You Will Never Look At Life The Same Les Brown

the easiest thing i’ve done

was to get out from under the labels and

to live the life that i live the most

difficult thing i’ve ever done

was to believe that i can do it

the difference is that when you don’t

know

what’s impacting you and it’s it’s

something that

that’s holding you down and you’re not

aware of it

there are things that when you in my

situation

you live in a dominant culture that is

designed to destroy your sense of self

and your belief in yourself and and you

have to learn

ways in which you can begin to connect

with this power that you have within

yourself to handle where you are

the key is to be constantly in a

perpetual process

of discovering the truth of who you are

and

fighting constantly to look for ways in

which you can escape

the inner conversation

between ages zero and five

we determine what’s available to us and

what’s not available to us and so

that was a defining moment i knew

there are certain things i could not do

certain places i could not go

they used to have signs on miami beach

that said jews

dogs and cullets not allowed and so

now you have to operate within the

constraints of the dominant society and

the things that they’ve created for you

and it’s a challenge to see yourself

beyond that

and to work to get outside of that even

after

those laws have changed because that has

become

so much a part of you you unconsciously

operate within the parameters of what

has been put

in place like you go to you’re driving

on the expressway the four or five

and and you’ll get off on an exit that

you weren’t going in that direction but

you unconsciously did it because you’ve

done it so many times

that many people because they’re not

making a conscious deliberate determined

effort

to think outside of what life has thrown

at them

they end up doing the same thing over

and over and over again einstein said

that

thinking that has brought me this far

has created some problems

that this thinking can’t solve and so

through relationships through reading

through studies through goals and dreams

beyond your comfort zone it allows you

to begin to live

out of your imagination as opposed to

out of your history

disney said the imagination is a preview

of what’s to come

they have to expose themselves to

something

that will give them a different vision

of themselves

and in addition to that they have to put

themselves

in a community of what i call oqp

only quality people a gentleman who

dramatically transformed my life i was

a junior at booger t washington high

school in miami florida

and i went in his class looking for

another friend

and and he said go to the board and work

this problem out for me

i said sir i can’t do that he said why

not i said uh

i’m not one of your students he said do

it anyhow.

and and the other kid started laughing

saying he’s leslie

he’s dt and he said what’s dt he’s

his brother is smart but he’s the dumb

twin

and and i said i am sir and he came from

behind his desk and he

pointed at me said don’t you ever say

that again someone’s opinion of you does

not have to become your reality

and he taught me three things he said if

you want to become successful in life

young man

he said number one you got to change

your mindset

he said you don’t get in life what you

want you get in life what you are

number two practice oqp

only quality people you earn within two

to three thousand dollars of your

closest friends i found that out i left

all my broke friends i said y’all got to

go

cause i used to be so broke i passed the

bank and tripped the alarm

you know and the third thing he said

develop your communication skills

because once you open your mouth

you tell the world who you are he said

those are three

major things that you want to work on

that will liberate you from living in

liberty city

living in poverty and over town it will

help to

escape out of where you are right now

because i see you watching me and i know

you want more i can see the

hunger in your eyes

you get hungry by finding something

that’s you

i believe that all of us are born unique

but most of us dye copies

you’ve got to find out what is it that

turns you on what

resonates with you one of the things

that

i realized and what allowed me to become

successful as a speaker

the speaking industry has been hijacked

by people who

speak to sell and it’s okay to do that

and make money

i speak to change lives because somebody

spoke

and changed my life so this is my

passion

this is my drive this is something that

i feel in my heart

and and so the key to

that hunger driven life is a

heart-centered life

i didn’t do what i’m doing for years

because of my programming because

of the culture in which i was raised in

i would see other people with

with degrees and phds and and

mbas and credentials i don’t have and i

convinced myself i couldn’t do it

but mr washington on that day

we became friends and and he taught me

not only

someone’s opinion of you just does not

have to determine your reality

he said that you have to work on

yourself and you have to have an

unstoppable attitude and

no excuse is acceptable and you’ve got

to

to make it a a priority a non-negotiable

in your life

and hold a constant vision of what it is

you want to achieve

see it accomplished and go all out

find a way to win in spite of the

setbacks in spite of the disappointments

in spite of your

failures i tell people when i’m giving

presentations you will

fail your way to success i have a saying

is life knocks you down trying to land

on your back because if you can look up

you can get up and so

those experiences of of going after

goals that’s beyond your comfort zone

and

having relationships that will challenge

you and surrounding yourself with

coaches and

mentors who can take you to a place

within yourself

that you can’t go by yourself because

you can’t read the label when you’re

locked in the box

and so those experiences they

challenge you to go to that next level

and continue

to move forward in your life doing new

and exciting things that i has not seen

ear has not heard noah is in the heart

of mankind what god has in store for you

when you live a hard-centered life

deciding that you’re going to live a

life that will outlive you you’re going

to live a life

that counts a life that will build a

legacy and change the planet you know

horror’s man said we should be ashamed

to die

until we’ve made some major contribution

to humankind

and so my goal is to make a major

contribution to humankind

every day when i get up my mindset

is what is it that i can do to touch and

impact somebody’s life

today what is it what does that look

like

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don’t live the life that has been given

you

by the people that’s around you that

sydney port here wrote a book called the

measure of a man

and he said when you go for a walk with

someone

something happens without being spoken

he said

either you adjust to their pace

or they adjust to your pace whose pace

have you adjusted to

and so they’re things that we pick up

and we think that they’re our

choices but they’re the choices that

we’ve been programmed by

life to to do when we leave our homes in

the morning

we’re bombarded with over 6 000

advertising hits through facebook

through twitter through instagram

through television

through our phones and through our

communities uh and through

the computers and so all of these things

are

impacting us every day so if you don’t

have a program

for your mind then your mind is going to

be programmed and you’ll find yourself

doing things that you did not know

and and that they affected you that they

through marketing techniques and

strategies

that they will create a thirst within

you

i came up in an era that said if you

built the best mouse trap

the world will be the path to your door

but if you know

marketing people will sleep outside your

store

to buy a telephone they’ve never touched

or

seen but because of the marketing they

said i

got to have that and when they get it

it’s a smartphone with their

dummy because they don’t know how to

work it

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