Good morning! You will not believe where I am and I’m recording this live on location, in Omaha, Nebraska. As I look out the window, I’m on one of the top floors of the hotel. And I’m looking out the window this morning and I see this white blanket of snow covering the rooftop below me. I look over to my right, I see a ballpark, I see also some areas of grass and it is just covered with snow. And I gotta tell you, it’s a beautiful sight. What a way to start your day this morning.
Hello, I’m Jimmy Williams with Live a Life by Design bringing you this morning, your Monday morning moments of motivation. So that you can live your life bigger, better and bolder. It has been so wonderful to hear all of the comments that many of you have posted, sent emails. I gotta tell you, I am just humbled. Humbled is the word I’m gonna use today. I’m humbled by all of the comments, the kind words. People have experienced loss in their lives, and listened to some the podcast episodes, especially the one on growing through life transitions that we recently published. And these people come up to me and hug my neck. Now, I saw one friend of mine that listened to this, and said it is exactly what she needed to hear.
She had recently lost her father, and it was, of course, very tragic although he’d been ill for a while. And she came up to me and said, you know just to hear that you care and how to follow through some of these life transitions has been very helpful. And that’s the reason we do this podcast. That’s the reason we reach out to a cold, heartless, unkind world and spread just a little joy to make your life better. So, please do us a favor. Share the podcast with your friends on iTunes, Google Podcast, Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcast, share that with them. If you’d like, we’d love for you to leave us a rating on iTunes, and a review. And if you’d like, just send a note of that review of what we can do to make this even better for you.
So how many of you feel that you live a life with abundance? Today we’re going to focus on how to be bold in life. How to live with abundance in a mindset of people that are scarce. Scarcity is the mindset many of us were raised with. I know I’m older than some of our listeners and I will tell you, my parents came through some very, very rough times in the economy. But many of us have been subjected to these difficult times, and caused us to live a life of fear or scarcity as I call it. I have a firm belief that you can live a life of abundance and enjoy the fruits of this life without even possessing financial wealth. Today I’m going to give you my secret formula for practicing abundance in my own life. These four simple keys I call KISS.
Now I know what you’re thinking. It’s not Keep It Short Stupid. It’s KISS and no it’s not the outrageous rock band of the 70s and 80s that used a lot of pyrotechnics and the makeup and had outrageous stage shows, but this is basically a four step method of practicing abundance in your life. This will give you satisfaction and gratitude that truly creates a rewarding life in which you will feel like tackling each day and growing as a person.
#1: K is for Keep
Let’s start with method #1: The name of the process is KISS, the K in this case stands for keep. So keep your mind in a positive mode. To recognize and realize abundance in your life, you must be of a positive mindset. You know, a great quote by Roy T. Bennett, “Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely”. I believe Mr. Bennett had some great wisdom in that quote. You see, you have a choice in how you face your day. By living in the present, with a positive attitude, you can live an abundant life.
So you’re thinking, Jimmy, how does this translate? You know, positivity by itself can’t do all this. And I’ve been sitting back, reading all these positive books. You know, reading the book and putting the book into action are far too different steps. So, think about the most negative fearful, selfish person you know. Hope you have them in your mind. Now how much time do you wish to spend with this person. Not much I’m sure. Conversely now, picture the most positive, courageous and empowering person you know. How much time do you wish to spend with this person?
See, it is an environmental scenario that you will eventually subconsciously adapt your personality, language and demeanor to that of the negative person. It depends on who you’re around. If you don’t think this is a true statement, simply observe time with a negative individual. Many of our listeners pour themselves out to influence those around them in a positive manner, however, what happens to your savings account in life if you continue making withdrawals and no deposits? You will be bankrupt before too much time passes. Same outcome for your emotional bank.
To keep a positive mind, you must continually feed your mind the pure powerful and positive messages through reading great books, listening to podcasts that are impactful and positive, and jealously guarding the health of your emotions by building time in your daily schedule to recharge your emotional bank. Don’t simply allow others to take withdrawals from your emotional bank all day long and make no deposits. That will be good for no one. So method 1 of the KISS method step 1 is K – Keep your mind in a positive mode.
#2: I is for Improve
Improve your emotional health consistently. One of my greatest mentors, and I mentioned it many time of the episodes of this podcast, was Zig Ziglar. I had great opportunities to see Zig live, enjoyed everyone of those shows. Actually had copious notes at everyone that I attended. And you’ve heard me mention that Zig’s influence has been something that has been so impactful in my life, I have never forgotten those shows. You see, Zig had a quote that motivation, to improve your life through this use of motivation is something that must be done daily. So assume that your day will become positive, simply because you rose out of bed is a foolish belief. You must force into your mind positive and powerful thoughts from the moment you awake.
