Understand That Failure Is A Part Of The Process! by {Rob Moore}

I came up with a quote and it goes like this, “Obstacles, disappointments and failure are just a few of the ingredients necessary to become successful.” Very rarely are you going to make one attempt towards your goal and achieve that goal with that one attempt. Very rarely is that going to happen. You’re going to have failure upon failure upon failure upon failure before you reach your goal. You are going to fail your way to success. So, you might as well prepare yourself for that so you don’t get discouraged when you don’t hit your goal with the first attempt, the second attempt or the third.

Now, I can tell you many times when I failed. There are probably more times than I can remember. No, there are many more times than I can remember when I failed. Let me just give you a few of the high points that I can remember when I was trying to build a career with a major supermarket chain.

When I was a part time seafood clerk and I went from my first manager, assistant management position, I was extremely prepared for the interview. Probably more prepared than most people prepare for an interview because I ask people that went through the interview process for this position. I asked one of the individuals that was responsible for training people in management within the seafood department.

Well, I read the policy and procedure manual, sometimes I interview people. I read the mission statement for the company and I was well prepared for this interview. So I went in there and I was being interviewed by a seafood specialist, the store manager of the store that I was interviewing for and also as human resource specialist and I got questions from all three of these individuals. And let me tell you, they shot out a question, I shot out an answer real quick without even having to think about it. I remember the store manager asking me a question that he thought I was going to get wrong because most people do get this question wrong. He asked me, “What was the company’s mission statement?”

I gave him this look like, “You think I don’t know, but yes I do know” and then I spit it out back at him real quick and he was shocked to believe and hear that I got that question right. And towards the end of the interview, the seafood specialist was blown away by my interview. He loved it. He said I was well prepared. I hit all the questions and he said that I did a phenomenal job; one of the best interviews he’s ever had. And then, they said they will give me a call the next day to let me know if I got the job or not.

They called the job. They told me I didn’t get the job. I asked, “Why would I not get the position?”  And they told me the one reason why I didn’t get the position is because they asked me a question of what were my long term goals and what I said was, “I would like to go back to college.” Now to me, that seemed like the right thing to say because it was the truth. But to them, it looked as if that I was only in for this management position for the short term. Not the long term. So, I failed to get the position but I learned from that.

I reapplied when the next position came up and I hit all the questions just like I hit them before. I was on fire. But when they asked me that one question about what my long term goals were. Instead of me telling that I was going to go to college one day. I told them that I wanted to have a career with Price Chopper which was the truth. And believe it or not, I never went back to college again. I ended up getting the job.

There was another time when I failed. I was doing such a great job as an assistant manager in the seafood department that they asked me to become a temporary seafood manager at another store because they didn’t have any seafood managers at the time. So I got very excited, I took the position on. And let me tell you something, I got a rude awakening  because I was only an assistant manager for 8 months and 8 months really isn’t enough to become good enough to move up to the next level.

So, I went into this temporary position and I got hit with so many things that I did not know that I was stressed out. And when the time came for them to post the position, I was so frustrated, I was so not wanting to be a seafood manager that I did not put in for the position. And I was making 14 bucks at the time. You know, to me now that doesn’t seem like a lot but at that time it did. And I ended up giving up this position and my pay dropped to like $11 and some change. I believe it was top rate for assistant seafood manager at that time. So, I failed to become a seafood manager at that time.

And then finally, I went back to the assistant manager role. I loved it. I did a great job. I got all the training I needed. I learned all the things that I needed to learn and I was like, “Man, if I would’ve known this stuff, I would have been so much more successful and I wouldn’t have got frustrated and I would have been a seafood manager.” 

Then something else happened I found out that my son was on the way into this world. And I knew, I had to get really focused because 10, $11 and some change is not enough to raise a kid.

So I got hungry really, really quick and I wanted to get into this management role more than you know. I applied for a position in a Newburgh location, Newburgh, New York. I went to the interview and I couldn’t even answer all of the questions. I was not as prepared as I was before, I got hit with so many other questions that I have never heard before and I actually got in a very bad argument with my ex-girlfriend at the time that really throw off my thinking.

I got to the interview literally 5 minutes before I was supposed to be there. It was just a total disaster. I got the call the next day and when I walked out of that interview, I knew I didn’t get the job because I just did not feel good about the interview. I didn’t feel anything good about any of those things.

