Potential

News
No new updates for this week.

Quote
"Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I'll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I'll give you a stock clerk."
~ J.C. Penney

My Thoughts
It doesn't matter where we are at right now, all of us have the potential to do whatever it is we desire.

My own life has lead me down many paths, but I suppose since I was 17 I've always had some sort of focus to what I was doing.

I'll share a story.
People often ask me why I joined the Army. Some people think that I had no other option(s) and/or that I must not be intelligent (I won't even get into who decides what is intelligence).

I went to Catholic school growing up. They had a track system for determining where they think people should go based on your grades. They had four tracks. I was a track 1 & 2 student. This meant that I was supposed to go to college. As a matter of fact around 95% or more of the students in my track went on to college immediately after high school. In case you are wondering most track 3 students were still expected to go to college and track 4 were supposed to go learn a trade.

As for me, I always questioned the idea of jumping immediately into college after high school. Something about it seemed odd to me. But that is the path I was headed down. I took the SAT, did okay, and received a partial academic scholarship to Temple University in Philadelphia. I planned on getting a degree in Criminal Justice. 

So what happened? Why didn't I go to Temple?

Well around this time (I was 17), my Dad sat me down and gave me three options for my future living arrangements. He said:
1. Work full time and pay us rent.
2. Go to college and pay us lower rent.
3. Move out.

This was possibly one of the greatest things my Dad ever did for me. Why? Because it taught me to make decisions on my own.

A few weeks later, my Dad suggested to me that I look into joining the military. I laughed at the idea. Me? I was anti-authority, I had a mohawk in the summer, sometimes that mohawk was dyed different colors, etc...Not exactly the image of a soldier.

One day I decided that I would go talk with a recruiter and he set me up to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test. This test determines what jobs you can do in the military. I went to the testing center more out of curiosity than anything. I took the test and much to the test administrator's surprise (and mine as well), I finished it faster than everyone else and got the highest score in Philadelphia up until that point in the year. This meant I qualified for any job that the Army offered.

This now caused me to think. Should I join the military and use the skills that I would learn to help me out in the future? Or should I continue down the relatively comfortable path I was on?

I spent a short time thinking about it and decided to join the army. Many teachers and guidance counselors at my school were horrified, they told me that I was making the worst decision of my life. I disagreed.
I joined the Army and spent five years working as an intelligence analyst. Because I scored so high on one section of the ASVAB I spent half the time working in strategic intelligence. The other half was spent in operational and tactical intelligence.

Once I started working in strategic intelligence I knew that after I got out of the Army I wanted to work more in that field. That is what I did. I got out of the military in August 2003 and in November 2003 I was picked up by a defense contractor and spent six years doing intelligence analysis and collection work . I ended up more than quintupling my military salary in less than four years. In 2009 I left defense contracting to pursue a dream and started my business.

Were there ups and downs, or times I wanted to quit the military? Of course...although you can't quit the military :)

The point here is that sometimes, or oftentimes, you have to do what's uncomfortable in order to get where you want to be. If you have a goal you will be able to tolerate those uncomfortable situations better.

If you do not have any goals I encourage you to spend time this week thinking of what you would like your life to look like. Write down your thoughts and then choose a few and put a timeline to them. Then start taking action.

Have an amazing week.

Potential

Happy New Year.
I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

News
1. There are still some seats available for Saturday's "Finally Fit Now" workshop. If you ever struggled with maintaining your weight or a health program, then you do not want to miss this workshop.

2. We also are starting another professional speaking course on Thursday, January 13th at 7:30pm.
It is limited to eight people, however I already have four people 100% confirmed so there are only four spots left.

Here is some more info about the course:
6-Week Professional Speaking Course

Who this course is designed for:
1. People that are looking to build self-confidence and
greatly reduce their fear of speaking in public.
2. People that would like to learn how to prepare speech
content and connect with any audience.
3. People that would love to increase their leadership
skills.
4. People that want to understand how to effectively deliver
their message.
5. People that are seeking to get promoted in whatever field
they are in.


Total Time: 12 hours
6 hours of instruction / 6 hours of practical application

Class Size: 6-8 people

Instructor: Bob Taylor
Founder of One Amazing Life / Certified Personal Development
Coach / Korea University Executive MBA Presentation Skills
Instructor / Partner of Bob Proctor and LifeSuccess Consultants /
Trained by Bill Gove Certified Professional Speakers

Week 1
Cultural Differences that can affect a speech
Connecting with the 4 different types of people in an
audience
How to do an impromptu speech
Each student delivers a very short impromptu speech

To see the entire course layout please check out www.oneamazinglife.com

Here is what one person had to say about the course:
"The Professional Speaking Course that Bob Taylor offers at One Amazing Life was more than a simple speaking course that teaches you how to speak. It broke my own limitation I'd had all my life that I was a bad speaker. It helped me realize the potential in myself that I could be a great speaker, through numerous speaking exercises in the course. It truly was a liberating, and fantastic learning experience for me. I'd recommend this course to anyone who thinks (s)he is not a good speaker because Bob will help you discover your potential and be a confident and competent speaker."
-Jimin Uam - PADI OW Instructor

I normally charge a minimum of 100,000 won per hour for this type of training, however I would like to make it accessible to everyone. So instead of charging 1,200,000 won, you can take the entire course for only 300,000 won.