You know, Zig had a saying, I just love this, “That your attitude, not your aptitude will determine your altitude”. You have only one mind and one body to sustain. You are responsible for you. Don’t allow your emotional bank account to become bankrupt. Improve your emotional health consistently. Now I know what you’re saying, you’re saying, Jimmy, listen, I don’t have a problem with this. But I will say to you that if you don’t consciously work on improving your emotional health, you will become just about like the gentleman that fails to exercise.
You know the guy, he shows up at the beginning of the year in January, he’s got one of those, I believe they’re called New Year’s resolutions. You know, he works out for maybe a week or two, and thinks wow, man, I’m feeling pretty good. I think I can rest now. And he rests for the next 11 and a half months. I’ve got news for you, he’s not improving his health with two weeks out of 52 exercising. So it’s important to remember method 2 is the I, improve your emotional health consistently.
#3: S is for Start
Start reading, listening and speaking positively. If you had developed a habit, and this is nothing more than a habit, of being a nasty and negative thinking selfish person, start new better habits today. As I said earlier, you are in charge of you. You will not change immediately, however, my belief is, by simply changing one action per day for only four weeks, you will transform your thinking and the improvement of your outcomes during the day significantly.
Start thinking about something positive in your life that you wish would change. If you wish to be positive, listen to positive podcasts. I highly recommend this one. If you haven’t listened to all of the episodes, go back and listen to all of them. As a matter of fact, if it is helpful to you, there are 32 episodes, counting this one, listen to one per day, first thing in the morning and set your tone for positivity for the entire day. Starting your day with positivity is the most integral activity to leading a life of abundance. By initiating your day in a positive manner, you are opening your mind to accepting the everyday functions in life in a more abundant way.
Now I’m gonna counter this, with saying, don’t start reading your email before 11 AM in the morning. Matter of fact, on the weekends, don’t look at work email. As a matter of fact, go even further. Don’t even watch the news or turn on the radio if it’s got news when you’re driving your car to the office. Do anything you can to maintain in your mind that good, clean, powerful, positive state that an 8 hour rest will give you.
You know, many of you go, well, I don’t need to sleep 8 hours, I get by on 4 and 5 and I’m just fresh as a daisy when I get to work. Well, I’ve got news for ya, that may happen on a day or two, but eventually the body will begin to shut down because the mind is not functioning at its ultimate level. You need to work on your health, physically, just as much, I highly recommend you work on your emotional and mental health. Start reading, listening, and speaking positively. Method #3, the S – start reading, listening, and speaking positively to start your day on the right foot.
#4: S is for Stop
And lastly, the last letter of this four action process. Another S. Method #4: is the S for Stop. Stop telling yourself that you don’t deserve to live a life of abundance. You see, your friends may notice the positive change in your attitude, and see the smile you wear so proudly. I can assure you that these “friends” will do their best to bring you back down to the life of scarcity that they live. You may outgrow your current relationships if your friends don’t desire to grow in abundance along with you. One of the most powerful affirmations of change in your life is the time your friend comes up to you and simply asks, what is going on with you. Right? Stop blaming the country, your birthplace, your parents. Whatever it is for your current status and quality of life. So often we hear of people in life that have made poor decisions and blamed it on everyone else but themselves. Now if you gain nothing out of this episode today, I do want you to hear very clearly what I’m about to say.
I want you to commit this to a daily affirmation when you first start your day. While you’re up, out of the bed, getting ready to start the day with a smile on your face, I want you to say this one affirmation. It is clearly this, “I am responsible for my attitude, my gratitude and my day. No one can give me a bad attitude and no one can take away my gratitude for the day.” By saying this simple but short affirmation, it gives me a powerful implant in my mind of my day.
So let’s talk about that for just a brief moment. I’m telling you that you are responsible for your attitude. Do you know that you don’t have to listen to the neigh-sayers of the world. Do you know that you don’t have to turn on that old boob tube and watch four hours of TV every evening when you arrive home from work. Do you know that you can be thankful for everything in your life, without being rude about it? I’m not talking about bragging of new cars and houses, and things that you have. I’m talking about the gratitude of life. Health. The gratitude of great friends. You’ve got outstanding family. We have a lot in this country to be thankful for.
