Nick - The Man With No Arms, No Legs and No Limits

A good friend gave me a book for Christmas. The book was called Life Without Limits by Nick Vujicic, a man who has lived with no arms and no legs all of his life. The book was very inspiring and made me think constantly about myself. After finishing the book I looked for videos on Nick on YouTube and read a few more articles about him. After watching a few videos, I was impressed by how much Nick would smile.

Nick lived a rough life during his youth. He was teased frequently by other kids and called names such as "freak" or "alien." Nick grew up watching other kids play basketball, surf and go on dates with girls. At age 8 he contemplated committing suicide since he believed at that time that his life was already pre-determined: he couldn't do anything, he wouldn't get married and he would always need others to help him because of his disability.

However, Nick's attitude was impressive. He relied on God to remain positive and used his huge heart to get through some tough times. He learned how to swim, how to surf, how to use a computer and type, how to run a business and how to speak in public. Now, Nick goes throughout the world motivating other people and preaching how life can be lived without limits. He speaks to children about bullying and about loving themselves and each other.

Many times we are angry about the things that we don't have or the things that we do have that we don't like. We'll hate ourselves because we feel we're ugly or we're fat, we'll convince ourselves that we're not smart enough and we'll believe that we're not capable of achieving success. Yet, we forget the things in our lives that should matter. We forget that we have the blessings of our family, of our close friends, of the music we love, of the hands that allow us to hold our babies, of the lips we possess to kiss our mom on the cheek, of the dirty little car that has more than 200,000 miles but is still going, of the home that provides us a bed to rest, of the food we eat every single day and of the heart that allows us to forgive and love with no limits.

You are better than you think. You are beautiful. You are strong. You are smart. You can accomplish anything. The only limits you have are those you are setting for yourself.

"Whether you think you can or you think you can't - you are right."

- Henry Ford

"You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude towards what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you."

- Brian Tracy

Don't forget to share this blog so you can encourage others: family, co-workers, friends. Give them something to get motivated! You never know what they might be going through. A few words of encouragement can go a long way. 

What Would You Do If Everything Was Possible?

One of my favorite stories is a story I read in an article four months ago. The story was about a seven year old girl who was fascinated by the game 'catch.' She began playing catch with her dad, trying to count how many times they could catch the ball without dropping it. At one point they reached 50 catches and the girl and her dad were excited because they just beat their old record.

One day though, the focused little girl requested a game of catch in order to break their previous record of 50. The little girl wanted to get to 100! The dad chuckled a bit because he knew how much trouble it took them to get to 50. A few days later they reached their goal of 100. The next day the little girl said to her dad, "Dad let's go for 300 in a row!" The dad tried to convince his daughter that maybe they should try 125 or 150 because 300 was a stretch. Despite the push-back, the father agreed and a few days later 300 catches became their record. However, the daughter wanted to keep going. Challenging herself, she now wanted to go for 500. The dad said nothing this time but thought to himself, "You got to be kidding me!" Surely enough, after a few days, they reached 500 catches. The little girl didn't stop there.

"Dad," she said, "let's now go for 1,000 in a row!" The father at this point believed that this was impossible. Embarrassed to say anything to his believing daughter he unfaithfully agreed to try to get to that impossible goal. This time, in less than 24 hours, they reached 1,017 catches!

Earlier this week I wrote about fear and how fear prohibits us from reaching goals or trying things for the first time. Many times, we are the ones who limit ourselves and we are the ones who convince ourselves that things are impossible. What if you didn't set any limits? What if you stopped using the words 'I can't'? What if you truly believed that everything in this world was possible? Are you the one limiting yourself?

"Everything is impossible until somebody does it"

- Bruce Wayne (Batman) 

"Nothing is impossible. The word itself says 'I'm possible!"

- Audrey Hepburn

Don't forget to share this blog so you can encourage others: family, co-workers, friends. Give them something to get motivated! You never know what they might be going through. A few words of encouragement can go a long way. 

What Would You Do If You Weren't Afraid?

