him for providing that extra motivation. If people laugh at you when you tell them you’re going to be an Oscar-winning actor even though you’ve never starred in a play, smile and remember to thank them in your acceptance speech.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

In a few posts back I wrote about “Doubt Demons” and how they show up in your mind to keep you from achieving your goals. The naysayers are the ones who instill in you these “Doubt Demons.” If you give in to the naysayers then that just means that you value their opinion more than you value yourself. You have to get the attitude that you do not give a flying rat’s ass about other people’s opinions. The only opinion that matters is what comes out of your voice; the thoughts in your head. Naysayers are losers and like to be in the company of other naysayers because that’s what they attract. Successful people are attracted to successful people. Speak your goals several times throughout the day, make your goals your predominant thoughts and you will attract successful people to you who will help you accomplish them. The naysayers will disappear.

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One of the biggest obstacles you will incur and have to overcome on your journey is when the naysayers, the negative Nelly’s, the doom and gloom people, happen to be your friends or family. These are the ones that just can’t say anything positive about what you’re trying to accomplish when you’re around them. They don’t do it in a malicious way but it can do the most harm. Unfortunately, sometimes the only way to overcome this obstacle is to cut them out of your life until you can show them that no matter what they say, you will not be deterred. You just can’t give a flying rat’s ass about what they’re saying. I love my parents but I could tell by the tone of their “encouragement” that they didn’t believe me when I would tell them about my dreams. I had to go out and show them.

This is your journey and you and only you decide whether you reach the top of the hill or roll back down to the bottom. If you don’t succeed you cannot point fingers at anyone but yourself. You have full control over the outcome of your journey. No one else is steering your boat or piloting your plane. You are not just along for the ride you are the captain. One thing that most people don’t understand is that you are given all the tools necessary to accomplish whatever you want when you were born. Somewhere along the way you’ve let other people steal your tools from you. But all that was yesterday and yesterday doesn’t count, it’s history. What counts is today and what you do today. Tomorrow is already written and it depends on what you do today. Focus on today and continue moving forward.

April 22, 2020April 3, 2022

InspireChief5 Comments

Anxiety (COVID-19)

Anxiety (COVID-19. We are definitely in an anxious time in our lives with the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a time of uncertainty and I don’t know about you but for me, it is difficult to find the facts about what’s really going on. One news agency reports one thing and three more reports something totally opposite. One day we’re “flattening the curve” and the next day this is something that’s going to last for years. I’m as confused as everyone but unlike a lot of people, it doesn’t cause me anxiety. Not a lot has changed for me since the pandemic started and we have been in lockdown. I work from home so that wasn’t a change. My children are away in college so I haven’t turned into a home school teacher. My gym is closed but I have plenty of exercise equipment in my garage so I continue to work out. My wife is home all day as well and I haven’t woken up with her standing over me holding a pillow in front of my face. I can have a tendency to get on her last nerve, as my mom used to say to me. The one thing that I really miss is our weekly date night where we walk to the local restaurants and enjoy a meal. We still have the date night but now we have to call in our order, pull up outside, have them bring our food out, and take it home, it’s just not the same.

I sympathize with everyone that had to begin working from home, learning from home, and not knowing when their office or school will open up again. I particularly sympathize with the people who had to close their businesses or could remain open but saw a significant drop in their business. It is a very uncertain time in that we don’t know what our society will look like when the pandemic ends. Will jobs be cut as employers try to recoup lost profits? Will sports resume and bring back jobs for the concession workers, security, and ticket scanners? My friend who watches sports 24/7 told me the other day that he just watched a cherry pit spitting contest. He has it bad. In case you were wondering, the winning spit was 47 feet!

anxiety-covid-19-man-mask-no-fear-painted-on-wall — Photo by Korhan Erdol on Pexels.com

I believe in faith over fear. I believe that the pandemic will end sooner rather than later; that businesses will open and the economy will flourish; that sporting events will begin and stadiums will be packed. The anxiety that has been created by this pandemic is based on uncertainty or fear. The anxiety is usually worse than the actual event. As I’ve said before, I have a fear of heights but I jumped out of perfectly good airplanes in the Army. The anxiety that I felt standing up in the airplane before the jump was much greater than when I jumped/fell/was pushed out the door. When I played football, the anxiety before the game in the locker room was much greater than when the game started. The first time you hit somebody all the nerves go away. I remember one time that I was at an amusement park and my friends wanted to ride the roller coaster. That was the last thing that I wanted to do but I went with them. The anxiety that I had standing in line was so great that I thought I would pass out. The worst part was the slow climb to the top of the coaster. After we started the descent it really wasn’t that bad. Not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be in my mind. Now, I didn’t want to do it again but at least I could check that off the old bucket list.

