Monday Morning Motivation: Enough is enough

I’m not convinced that the imagery in this video matches up to the speech, but it’s worth listening to 🙂

“Avoid people and situations that upset you. See there are some people that know just how to push your buttons. They know just what to say, but I’m not going to expend any energy arguing with anybody. Life is too short, ladies and gentlemen, and unpredictable. I don’t want to spend my time arguing with anybody, so, I avoid situations that will get me upset. I don’t argue with people. Draw the line, ladies and gentlemen. There are certain things that we just go through life just taking. At some point, you just gotta draw the line and just say, ‘Enough is enough’. You gotta do that with yourself.”

“One negative stroke is 16 times more powerful than a positive stroke and if you have people around you who are not sensitive to who you are – and the people that can hurt you the most, ladies and gentlemen, are the people that you love. They’re the ones that you are vulnerable to, they’re the ones that can get to you and if they’re insensitive, I don’t care who they are. See, if you don’t draw the line with people, if you just let them run rampant in your life and you let things happen to you that you don’t feel good about, if you continue to allow it to happen, you won’t feel good about yourself. Your image of yourself will erode, so you’ve got to draw the line.

Why do people just go to a job where they’re miserable, day in and day out. Why do people stay together and they’re miserable? Sleeping in separate rooms or arguing as the only thing they have in common is paying the bills? Don’t talk. Don’t communicate. Don’t share anything together. Day in and day out. As short and unpredictable that life is. Being mean to each other. Why do people do that?

Known hills are preferable to strange heavens. Because it’s familiar. See life is rough, ladies and gentlemen. It’s rough and it’s scary. It’s scary growing. It’s scary taking a chance. It’s scary acting on your intuition, on your guts. It’s scary. It’s frightening. There are people that are just tolerating things right now and they’re immobilised by fear. They can see the hammer coming and they are afraid to even move, because it’s scary. To go against the dominant thinking of your family, friends and those people you associate with every day is perhaps the most difficult act of courage you will ever perform. See when you start growing, when you start changing the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you act, the way you respond to things, the way you use your time. When you start saying, ‘No, I can’t do that’, ‘Why? Are you too busy, you don’t have the time?’, ‘No, I have my own agenda.’ If people can put you on a guilt trip they will and use you and abuse you over and over and over again. You gotta draw the line. You have to draw the line on them.

Don’t go through life feeling like you’re powerless. Victims are people that are powerless. You’re not powerless; you are powerful. You direct the power in your life. Whatever your life is right now, it is a duplication of your consciousness. It’s a result of how you have decided to use your power. That’s all it is. That’s not who you are, that’s just a perverted use of your power that you aren’t satisfied with and you’ve got the power to change that, wherever you are. How I don’t know, but I know you’ve got the power to do that. But you don’t know what has happened to me. It really doesn’t matter what has happened to you. See the only thing that really matters is what are you going to do about it. That’s all that matters… that’s all that matters.

You can allow it to destroy you, or you can allow it to build you up. We never get to a level where we feel that there’s nothing else for us to do, that we’ve achieved a certain number of goals and we figure that we’re through. No, no, you don’t want to stay there and celebrate too long, like a lot of people do. They do something they consider outstanding and they go around talking about what they used to do. See, let me tell you I used to do this and I used to do that. Excuse me! Used to bes don’t make no honey. What are you doing now? You’re still here breathing. That means you’ve got some more to give. Doesn’t matter how old you are, doesn’t matter about where you are, doesn’t matter about what you have, doesn’t matter about what you’ve done. Life is about growing, is about being productive, is about stretching, is about challenging yourself. So you start looking around and decide, hey, what else do I want to do? What got me here is a time for celebration, but also a time for reflection. What got me here? What worked? What did not work? What do I need to do, to repeat, so that I can get the same kind of results in other areas of my life? If the goal is to improve my health, if the goal is to improve my relationship, if the goal is to improve my income, if the goal is to improve something in society, what is it I need to do?