So I got the call, the lady told me I didn’t get the position. So I was back to the drawing board. Back being an assistant manager and then finally, another position came up in Vails Gate, New York and I applied for that position. And it was only me and one other person going up for this position and I answered all the questions and then, there was a break in the middle of the interview because the store manager that was asking the question, he got a phone call and he had to leave the room. But it was the store manager there and it was the seafood specialist that were asking all the questions and I answered all the questions very well.

But, what my seafood specialist told me was that I wasn’t really selling myself. I wasn’t really going above and beyond to really show this store manager why I should become his seafood manager. And I was going up against an individual that was already the assistant there who had something ahead of me. She was already there. The store manager already knew her and it would be very easy and more comfortable for her to move up right into that position than me. I didn’t really do a good job of showing why I would be a better fit and I did not get that position.

Now, let me tell you something. By this time, I’m feeling like, “I’m never going to become a seafood manager ever again or never even getting an opportunity in that position.” 

Then I was like, “You know what?  My time will come. I just have to keep learning more, pushing myself more, doing the things that I was doing when I was a part time seafood clerk to get me into management.”  I had to go back to the basics. I had to get more training. I had to read more books. I had to ask more questions. I had to show that I deserved to have that position.

When the next job was posted, there was no question whether I was going to get the job or not. It was a no-brainer.

I learned from all those mistakes because then, when I went for another seafood position, I was a little bit higher, volume store. I applied those same techniques and strategies of training myself, continuing to get better, pushing myself, training myself, going to classes, picking people’s brains that were already successful. And from that time on, I never ever failed at getting a promotion with that company – never.

But the truth of the matter is, you have to understand that failure is a part of the process. Failure is how you were going to learn. Failure is necessary in order to become successful. So instead of getting discouraged, instead of being disappointed, just understand that everything happens for a reason.

Failure is just going to show you what you need to do in order to get to the next level. Understand that failure is just a part of the process and when you understand that and you use those failures as teachings and ways of getting solutions to propel yourself to the next level, you will become unstoppable.

New Habit Creation! By Rob Moore

You’re in for a real treat because what I’m about to share with you are a bunch of the new habits that I had to create in order to change the results I was getting. It took me years to collect these habits but now you have an opportunity to achieve success much faster than I did.

All of these habits really come down to one thing and that thing is how you lead yourself. I believe that Jim Rohn put it best when he said “You must work harder on yourself than you do on your job”. Most people believe that the harder you work on your job, in school, or in your business, the more successful you will become.

This is true to some extent but you can only go so far. By working harder on yourself, the results that you can produce are endless and limitless. Why is this true? When you work on yourself, you’re working on your mind. You’re building on your strengths. You’re challenging your weaknesses. You’re working on your inner game because whatever is going on inside shows up on the outside.

So how did I start, you’re probably asking yourself. I started with stretching myself further and further so I could grow. I got comfortable being uncomfortable because if I wanted more I knew that I had to become more. Earlier in my book, I shared how I started to read policy and procedure manuals and pushed myself to be the best at every task and responsibility as a part-time seafood clerk. This ended up jump starting my career into management.

I already got a little ahead of myself but the second thing was to start the self-education process by reading manuals. I read everything that I could get my hands on that pertained to the seafood department. Several years later I was put onto books within the field of personal development. I discovered that anything that you ever wanted to learn about in this world, somebody wrote a book on it. In fact, you will find hundreds of books on the same subject with hundreds of different points of view.

The next habit I discovered was the one of listened to audio programs on personal development in the car, in the shower, on a plane, etc. I didn’t like to waist any of my downtime. I carried a book everywhere I went but for the times when reading couldn’t happen I had a walkman or ipod to listen to some audio programs.

Then I was introduced to seminars and training classes and this was and still is my favorite because I got to meet many like-minded people. To me this was the best of all worlds because you get everything at the same time. You can make great connections with other people, you get to hear the presentation, you get to see it, and you get to read it.

I’ve been to so many seminars and classes that I would have to get back to you in a couple of weeks in order to get an accurate count of the ones I attended. I still go to as many as I can fit into my schedule because they’re just that important to my success.

With the technology growing at such a rapid pace, teleseminars and webinars have taken the world by storm. Now you can get the education brought to the comfort of you home and most of these are absolutely 100% free. Now that I think about it there is only one call that I go on a month that actually cost money but I get access to it as part of a coaching program that I’m apart of. Take advantage because I don’t think this will go on forever.