This week I saw a very inspiring speaker. She was a young black female that left the audience speechless. After she was introduced, she took the stage, didn't worry about the microphone and began her short speech. She made great eye contact and spoke clearly to her audience. She was very powerful. Her goal was to convince the audience to volunteer for a youth group. I was so moved by her words that I signed up myself as a volunteer (and later as a coordinator) for the youth group. This person was only 8 years old.

So many times do we get filled with fear. The girl that influenced me to volunteer had no fear. No fear of public speaking. No fear of making mistakes. She wasn't even nervous. As adults, we fear too much. Have you ever asked yourself, 'what would I do if I wasn't afraid?' Fear keeps us from pursuing our dreams, taking risks and eventually getting ourselves out of a hole. We sometimes don't want to speak up, don't want to confront others and we just continue to hurt ourselves. We let fear overpower us.

Time and time again, I hear people saying why they can't play the guitar. Most of the time they say "my fingers don't stretch that far" or they make up excuses such as "I'm just not musically talented." I added a video to this blog to show you that anyone can learn how to play guitar. It doesn't matter the size of the fingers (or the size of the person), it is something that can be learned.

What would you do if you weren't afraid? What would you do if you didn't care if you were embarrassed or ridiculed? What would you do if you weren't afraid of trying or failing? If you have read a blog like this before, then why are you still afraid? You are the one stopping yourself. Where there is a will there is a way.

Before you spend your STATE or FEDERAL REFUND CHECK, read this!

This morning I received an email from Walmart with the subject, "Tax Refund Online Specials Are Here". If I would have received that email a few years back I would have definitely opened it. Companies know that we are waiting for our state and federal refund check to spend it and they want us to spend it on them.

Some years ago, I felt that I was living paycheck to paycheck. Every month I felt as though I was the middleman for utility companies, credit card companies and my landlord. I became proactive and decided to track my spending. After two years of diligently tracking my expenses, I realized that now I was living paycheck to paycheck while spending certain evenings trying to calculate where my money went. In other words, I was a middleman trying to be an accountant. Then I realized something: not only was I living paycheck to paycheck, I was living refund check to refund check. Any given year would have looked like this:

Spring: Refund check time! Party time! So many choices. What should I buy first?

Summer: Shoot! Where did my refund check go? Well at least I still have a job.

Fall: How did I get so broke? Christmas is around the corner and now I won't have any money to buy presents.

Winter: Crap! Why did I buy all those presents? Now I'm in debt. How am I going to make it through the year? I can't wait to do my taxes. 

This became a vicious cycle that wouldn't stop for years. Sometimes I would even buy things before I received my refund check simply because I knew the check would be in the mail sometime soon. It was time to put a stop to it all. No more living refund check to refund check. 

This tax season, instead of spending your state or federal refund check in minutes, here are some suggestions on what you should do instead:

Think before you spend. Think before you act. Answer these following questions: Do you REALLY need to buy this? Do you REALLY need to spend your money on that thing NOW? Could your money be used for something better? If you don't really need the item you are thinking about purchasing, don't buy anything. If you feel as though your money could be utilized elsewhere, then don't buy anything. You might be better off holding on to the money instead.

Start a savings account. If you already have a savings account, put the money there. Give your self some time to really understand how the money should be spent. Saving your money is a great way to begin building your wealth instead of living month to month. 

Create financial goals and financial priorities. Be careful. Some people will automatically want to pay off all of their debt only to find themselves getting more loans or getting another credit card later in the year. Think about cash flow - the money you have or need in your hands. List out your financial priorities and your financial obligations. Begin calculating your expenses or use an app like Mint to do it for you.

Think about this check as new beginnings. This is a fresh start for you to make things right this year. Make better decisions financially and you will soon stop living paycheck to paycheck - or refund check to refund check. Any questions? Don't hesitate to ask. 

Do you have what it takes to be wealthy?

"We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." 

- Aristotle 

I recently ran into an info graphic (see below) about the habits of the world's wealthiest people. We sometimes fool ourselves in believing that there is a "reason" why someone is rich and we're not. We convince ourselves that we can't possibly do what they did so we never try. However, one way to begin is by breaking our bad habits and creating new ones that might be closely aligned to those that are successful. 

