The thing about becoming an expert and being successful is there are no shortcuts. I know today, living in our fast food society, we want everything right now. Unfortunately, striving to be the best takes time. No one is born an expert. Your gift is inside you when you’re born but you must develop that gift. Becoming an expert only happens through training and experience. It is said that to be an expert at anything you must do it repeatedly for at least 10,000 hours.

I’ve talked about this in several previous articles and want to discuss it more thoroughly today. I’m talking about those little creatures that hide deep inside our minds. The ones that pop up at the worst of times. Their only function is to prevent you from living the life you so richly deserve. Yes, I am talking about those dreaded “Doubt Demons!” They are there, dug in deep and camouflaged, waiting for the right time to come out. It is imperative to stifle these demons. If at all possible, they should be eradicated.

Do you ever wonder, why isn’t anything easy? Wouldn’t it be so nice if we could go through life without any struggles? Especially during these trying times in which we are currently living. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen because life itself is a struggle and it takes strength and perseverance to get by. People who succeed in life are persistent. They learn how to improvise, adapt, and overcome. This is a phrase that Clint Eastwood made famous in his movie, Heartbreak Ridge. Perseverance is the key to success.

The subject of the podcast, "Episode 26: What Are Your Gifts And Talents?" is near and dear to my heart. That is your gift. This is not a gift wrapped in pretty paper with ribbons and bows, it’s a gift that you carry around inside of you. You have had it your entire life. The gift I am talking about has been placed in you, by God, before you are born. Everyone is born with their gift and I hope that this podcast will help you to discover your gift.

What is failure? How do we define it? In the dictionary failure has many meanings, it can be defined as a lack of success or one that has failed. I believe this is too broad a definition and I refer back to some of my previous posts where I talked about success. Success being different for each person means also that failure can be different for different people. I prefer to define failure as a necessary building block on the road to success. Very few people have immediate success when they begin a new venture.

Do you struggle with self-confidence? Are you a different person on the outside than you are on the inside? As humans, we are all unique and we have to see the real person who we are. We are defined only by the words we tell ourselves, not by other people’s words. Tell yourself every day that you are a confident, strong person. Look at all the successes you have had in your life and don’t compare them with others. All victories, no matter how large or small, are victories. Celebrate every one of them. Every day go be the best person that you can be on that day. Life is life and some days are simply better than others. Some days I accomplish a lot, other days not so much, but every day I’m the best me. Go be the best you.

So, 2020 is coming to an end. We are in the last couple of days and I know a lot of people are very thankful. For a lot of people 2020 has been a dumpster fire and a year to forget. We have had to put up with COVID-19, many natural disasters, and civil unrest. For me, 2020 has been one of my best years. Despite everything that's happened this year, I'm a better person today than I was this time last year.

If you want to be successful at anything, you need a team. It’s just overwhelmingly difficult to make it to the top by yourself. As I have written in past blogs, your WHY needs to come from deep down inside you, it needs to be large and emotional. The goal that you are working towards accomplishing has to be worthwhile. It has to be realistic but large enough to scare you and be difficult to obtain. Life is gonna throw too many obstacles and challenges at you to accomplish the goal by yourself.

Everything nowadays seems so complicated that we need to break it down into its simplest form in order to understand it. When I was in the jungle, I carried the explosives we used two destroy the cocaine labs. Trying to understand the scientific facts of how explosives work can be complicated. It wastes a lot of time looking at formulas, trying to figure out the best locations to place the dynamite.

We didn’t have a lot of time to do that. I learned in my training the simple fact is energy caused by the explosion always travels along the path of least resistance. If you wanted the explosion to travel in a certain direction, he just had to pile rocks and other heavy objects against the charge on the side opposite of the direction you wanted the explosion to travel. You don’t have to complicate things in order to obtain great results.

I always enjoy the beginning. The beginning of a relationship, meeting a new person who you know will become a good friend, starting to read a good book. To me, the beginning of anything is always exciting. I’m filled with joy and anticipation when a new football season kicks off. It excites me to begin a new challenge. I love the feeling of nervousness and wonderment I get when I ask myself, “Can I really do this?” I start a new business with the excitement of all the possibilities if it succeeds. I’m quickly filled with feelings of frustration and doubt as I have to learn so many new things. As I quickly overcome my fears, it just adds to the excitement of beginning something new. Starting projects are fine, but nothing compares with finding true love. I don’t know if I’ve ever found any better feeling than beginning a relationship with someone that you know will be there for the rest of your life.