(upbeat music)
- I love this story.
I heard about a man sitting at the kitchen table,
reading the morning paper.
It was Saturday morning and he promised his little girl
that he would spend all day playing with her.
So his daughter comes running downstairs,
eager to go outside and play,
and the father said, "Oh sweetheart,
I just need a few more minutes before we play."
Well, the daughter was antsy
and irritable tugging on his arm.
Finally, the dad ripped out a picture from the newspaper
of the world.
He tore into little tiny pieces across the table,
and said, "Put this puzzle of the world together,
and when you finish, we'll go outside and play."
Well, the little girl finished in less than three minutes.
Shocked, the dad said, "How in the world
did you do this so fast?"
And the little girl said,
"Well I dropped a piece on the floor,
and when I went under the table to pick it up,"
she said, "I looked up at the glass
and I could see a picture of a woman on the back
of all the little pieces," she said,
"so I just turned all the pieces over
and put the photo of the woman in place."
Then she said this,
"Once I put the woman together,
the world just fell into place.
I love that. (chuckling)
See your world will come together
as you put yourself together.
And I'm gonna show you how real quick,
by the way, I'm Terri Savelle Foy,
your Cheerleader of Dreams.
And this channel is all about helping you live the dreams
God has put in your heart.
I don't just tell you, "Live your dream!"
I like to show you what God has taught me
to get out of a rut, to build my confidence,
and to stop the bad habits that were preventing me
from living the life I have now.
In fact, I wanna tell you real quick,
your free download this week,
I was gonna wait until the end to tell you
but I can't wait because I want you to get this.
I know it's gonna help you.
I want you to get this free chapter,
it's actually chapter eight, from my book,
"5 Things Successful People Do Before 8:00 AM."
But the chapter I'm giving you is called
10 Things Unsuccessful People Do That The Successful Don't.
Now I research these thoroughly to write this chapter
and I'm telling you it's eye opening.
I want you to read these one by one,
and just use it as a checklist
to just sort of steer clear of them.
Now these are bad habits that will stop you
from winning in life.
So just click the link in the description
and you'll get that free chapter
right now. (snapping)
Okay, so what is the mindset shift
that every successful person learns first?
Well, let me give you some personal examples
of people I've met,
and see if you can see a common thing among all of them.
First of all, a lady named Carol,
who at 56 years old,
realized she had saved nothing, no money aside.
Well, one day, she made a decision to take responsibility
for where she was financially
and she got a vision for how she wanted to retire one day.
She started reading books about financial health,
listening to messages to retrain her mindset.
By the time she was 62, we're talking six years later,
she had saved over a hundred thousand dollars.
Here's another story.
I know a pastor in Denver, Colorado,
who's struggled with her weight since having her babies.
Her babies are now in their twenties
(laughing)
but she made a decision to take responsibility
for her health and her lack of energy.
She began listening to motivational teaching
while just walking 20 minutes a day.
She said, "Out of 24 hours in a day,
I can find 20 minutes to do something
for my physical health."
Well, she's lost 26 pounds and kept it off.
Last one.
Actually, I have a picture of this sweet girl.
I met this girl at a conference,
her name was Jane M,
I was speaking at.
It was in Colorado and she handed me a piece
of paper with a list of things she'd accomplished
in a short 18 months.
Here's the list.
It included everything from passing her nursing exam,
getting a $5,000 signing bonus,
buying her dream car
which was a Jeep Wrangler, losing 75 pounds.
I mean, the list keeps going.
I said, "What happened?"
She said, "I got tired of watching everybody else
go after their dreams
while I just sat by, full of excuses."
She said, "I made a vision board,
subscribed to your podcast,
read every book you've ever written,"
and she said, "I started taking action."
Well, as you can see from every single story,
everything starts with a decision.
And we all know that your life today
is a series of decisions you've made up to now.
In other words, if you want the future to be different
you need to make different decisions, right?
And the decision or the mindset shift
that every successful person learns first is this,
take 100% responsibility for your life.
I heard Zig Zigler tell the story of how
when he was just a young, aspiring speaker,
he heard a motivational speaker say this phrase.
He said, "You are where you are because that's exactly
where you chose to be."
Zig said, "I was broke, down in the dumps,
and in debt," he said,
"but it came through loud and clear
that I was where I was and what I was
because of me, because of the choices and decisions I made."