What bad habits do you need to break? What habits of the wealthy can you incorporate immediately?

What you can learn from the boy who wasn't smart...

His mother and father feared that something was wrong with their child. He was already three years old and still hasn't spoken a word. Years later, the fear resurfaced when their boy began to attend elementary school. The other kids thought he was weird because he didn't like sports and his teachers believed he was slower than the other students. By the time he got to high school one of his teachers told him that he would never amount to anything and that he should just drop out. Eventually, he did drop out of high school. Even the military didn't want him because he had 'flat feet.' It seemed as though this kid was just doomed. He was born to fail and everyone knew it.

Before I continue with the story, I think it's important to note that I probably already convinced you that this boy was not smart. Perhaps at some point even the boy was convinced that he was not smart. Why do we do that? We allow others to dictate what we are or what we aren't? We're quick to judge and we're quick to accept judgment.

Has anyone convinced you that you're not smart enough? That you're not good enough? Or that you just can't do it? If you allow yourself to be convinced by other people's opinions, then we accept the limits of others, not of ourselves. You have a choice to not listen.

However, the worst thing you can do is convince yourself that you can't do something or that you are a certain way. You might say to someone, "I'm just not a morning person" or "I'm just always late" or "I'm bad with math." When I used to teach guitar lessons years ago, the most common thing I would hear was, "I can't play the guitar, my fingers don't stretch that far." These are all lies. There is a way you can wake up earlier, you just need to get used to it. You can always leave your house 30 minutes before so you're not late. You can do math problems 30 minutes a day to get better. Finally, you can actually just try to stretch your fingers until your fingers get used to the guitar, with much needed practice.

It's easier to convince ourselves that we just can't do things. Or we can use that same mental power to convince ourselves that we can be better. We can convince ourselves that we can change and that we will change. Is it hard? Of course. Does it take time? Definitely. Is it worth it? More than you can imagine.

What things can you improve about yourself? What things need to improve? Is it really others that have convinced you or is it yourself?

Oh yes - back to the story! The boy eventually studied long and hard to take a few exams and eventually got into college. After college he struggled with finding a job because his teachers refused to write letters of recommendation for him. The story of his life continues. He finally got a job at as a patent clerk and continued his studies earning a doctorate from the University of Zurich. The boy who was once told he would never do anything in life became one of the smartest human beings that ever lived. His name was Albert Einstein.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

"Adults are always asking kids what they want to be when they grow up because they're looking for ideas"

- Paula Poundstone

I was at an elementary school earlier this week when I saw a teacher do an ice breaker with her students. She asked the class what they wanted to be when they grow up and you heard some of the most common professions: "cop", "doctor" and "teacher."

One of the students then raised her hand and asked, "teacher, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

As adults, we like to believe we have everything figured out. You might be starting a new job, studying to get your degree or just raising your children thinking that this is the way things are supposed to be. However, when was the last time you thought of what you wanted to be when you grow up?

You might not be growing in height, but you're always growing as a person. Experiences help us grow. School and books still help us learn. We're still growing. It doesn't matter if you're 20 or 40. There is still time for you to be what you want to be as a grown up. The best part is that you don't have to only be one thing. You can be many things! You can be an office manager in the mornings, a dedicated mother in the afternoons, a dancer on Friday nights and a volunteer at your church on Sundays. You probably already are many things but the questions you should ask yourself is: Is this who I want to be? Is this what I want to do?

If you haven't yet answered the question 'what do you want to be when you grow up?' maybe its time to do some brainstorming. Better now than never. Here are a few questions to ponder:

1. What do I like to do?
2. What am I good at?
3. What do I like to learn?
4. What do I absolutely hate doing? (so that you understand what you don't want to be when you grow up)
5. What is stopping me?

This exercise is a lot more meaningful when you actually write out your answers. After you answer these five questions, you must answer a final question:

Why am I stopping myself from being what I want to be when I grow up?