Two more tips and we’re done with this chapter. The first of the two is to find a coach or mentor to help you become successful in whatever it is that you want to be successful in. You might be able to find a mentor for free if you have a close friend or know someone that is successful and that would be great. Then there are coaches out that that are in all different kinds of price ranges depending on what you’re looking for.

I’ve had plenty of mentors over the years and I still do but when it comes down to making the big money, you’re probably going to have to make some investments in yourself eventually. For example I plan on making some significant amounts of money in the speaking business so I have a coach that is one of the top speakers around. I will soon be hiring other coaches to help enhance other aspects of my business as well.

Now I already know what you’re thinking because I thought the same thing when I first heard this. That’s I don’t have any money to invest in a coach and that’s an even bigger reason why you need one. You have to think about the benefits you’ll be receiving because you can’t see the picture when you’re in the frame. When Michael Jordan was at the top of his career, he had a coach because he wanted to get even better. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer out here has a coach so why should you be any different. Get a coach, it is valuable!

Last but definitely not least, get and keep the negative people out of your life. This is huge! Why? Because whether you like it or not, people rub off on you. Don’t believe me? I’ll prove it! Everybody has had at least one time in their life where they found themselves repeating some of their closest friend’s most commonly spoken phrases. I know I have. There’s proof right there for you. It happens all the time. I see people picking up on my phrases all the time and I still find myself doing the same as well.

So instead of just cruising through life, picking up all kinds of things from people that are bringing little to no value, be strategic about it. Hang around with people that have what you want to have one day. Get in the presence of successful people as much as you can.

 
Find a way to network with positive people because they will shine more light on your day. These items will have a direct impact on your mindset and attitude daily. If your mindset and attitude aren’t in positive state you will find it very difficult to manifest your dreams and goals. Like attracts like meaning that when you’re positive, you attract more positive into your life and the opposite is true as well.

These are seven tips that I highly recommend you take the time to create as new habits every day. These are not just my personal habits that I focus on personally; they are habits that highly successful people in general focus on as well.

Whether you are looking to improve your life, get a promotion in your job, do better in school, improve your career or business, developing these new habits will help you become more valuable to the marketplace. Then it will be just a matter of time before you manifest all your dreams and goals one at a time.

Hold Your Self Accountable! By Rob Moore

When I was in my teens, I believed that our lives were laid out for us before we were ever born and that we really had no control over our lives. I don’t know where or who I picked that up from but I soon realized that was not true later on in life.

Just to give you one example, I thought that it was written in stone that my parents were suppose to send me off to college fully paid for after high school. I thought that all I had to do was get my diploma first. Things didn’t seem to work out that easy for me.

When push finally came to shove, my mother broke the news to me that I didn’t see coming at all. She told me that her and my father couldn’t afford to send me away to college. In fact, there were so many things going on at the time that they couldn’t send me to any college. I actually had the nerve to get upset about it. Then I said “You were supposed to put me through college. That’s what parents do”.

I was upset because I thought that since I couldn’t go to college that I was destined to remain a failure for the rest of my life. All of my close friends went way to college and had solid plans for their future. After encountering failure after failure during my school years, I believed that this was the only chance I had left to succeed.

The anger I had inside of me didn’t go on for long because it became very clear that my mother wished she could have done this for me. I can remember her yelling back to me “Don’t you think I feel bad for not being able to do this”. Once I heard that I knew she was right and it hit me like a ton of bricks.

I was being selfish and was only thinking about myself for a majority of my years in this world up until that point and it hurt. After sitting at the kitchen table with my mom, both of us in silence for several minutes, my mindset was beginning to shift.

I didn’t know what to do next but ask my mother “What do I do next”. My mom told me to go to college and this really confused me. I asked for clarification because she just told me that she couldn’t afford it. She told me that I could go to Community College and pay for one class at a time to at least get started.

I said “cool, are you going to pay for that” and without even thinking about it, she said “no”. She told me to work, save my money, and take as many classes as I could to start. Then a light bulb went off in my head and I knew exactly what I had to do.

I had discovered that my life was going to be what I wanted it to be and that I was in 100% control. I was going to work as many hours as I could on my current part-time job, get another job, start with one college course, stop hanging out with the wrong people, and save my money for future college courses.

I walked away from that conversation with a whole new light on life. I felt good, I was energized and I decided that I would never sit back and let life happen to me anymore. I wasn’t going to look for people to blame for my current circumstances and that I was going to make it happen.

