What Do You See?
Published by John Terry - The Black Belt Leader in Leadership · Wednesday 19 Feb 2020
Tags: beablackbeltleader
Tags: beablackbeltleader
What Do You See?
John L. Terry, III - The Black Belt Leader
By the time we are 8-10 years of age, our brain is essentially hard-wired. Our parents and other influencers significantly shape our values, beliefs, convictions, and self-imposed limitations. When we look in the mirror, what we see is a compilation of those who helped connect the neural wiring that shapes what and how we think...and how we live life.
We go to school, where we are taught what to think. Our programming is further solidified by a system that seeks conformity of thought and action. We're not taught HOW to think, HOW to lead ourselves, and HOW to become a success. Rather, we are taught a trade or a skill that allows us to join a society of lemmings that perpetuate the status quo.
For most of us, we spend our lives trapped within this pre-programmed world of limited thinking that limits our ability to see real success in life. This limited thinking forms habits that govern 95% of our daily routine. We essentially live life by default, never nurturing the seeds of greatness within each of us, waiting to be germinated and grow.
You're not living...you're simply existing.
Those around us, many well-meaning, also seek to keep us in our place. Conformity is easy, it's comfortable, you just exist. Naysayers are everywhere, even inside your own mind, and they see their role in life as protectors of the status quo. Naysayers battle non-conformity and seek to keep you enslaved in a mediocre mindset of just getting by.
We've all heard their rhetoric: You'll never be rich. You'll never be famous. That's a silly idea. Why would you want to do something like that? No one in our family ever did anything like that before. You're not smart enough. It's too hard. You can't do it.
Are you content simply going through the motions in life, or do you want more out of life?
What do you see when you look in the mirror?
Who is staring back at you?
Here's what I know. Each of us has the ability to live life without limits. We have the ability to shake off the shackles of conformity and status quo and pursue with passion a cause greater than ourselves. Each of us has the ability to re-program our thinking, to give up our limiting beliefs and see the limitless potential we have within.
You have the ability to live a limitless life. You can become a better version of yourself every single day as you pursue life with Black Belt Excellence. But to see better results in your life, you have to change how you think and how you act. You have to unlearn what you've learned. You must replace the habits in your life that are holding you back with habits that will propel you forward.
You have to change how you see that person in the mirror.
One of my mentors, Christian Simpson, says, "Success is a process of unlearning habitual ways of thinking rather than learning new information." Personal growth and development is about improving what's already within. You can't enjoy true success in life if you choose to think like, and act like, everyone else.
You have to change how you see that person in the mirror.
The status quo is easy. Carly Fiorina (former CEO of Hewett Packard) says the status quo has great power. Carly also says that leaders challenge the status quo to change things for the better. This starts with changing how we think, and then start acting into a higher level of thinking. It's the process through which we become a Black Belt Leader in Life.
Just as we've been programmed to think in a particular way, we can reprogram our minds to think in a different way. What the mind learns, it can unlearn. What it doesn't know, it can learn. When we replace the habits of conformity with the habits of the highly successful, we think and act differently - and enjoy a greater level of success in our lives.
This requires you be intentional about personal growth. This demands that we live life on purpose, consciously thinking into our day. It necessitates we be cognizant of the excuses that creep daily into our lives seeking to keep us where we are rather than where we want to go. We daily retrain ourselves to think, and to act, into our success.
As you do this daily, that person you see in the mirror begins to change. The status quo loses its power over the person who is committed to living a lifestyle of personal growth and development. Conformity loses its grip (and its influence) as we reprogram how we think and act into our success.
James Allen said, "As you think, so you become."
In the Book of Romans, Paul said, "Do not be conformed to the world's way of thinking, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." As your mind begins to see and embrace the endless possibilities before you, the way you think expands, and so do your actions and results. You become transformed.
When you transform your thinking, the person you see in the mirror is transformed as well.
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2X martial arts Hall of Fame inductee, John Terry (The Black Belt Leader) is passionate about helping others become Black Belt Leaders in Life. He is a motivational speaker, leadership, sales & communication coach and trainer.
Jessie Terry, John's daughter, is a Certified Speaker, Coach, and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team and is actively involved in the JMT Global Youth Initiative. She is also a Real-Life Management trained coach and a certified Women-Safe Self-Defense Instructor.
For more information, schedule John (or Jessie) to speak to your organization or to book a personal, group or corporate coaching session, visit our website at: www.beablackbeltleader.com.
If you are a faith-based organization, learn more about John and Jessie's outreach to churches, para-church organizations or faith-based volunteer groups by visiting www.DunamisFactor.com.
John is an Executive Director with the John Maxwell Team and is passionate about helping others pursue excellence as they become "Leaders in Life". He is also a Master Coach & Trainer with Real Life Management, a human behavioral training organization helping people learn how to live "Real Life" and make better choices when it comes to relationships, money, health, and wellness. John is also a certified DISC Human Behavior Consultant.
