Sometimes You Just Need Someone to Believe in You

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Spencer C. Young

Brees & Burbon St.

You may have faced a challenge in your life, and thought you did everything possible to overcome it . . . yet it remained unresolved.

Or perhaps you’ve had a lifelong dream you’ve been diligently preparing for and working toward, and appears to be within reach . . . however, the more you strive for it during “the home stretch”, the more distant it seems to become.  Compounding matters, you may have had to endure set-backs at the worst possible moment, making the prospect of realizing your dream increasingly remote.  At that point, that unwelcome visitor named “Discouragement”, comes knocking on your door — do NOT let him in.

It could be that you just need someone to believe in you.  Moral support and encouragement are in rare supply, but they are things that EVERYONE needs to not only overcome challenges or realize a dream . . . but to do things never thought possible.  Find that person, or those people ! . . . they’re out there.

The Drew Brees / New Orleans story is a perfect example.  As perhaps the shortest quarterback in the NFL, and playing for the San Diego Chargers, he received an apparent career-ending injury to his throwing shoulder.  At that point, no NFL team wanted a quarterback who not only couldn’t see over the heads of his linemen . . . but he couldn’t throw the ball — and this is an important capability for a quarterback in the NFL to possess.

Drew Brees Dislocates Shoulder

At around the same time, New Orleans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and many were predicting the demise of this wonderful and historic city — for the carnage appeared so severe, it was widely thought to be a situation the people of New Orleans could not possibly recover from.

Katrina

Despite extensive surgery, and unrelenting physical therapy, it seemed no one in the NFL believed in Drew Brees . . . except for New Orleans.   And no NFL quarterback believed in New Orleans . . . except Drew Brees.  And that’s all  it took.

Posted in Engaging Support, Getting Inspired, Knowing Yourself, Never Giving Up, Thinking Positive & BIG | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pick Your Battles . . . But ALWAYS Defend Your Reputation

Posted on January 27, 2011 by Spencer C. Young

Choose Wisely

An inevitability in life is having to face challenges, which when addressed, evolve into confrontations or “battles”.  You have two choices: engage; or not engage.  Before you decide, be mindful of the importance of being selective in those you choose to fight, because if you fight too many, you’ll end up losing them all.  Thus you need to foretell the future as best you can  and consider the ramifications either way — but this is admittedly no “walk in the park”.

Nevertheless, there are situations where your decision is easy, because there is only ONE choice . . . and that is to FIGHT with every spare ounce of energy you can possibly muster. And should this altercation become increasingly protracted, dispiriting you along the way, you must NEVER give up.  And if you later reach the point of emotionally breaking, while reeling from utter exhaustion . . . it is then time to KICK IT UP ANOTHER NOTCH! . . . because you must ALWAYS defend your good name, and recognize failure is NOT an option.

The video presented below features a collection of hilariously modified events reported in the national media, helping to drive home the following points:

  • Pick Your Battles — There are some battles that are just not worth fighting, for your energies would be better served pursuing productive endeavors.
  • Protect Your Good Name — If your personal character and/or professional competence are wrongfully affronted, you MUST fight such attacks and NEVER relent in your quest to prevail with the “TRUTH”.
  • Understand the Dangerous Downside — If you don’t defend your reputation, you are affirming such smears, and saying to unsavory others;  “Hey you out there!!  I’m a human piñata, so come and get your swings in !” Unfortunately, there is a macabre tendency in some people to want to “pile on” in such situations . . . in other words, kick’em when they’re down.
  • Recognize You Would Otherwise Be Supporting Bullies — Worse yet, by not defending yourself from false and malicious accusations, you are encouraging those who attack you to do likewise to others.  Accordingly, this is an arena where EVERYONE MUST BE A LEADER.

Note: There is ONE exception to the rule of ALWAYS protecting your reputation — if you have built a public persona based on fraud and deceit, DON’T YOU DARE try to protect something that should have NEVER existed . . . for the time has come to expose those frauds and dismantle kakistocracies wherever they may exist in the public and private sectors — for by doing so, we will “replace the worst with the very best”. . . as it should be.  This will bring back integrity to the notion of rewarding productive achievement, and unleash the infectious “yes we can” spirit in many others that could very well become the long-elusive solution for high unemployment.  And this is not just a catchy political slogan . . . it’s an empirically proven FACT.

Posted in Being a Leader, Knowing Yourself, Never Giving Up, Picking Your Battles, Protecting Your Reputation | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Realm of Possibility

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Spencer C. Young
rainbow-CRR
When You Embrace “The Realm of Possibility”, You’ll Have No Problem Finding Your Rainbow

Turn on the news on any given day, at any given time, and you’re bound to get a healthy dose of “what you don’t like in this world”.

And although virtually every half-hour TV news broadcast will end with an upbeat 2 – 3 minute human interest story, it is often a feckless effort to raise your spirits in relation to the 20 minute summary of abysmally depressing events that transpired that day.  And if you don’t have a DVR to zip past the 7 – 8 minutes of commercials, you’re hit with reminders of physical maladies, be it overweight, arthritis or erectile dysfunction, along with inculcations to “speak to your doctor” about a drug you can’t pronounce, which has side effects such as blindness, loss of hearing and possibly sudden death.