I ran into a gentleman one time, that we shared the stage at a speaking, and in that moment I asked him, what do you think was the most powerful thing to help you gain a foothold in life to improve your attitude? And he said some words I’ll never forget. These words were most powerful to me. He said, I never forgot what I was grateful for. And then he started listing a list I couldn’t tell you how many were on the list, but he kept talking for what seemed like 3 minutes of different things he was thankful. And what that did for him, was made him bold in his presentation. It made him understand that he is, himself, impacting others in a very positive manner. And the way that he could continue doing so was to show gratitude each day for the great things in his life. He didn’t blame the tax rates that they’re way too high, he didn’t blame the cost of groceries and that he couldn’t afford to eat. He didn’t blame his car because it didn’t have the nicest new car smell. It wasn’t top of the line. He didn’t blame the government for not providing. You understand where I’m going? You have got to be responsible for you. You deserve a life of abundance.
And I will tell you today if you were born in the United States of America, and you were born between 1950 and 2018, you are ahead of the game. Just simply being born in this country gives you so much more in terms of opportunity that many across the globe will never experience. You see, we have great opportunities in this country that others are literally dying to arrive here and experience. Too often we hear about these crisis occurring on the border of our nation. We hear of people who are swimming in waters that have bacteria, we’re seeing children dying and all of these things that you hear about, trying to arrive in the land of opportunity. And I’ve got great news for you. If you’re an American citizen and you are listening to this podcast, you have a bonus, a leg up on the entire world.
You know, I will tell you that it has been a wonderful life. I anticipate it to be even more so in the future. You have an opportunity to take life and mold it in the way you wish by simply implementing this four-action process. Keep your mind in a positive mode. Improve your emotional health consistently. Start reading, listening, and speaking positivity. And stop telling yourself that you don’t deserve to live a life of abundance.
To illustrate the importance of being bold in life, and living so with an abundance. I want you to consider Larry Page. One of the factors of creating his abundant life was the mindset that he didn’t live or believe in limits. He continually pushed his team and himself to dream the impossible and then bring it to life. As co-founder of Google and the CEO of Alphabet, Inc. Page lives each day by stretching his mindset and beliefs to the brink of imagination. When asked what his secret to living with abundance was he replied, “positivity”. In his 2013 I/O keynote speech, page famously remarked, “Being negative is not how we make progress.”
When challenged with an automation such as a self-driving car. Page took his engineers aside and said, Ok, this is wonderful, so it drove 1/2 mile on a straight road, but you know cars in our country don’t just drive on just straight roads. There may be hills, corners, curves, whatever’s necessary to get from one part of the country to the next. So he challenged them to add some difficulties to the car. They did and in just a few months, came back with an automobile that now drives even further and takes these considerations of curves hills and so forth. Not so happy with just that, as he celebrated this milestone, he challenged his team, he said I need this car to go at least 100,000 miles and test it. They did just that, and even went further and developed what is known as a new industry. You guessed it, the driverless automobile. Now I’ve got to be upfront with you.
I have friends that own Tesla automobiles that are self-driving. I have not actually ridden in a self-driving car in which I took my hands off the wheel. Now I have driven the Tesla X series. And might I add, although this is not an endorsement, it is a fine automobile. The biggest problem I have with this car is the fact that I must carry a calcium deposit on my right foot. And the reason I think I do is I immediately look down at the speedometer, and knowing that this car has power to each wheel, I was within less than a mile doing 121 mph, according to the digital odometer. Now folks, I don’t want to admit that I did that on purpose, but you know a part of me says I just got to see what this car can do. And again this was where there wasn’t anyone around that could get hurt, of course except yours truly. But I will tell you it was exhilarating. You talk about living a bold life, now if I had one of these cars I would probably live a very short but bold life. That car could probably fly.
So, you know, never think about making progress in your world, as Page said, by being negative. Stay away from the negative people of this world and you will create for yourself a life of bold abundance. And you know abundance to me just means far more than I need. So it allows me, with my attitude to pour out more of me to others that might need a positive note. That might need a hand up, not a hand out. Think of your day as being a start to change someone else’s life for better.
So this weeks challenge. I want you to challenge yourself and change the lifestyle you have from watching negative shows and news to considering positive activities that push your creativity to new levels. Implement the KISS method to fill your life with boldness and become someone others wish to emulate and look up too. Go to our Facebook page, for Live a Life by Design, and post your most positive change in life. We look forward to hearing from each of you. It does me great wonders just to read your comments. We’re looking at some exciting additions to the Live a Life by Design podcast. I have some wonderful guests coming up in the next few weeks that you will not want to miss an episode.
As I asked earlier and again. I want you to know that I appreciate each of our listeners. We continually expand into new countries, and that is just exciting and for me it is just another reason why we need to continue this positive message. We want to help as many people as we can to make this kindness movement and positive millennia move forward. Do us a favor, share the content of this podcast with your friends. It’s easy to do on iTunes. Send them the link to the podcast from our website. We thank you so much for your attention, and we look forward to meeting you here again next Monday morning for your moments of motivation.
