Now I don’t care what anybody thinks, Transformers was one of the coolest movies ever, especially to a guy who used to own all of them as a kid and at times, believed himself to be one. I was a huge Transformers fan. Good against evil, you know, it was good stuff.

Inspirational Quotes from Transformers

Now, once again, I love the lines they feed us in some of these movies. If you pay attention and listen closely, nearly every movie uses a principle of personal development or inspiration for their punch lines. Here is an example of  inspirational quotes from Transformers:

Simple yet profound right? Basically, victory requires effort. Believe it or not, regardless of what home based business you choose to pursue, this is the biggest reason for failure. People think they can get something for nothing. You must give before you get. Give effort, consistently, then you get consistently.

Now, the the punch line of the movie that inspired me the most, was towards the beginning, when they were faced with the choice of getting into the car/transformer:

Sam Witwicky: “He wants us to get in the car.”
Mikaela(Megan Fox): [laughing nervously] “And go where?”
Sam Witwicky: “Fifty years from now, when you’re looking back at your life, don’t you want to be able to say you had the guts to get in the car?”

Needless to say, they got into the car and chose to take part in something greater than themselves. By doing so, they had a shot, one opportunity, to be great themselves.

How many times will you be faced with that one shot to make something happen in your life? How many opportunities does one person get to become great?

When faced with that decision, don’t treat it lightly. Successful people make decisions quickly and seldom change those decisions. Sometimes those decisions can come and go before you realize what happened. When your shot comes, act on it out of ambition instead of fear, and become great! Fifty years from now, you can look back on your life with full regret or no regret. It doesn’t take a lifetime of passing up opportunity after opportunity to be full of regret. It just takes one time, because it will haunt you for eternity.

To answer Mikaela’s question, “And go where?” Wherever you decide. The Sky Is The Limit!

We have all heard of the common phrase: “For wherever your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” It’s a simple theory really. Whatever you value as most important in your life will get the most attention and most likely, come to pass. So with that said, I think it is very important to know what our treasure is and where our hearts will be. So we must choose consciously and wisely.

Here is a very simple way to know where your treasure lies: Look around you! Look at your lifestyle, your family life, your income, your possessions, your job, your decisions and all that surrounds you. So far, that is where your heart has been.

Now, this mindset thing is very important in obtaining your treasure. Fact: Knowledge is power, or energy. Thoughts are energy. So I think it’s safe to say that if you focus enough thought energy toward one thing, eventually, your heart will take the action to get it. So what we think about is vital in obtaining the treasure, the lifestyle, the income, the job or whatever it is you desire.

Choose: Coupons or Wealth

Here is an example of how simple this really is: When you do your shopping, do you take coupons? Do you look at the price of everything you buy and always choose the cheaper version regardless of quality? Are you most concerned with pinching pennies and saving a buck here and there? Does it hurt to spend money, if you know what I mean? Do you try to spend as little as possible during your trips to the store or do you just get what you want, or need I should say? Or do you really get what you want?

If these are the things you do, your thoughts are focusing on the lack thereof instead of prosperity and abundance. When all of your thought energy is focused on saving, lower prices, spending little, low quality, fear of spending, and pinching every single penny, that is exactly what you will get. You will always have just enough money to get what you need and will have a lack thereof in your bank account. Pinching pennies can be seriously damaging to your mindset and thus be reflected in your income, effecting your lifestyle, causing you to stay in this poverty game of saving a few bucks.

Is it really worth the effort? Is sacrificing your mindset honestly worth a few bucks here and there? In the big picture, it will kill your prosperity and success. Don’t do it. It is so much easier just to get what you want. Ignore the prices. Ten cents here or there will not matter to your bank account, but will to your mindset.

Every thought and every ounce of thought energy should go towards making more and thriving? Imagine if you spent more time thinking about prosperity than you did on saving at the grocery store. What and where would your treasure be then? Think about it!

Have you ever felt like you weren’t really living up to your true potential and most of the time you feel like you are a Nascar driver at a go car track? At times, do you catch yourself thinking that there has to be more to life than what you are currently experiencing?

Over the weekend I took my family to an Optimist fishing day for the youth and while fishing we couldn’t help but notice the seagulls flying around the lake. There must have been at least 30 of them hanging around this little lake amongst the ducks and I started thinking to myself, “Aren’t seagulls supposed to be near the beach or a shore somewhere?” I mean, don’t they have as part of their name “Sea?” When I think of Seagulls, I picture them just gliding in the ocean breeze, hanging in mid air, without having to flap their wings. Yet, here they are, 400 miles from the nearest shoreline, at a little tiny lake, in the middle of the Arizona Mountains?? Why?

Now I don’t know much about birds, but what probably happened was once upon a time, a Seagull ventured off from the beautiful shorelines, got stuck here in the mountains thinking there was no possible way to get back to the shore, had babies and raised them to think that this was their true calling in life. So the offspring of this one seagull has been living inland for generations. Sound familiar?

One day, one, two or maybe three of those Seagulls will realize their true calling in life and fulfill their potential and return to the sea. Along with those few, others will follow and learn that they too have the potential to become more. It’s in their blood. It can’t be tamed, unless, they allow it to be tamed.

The only reason Dog’s and other domestic animals are tamed is because they are taken care of with food, shelter and in a good home, are shown love. So they choose to stay for those reasons. The only reason people work for someone else is because of the same reasons. They get food, shelter and at times, a little recognition….and that is good enough for most. So they choose to stay!