Nobody is responsible for my life more than I am and now I wouldn’t have it any other way. Thank God that these things happened this way because if they hadn’t, I might not have ever learned these lessons. Who knows where I would be today if I had never gotten off the path I was following.

I now know that I ‘m always in control of the fruits that I bear in my life no matter what happens. One of my mentors by the name of Jim Rohn says that “It’s not what happens that determines how our life will turn out. It’s what we do about what happens in our life that determines how it’s going to turn out”.

What happens? Happens to all of us and that will never change. So instead of trying to change what happens, change yourself. Take 100% responsibility for everything in your life no matter what. Develop a no excuses and no matter what kind of attitude. Force the universe to bend in your favor so you can live the kind of life that you want to have. Whatever it is that you want to do, if it is to happen for you, it is up to only you. It’s possible!

Perform Better Than The Average Person! by {Rob Moore}

In my mind, I don’t believe that it’s as difficult as many people think to be successful in anything. The reason I say that is because most people are average. Most people want to do just a good job. Most people just want to do what’s expected of them. Most people want to be successful but aren’t willing to do the work to get there.

So all you really have to do is to perform better than the average person to stand out and you will be successful. I have utilized this philosophy throughout my entire career in many different positions. I want to take you back a few years when I was a co-manager for a major supermarket chain.

After my training, I was placed in a high sales volume store. It is very rare that they would put someone in this scenario so early but I wasn’t concerned at all. I was well trained, determined, and ready to help take that store to another level. Earlier in my career and up to this point I’ve studied all of the other co-managers in the area and I wanted to be the best.

I was on track to be a store manager within the next couple of years and I didn’t even want anyone to be able to even question my abilities. What I noticed about the other co-managers was that they just did their job. If they weren’t just doing an average job, they were performing below average. They didn’t do anything extraordinary to get in the spotlight. They didn’t do much to make their store manager’s job easier. They didn’t do much to make upper management want to promote them to store manager.

So there was a lot of opportunity to easily make myself very successful, noticeable, and able to shine above the rest. How did I do that, you’re probably asking yourself. I’m going to share quite a few of the things that I did but they can all be summed up into one word which is “Leadership”. I have always believed that you should start acting in the present just like the person you wish to become.

I wanted to run the store and take over as many duties of my store manager’s tasks as possible. I started off handling all of my tasks and responsibilities and not too far down the road, I was able to take on all of my supervisor’s tasks as well. I remember one time when he got a little mad at me because there was nothing for him to do because he had someone that was anxious to succeed.

I told him that now he could do whatever he wanted to do, take whatever time he wanted off, and spend more time on the sales floor focusing on his objectives. That was funny but I was very hungry for success and I wanted to be the best co-manager in the area. It was nice to hear him say that I was his best co-manager that he ever worked with in his entire career as a store manager.

This story illustrates someone that was very aggressive when it came down to wanting to be the best but you don’t have to take it this far necessarily. All you really have to do is to be just a little better than most of the crowd and people will notice you. Opportunities will begin to present themselves and before you know it your career will begin to take off.

I don’t recommend you stopping there. Why would you want to stop there? Why be just a little better than everyone else? I say do the best you can in everything you do so that you can become a diamond in the rough. Don’t just be better than everyone else, be way better than everyone else.

Always look for opportunities to be better than you were the previous day. Look for ways to make your self more valuable. When you do these kinds of things consistently, you will never have to worry about money again. People will be trying to recruit you to work at another company; you’ll be offered promotions, etc. The only problem you’ll have is which opportunity you are going to take advantage of first all because you choose to perform better than the average person.

Try Different Approaches! by {Rob Moore}

One of the most challenging situations that I have ever gone through was with my son when it came to school. His first year of school was a breeze in Kindergarten like it should but once he started first grade we had some challenges.

He was not living with me at the time and his main issue was focus. My son loves to talk so much that it was distracting him from his school work. He wasn’t a bad kid at all. He just was talking way too much especially when the students weren’t supposed to be. He was always more concerned with everything going on around him than the task at hand.

This was affecting so much of his skill development. His reading, math, & science grades were low. He was failing every subject in school except for spelling. It was not pretty at all. In fact, it was getting worse because than he was starting to have behavior issues as well. He wasn’t following directions, hanging out with the wrong kids, not taking responsibility for his actions, wasn’t completing homework, and was always making excuses.

