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“What's In You?”
By Scott V. Black
Hello Empower U Leadership Team. I trust all is
well.
What a great few weeks. It has been a roller coaster here for me. I just finished up in Iowa with Team 547. 17 individuals that created a great team of committed people out there changing their world. That is what I did with my weekend… how was yours?
The class
reminded me of Jane Goodall’s quote: “We could change the world tomorrow if all the millions of people around the world acted the way they believe.”
Pushing Past Limits
The other day I was watching television and saw a commercial that got me emotional. It is not surprising that I got emotional, because I am an emotional person.
What was surprising to me was the reason I got
emotional. There wasn’t a small animal or a child in the commercial… or even some sentimental message. It showed athletes, pushing and straining and dripping sweat… working it! These athletes were pushing the envelope, going beyond the norm.
It reminded me of what we do in an emotional and psychological way in our training. The sweat pouring out of these individuals was
colored differently for each athlete. Some had
blue sweat, some orange or red… I didn’t know what the commercial was until
towards the end when it started talking about the benefits of Gatorade… and at the
very end it asks the question “Is it in you?”
I had just finished up with Team 543 and was reading the final reports with
tears running down my cheeks and that commercial reminded me of how our training
changes lives. We had 14 people in Dallas that week before I went to Iowa for
the 17.
As I was closing up the class with Team 543 and
reading how those 14 people were going home to
their families and their work as better people…
certain parts of the weekend were flowing
through my consciousness. I was reliving the ups
and downs of the process.
The Challenge of Change and Making Choices
It wasn’t easy; it was rough at times and edgy.
It can be unorthodox and sometimes I wonder if
it is worth it with all that I have to go
through to get people to that point where they
decide to let go of the past and embrace a
better belief system on the potential for their
life.
The commercial reminded me of how we are in
the trenches helping people put in them some
good stuff. It's like the old saying, “Out with
the old, and in with the new.”
As John Schaar puts it:
“The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created—created first in mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination.”
That quote explains a large part of what takes place in our training. It is a great quote that gives understanding to how people can change in 2.5 days and keep the change… if they choose.
We are in the trenches pushing people to a place they are not sure even exists. A place of Passion, and Commitment… a place of dreams and Visions… a place where the “Best possible them” resides.
How To Face Desperate Times
I think it is a Chinese proverb that says, “You can tell a man’s religion in times of despair.” We create a very uncomfortable situation where
each participants’
back is against the “wall” and they get to break through to see what is on the other side.
Think back
to your Leadership Awakening class and remember the first night with the doubt and fear
you experienced and how most would have rather been anywhere else but where they were at that moment. Right now in life there are many people that are feeling the same way about the world we live in and the situation they find themselves in.
I am here to remind you that you can do it. Not only can you do it, but you MUST do it. People are depending on those of us who “can” to help those of them that are not sure!
This is a call to arms! It is time for Empower U’s hope peddlers to rise up and ad some light to a darkening world. Empower U leadership Team… THE TIME IS NOW! If not you… then who? If not now… then when? You can do it! How do I know? Because you have done it before… just press the GO button!
In the immortal words of Dr. Seuss,
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”
A Personal Note of Hope
I have to be honest with you team, I have been struggling lately. I am constantly in the trenches with our students helping them break the chains of the mediocrity and pain that has shackled this once great country one experience, one person, one relationship, one family, one business at a time.
I have been watching far too much of the news on the presidential election and I have been struggling with depression. It looks dark. It looks like we are getting ready to elect the first socialist in our history as president… someone trained in communist ideology… and very few seem to even care to look. So I have been struggling lately, to those of you that have noticed, I appreciate your concern.
I talk with so many of our graduates and a large majority share the same concerns and fear about what they see going on in this election. It is like the election has been hijacked by the media.
So today this article will provide some steps to help us remember and to help us do better today then yesterday and better tomorrow than today. This article is encouragement to get back in the trenches to again hope that no matter what happens in the election... we will do our part to
continue making this world a better place, one person at a time. As Nancy Otto put it, “Pray for a good harvest, but keep on plowing.”
A
Pattern That Works
We have a pattern that works, our Leadership Training. And having a pattern that works, we need to remember the fifth “C” of the “4 +1 C’s of Leadership,”
namely, Consistency. (For those that don’t know what I am talking about… get your butts into Leadership Adventure and finish what you started in Awakening!)