Now, don’t get confused with what you do, with who you are. Don’t trip. Don’t go on some type of ego trip. I’m talking about how bad you are. None of us do anything by ourselves. Develop an appreciation for external support as well as good fortune because all of those things play a role. The other thing is don’t go overboard celebrating. You must meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same. You look at hey I did it! I feel good about that. Now you’re moving on to the next thing. Things did not work out the way you wanted them to work out, you didn’t produce the results you wanted to produce. Hey, missed that. You win some, you lose them. Next. Moving right on.

Don’t confuse who you are with what you do. Make your mind fertile ground for the seeds of opportunity. I think if you want to experience a sense of fulfilment,  you’ve got to have an open mind so that ideas can come in there and take root and grow. So, part of beginning to have fertile ground you know you got to break that ground up, you gotta break up that hard crust, because if you don’t seeds will fall there and the wind can blow them away… the winds of doubt. When you’re set in your mind and you refuse to grow and you’re not open to new ideas, new methods, new ways of doing things, if your mind is already fixed, you become stagnant. You can’t grow, you can’t have a sense of fulfilment. You become extremely cynical and negative about everything. You know it all. So you want to begin to look at life and have a sense of curiosity. Not know-it-all. You want to keep learning, keep growing, realise that we have a theme. You never find out how much you know until you find out how little you know. There are some people you can’t tell anything – they have all the answers. “I’ve already done that”. So many of us count ourselves out of things prematurely. You don’t know what the possibilities are up in there, so you want to be open. You want to continue to learn. You want to continue to grow. You want to begin to know that there are unlimited ideas out here waiting for you to latch onto them and if you don’t take advantage of them when they come your way because you’re so close minded do understand somebody else will. We’ve all had ideas that we did not act on and looked around and somebody else had the idea and gone with it. So, be open and receptive. Become involved in life.

Live your fantasy! Most people go through life not living their fantasy. Going sitting up in the bleachers, looking out on the field, looking out into the arena, wishing that they were down there, just fantasising seeing themselves running with the ball. Decide to live your fantasy. See in life you can go through life, you can come up with reasons or you can come up with results; you can come up with excuses or you can come up with achievement. You can go through life blaming or you can come up with solutions. The choice’s in your hand: satisfaction or despair, we can choose that. So, look at your life and decide what it is that you want to do that will give your life a sense of worth.

Someone said your life worth is measured by your accomplishments and not by your complaints. Want to have a fulfilling life? Decide not to make your life predictable. Some people, their lives are very predictable. They got a little routine they do, that they follow that day in and day out. Day in and day out. You don’t get much juice and happiness out of life like that. If you’re predictable you want to change it up. Variety most certainly is the spice of life.

Here’s something else. Want to create a greater sense of fulfilment? Challenge your fears. Challenge them! Look those fears in the face and take them on. Don’t allow them to rule you. Decide that you’re going to take some chances. You’ve got to be willing to risk. If you’re not willing to risk, you can’t grow in life. Life has no power when you’re not willing to risk it. It’s said to laughs is to risk appearing the fool, to weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out for another is to risk involvement. To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self. To place your ideas, your dreams, before a crowd is to risk their loss. To love is to risk not being loved in return. To live is to risk dying. To hope is to risk despair. To try is to risk failure… but risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love and live. Chained by their certitudes they are a slave. They have forfeited their freedom. Only a person who risks is free!

Monday Morning Motivation: Unleash your inner beginner

At this time of year, I start thinking about my impending birthday. It was 5 years ago that I started my journey to becoming a swimmer (and a triathlete).

This year, my journey continues, with various goals, including becoming a Personal Trainer.

What are you doing to unleash your inner beginner?

Monday Morning Motivation: I will what I want

It’s a very short Monday Morning Motivation this week…

Supermodel Gisele Bundchen knows what it means to live under the microscope, amongst the noise of contradicting opinions. But will beats noise. Watch Gisele face real-time commentary now at: http://willbeatsnoise.com/

What do you think?

 

Monday Morning Motication – Rick and Dick Hoyt

In 1962, Judy Hoyt gave birth to a son with spastic quadriplegia and cerebral palsy. Judy and her husband Dick were advised to put Rick in an institution, but they decided to fight for his inclusion into a normal life. At 10 years old, they managed to get Rick his first interactive computer, which allowed him to communicate with others.