And that news broadcast did not cover ANY the problems and issues YOU are facing in YOUR world, but in that half-hour, the “news” certainly seemed to make them appear larger and more challenging to overcome.  Now before succumbing to an urge to head off to the nearest corner of the room, and curl into a tight fetal position (or God-forbid, something worse), keep in mind your happiness is something very much in YOUR control. A somewhat modified quote by Eleanor Roosevelt expresses this best . . .

“No one can make you feel sad and depressed without your consent“.

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Now surely managing your emotions is easier said, than done — but I’m also likely not the first person who told you this.  And you can dismiss this notion, as you may have done in the past, but I can assure you with 100% certainty that it is true. Go to any self-help guru and you’ll find there are many ways to go about this . . . but they are all, in effect, trying to do the same thing — change your mindset. Notwithstanding, you will surely end up with disappointing results if you don’t believe it is “within the realm of possibility”.

If you were to ask someone what the most powerful message was in the movie Pay It Forward, they will likely respond  along the lines of “perpetuating selfless good deeds by asking those you help to do likewise for someone else”.  But they would be WRONG . . . the correct answer is “The Realm of Possibility” — for it was this concept introduced by an innovative social studies teacher (played by Kevin Spacey) to his 7th-grade class, that instigated one of his students (“Trevor”, played by Haley Joel Osment) to come up with the idea of “paying [goodwill] forward”.

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On the classroom board was the year-long assignment: “Think of an idea to change our world — and put it into action.”  The realm of possibility is exactly this — a mindset from which perhaps EVERY world-and-life-changing idea or invention grew from. And how large that realm may be is limited only by YOU.

So the next time you see something in this world you don’t like . . . DO SOMETHING about it . . . and do so in a MEANINGFUL way . . . for it is within the realm of possibility that YOU can make a difference, and help transform the reporting of “news” into an uplifting experience.

And for goodness sake, do it NOW — don’t let YOUR petty little problems get in the way. For in MEANINGFULLY resolving issues that have vexed many others, something magical happens . . . YOUR problems shrink and go away . . . and that long elusive happiness you’ve been striving for, suddenly envelopes your sense of being.

Welcome to YOUR world of Self-Actualization.

Posted in Being a Leader, Getting Inspired, Thinking Positive & BIG | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Christmas Lights Bring Smiles and Holiday Cheer

Posted on December 25, 2010 by Spencer C. Young

There’s a community on the west coast of Florida, which takes displaying festive holiday cheer to an entirely different level, as compared with most communities.  It’s a subdivision of Palm Harbor called Indian Trails.

Each year, during the holiday season, the residents of this upscale community seem to engage in a degree of one-upsmanship — to the benefit and delight of anyone who sojourns to this quaint enclave . . . particularly at night — for the majority of homes here are adorned with a captivating and often mesmerizing array of Christmas lights, and ornaments seemingly left behind by Gulliver during his travels.

During the holiday season at night there are cars, at times bumper-to-bumper, snaking their way around at about 2 mph,  as occupants of all ages ogle at the outdoor electroluminescent displays with fingers pointing in all directions, no doubt saying things like “. . . and look at THOSE over there!” And many end up parking their car, as they endeavor to take everything in on foot.

Kudos to the peacock residents of Indian Trails for bringing smiles and holiday cheer to many others.  The video montage below attempts to capture a small piece of St. Nick’s Magic Kingdom — “[Merry] Christmas to all.  And to all, a good night”.

 

Posted in Getting Inspired, Loving Others, Thinking Positive & BIG | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

You’ve Got To Fight For Every Inch

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Spencer C. Young

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Set-backs are a part of life — and how we respond to them ultimately determines whether we are a “success” or “failure”.

The below video clip is an inspirational pre-game speech from the movie, Any Given Sunday, starring Al Pacino — it is delivered by a head football coach to his team before the biggest game of their lives, and at their darkest hour.  They are about to take the field against a formidable opponent, after experiencing devastating loses from outright team dysfunction — the result of pervasive individualism and overwhelming selfishness, which he likens to being “in Hell”.

One Inch At A TIme - 640 x 275

In his speech, he associates life with football, which he describes as a “game of inches”, where the margin for error is so small, the “inches” can make the difference between winning or losing.  So he implores them to “claw” their way back out of their Hell “one inch at a time”, and to do so AS A TEAM . . . NOT as individuals — because “when you add up all those inches”, they become”the difference between winning and losing” . . . be it a football game . . . or in the game of Life.

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Many elements of self-actualization are represented in this video, most notably:

  • Getting Inspired — If this clip doesn’t inspire you, check to see if you have a pulse
  • Being a Leader — This epic speech exemplifies leadership at its best
  • Knowing Yourself — The coach acknowledges his past mistakes
  • Team Building — He gives them a reason to believe in, and rely on each other
  • Never Giving Up — If you EVER feel like giving up on anything, just watch this

Start Fighting For EVERYTHING Worth Fighting For . . . Even If It Amounts To Just One Inch At A Time

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Posted in Being a Leader, Getting Inspired, Knowing Yourself, Never Giving Up, Team Building | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments