For more information about James Leath, visit jamesleath.com. 

You can get high on your own supply...of oxygen. This is a recording of a breathing activity I did with some high level CEOs and Entrepreneurs at a mastermind event I was a part of in August 2021. 

Sometimes I go live and offer this to those in my text message community. Text BREATH to (972) 236-5924 to join that group. 

Everything is Hard. Choose Wisely!

Shoutout to Pastor Keith Kraft for his poem, Choose Your Hard

The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short. - Abraham Maslow

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. - Steve Jobs

Music: Chill Out by Sunset Dreams

I recently learned how a circus trains elephants to stay in a certain area. A baby elephant is trained at birth to be confined to a very small space by Its trainer  tying its leg with a rope to a wooden post planted deep in the ground. This confines the baby elephant to an area determined by the length of the rope – the elephant’s comfort zone. Though the baby elephant will initially try to break the rope, the rope is too strong, and so the baby elephant learns that it can’t break the rope. It learns that it has to stay in the area defined by the length of the rope.

When the elephant grows up into a 5-ton colossus that could easily break the same rope, it doesn’t even try because it learned as a baby that it couldn’t break the rope. In this way, the largest elephant can be confined by the puniest little rope.

Perhaps this also describes you – still trapped in a comfort zone by something as puny and weak as the small rope and stake that controls the elephant, except your rope is made up of the limiting beliefs and images that you received and took on when you were young.

How many times have things that were limitations in the past taught us that we cant do it now, or in the future? Do not allow your past to stop you from doing what you want to do today. You’re a different person today than you were yesterday.
President Franklin Roosevelt. “Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds,” This is true for all of us.
You are so powerful. Your greatness is limitless, confined only by the limitations you put on yourself.

In short, “Don’t be as naive as an Elephant.”

Where FOCUS goes, energy flows! That is a quote from Tony Robbins, a man who has been my teacher for over 25 years. The lesson is simple, what we feel is a result of what we are choosing to focus on. The things we spend mental energy on affects all areas of our life. And the idea of a balanced life is total crap. It is never balanced. Work life balance, what a dumb thing to think is possible.
There is no balance. There is always something we are working towards or someone we are trying to become. Every day comes with new challenges, whether it is relational, financial, emotional, spiritual, physical...I mean there are so many things to consider when it comes to what to focus on.

Next time you catch yourself focusing on something that leads to anger or despair, change your focus. Decide in that moment to think of something you are grateful for, something that makes you smile. This gets easier the more you do it, and life is too short to live in the negative situations of your past or the hypothetical situations of a future that hasn't happened yet.

Where FOCUS goes, energy flows! Choose the right focus.

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

We all have scripts that we repeat in our minds. We learned these scripts, these beliefs about how the world works from others, and some we came up with them on our own. It’s not easy to replace these things we tell people, and ourselves, but if we become aware of the scripts that do good, we can make sure we repeat them more often than the ones that cause harm. It's that awareness of the things we think and say that creates the reality we see and the types of relationships we enjoy. 

When it comes down to it, The quality of your life depends on the quality of your communication with yourself (inside world) and with the others (outside world).

The ability to communicate well, especially with yourself and the willingness to challenge what you believe is an art that is worth consideration. Be intentional about what you believe and what you say, because thoughts and words are the foundation of who you are in this life.