So let us remember what we did last time we thought things were helpless and hopeless and how things turned out better than we could have even dreamed. It is time to put the tools from Leadership Awakening into a broader use
as we face this hard time.
Our leadership training prepares us for hard times. That is why the training is so hard, because
marriage, raising kids, living through the financial crisis, seeing a candidate being force fed to us… are all hard.
Remember the words of Horace that we all lived through our Awakening experience, “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.”
I was reminded again this weekend that successful people remember… What is the best way to get to Carnegie hall? Practice, Practice, Practice!
Is It In You?
In class I ask the question, “If I had a cup of coffee on the table and it spilled over what would you expect to come out of it? If I had a glass of orange juice on the table and it was knocked over, what would come out of it?” The only thing that can come out of it is what is in it.
We as human beings act the same way. The only thing that can come out of us is what is in us. In times of
adversity, in times of hardship, you can really start to see the real person. In our training peoples’ character starts showing up. As I said before, “You can tell a man’s religion in times of despair.”
Vince
Lombardi once said, “I can’t get out of a player what God didn’t put in a player.” In our training we create an environment where we get to press the “play” button on their life… on their trauma and drama. We are like the cable station TNT, “…
it’s the drama!”
It is hard sometimes to know what is in us. It takes adversity to know what is in us, it takes being pushed beyond our comfort zones, beyond our limits. The only way to know what is in you is when your back is against the wall… when everything is falling down around you that is when you know who you are. When life is putting the squeeze on you then you can see what is in you.
How To Clear The Way For Succeeding
The analogy is a sponge that has been used to clean up something. If I wanted to clean the sponge, I would run water and soak the sponge and wring it out… squeeze it numerous times and keep filling it with clean water and eventually the sponge will be clean and can live to its potential.
A dirty sponge can’t clean much. A sponge that is filled with dirt and
debris from it’s past can not clean up future messes and fulfill it’s mission on this planet!!! Leadership Awakening is the wringing out process that allows us to get rid of some of the old grime of life, and fill it up with love, hope, passion, commitment and possibilities!!
For a lot of people the two things that are “wrung out” in our trainings are their hearts and their minds. Many hearts have been shut off and many minds filled with disbelief and lies. Many minds have had too much negative stuff inputted and the heart has been walled off as a detrimental piece of this experience called life.
In Leadership Awakening we dispel those two thoughts that somehow have been made into reality by a pessimistic world that we are all a part of. I love what
Helen Keller said, “The best and most beautiful things in life cannot be seen, not touched, but are felt in the heart.”
Examples From The
“Final
Report”
I want to share with you two reports that have come out of classes in the last few weeks. These are a reminder of the power of 2.5 days. Anything is possible if we can just remember and continue to take action.
Nelson Mandela said, “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” As I like to say, “Pick yourself up, dust yourself off…and hit it again.”
These are the types of things I get to see and experience on a regular basis doing what I do with all of you and through Empower U! I have removed names and team numbers. Outside of that I have not changed anything, this is real and it is raw…
beautiful!!
These reports are from two different people:
- Up until now I had no hope, or at least not much, I was numb and hated the feeling. I just did not know what to do about it and I took a leap of Faith to come here, because I was desperate for some help on where to go in life. Several years ago my relationship with God was solid. I allowed people and myself to come between that. Consequently I lost myself and became lost. Just going through motions of everyday, not really enjoying anything with my heart, body, and soul. This class has stirred my soul and made me feel alive again. I thought there was no God anymore. I felt God’s presence today and I felt my team’s encouragement and the staffs as well. Wow… I still have goose bumps. I will go home and keep this Faith and change in my attitude and way of thinking. I will not play games anymore at work. If I Fail, and I am sure I will, I will pick myself up, dust myself off, and move forward. I will encourage others and start watching the news again. I will get the tools I need to stay strong. I am not a failure!!!
- Up until now I had no idea how to live. I have so much excitement in me that I just want to get home so fast, so I can give my daughter and husband the best hug they ever felt from me. I am so blown away that I just need to go and work and give my boss the biggest hug I could ever give a boss who paid for me to be here. I really am going to be the best worker I can be for him. I will blow him away. I will help more co-workers to look at me. Take a real good look. There will be more coworkers coming here to this wonderful and exciting Leadership Awakening. I am so inspired that I am going to go forward and push that bar tomorrow morning and go to church. I want him to know I do believe and I do believe with my… HEART, BODY, AND SOUL.
