This has been an entry that I have been looking forward to
writing, I will waste no time with a fancy intro.
If you are like me, the feeling of not getting to where you
want or wanted to be in life has at some point arisen in your thoughts.
Where you are right now in life is a result of what your plan was a year
ago. The only chance you have at getting
to a different place begins with changing the way you think. It is a choice that is all yours. You have the choice to change the way your
mind looks at circumstances, the choice to control your thoughts. Different thinking patterns will change your
future. Changing “there is no way I can
handle this” or “I can’t do this” to “I will find a way” will have a tremendous
affect on where you are one year from now.
One major realization that I would like you to make is: you
can do or have anything you want. I
repeat, you can do or have anything you want.
So many of us have been told “you can’t do this” or “you won’t be able
to do that.” If you are like me, you were
told repeatedly that you were not good enough to do anything. Forget all of that – it does not matter or
mean a thing. A good majority of the
time it was only from someone who hated themselves or they were so miserable in
their life, they wanted you to be where they are. Unfortunately this includes loved ones. This is one of the main reasons why it is
imperative to surround yourself with positive and influential people. Being around negative people can wreak havoc
in your life and destroy the chances of you realizing your full potential. Stay away from them! My first stint in rehab, a counselor told me
that out of all the patients, he knew I would be the first to fail. I listened to him and did fail. Thank God I eventually worked with someone
who helped me see life in a different way.
If someone does tell you something negative, thank them for their
unwanted opinion and move on!
In this entry we are only going to focus on the first step
to realizing your ultimate everything and that first step is
visualization. Don’t make worry as to
the “how’s”, just do the visualizing. When
done correctly, the "how" will make itself known (don’t say "how" am I going to go
back to school or "how" am I going to own my own business, etc.). From the time I can earliest remember, I
wanted to bowl and be a star on the Professional Bowlers Tour. Once I read a baby book comment that
described a four year old Anthony that threw across the room any birthday
present that wasn’t bowling related. It
was my first and only dream. When the
car accident was followed by the pain med addiction, the dream was taken away
and life was meaningless to me. Getting
a taste of that dream only made it worse.
For ten years I danced with the devil.
Year after year I was in the same place because the only thing that
played in my mind was that I couldn’t get clean, or I didn’t have the strength or
know how to do it. Even worse, I let
myself think I wasn’t good enough to do anything else and I deserved what I was
going through. Once I made the
commitment to get clean and was given the proper tools to begin life anew, I
was able to make some sense of life again and found myself slowly beginning to
have aspirations come to the surface.
With the help of some great people, I was able to change “there is no
way I can get clean” into “I will be drug free” and “there is no way I can be a
student again” turned into “I will be a college graduate.” You see, there is always a way. The way may not be easy, but it does
exist. When I think back five to six
year ago, so many obstacles jumped in the way, but I made a promise to myself
to never again say “no way” and to never again think I wasn’t deserving of
whatever I wanted. I left the last rehab facility with only the shirt on my back and the smallest piece of dignity. However, I had a dream again and it led me to where I am now. A very influential
person in my life once shared a piece of paper with me that had the following
on it:
·
After Fred Astaire’s first screen test with MGM,
the talent director wrote the following memo: “Can’t act, can’t sing. Slightly bald….can dance a little.” Fred Astaire kept this memo and eventually
framed and hung it above the fireplace in his Beverly Hills home.
·
Winston Churchill failed the sixth grade. He was defeated in every election for public
office until he became Prime Minister at age 62.
·
Thomas Edison’s teacher once wrote on his report
card that he was “too stupid to learn anything.” He was fired from jobs for being
non-productive and had 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light
bulb. When asked what it was like to
fail 1,000 times, he replied, “I didn’t.
The light bulb was an invention with 1,001 steps.”
·
Abraham Lincoln failed as a businessman, a
lawyer, was defeated for six different attempts at public office, and went
bankrupt. In 1858, he wrote a friend, “I
am now the most miserable man living.”
He would become president just a few years later.
·
Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs, but struck out
1,330 times in his career. Some say
winners make the most errors.
·
Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor
because he felt Disney lacked in imagination and had not one good idea. Walt went bankrupt several times before he
built Disneyland. The city of Anaheim
(home of Disneyland) even rejected the proposed park on grounds that it would
attract “riffraff”. One interesting
note: Walt wouldn’t hire Charles Schultz (Peanuts creator). Schultz had every cartoon rejected by his
high school yearbook and local paper.
You will never be a failure unless
you give up. Sure you will have
temporary setbacks that everyone experiences.
Chalk them up as life lessons.
For successful people, failure is the fuel to do more. As you read this, I am working on the dream
that has been with me since the day I left rehab (the last one (: ). Have most turned away their ear? I could list
them. Have doors been shut? Many. But, I have visualized it and will not take
no for an answer. The rest of the
regimen is worked on each day. I won’t
be one of those people who give up just before it was about to happen. And never again will I give satisfaction to the people who said I couldn't do it - I urge you to do the same.
In the following posts, I will
help you map out the basic steps to realizing your dream. I dare you to do this with me. I dare you to yearn for what you were meant
to be! As Mama Cass once sang, I want
you to “dream a little dream for me.”
Begin now. Start writing and do
it now. Channel the mind of a
child. Don’t worry about the categories
or how you will accomplish any of it.
Just write it out. We will work
on the rest in the next post. Just do
it! This could be the start of something
big!
Go Well.....Anthony
Please feel free to add comments or you can personally email me. I look forward to hearing from you.