In 1977, Rick told his father that he wanted to participate in a 5-mile benefit run for a Lacrosse player who had been paralysed in an accident. Dick agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair. That night, Rick told his father, “Dad, when I’m running, it feels like I’m not handicapped.”

Since then “Team Hoyt” have competed in over 1000 races, including 6 Ironman triathlons as well as marathons, duathlons and other triathlons. They also completed a 3735 mile/45 day cycle/run trip across America in 1992.

You can read more about Team Hoyt on their website: http://www.teamhoyt.com/

Monday Morning Motivation – Crying in the Rain

© Agurtxane-Concellon

I liked last week’s motivational video about Isklar Norseman Xtreme Triathlon so much that I went hunting for another one and found this one from 2014 – enjoy!

“The tears stream down my cheeks from my unblinking eyes. What makes me weep so? There is nothing saddening here. Perhaps it is liquefied brain.”
― Samuel Beckett

Isklar Norseman Xtreme Triathlon is considered the ultimate triathlon on the planet, and the race that any hard core triathlete should do at least once. http://www.nxtri.com

Everybody who has done Ironman, I think it’s on the bucket-list to do.

It’s probably the most iconic, tough, ironman-distance race and there is such a mystique about it and a beauty about it.

You don’t know if you’re going to finish. You don’t know if you’re going to be able to do anything at all.

It is a true challenge, whereas an Ironman is more a parade where people are just clapping and cheering.

The process of getting ready for a triathlon is the hard part.

Coming here is the party.

It’s the combination of something I have worked so hard for to accomplish.

This is a good day, an easy day, I’m eager to get going.

I’ve got butterflies going crazy at the moment, so I keep trying to just think about my day rather than worry about all these very tall, athletic Norwegians.

Monday Morning Motivation – Courage is already inside

OK, so I’ve never seen a Ram Truck (they’re not available in the UK), but I love this inspirational commercial showing strong women breaking stereotypes…
Have you ever though ‘I could never do that!’

Have you ever thought, ‘I could never climb a mountain or compete against that!’

Have you ever thought you just didn’t have anything left in the tank? Well, you do. You can break a stereotype and throw it into a whole ‘nother gear, because the courage is already inside.

Monday Morning Motivation – What can you endure?

Jaret Grossman: There’s a certain delusional quality that all successful people have to have. You see all successful people have this belief, they have this understanding, that I’m going to do something different than has ever been done before. They have this idea that they’re not going to be told what to do, because they know where they’re going. You always hear this time in life be realistic. Well, realism and success are not on two opposite ends of the spectrum.”

Earl Nightingale: “There’s nothing more pitiful to my mind that the person who wastes his life running for one thing to another, forever looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and never staying with one thing long enough to find it. No matter what your goal may be, perhaps the road to it can be found in the very thing in which you’re now engaged.”

Joel Osteen: “You are where you are today in part because of what you’ve been saying about yourself. Words are like seeds. When you speak something out, you give life to what you’re saying. If you continue to say it, eventually that can become a reality. Whether you realise it or not, you are prophesying your future. This is great when we’re saying things like,  ‘I’m blessed. I’m strong. I will accomplish my dreams. I’m coming out of debt.’ That’s not just being positive, you are prophesying victory, prophesying success, prophesying new levels. Your life will move in the direction of your words. But too many people go around prophesying just the opposite. ‘I never get me good breaks. I’ll never get back in shape. Business is slow, I’ll probably get laid off. ‘Flu season is here, I always get it.’ They don’t realise they are prophesying defeat. It’s just like they’re calling in bad breaks, mediocrity… You are planting seeds when you talk. At some point, you’re going to eat that fruit.”

Greg Plitt: “Every hero you guys had was called an idiot, crazy, a loser! You must break society’s status quo. Status quo is normality – it’s alive, but not living. It’s death on a stick, guys. The belief of the individual can overcome thousands of followers. One person with the belief overrides thousands of people with just intent. Your life, guys, is not about making money. It’s not about having the titles, it’s not about having the hot trophy wife. Your life is about a moment to come. It’s inevitable. Right now we have the most valuable asset on earth on our side: time! But it’s running out and right now you guys are sitting there and to make that first step towards greatness is the hardest step. But there is one thing harder than that, my friend. It’s later in life. As you look back on your life. The window of opportunity has closed. Your ability is no longer present and you think back that you could have been great.