Character is developed in the hard times. We find out what we are made of, what is in us in the challenges that life has to offer. That is why our training is so cool; we are in the trenches creating experience and the opportunity to fail.
Through the process so much learning takes place. We learn about ourselves and our belief systems. We learn about success and team, then mixing it up with the lifeblood of emotion and people come out on fire for their lives and the possibilities. We realize that the only thing that can come out of us is that which is in us.
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
By the time a child is 18 they have seen about
70,000 murders on TV. They have also seen
thousands of people meet once or twice and then
have sex with multiple partners. They see people jumping in and out of marriages like carnival goers on a roller coaster. They have seen the value of life being non existent… babies born and being thrown in trash cans and millions of babies killed by something called “Choice”…
They have seen the elderly discarded like garbage.
Remember,
the only thing that can come out of a person when they are squeezed by life is what is in them!
Fortunately, we can clean up the mess. We are cleaning up the mess!!! We can get that old, fermenting stuff out of us and put in some new, fresh, life giving, and life-enriching stuff.
Think about the two student’s whose writings I shared above. Through the trenches these ladies were able to clean up some of the past that had scarred them, that had toughened them up. They were a product of what has happened to them and what they thought “Was the way things are.” But that wasn’t really who they were, it was who they had become based on what was “in them.”
Through the stress and pressure of the Awakening experience we got all that hurt, numbness… bubbling up inside, and they had to get rid of it. Once all that was squeezed out then they got to put back in… What they wanted, who they were, their mission, their passions, hopes, dreams, possibilities… to get down to the stuff that was originally in there!
Peeling Back The Layers
I love artichokes. When people go through our training they are kind of like these vegetables that many people don’t know how to cook. I love artichokes that are freshly cooked and dipped in garlic butter. We can be like an Artichoke.
In Awakening, as when dealing with an artichoke, we want to get to the heart. In order to do that we have to pull back all those hard leaves
with their sharp edges and very little flexibility!
Sometimes I get pricked attempting to pull on the leaves. In order to get to the prize… the heart… we get to pull away all the leaves, and then there is that “hairy” stuff that needs to be pulled away from the sweet, juicy heart.
Only
then we get the victory, the pay off. We find the heart so soft and gentle, sweet and subtle, warm and inviting…
When that heart is dipped in garlic butter, and it sweeps across the taste buds of the tongue… sweet, delicious victory.
What's In Your Head?
So I have some great news for you… You get to do some homework!! I challenge you for the next 2 weeks… or until the 1st of November, through Halloween… here is what I want you to do to change your life for the better. Three things that will cause massive changes:
- Be aware of what you put in your head…
- What are you watching?
- What are you listening to?
- What are you reading?
Make a conscious choice to only put in good things. If it is not positive or
doesn't move you in a positive direction, then don’t let it in. By doing this you will become aware of just what you
do allow into your head.
Be aware of your thoughts. Be involved with what is going on in your head. In the morning and in the evening it would be great to journal your findings. On every hour, or every half hour of your day—over this time period—become consciously aware of what is going on in your head. What are your thoughts? You will be surprised.
Be aware of who you allow in your “inner circle.” In other words who do you hang out with, or hang around with… who is close enough to you, proximity, to put things in your head through you overseeing, overhearing, or from direct input. Be aware of who you hang out with…who are the people that are around you the most? There is a truth out there that says, “You can never rise above the quality of the people you surround yourself with”… Be aware of whom you are associating with.
I want you to do these three things through the end of the month. Journal, document what you find out. This is a journey of self discovery. Do this and you will find out a lot about yourself.
I know it is hard, I know it is weird… just go out on this limb. Do it… the activity
changes both the maker and the destination.
“You've got to go out
on a limb sometimes because that's where the
fruit is.”
~ Will Rogers.
If you do this for two weeks and journal as much as you can during that time. You want to document what is coming out and what is going in… just like a great chef!
In closing I want to leave you with the words of one of the greatest leaders our world has ever seen, Ronald Reagan. He was a man with vision who passionately moved people with his common sense charm. He said,
“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government
and I'm here to help.”
I would also like to leave you with some great foundational words from another man who is not as great as Ronald Reagan. A man who is striving to make that type of a mark on the world but plays in a smaller pond…
“Remember, When You Live Your Life Like it Matters… It
Does.”
I just have one question for you… what do you want?
With Passion-HBS
Scott V. Black
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