I would like to introduce you to two different guys. The first one spends his day flying on his private jet, to his private island, wearing fancy suits, where he sleeps in his $40,000 bed, in his own castle. The place he works and conducts business and feels like a king. We will call him Benjamin. Benjamin has a lovely wife and three beautiful kids. Some would say Benjamin has the perfect life.
Man #2 spends his days in dirty, worn and tattered clothes, his hair is a mess. He holds a sign asking for food to eat. We will call him rusty. Rusty lost his wife and doesn't ever see his kids because he liked to drink himself to sleep to cover the pain of losing his big job.
You may think Rusty had some bad luck and that may have been. You may think Benjamin had a better upbringing, maybe so. What if Rusty started a new job, got some new clothes and a house? Does that mean he can't end up back on the side of the road with the sign again? No, it doesn't.
Did you know that over 70% of people that win a big jackpot in the lottery wind up broke again. They all say the same thing. “I will know what to do different next time." But how often do they get a second chance? Not very often! If you never learn how to accept change you will never be able to handle change.
First you must learn why change is needed. "Why,” is the driving force to something different. Whether you want more money, a better relationship, a new car or even a new house. If you don't understand why then you'll most likely take it for granted.
Rusty doesn't have bad luck he just made some bad choices. Rusty liked to be comfortable but kept to himself. He loved to binge watch TV and kept a cold one in his hand to ease the pain of the life he once had and lost. He lived in the past. Why did this happen? Why me? They did this to me! It is their fault! Not mine. What am I going to do now? The problem was he just felt sorry for himself. So pity is all he experienced. His vision of himself blocked out all the good in his life.
OK, back to Benjamin. He grew up with six siblings in a one-bedroom apartment. Always begging the neighbors for food. Benjamin learned at a young age his “WHY”. His WHY was to just be able to live life without poverty and to take care of his family. He plans out his day to the T. He takes care of his health. He reaches for things outside his comfort zone. Benjamin even took up skydiving, to free the mind.
Picture this, when you go skydiving, you have to put on a parachute. And what is the purpose of that parachute? To slow you down from an accelerated state and that's all fine and good when you are falling to the earth at over 100 miles an hour, but most of us are like rusty. We have on parachutes in life, slowing us down from being our best selves, slowing down our accelerated progress. As we should be free falling towards our vision of success on this journey called life. Most of us are being slowed down by our parachutes of fear, our insecurities, our past beliefs, or the biggest parachute of all, self-doubt. The thought that you are just not good enough or ready yet, slows us down the most.
But why do you think thoughts of doubt so easily? The same brain that thought the limiting belief can believe just the opposite. You can do anything if you put in the time. Time is the key to cutting those parachutes loose. Time is funny; you can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it, you can never get it back.
Can you think of three opportunities that Benjamin, Rusty and all of us are given everyday?
- Time
- The ability to think for ourselves
- The ability to make a choice
We all get 86,400 seconds every day and every single one is priceless. If you're given $86,400 to spend every day, what you don't spend you lose forever. And the next day you are given $86,400 again. You're going to fight to get the most out of every single penny. You get 86,400 valuable seconds every day to make your life the best it can be. Don't waste any of that time, it is truly your most valuable commodity.
The ability to think for ourselves and learn came from the amazing brain. It can generate up to 70,000 thoughts a day. It processes faster than any existing computer and runs at the speeds of the fastest race car and it has virtually infinite storage capacity. Even when damaged it is capable of producing genius. Just like a fingerprint it is uniquely yours and there are no two alike. Your ability to use your brain and think for yourself truly make you a force to be reckoned with.
The choices we make create the life we live. If you don't like the life you are living, choose to do something different. If you love the life you're living, choose to keep doing what you're doing. But choose to keep learning so you can adapt to the changes that come your way. Learn from your mistakes and choose to do better.
See it doesn't matter if you're like Benjamin or like Rusty. Everything can change depending on how you utilize your time, use your brain and the choices we make. It’s not what happened to us or where we come from, cut those parachutes and move on. Life is what you make of it. You are only destined to do whatever you choose to do, so do it BIG!