As a parent, this can be very frustrating especially when the child isn’t living with you and you’re working a very demanding job. I was only able to see him one to two times a week due to ours schedules. I strongly believe that it would have been ten times worse if I wasn’t involved on at least this level.

I was doing everything I could to change these outcomes. I took advantage of every single opportunity to get involved with his school. I attended every school trip, every parent/teacher conference, and even invested $7,000.00 to put him in Sylvan Learning Center to get his skills where they needed to be.

These things worked a little bit but not enough to make a significant difference. I was still committed to helping my son be successful no matter what. With all of this stuff going on, my son was still being moved to the next grade on the borderline. This didn’t make any sense to me. He was placed in special programs within the school and he would have the same pattern of success in every one of them.

He would always start out struggling, then slack because it was hard, then get better, then finish really strong. The pattern never failed. He became a major concern in the school and I had to go to some special meetings that involved every teacher my son dealt with and even the principal. One of the things that were brought up was that he needed to be seen by a doctor because of his hyper activity and lack of focus.

I was the only one in the room that believed that this wasn’t necessary. My belief was that it was a lack of discipline in school and at home that was the problem. I hardly ever got phone calls from school saying that there were issues. But when I went to a parent/teacher conference I would be blind-sided with them.  There weren’t many notes sent home either but I decided to give there way a try before mine. I took him to visit a doctor and he gave my son a prescription that I never even filled.

My philosophy was that when he doing all of his homework consistently, being held accountable for his behaviors in school, and I was notified consistently on the issues he wasn’t taking that medicine. At the end of this year, there was one last meeting and they revealed his results and there were improvements and they wanted to move him to the next grade.

I stepped in and told the school that I was not allowing it to happen. This was one of the toughest decisions I had to make regarding my son but it was the right thing to do. With the severity of his grades and overall performance they still wanted to move him on. I couldn’t believe it. Being held back was not even an option for them in theirs minds.

With him not living with me, none of these things changed enough for his grades to increase enough to move onto the next grade clearly. I made him repeat the same grade. I have to tell you that it hurt me more than my son to have to tell him something like that and when I did he was heart broken. I couldn’t blame in. He was conditioned to believe that even though he wasn’t doing what he was suppose to do that he would still move on.

It became a rude awakening for him and I made the commitment right then and there to never ever have that conversation with my son again. I then realized as clear as day that the only option was for him to come and live with me. It was not easy but six months later he was living with me and everything started to change immediately. 

Yeah, he still had some issues here and there and you know what, that’s life and we worked on them and still do today. But none of them are major like they used to be. I didn’t invest in expensive programs anymore either because it wasn’t necessary. He needed his dad. He needed to be taught and mentored. He needed to be held accountable. He needed structure and discipline. He needed to be challenged and pushed as well.

He does extremely well in school consistently now. He even plays football, participates in chorus, and plays an instrument all without a prescription from a doctor. Every teacher he has, I make it very clear that I want to know the good and the bad when it happens ASAP. It’s not there job to have to deal with behavior and personal issues all the time. They get paid to teach their students certain skills.

The lesson here is that everyone is going to have problems, obstacles, and failures throughout their lives all of the time. To conquer them, you have to continuously try different approaches. If they don’t work just keep on searching for the solution and eventually it will reveal itself.

 
“Obstacles, failure, and disappointments are just a few of the ingredients necessary to reach success”

Put Yourself In A Position To Succeed by {Rob Moore}

In order to become massively successful and get what you want in life, you’re going to have to set yourself up for success. You’re going to have to change and start doing some things differently. If you want to change your results, you’re going to gave to change the approach.

I would have to say that this subject is the number one factor that separates me from so many other people. I do my best to limit and/or eliminate anything that doesn’t add value to my life and where I want to go in the future. Just to name a few are avoiding negative people, not watching the television, not wasting time, not going to parties, not spending money on junk, etc.

I can go on and on with many real live examples but I would be writing for a very long time. Now before you to put me in the cobra clutch, some of these things I really enjoy doing. It’s just that I have to make a decision just like you do to be successful, mediocre, or a failure. I choose success and in order to get it and maintain it, you have to create certain kinds of habits.

I study successful people all the time by reading about them, talking to them, and watching them as well. I also study myself to evaluate what needs improvement and what can be built upon. I hated to read in school because I found the material boring and useless in my opinion but as soon as I found out that all leaders were readers I quickly changed my mindset.