As I said there are only four spots left for the speaking course. If you would like to attend the workshop or the speaking course please email me: bob@oneamazinglife.com

Quote
"We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential."
-Ellen Goodman

My Thoughts
People often look at their lives and determine their potential by their past results. We have all done it from time to time. The problem with doing this is that it will severly limit you. Your past results are merely a reflection of what you have been thinking up until this point and time. You have the ability to change your thinking whenever you choose. The only limit to your potential is what you say it is.

Another clue in how people limit themselves is in the goals they set, or in many cases don't set. Many people set New Year's resolutions. How many people actually follow through with them? Not many. Why is that? Well most people don't put any worthwhile effort into setting these resolutions. The other thing is that there is not enough emotion tied to the resolutions.

Here are some common resolutions:

-Lose Weight

-Be Happy

-Organize my life

-Learn something new

-Quit Smoking

All of those are limiting. I won't go into all the reasons but mainly because they are not specific and not emotional.

What is my recommendation? Stop setting New Year's resolutions. That's right. Think about it, if you've been setting resolutions for the past 15 years and have never followed through you have yourself a 15 year old habit taking up space in your subconscious mind. Quit reinforcing that habit.

Instead of a list of meaningless resolutions, I offer you a different challenge.

Spend some time contemplating this question:

If I absolutely knew I would not fail, what is one thing I would do?

After you have the answer to that question spend more time thinking of what you can do right now to move you closer to to achieving it and then start taking action.

Have an outstanding week.

Human Potential

Quote
"When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already were what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be."
-Goethe

My Thoughts
I wanted to share this great video with you. It is from one of my mentors Christian Simpson and it deals with the subject of human potential.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9PpiUwoJoU

Until next time...

Ambition

Quote
"Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great."
-Mark Twain

My Thoughts
Instead of sharing my thoughts this week, I will share this video from Brian Tracy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P14Rxcvnf4E

Until next time...

Desire to Change

Quote
"Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential."
-John Maxwell

My Thoughts
Almost all of us aspire to be better than we currently are. If you go around and ask most people if they would like to change some aspect of their life, they usually will answer yes.

So, why aren't people changing?

Because so many of us are not willing to put in the time and effort to change.

What's interesting is that Maxwell is saying that the difference is not in abilities. As a matter of fact Bob Proctor calls this the razor's edge. That is the fine line that separates people that always achieve what they want and the people that always come up short.

I know I have said this numerous times before, but it all comes down to how much do you really want to change some area of your life?

If you really want to change, I encourage you start taking whatever steps are necessary for you to bring about this change. If you see an opportunity that resonates with you, go out and pursue it.

Until next time...

Change

Here is a quote to think about:
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."
-Leo Tolstoy

My Opinion
I think this is something we all can forget at times. All of us have these big ideas: To end poverty, stop world hunger, put an end to racism, etc...But we so often forget to look at ourselves.

Change begins with you.

If you want to end poverty, does it make sense for you to remain in poverty and try to change it?
Or would a better approach to be lift yourself out of poverty and be an example to those around you?

Here is a quick story that I hope helps illustrate my point.

One of my close relatives has been in and out of jail for the last six years. He was heavily involved in drug dealing. I used to try and reason with him.
A few years ago, I would tell him about how much I was making (which was a very decent amount) and he would say "So, I can make that in half the time it takes you.".
He was right, he could do that. He didn't care that he was getting people hooked on all sorts of things.

The last time I was back in the US, I visited him in prison. I hadn't seen him in over six years. It was certainly emotional.
This time, I talked to him from a different angle.

When he found out that I walked away from an incredible job to pursue a dream. He respected that. When I told him the goal for One Amazing Life. He thought I must have gone crazy. He didn't think it would be possible to achieve such a large goal.
I did some coaching with him on the phone when he was released from prison.
During that time he realized that anything is possible.

For the last six months he has been working hard to change his life. He now sees that he is in control of his future. Do I know what will happen in his future? No, of course not, only he can determine that.
The person I am talking about in this story is my younger brother.

What is the point of this story?
When I tried to talk to him before, he wasn't relating to me very well. The fact was he wouldn't have been able to get the job I had. Therefore, he was perfectly fine making as much money as me illegally.
It wasn't until I changed, until I walked away from the normal path, that he realized maybe he could change.

In conclusion, if you are tired of your current situation, stop sitting around complaining - I know this can be difficult for all of us.
Get up, get out, and do something about it.
Change.

Until next time...