anxiety-covid-19-roller-coaster-at-night — Photo by Albin Berlin on Pexels.com

How can we deal with this anxiety? How does this affect us or our journey to success? First, it’s all about control. As I said in my welcome post, I am the CEO of ME Enterprises. I control what happens to me, the thoughts that I think, and my actions. You are in total control of yourself, you control what you are thinking, the choices you make, and your actions every day. I can’t control the things that are going on outside of me. You can’t control the things that are going on outside of you, so don’t worry about them. You can’t control the news, you can’t control politicians, and you can’t control the weather. You have 100 percent control over yourself and that’s the only thing that you should be focusing on. I remember hearing someone say, “If you want to change the world, begin with changing you.” There is a great speech you can find on YouTube by Admiral William H. McRaven entitled “If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.” If making your bed makes you feel better, then go make it. That is a success and that will bring more success to you. It is something that you can control whether you do it or not. Something else that you can control is what you watch or listen to. If the news is making you more anxious, turn it off. Have faith that we will come out of this pandemic better than we went in.

anxiety-covid-19-cross-town-mountain — Photo by Saulo Zayas on Pexels.com

Adversity creates opportunity. The adversity of the pandemic has opened up numerous opportunities for people. People are exercising more. I see more families going on walks together, people are able and have the time to sit down together at the dinner table. For me, I began this year by saying I will get better every day. My life will be better than it was before when the world goes back to normal. The slowdown in my other business has afforded me the opportunity to research and open up this new online business and begin my blog. It has also opened up my mind to the endless possibilities that are out there for all of us. I am a Christian and believe in the power of God. I believe that I was led to create Lessons Learnt by God. God has provided me the opportunity to pass on my experiences in life through this blog. If you believe in a higher power, know that they are in control of what happens in the world and that everything is going to be better. That doesn’t mean that once the pandemic ends that everything will be perfect and bad things won’t happen again. It means that, just like this and everything that’s happened in the past, we will get through it and become better.

April 20, 2020April 3, 2022

InspireChief4 Comments

The Journey

How do you complete a thousand-mile journey? You take the first step, just one step, and before you know it you’ve walked a thousand miles. How do you help a million people? You help one and that will multiply a million times. We have taken that first step on our journey we won’t stop until we’ve reached our destination wherever, whatever that may be. Once we reach that destination, we will pick another destination and begin a new journey. Once you understand how easy it is to become successful at one thing that you want, then you can become successful at everything. If you can be successful at losing weight then you can be successful in making money because it’s all the same principles. Enjoy the journey.

The most important part of the journey is the WHY. Why do you want to take this journey? You will hear me refer to the WHY many times because the WHY is what gets you to your destination. The HOW does not matter, it will be revealed to you once you know the WHY. I remember when I began training for the military and that it was definitely out of my comfort zone. I didn’t really know why I had volunteered, I was just pulled in that direction. I knew it was going to be physically and mentally difficult. It was peacetime so I didn’t have any visions of being a war hero. There was no certain rank that I desired to achieve. Heck, I wasn’t even inspired by Gomer Pyle, USMC (If you don’t know who that is, look him up. A very funny show). My WHY became my fear of failure. I was terrified of not making it, being one of the few who couldn’t cut it, and going home to face my family not worthy of wearing the uniform.

I didn’t know how I was going to make it through. I was just going to take it one day at a time. One of the first days that I was there, we were standing in formation and I was scared, homesick, and felt totally out of place. So I just looked to my right, looked to my left, and randomly picked out one of my fellow soldiers. I made a commitment to myself that if he made it, I was going to make it and that if he didn’t make it, I would pick out another person and say the same. I made the decision that day that I was going to make it to graduation. I then began using this technique for every difficult and challenging event in my life.

the-journey-drill-sergeant-correcting-soldiers — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

My first day at the U.S. Army Airborne School in Fort Benning, Georgia, I used this technique to make it through and earn my wings. I had to use this technique many times because we had such a high attrition rate. I would pick out a fellow soldier and say to myself if they make it, so will I, only to find out the next day they weren’t there. I would then repeat the process with another fellow soldier until I made my final graduation jump. The funny thing about jump school was I didn’t even know why I was there. One day I was in military science class in college and the major asked for volunteers for the airborne school. I really didn’t know what it entailed but I did know that it included jumping out of airplanes and I was scared of heights. I thought this would be a good thing for these other gung ho cadets in my class but my mama didn’t raise no fool. There’s no way I would ever do that. I counted eight hands raised and heard the major say, “Okay we’ve got nine volunteers.” I then realized that my hand was raised and I don’t remember making a conscious decision to raise it. It was too late now, I would look like a coward trying to take it back. I thought about faking an injury. Grabbing the back of my leg and yelling, “it’s a hammy, it’s a hammy!” Then came my way out, the major said that he only had eight slots so we would use the physical training test to decide who would go. All I had to do was make sure eight other guys did better than me on the test. Even I couldn’t screw this one up. When the day of the test came I still had no desire to jump out of an airplane but damn my competitive spirit, I scored one of the top eight scores and about a month later my dad was dropping me off to go learn how to fall out of an airplane.

the-journey-soldiers-jumping-out-airplane

I always wondered how my hand got raised that day and why I was doing these things. This has happened to me several times in my life where I ended up doing something that I have no idea how or why I was doing it. Several years later I realized that my hand was raised because airborne school was going to be essential in my journey. It provided me with the self-confidence to take on the challenges on my journey. Airborne school taught me that everyone has fears but you can control these fears. One part of training is the 250 foot tower. During this training, they harness you to a deployed parachute which is hooked to a large ring and haul you 250 feet in the air. The sergeant on the ground gives you commands and you have to acknowledge his commands by opening and closing your legs. Once you’ve acknowledged all of his commands the parachute is released from the ring and you float down and try to make a perfect landing without hurting yourself. I remember one soldier was at the top of the tower and the sergeant was giving him commands. The soldier didn’t open and close his legs and was frozen in fear. The soldier was then lowered to the ground and removed from training. That’s when the sergeant turned to the few of us that were sitting on the bench waiting their turn and gave me one of the greatest gifts of all. He said, “fear is normal, everyone has it but you must learn to control the fear.”

“You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.”
– Dale Carnegie

Learning how to control my fears and getting out of my comfort zone has been part of my journey. It has led me to where I am today. Thinking about how are you going to do something will not control your fears. Only the WHY will give you the strength to control your fears and make it through your journey. When you decide to lose weight, you will go through some doubts and struggles on your journey. But make it your journey and enjoy every part of it because there’s a new you at the end. You might be afraid of going to a support meeting for the first time or joining a gym because you think everyone’s looking at you. I implore you to conquer your fears and not worry about other people. They are not on this journey with you. This is your journey and your journey only.

As I look back on my journey so far I can only smile. Thinking about the successes and the failures makes me happy. Everything I have gone through in my life has gotten me to this point today. Everything needed to happen for me to be the person that I am today. Enjoy your journey. Enjoy the good, the bad, and the ugly. When it’s all said and done you will have created the greatest masterpiece in the world and be proud to sign your name to it.

“This train is moving on, you can get on, you can get off, but the train keeps moving on!” We are going to the top of the mountain!”

April 19, 2020August 6, 2021

InspireChief8 Comments

Quitting

The late great Vince Lombardi said, “Winning is a habit, unfortunately so is losing.” Winning is hard. Quitting is easy and unfortunately, once you quit something the first time it becomes easier the next time something gets hard. That’s how you develop a habit of quitting. I like to insert a sense of humor in the topics I write about but it’s challenging to find humor in quitting but I will do my best.

If you quit ONCE it becomes a habit. Never quit!!!
– Michael Jordan

If you want to be successful, quitting is not an option. You need to burn the bridges, burn the boats; don’t give yourself any other option. The only way to fail is to quit. If you make up your mind that you will succeed no matter what, then you will succeed. It takes a strong-minded person to make it through any challenge because it’s gonna get hard and you’re going to struggle. Your struggle will be more mental than it will be physical and yes you might go through some physical pain but a strong mind will get you through it. Struggling is part of the process, but that is a topic for another day.

I wanted to start my blogs with this topic of quitting because if you don’t have a strong mindset and are not willing to develop a strong mindset then there’s no sense in beginning any journey. It doesn’t matter whether you’re trying to lose weight, reduce your body fat, make more money, or improve a relationship. You will go through some tough times on your journey and if you can make it through, the reward will be great.

Did not exist in 1989.

I had a good friend, Gene, who was a Marine pilot and was killed in 1991 when his helicopter crashed during Operation Desert Shield. I never forgot this one conversation that we had about getting lost. Back then we all didn’t carry around little computers in our pockets or drove cars that had GPS systems installed and it was easier to get lost. After all, it goes against the man code to ask for directions. Gene asked me one day if I was ever driving somewhere I had never been before and felt like I was lost. I said, “All the time.” Gene said he would always turn around and head in the opposite direction only to realize he was going in the right direction in the first place. Then when he arrived at the place where he first turned around, the place he was driving to was less than 1/2 a mile away in front of him or around the next corner. He said this happened to him all the time. I have kept that memory all these years because it was a lesson in succeeding even though at the time it was just a conversation between friends and had nothing to do with success. I feel that most people quit on their journey to success and make a U-turn back to their old life right before they reach their final destination.

When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to get there.
– Zig Ziglar

I believe the number one reason that most people quit anything is that it just got too hard. Your journey to success and overcoming the challenge that you’re facing might seem easy at first and you might have some initial success. It’s later on that you might face difficulties and the thought of quitting creeps into your mind. How do we keep going when it just gets too difficult? We think of the reason WHY we started on our journey in the first place. What was so bad in our life before that we made a decision to change. What sparked us one day to wake up and say, “I want something better?” If you have a friend or partner who’s going through the same thing, you can utilize them to push you through.

Photo by Max Nikhil Thimmayya on Pexels.com

The thoughts of quitting are temporary but actually quitting lasts a lifetime. Whatever you’re going through someone else has gone through the same thing and maybe worse. They succeeded because they remembered their WHY, refocused on their goals, and kept moving forward. The harder your struggle is the closer you are getting to your goal. No matter how hard life is hitting you, you gotta keep moving forward. Take whatever it is giving you and keep moving forward. When you take the biggest hit, smile your grandest smile and keep moving forward. My train is like a boy band, it only has one direction.

“This train is moving on, you can get on, you can get off, but the train keeps moving on! We are going to the top of the hill!”

April 18, 2020April 3, 2022

InspireChief1 Comment