Why even question it? If all successful, rich, wealthy, high achievers read and have what I want then I need to do what they do period. That’s just the wise thing to do. When people ask me what I’m doing after work, my days off, or on vacation, they think I’m crazy. I far as I’m concerned they can think that all day long because I’m willing to do today what most won’t do to get later what most will never have.

Another thing that I continuously do is pay special attention to the people that I associate with. Why? Because people rub off on you subconsciously. I’ll prove it to you right now. Have you ever found yourself repeating some of your closest friend’s favorite sayings? I know I have and there’s nothing wrong with this is some situations.

Is your best friend adding value to your life, keeping you in your comfort zone, or even worse, bringing you down? No matter who you’re spending your time with, this happens to you on some level. So I want successful, positive, rich, caring, wealthy, hard working, optimistic people around me as much as possible that are adding value to my life and helping me become a better person. This is huge!

I’m going to give you one more nugget of information until the next time we talk. That is that I don’t listen to the radio in my car anymore. Matter of fact, it’s been a few years since I heard the radio when I was in the car by myself. I love listening to music but I don’t receive any value from it. It’s pure entertainment and besides this I’m just making someone else rich.

I do listen to stuff in the car but not music. Instead, I turn my car into a moving success university. I forgot the statistic about how much time the average person spends in a car traveling but it’s a lot. I listen to audio books and programs that help increase my mindset and skill set all the time. I’ve even taken it to the extreme of listening to this kind of stuff in the shower as well.

My newest habit that I have developed is the fall asleep and wake up some audio programs. I want to saturate and program my mind with the information necessary to reach all of my goals.

To summarize really quickly, if you want success on any level at all, you’re going to have to start with putting yourself in a position where you can succeed. That means changing a lot of your old habits that may be holding you back. Only ten percent of the entire world’s population is successful and living an extraordinary life. So be willing to walk away from the ninety percent. Don’t do what they do, talk like they talk, or act like act. Instead follow what the ten percent are doing and you’ll move towards the life that you’ve always dreamed of living.

Optimism Is Key by {Rob Moore}

The first time I learned the true value of optimism was after I had a pivotal conversation with my mother about a year after graduating from high school. On the day of my high school graduation, I realized that I screwed up big time and did not maximize my potential in school period. I thought it was too late to change.

Instead of making the decision to change and do some things differently, I chose to ignore the tough lesson I learned. I started partying with my friends, hanging out all night, and focus on having fun. I didn’t think about college, finding a career, or trying to fix the mess I got myself into. I was stuck in this state of mind for about a year before it started to get old and reality hit me.

One night my car broke down after a party and I barely made it home. My car was out of commission permanently and if I wanted to go out I would have to walk. Out of all the friends I was hanging out with, I was the only one with a car. I was frustrated and stressed out more about my car and what it might cost to fix it more than anything.

I thought hard that night and didn’t sleep much. I was lost and needed some guidance. There were only two people that I was comfortable talking to when I get into this mindset. One was my grandmother who had passed many years prior and the other was my mother. I remember walking down the stairs the next morning with the mission of getting guidance from my mother.

It was just her and I in the kitchen during our entire conversation. I told her what had happened the night before and the things I was thinking about throughout the night. I let it all out even wanted to cry but did not and she just listened. She could have sat there and said all kinds of things like “I told you so” but instead she waited for me to finish before she spoke.

She was telling me how I could get my life on track if I really wanted to. She said that the past is the past and now I need to get on track. She told me to start with going to college. I said “okay” and then I asked if she was going to pay for it. She said “HECK NO” without even thinking about or having any kind of hesitation.

Then I said “Well how am I suppose to be able to go to college?” and she told me Community College. She began to tell me how I could take as many or as little classes as I would like to take. I didn’t even know what I wanted to do anymore as far as a career. She told me to just take classes until I figured it out.

My whole mindset shifted after that conversation and I finally got it. Well, what did I get you’re probably wondering.  One, I discovered that my life was screwed up because I screwed it up. Two, if I wanted to create a life where I was successful, I was the only one that could do it. Three, I’m going to start now and only do the things in my life that feel like the right thing to do.

So I started to change everything starting that day. I stopped hanging out with my friends, I stopped partying, I stopped taking phone calls from friends, and started focusing on me. I felt the best feeling I have ever felt in a long time. I even felt better than the funniest time I had with my friends partying. I know sounds weird right?

