How Gratitude, Courage, and Coachability Unlock Your Greatness

Welcome back to the Daily Mastermind. I want to hit you with the quote of the day today out of the Daily Mastermind mobile app. It's true happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new. Well, today is Wednesday. It's hump day. I want to give you guys some motivation and inspiration to keep your week going. So I'm going to play you a short audio from Les Brown. Les Brown has spoken for me for you know many many years and he's an amazing guy one of the best mentors that I've had and today I want to have him talk to you a little bit about the spirit of gratitude how to shift your focus from negative to positive how to be able to be coachable and how to create the greatness within you I mean he's really good at helping to inspire and and help you to understand just how much greatness you have inside of you so I hope you enjoy Enjoy. Have a great day today. So here's what I know about you. What you've done is only a tip of the iceberg of what's possible for you. That you have so much in you that you're not even aware of. Everybody repeat after me, please. Leave and grow your wings on the way down. See, the reason I believe that most people never discover their greatness is that most people go through life playing it safe. Fred Smith of FedEx said, if you are 38 and you haven't made some major failure in your life, you haven't done anything. Eight out of ten millionaires have been financially bankrupt. Most people never discover their greatness because they don't want to fail. They don't want to make any mistakes. They don't want to look stupid. That was me. I didn't believe in myself and I didn't feel I was good enough because I don't have a college education. Because I never worked for a major corporation. I'd never done that before. And so I didn't believe that that was available to me. And I'm saying to you that eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor is it in the heart of mankind what God has in store for you. If you're willing to be a risk taker, this God said, if you're not willing to risk, you can't grow. And if you can't grow, you can't become your best. And if you can't become your best, you can't be happy. And if you can't be happy, then what else is there? I love what Helen Keller said. She said, life is short and unpredictable. Eat the dessert first. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt in life when you go after your dream. Think it's not strange when you have a goal and dream that you want to achieve, that you have faced the fiery furnaces of this world. Things are going to happen to you. What we must do in life is look for those things that we can be thankful for There something about the spirit of gratitude Gratitude it has been found dispels negative thoughts and negative emotions. A spirit of gratitude, it boosts your immune system and it gives you a sense of clarity to allow you to begin to anchor yourself on the positives of the life rather than on the negatives. When you have a spirit of gratitude, you understand and know, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, what lies before you and what lies behind you is of small consequence to what lies within you. And what lies within you, that nothing that you're facing is bigger than you. I was reading something I love. How many of you love poems and quotes? Let me share this with you. I love them. And I was reading this piece because when things happen, it's very important, and I want you to write this down. Make a list of the things that you are thankful for. Why? Because life is going to catch you on the blind side. When you get on an airplane, they say, before you take off, fasten your seatbelt because you're going to experience some turbulence before you reach a comfortable altitude. Am I correct on that? And so it's very important that we are looking for ways in which we can be thankful. I like something that Mark Twain said about being thankful about gratitude. He said, if I were asked to give what I consider the single most important useful bit of advice for all humanity, it would be this. Expect trouble as an inevitable part of your life. And when it comes, hold your head up. Look it squarely in the eyes and say, I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me. You've got to have a spirit of when life calls your name and tap you on the shoulder, you've got to stand up within yourself. I remember a demented, mentally ill man went to this compound. And I can't remember. I think they were Quakers, a milkman. And he went there to kill these kids. And the oldest kid said, shoot me first. And the question was asked. After that woman was killed, another one stood up and said, shoot me first. The other one said, I'm next. The older kids who felt and they said, life has been good to us. These little kids who had put their lives on the line for the smaller kids and the older kids who did survive that he didn get a chance to kill said we felt if he shot us first that someone would hear the shots and come running and save the little ones That kind of gratitude of life and courage out of you little kids who made that decision, that in the tragic situation there, that they were unflinching. And I said, if that's available to them, that kind of gratitude, that kind of love, that kind of determination, that kind of drive, that kind of courage that's available to us in the midst of the things that happen to us. To be thankful, I hated the fact when I saw the first person I ever saw die was my mother. And to hold her hand and say, Mama, let go, baby. You've done good by us. And I remember as she looked off into the distance and a tear fell out of her eyes and I started thinking about God gave me 50 good years with this woman. 50 years. I feel that God took me out of my biological mother's womb and placed me in the heart of my adopted mother. I had no right to grieve. I was thankful. The poet said, if you but knew where I stepped, you would wonder why you wept. So as you look at your life, make a list while you're here. of the things that you are grateful for. When you look back on this year, what are you grateful for? That spirit of gratitude in the midst of all the things that's going on now and the things that's going to happen because in life you either end a problem or just left one or hit it toward one. A spirit of gratitude will fortify you. A spirit of gratitude will inoculate you and empower you to handle the hits in life. Let us say together, be thankful. The other thing that is important, ladies and gentlemen, be coachable. Be coachable. I believe that the reason that most people are living a life of mediocrity and not living up to their true potential, they are not coachable. They are not willing to listen. They asked Mr. Washington, how do you explain what Les Brown has done versus all of the other students that you've had that was much smarter than Mr. Brown? He was in special education. They made the honor roll. They went off to college. He didn't go to college. He didn't have all the things going for him as they had going for them. What is it that you would attribute his success? Was he very talented? He said no. Was he an exceptional student of cost art? He was in special education. Then how do you explain what he done He said he listened How many of you know people that won listen Raise your hands please I never forget a friend of mine named Lorraine Watkins I did an intervention for a brother who was addicted to drugs and he asked us to leave his house I was walking down the steps and I said, I'm sorry, Lorraine. I wasn't able to succeed in getting your brother to commit himself to a drug program. And she looked at me with tears in her eyes. She said, no, Leslie, you did the best you could. She said, I come to realize most people won't participate in their own rescue. Whoa. Most people won't participate, Eric, in their own rescue. They'll get angry with you when you try and give them some advice. See, one of the things that as you look at yourself and look at your goals, that I believe that we only have enough energy to go so far. Being in a community of achievers, being around other like-minded people, it challenges you. And having a coach. Why do you need a coach? Because you can't see the picture when you're in the frame. That's why you need a coach. Because a coach can stretch you and push you in areas where you can never push yourself. That's why I'm who I am. Mike Williams said, Les Brown, yes, you can do more than this jockey. Had he not spoke those words to me, I'd have never considered being a national and international intellectual resource for corporate America. That was not part of my reality. He saw that in me. How many of you ever had somebody see something in you? Raise your hands, please. He saw that in me. I didn't see that in me. Because you can't see the picture when you're in the frame, as I said. And I was willing to listen. You've got to be willing to listen. Find someone that's doing what it is you want to do on the level where you want to go. And you might have to have a variety of people. I've got a spiritual coach. I've got a physical fitness coach. I have my mental fitness coach. I have my life coach. You've got to have coaches in your life to help you get to the next level. Because this is your time. That's why you're here. This is your time. Only people with a sense of mission, people with a sense of destiny, people who feel within themselves, it's time for me to make my move. Maren White said in life, when you don't have enough courage or insight to know that you have outgrown a situation and it's time to move on, life will move on you. Transcription by ESO. Bas roy fee.