Just suppose you are sitting at the controls
of such a vast source of energy
Are you going to sit back and fold your arms
and let it run itself into a ditch?
Or are you going to keep both hands firmly on the wheel
and control and direct this power
to a specific worthwhile purpose?
It's up to you
You are in the driver's seat
Where will you be in five years?
Five years from now
I wish for you to arrive at a well designed place
A place of productivity
A place that'll make you feel good about yourself
A place that'll give you honor and respect
A place that'll give you influence to touch other people
Five years from now that you couldn't do today
What one great thing would you dare to dream
if you knew you could not fail?
What would you do differently
if you were absolutely guaranteed of success
in any undertaking?
What if some great force could endow you
with the power to achieve any goal
that you could set for yourself?
To put it another way
what if you were completely unafraid of anyone
or anything
and you felt completely free to act in any area
in your own best interest?
We developed the confidence to tackle larger goals
by applying our energies
to the accomplishment of smaller goals
We build up our confidence
as we move forward
until we reach the point
where there is nothing that we won't take on
Here's what else I found out
Reasons come firs
answers come second
You don't get the answers to do well
until you get the reasons
Life has a mysterious way of hanging on to all the answers
and only gives them up
to the people that are inspired by reasons
So reasons make the difference in how your life works out
And a Theodore Roosevelt said
Far and away
the best prize that life has to offer
is the chance to work hard at work worth doing
This is the thing
that is the great destroyer of dreams
people want it to be easy
and the only people that are gonna succeed
are the ones that really understand
that the prize that life has to offer
is to really pour yourself into something
that is worthwhile to
gain a set of skills
that are going to serve other people
that do something to have a vision
that's bigger than yourself
and to go after it with everything that you have
But ask yourself
when was the last time
you poured yourself into doing something
where you gave yourself over
completely and totally to something
because that
that's what success is gonna demand of you
Dedicate your life to something
dedicate your life to a cause larger than yourself
See, when you dedicate your life
you bring on a special power
There's a power in you that
people
circumstances
events
and I'm not talking about the physical you
I'm talking about the real you
the indestructible
invincible
perfect essence of who you really are
that can bring a government to its needs
that can change the course of history
Choices what you do
poets critic and dictionary writer Samuel Johnson observed
he who has so little knowledge of human nature
as to seek Happiness by changing anything but his own disposition
will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief which he purposes to remove
most people want to change the world to improve their lives
but the world they need to change first is the one inside themselves
that is a choice one that some are not willing to make
in a Peanuts cartoon strip by Charles Schultz
Lucy says to her little brother Linus
"boy do I feel crabby?
maybe I can help you? Linus responds
always willing to be of assistance
" why don't you just take my place here in front of the TV
while I go and fix you a nice snack
sometimes we all need a little pampering to help us feel better"
Linus returns with a sandwich, chocolate, chip, cookies and a glass of milk
now he asks
Is there anything else I can get you? is there anything I haven't thought of?
Lucy takes the tray saying yes
there's one thing you haven't thought of
and then she screams "I don't want to feel better!"
early in life you don't have many choices
you don't choose where and when you were born
you don't choose your parents you don't choose your race
your personality type or your genetic makeup
you don't choose your health
everything you are and nearly everything you do is not up to you
you must live with the conditions you find yourself in
as Voltaire would say you start with the cards you're dealt
but the longer you live the more your life is shaped by your choices
you decide what you will live
this is one of the most common ways small children begin to assert their independence
you decide what toys to olay with
you decide whether you will do your homework or watch TV
you choose which friends to spend time with
you choose whether to finish High School
whether you will go to college
who you will marry
what you will do for a living
the longer you live the more choices you make
and the more responsible you are for how your life is turning out
obviously this does not accurately represent every person's life
but in general the longer we live
the less conditions dictate how we think and act
and the more our choices determine how we live
and one of those choices is our attitude
I don't know what kind of circumstances you've had to face in your life
you may have had a really tough time
you may have faced extreme hardships or suffered terrible tragedies
however your attitude is still your choice