But for some, who know that they deserve more, won’t settle for the tiny lake in the middle of Arizona when they know the entire Sea is out there. It’s all a choice. And yes, I did say settle. Everyone of us has the opportunity, the potential and the courage to choose to be as the seagulls at the shores, or the parakeet in the cage. The real question is: Do you want to simply survive….or do you want to Live?

How many times have you heard someone else say: “I wish I could go back and do it all over again,” or, “If I knew back then what I know now, things would have been different.” I have heard it all too much and at times, I just want to slap that person and say, “Too bad! You blew it! Stop living in the past!” But then again, being a nice guy and all, I have to take into consideration a word called, “Feelings!”

Seriously, what’s going to happen to the runner who is always looking at who’s behind him? He’s going to run slower, veer off course to which ever side he is looking and most likely lose the race.

For lack of a better scenario, if it were intended for us to always be looking behind us or into the past, our heads would have a great view of our back ends, and we all know what those are used for. Our heads are put on facing forward for a reason and that reason is so we won’t have to see all the “stuff” we’ve left behind. All we see is the path ahead of us.

“Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” ~Carl Bard, Scottish Theologian

I love that quote! Instead of dwelling on something that cannot be changed or altered, which is the past, focus your energy to something you can change and mold to your liking. The future is something that has no set destination because it can change with every decision you make. The cool thing is, you can be your own seer. You have the ability to see your own future. The crazy part, most people choose to dwell on the past instead of gazing into their future. You can tell where you will end up by taking the time to visualize it and then by making sure the small decisions you make every single minute of every single day are in alignment with it.

People deserve to spend more time creating their future than dwelling on their past!

I know this may sound crazy but I love to run. I love to wake up in the morning when the air is still cool, put on my running shoes, head out the door and run 2 or 3 miles. It allows me some time to improve my physical health while giving me some time to also think. At the end of a run, I am completely exhausted yet completely fulfilled. While thinking I get clear on my goals, more passionate about my enterprise and extremely grateful for what I have in my life.

If you would have met me 10 years ago, I hated to run. I was always running, but while playing basketball in school or during track or football. It was for a purpose and I was somewhat forced to do it.

I think the military taught me the benefits of a good run. I was still forced to do it but as my lungs adjusted to the long 5 to 6 mile runs, I started to enjoy running because of what it taught me about myself and about my life.

When you first start running it seems as though you will never reach the end. Sometimes it seems as though your lungs will explode or you will pass out on the side of the road and find yourself waking up to a bunch of concerned strangers. The beginning is always the toughest. But as your lungs get used to it, you start to understand that once that fatigue, or that burning feeling comes, by pushing forward, it goes away and you get your second wind.

I learned that I could actually control my breathing and bring my heart rate down to a level that was more comfortable and that didn’t seem as though I was gasping for air. I learned how to press forward, even when times get rough, or hard. I also learned that at times, especially when climbing big hills that it is easier to take smaller “consistent” strides rather than trying to sprint up the hill. I also know that for me, it is easier to sprint at the end of my run rather than maintain the same speed, especially if there is a small hill.

I went from barely passing PT tests in the Army to maxing them out in push-ups, sit-ups and the 2 mile run. Most people give up early in the 2 mile run by slowing down because it hurts a little, or it gets too hard.

The funny thing about the pains involved in running is that after the first few times, it’s all in your head. Give up and you may never enjoy running. Push through by being consistent and running 3 or 4 miles will be like a walk in the park.

The same applies to every business, most of the difficulty is all in your head. It is consistent action, whether large or small, taken daily that produces the best results. You must learn to always press forward, even when things seem difficult. Learn to enjoy the journey and love what you do and pretty soon, it will be a walk in the park!

While attending church with my sisters family this past weekend I heard a cool experiment in a talk that was given. It is amazing what you can learn when you actually pay attention! I can hear stories or experiences that I have heard once before but take away an entirely different meaning the second time around.

The experiment was done with fleas. Yes, fleas. Now, I want you to compare yourself to the fleas in this experiment. The person doing this experiment, caught a bunch of these fleas and put them in a tall container. As he watched this container, he noticed that the fleas would just jump right out of the top. I mean, there is nothing holding them in there, why not?

So during the next step of his experiment he put a lid on the container and then once again, observed the fleas. At first, the fleas would jump high enough to get out just as before the lid was put on the container and would bounce off the lid and fall back down. After a while of bouncing off the lid, the fleas started jumping just high enough to avoid smashing against the lid. So the fleas had learned not to jump as high.

In the next step, he decided to remove the lid from the container, and found that the fleas would still only jump as high as the lid. They weren’t jumping out of the container any more even though there was nothing holding them in.

Guys, I was once a flea. I was trained and educated to think that I had a lid placed above my head that prohibited my growth and what I though was possible. The sad thing was….this lid didn’t really exist. I just allowed myself to believe it did. Just because I was raised in a farming community did not mean that I had to become a farmer. Just because someone is raised in the ‘hood’ does not mean that he will or even has to remain in the ‘hood’.

You see we all have these imaginary lids in our lives that only exist in our minds. When you hear of the saying, “think outside of the box,” it just means realizing that there is no lid. There is only a boundless amount of opportunity and potential. The only thing holding you back is your vision for your own future. If your vision or belief only gets to the top of the container, then you may be stuck in that container for a very long time, or until you learn what else exists outside of the container.

It is amazing to see the difference it makes in someone elses life when they truly realize that their true potential is limitless and without end!

There is no lid, there is only you and your belief of what you are capable of!