Well, of course he started making choices
to turn his life around.
But the truth is, and I promise I'm not trying to be mean,
but you are where you are right this minute in your life,
and that means your health, your debt, your relationships
your lifestyle, your mindset,
because of you.
But you can also take responsibility to improve it.
And that's where I began the shift in my life.
For example, President John F. Kennedy,
he did not know how America could land a man on the moon.
And when he asked Dr. Warner Von Braun
what it would take to build a rocket
to carry a man to the moon and bring him safely back,
you know what Dr. Von Braun said?
"The will to do it."
Well, I believe you have the will to succeed
or you wouldn't be watching a channel like this,
but now it's time to follow up your will
with firm decisions.
You know, Jack Canfield said,
"There's only one person responsible
for the quality of your life,
and that person is you."
Now, maybe like me,
you've stopped learning.
In fact, I remember hearing the phrase
that "When you stop growing, you start dying."
And the truth is,
that when you stop feeding your mind, like I did
for 11 years after college, you just become stagnant.
But, something interesting happens
when you start the journey of personal growth,
the more you learn, the hungrier you get to learn more.
It's like, you just can't get enough.
You begin to crave knowledge and wisdom,
just as much as you used to crave
just sitting on the couch, watching Netflix.
Why?
Because you start experiencing the rewards
from your new mindset and habits.
Jim Rung said, "You can't change your destination overnight
but you can change your direction overnight."
He said, "If you wanna reach your goals
and fulfill your potential
become intentional about your personal growth."
He said, "It will change your life."
Well, I speak from experience.
See, the truth is, you didn't get to choose
which country you were born in, which city you grew up in,
whose parents you were born to,
or even the environment you were raised in.
You didn't even get to choose your own name,
something you would be called for a lifetime.
But you get to choose how your story goes on
from this point on, and for me, one day,
I just decided to take responsibility
for where my life was going,
and more importantly, how I wanted to end up.
I found out that what you do behind the scenes
has more significance
than what you do before a crowd.
See God always prepares us privately
before he can use us publicly.
So here's a good exercise.
Imagine a teenager wanting to be successful like you,
and they ask you, "Can I just shadow you
for the next five days and just watch your habits?"
What would they see?
What would they observe
about your daily life, your routine, your rituals
your habits that would motivate them to wanna be like you?
Now, if the thought of that just makes you moan
and go, dear God, (chuckling) I don't want that,
then lemme just give you some ideas of how I had to change.
What if the teenager saw you get up
just a little bit earlier.
You don't have to, you choose to.
Why?
Because you wanna invest in yourself
before you invest in everybody else.
You spend some quality time alone
and just maybe journal your thoughts and prayer.
And then they see you pick up a good personal growth book,
and you just read a little bit, not for hours,
just 10 minutes, but you highlight things.
You make notes in the margin.
Then maybe you make some positive declarations
over yourself, your dreams, and your goals
as you look at your vision board.
And then you finish off your morning routine
by listening to a motivational teaching,
while you go for a walk for 30 minutes
around the neighborhood,
and then by 8:00 in the morning,
you say, "Now let's get to work."
Do you think they would be impressed, inspired,
surprised, motivated?
You bet they would.
I never dreamed in 2002
when I started taking responsibility for my personal growth
like I just described,
just by setting my alarm clock a little bit earlier,
that it would not only lead to getting me out of a rut,
but into a routine that changed the entire course
of my life.
See, here's the thing,
what's simple to do is also simple not to do.
It's so simple to make some declarations
that last two minutes, but it's also simple not to do that.
But here's what I found out,
the biggest difference between the successful
and the unsuccessful
is that successful people are willing to do
what unsuccessful people are not willing to do.
Just remember, God can't use you publicly
until you get victory privately with nobody watching,
and that preparation begins by taking responsibility
for your life, your growth, your habits.
So I wanna help you this week.
I want you to get this free chapter, Chapter eight,
called 10 Things Unsuccessful People Do,
so you can just start taking responsibility
for where you're headed.
And remember, people are rewarded in public
for what they practice in private.
So click the link in the description there,
get your free chapter,
and remember, I'll be cheering you on to live your dreams.
(upbeat music)
Hey, YouTube, don't forget to subscribe to my channel
and to get more inspirational content,
click one of these videos right here.
And remember I'm cheering you on to live your dreams.