Right now you have the ability to never had that debate inside your head. That’s the debate you can never win. You can go back and forth, back and forth, but there’s no verdict. The jury’s always going to be in the jury room – it’s never going to come back saying, ‘You did okay’. What you will do is you will bury that deep inside. You won’t tell anyone that you could have been this. You will be second best to your true potential and you’ll live your life fine. But then one of your friends going to succeed in some endeavour and you’re going to hate him for it because his success is a spotlight shining down your missed opportunities. We all have the ability to do anything. There’s people in here far superior than me, but there’s no one here that will work harder than me.”

Les Brown: “Whatever you want to do, whatever idea that you have, the longer that you’re sitting on that idea, you are either creating or you are disintegrating. If you’re not using it, your skills are diminishing every day and there goes a second, there does another second and life is happening right now. Get your butt out of the way!”

T.D. Jakes: “I know I put in it what it takes to withstand the pressure. So what, your neighbours say, you don’t know what you got, you don’t know what you’ve got until all hell breaks loose. You don’t know what you can take until the pressure is applied to your life. You don’t know what you can endure and take though until people stab you in the back and walk away from you. You don’t know how much courage you have until you’ve been under fire, and under struggle, and under tribulation. You can’t learn what’s in you sitting back on a lazy boy chair hitting the remote control watching… but when all hell breaks loose, that’s when you get to see what you got.”

Monday Morning Motivation – Unlimited you

Life isn’t about finding your limits. It’s about realizing you have none.

Narrator: Shhh. Baby Daniel is just waking up. He’s going to win a State Championship one day.
Narrator: This guy? He’ll run a marathon.
Runner:Who will?
Narrator: You, man!
Runner: Me?
Narrator: She is going to have the best swing in the state.
Golfer: Who, me?
Narrator: Yep, that’s right.
Narrator: She will totally win the city open tournament.
Tennis player: Get out?!
Narrator: Oh my god, you get out. All of these athletes are terrible now. But, they’ll do big things one day. But, this is where everyone reaches their athletic peak. Go, Barry!
Swimmer: Get tough! I’m winning!
Narrator: Be cool, Barry. Be cool. One year ago, I said, she would score… every… time… she had… the ball. And guess what?
Footballer: Now I score every time I get the ball.
Narrator: I know. When everyone pushes their limits, they reach their maximum potential and they live happily ever af…
Gymnast: What? Hold up. I’m not done. Hey.
Narrator: No, you’re done, that’s a wrap.
Gymnast: It’s a warm up! [kicks JUST DO IT off the screen]
Narrator: Oh come on! That was my tagline! Hey, story’s over. What are you doing? Whoa! He’s going to kill you! And your mother’s going to kill me!
Boxer’s mother: I’m going to kill you!
Narrator: So sorry, ma’am. What are..what are you doing?!
Diver: You said, I could do amazing things.
Narrator: I didn’t mean jump off a frickin’ cliff!
Runner child: I’ve never lost.
Narrator: Kid, you can’t out sprint a sprinter. You can’t either! Zach, what are you doing on top of that van? Aaron!
Basketball player: Hey.
Narrator: What are you guys doing?!
Cyclist: Watch this.
Narrator: Oh! Whaaat?! I can’t take it. Neymar, whoa! That is humiliating on so many levels. Oooh! Giancarlo. Serena. What kind of training is that?!
Serena Williams: Excuse me?
Narrator: So sorry. Nyjah, that is so unnecessary.
Child playing American football: Ahhh!
Narrator: Whoa, Tim, Tim… You can’t be the star of every sport.
Martial artist: Yes, he can.
Narrator: Come on!
Fencer: Let’s do this.
Narrator: No, no let’s not do this. Run! Everybody is going… way… too… far! Hello?! Why is no one listening to me? You too, Mo! Stop! The race is over, man! Oh, kid, no, no, no, no, no… Kid, please, please don’t do this. Psst.
Child on skateboard: I got this.
Narrator: This is out of control.