I was officially optimistic and I knew that everything was going to work out for the better. I knew that I was going to become successful. It was DONE! I took as many hours as I possibly could at my current job. I didn’t have a car now so sometimes I walked 4-5 miles to work and sometimes I took the bus. It all depended on my work schedule. I never ever took a cab because I knew it would eat into my take home pay too much.

Walking was FREE and the bus was 75 cents. You can’t beat that with a baseball bat. I saved for weeks until I had enough to get another car. Seven hundred dollars later I found a good dependable car to purchase and retired from walking. I got a job at McDonalds to help bring in even more money and I was now able to afford some classes at community college and I had transportation.

Then one day my mom came in my room one day to let me know that IBM was hiring for temporary full-time shifts on overnights. I applied and got hired on the spot. I quit McDonalds and kept everything else. My income increased significantly. I was hoping to become permanent full-time but I couldn’t count on it.

One day I realized the potential at the part-time job I was working with in the area of career opportunities. There was an opportunity to make even more money and make more money by working one full-time job. I can go on and on about the great things that started to happen in my life once I became optimistic.

The rest of my career is history and I’m making more money than I ever dreamed possible for me. I’m not done yet and I would still say that I’m just getting started. Being optimistic is key!

Show Up & Show Focus by {Rob Moore}

The first time I really learned the value on this statement was back in middle school when I was in the ninth grade. During our lunch period, there was a fairly big room right next to the room we ate lunch in that had several ping pong tables inside of it.  There were somewhere between six and ten tables inside. Believe or not, lunch period was not one of my favorite times because I didn’t eat a lot of what they were serving. In other words, I was bored until I found out that I could play ping pong during the entire lunch period.

I started by watching other people play day after day for two weeks before I picked up a paddle to try to play. I was intrigued by the game so much but I thought to myself that I couldn’t do it but I wasn’t good at anything. Until one day, it was a little slower in the room as normal and someone asked me to play. I picked up a plastic paddle and all I can say after that was that I sucked. I lost the game but I really enjoyed the game.

So I started to play as much as I possibly could at as many tables as I could and got really serious about the sport. I wanted to get as good as some of the top players in the room. My first goal was to score a point and then to win a game. I became so hungry for success that I never ate lunch at that Middle School for all my three years there. I played everyday for the entire lunch period in order to reach that goal.

I saved up all of my lunch money and had my mother take me to Herman’s Sporting Goods store to purchase a professional paddle once I got the basics down. Then the school introduced sports intramurals on certain day and certain times after school. Ping Pong was one of the sports offered and it started right after school to 6pm once a week. I went to every single one of them for all three years.

I took every opportunity to practice the sport. Before you know it, I started to win a lot of games. Then I started to get on a table and stay on a table for a whole lunch period because I couldn’t be beaten. Then I started to learn and master different techniques. I started to get so good that I refused to play against people that I knew weren’t even a challenge for me. I practiced and played with the best consistently. We even took a table over that was only for the best players to use. All of our skills continued to grow over time.

Our supervisor, Mr. Putnam was the best player of all of us for a while and he held ping pong tournaments 2-4 times a year that went on during lunch. I remember entering one and losing my first match. Then I would analyze why I lost and then practice enough to strengthen that weakness. The same pattern continued as I entered the tournaments but with every one I entered I got closer and closer to the championship round.

One day it happened and I got to the championship round. This is the only match when the supervisor actually shuts down all of the games so everyone could watch just this one.  We would get some time to warm up a little and then we would have to play to the score of twenty-one. In order to become the champion, you would have to win two out of three games.

I won the first game pretty severely. For the second game, Mr. Putnam had us stay after the lunch to play this one and I let my opponent beat me because I actually felt bad for him. He was the defending ping pong champion and I just spanked him. Mr. Putnam pulled me aside about how I played that game because I played no where near like I played the first game. I didn’t want to tell him the truth. I chose to just listen and say okay.

I was also thinking that it would be nice to win in front of all those students the next day.  The last game was to be played the following lunch period. I knew I was going to win before the game even started because my focus had been so laser-targeted that I couldn’t lose. All I kept thinking about for the next 24 hours prior to that last match was strategy, what worked well, how did he score, and what worked the best.

That championship match came quickly and after warming up we got it going. I destroyed my opponent this time even worse than the first game and I was the new ping pong champion. It was almost a seven point shut out but he managed to score before that could happen. I was happy but I wasn’t overly excited because winning the championship was what I expected.