Monday Morning Motivation – Be tougher than your life is

Scott Medcudi: “I knew I was on a mission, on a very specific quest. You know, it was bigger than just wanting to be a musician or do movies. It was about finally showing the world what Scott could do. I wasn’t the best student. At that moment in life you feel like that’s all that matters. High school’s like, ‘Oh this girl doesn’t like me, this guy here’ and it’s all this drama, this drama and you go onto the real world and you know what it’s about. Just trying to make your mark in the world and I never got a chance to do that academically, so I had this fire. I had this fire to pursue this musical career.”

Eric Thomas: “If you only have 24 hours in a day your success is dependent upon how you use the 24. You got to hear me. People talk about Oprah Winfrey, you know, Ted Turner, Warren Buffett – listen to me. I don’t care how much money you make, you only get 24 hours in a day and the difference between Oprah and the person that’s broke is Oprah uses her 24 hours wisely. That’s it. Listen to me, that’s it. You get 24. I don’t care if you’re broke, you grew up broke, I don’t care if you grew up rich. I don’t care if you’re in college; you’re not in college. You only get 24 hours and I blew up literally. I went from being a high school drop out to selling six thousand books in less than six months. What happened with my 24 hours? I was like,  ‘Okay, here you got to get a grip on your 24 hours, because you’re about to be broke for the rest of your life’, and that’s all I need you to do for me. I can tell you all about your life, if you just write down your 24-hour schedule for me, you let me look at it, I can tell you where you going to be in five years, I can tell you where you’re going to be in 10 years, I can tell you when you gonna be 20 years, if you keep that schedule.”

Chris Ross: “Some of you are doing OK, as you say, but want to go to the next level, but none of you are going to reach the next level unless you’re committed every day to be better than yesterday. I know none of you are happy with average. Average is not for you and average will not be you. You might be at a great level, but you must understand there is always another level. At the same intensity week in, week out. And expect improved results. The world doesn’t work like that. You give more and you get more. You must understand that despite perceived limitations, if you push yourself, you can always raise the bar in your life. You have to always raise the bar. First you set the standard, then you raise the bar. Don’t you dare quit. Don’t you dare settle. Don’t you dare back down. Not today or any other day. When the tough moments come, never forget you are in that moment writing your legacy. In that tough moment you are setting the standard for your character. Do you have the character? You do! Never forget, never quit. The key is hard work. The key is found in my grind, in my hussle, the key is found in believing in myself. The key is believing in myself, when no-one else does. The key is my obsession with reaching success, my obsession with reaching my targets. The key is out working my ??? The key is sacrificing my today for a better tomorrow. The key is in getting out of my comfort zone and pushing myself past perceived limitations. The key is in daily growth. The key is sticking it out when times are tough. The key is being tougher than my life is. The key is using my pain as fuel to drive me to success. The key is in my goals. Goals so big they scare small minds. The key is in my vision. The vision that keeps getting bigger every time that I conquer my last goal. The key is in taking responsibility for my life, no matter what happens, no matter what tests my life throws my way.The key is in doing whatever it takes. The key is within me. The key… the key is within me.”

“I just want to show you something. When I was broke, when I was broke, if you looked at my schedule you’ll see that I woke up whenever I felt like waking up. That’s what you’ll see first. Now, I told you before you watched my video. I studied the top millionaires in the world and I discovered that they all wake up at 3:00/3:30 in the morning. You say, ‘How did you find that out?’ ‘Cause they were all talking about the 3 o’clock news. I didn’t even know news came on that early, I’m going to be real! But that’s it: 3:30. I start thinking, I’m like wow – if they’re getting up at 3:00/3:30 and everyone else os getting up at 8:00/8:30, the reason why they’re successful is not because they are smart, the reason why they’re successful is because they’ve just got a 5 hour jump on the world! So I started first at seven o’clock and then I played a trick on life. I started getting up at 7 o’clock in the morning and then you know how the time changes, well I’d pretend like it was still the same time when it went back. Then, I’d start getting up at six and the year after that when the time went back again, I’d just pretend like it was the same time and I started getting up at five. And then the next year, I’d start getting up at four and now I get up at three. And I’m going to be honest with you, I’ve been getting up at three for 6 months and it’s getting bad now. Sometimes I’m getting up at 2:15, sometimes 1:45 and I’m starting to see everything in my life change. Why? Because I’m putting more time in. And guess what? If you get up at 2 and put in work, if you finish you can take a nap!”

“Life will throw you a ton of curve balls. It’s scary, but like if you believe, man, if you believe and if you want it and if you want to work hard enough for it, it can be so.”

Monday Morning Motivation – When it hurts

Quentin Tarantino: Bottom line is the fact that I realised that even the group people I hung around with, you know, it was easy for me to think that I was doing a lot because I was doing more to try to move myself forward than they were and I should be the weakest link in my chain that I have and that will make me be stronger and make me run faster. I mean like an analogy I’ve always used is, all right, if you run the hundred-yard dash with people that can’t run as fast, yeah, you’ll win hands down, yeah you know that, but if you run with people much faster than you, all right, yeah you might come in last every single time but your time will be better because they’re making you run all the faster. They’re making you dig down just a little bit more. It doesn’t matter that you run, your time is faster.”

William Hollis: “My dreams don’t live down there – that’s what my granddad used to tell me. When I used to walk into projects, I look down – I see crack needles, I see bullets, I see bloodstains… but when I looked in the sky, I saw my dreams. I saw my opportunity. When I would go to school they would tell me I was too dumb. They told me I’d be like my father, like my family. Selling dope! Going to the penitentiary. Never seeing what the real world would be. See, I was a kid couldn’t read till was 16, but my dream was bigger than my reality. I’m telling you, young king, keep fighting, because your life depends on it. Just like when you get hit with that bullet and your boys are telling you don’t stop breathing, don’t stop fighting. You still got life to live, because if you lay there in your pool of blood, you’re going to die there, young king. Young king learn how to fight for your purpose and not the money.”

Tony Robbins: “You got to have a vision. A vision for what it is you really truly want. A vision is about what you’re here to create. A vision that really works is one that excites you. It has to be a compelling vision, has got to have something that has the power to pull you, not something you have to push yourself to do. With the two different kinds of motivation push requires willpower and willpower never lasts. What will last is pull. Having something so exciting, so attractive so… something you desire so much, that you have a hard time going to sleep at night, you get so up early in the morning to a rocket and take it to the next level.”

Chris Ross: “Do you know what it takes to be great? Are you willing to go that extra mile. Our grinder wakes up early; he stays up late. I tell you time and time again you will get tired, but if you have a why it will give you that extra strip, that extra foot you need, that extra hour you need. The courage. The mental mentality. Why are you different from everyone else who’s trying to do the same thing you’re doing? What makes you stand out? Why are you so important? Somebody is waiting for you to mess up. Somebody is waiting for you to give up. Someone is waiting for you to fall. So, don’t just talk about your grind. Don’t just talk about how much you’re this and that. Show me!”

Les Brown: “Now what do you do during the hard times, Les? Here’s what you must do. Number one is: you must have faith. Paul said you must have the faith to call forth those things that be not as though they were. Judge not according to appearances. Don’t judge your circumstances and the possibilities for your future based upon what you have now and because of what’s going on now. No, no, no, no. That’s not the real reality there! What you’re going through, if you’re going through some hard times, it has not come to stay, it has come to pass. No matter how bad it is or how bad it gets I’m going to make it… as I used to say to myself when I would get up in the Bernard Scott building and I had to go into the bathroom and bathe in the bathroom sink, I have written on the mirror that I put up this piece that I read,  ‘No matter how bad it is or how bad it gets, I’m going to make it!’ – so you’ve got to have faith, you talk to yourself, you say that affirmation. The next step is you must have patience. and engage in consistent action.”

“Get back up. Somethings you can’t change, you just have to live with. What if you do have a choice? Make the right choice. When it hurts, keep going. Those cloudy days, those storms tell you to keep going. Get back up. Dust yourself off.”

“When you wake up every morning what drives you?”