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       # 2022-03-10 - How To Get Unstuck by Les Brown
       
       Sometimes we have to ask ourselves "What's using my life?"  We to a
       great extent behave, think, [and] react because of some previous
       experience that we've had.
       
       One of the things that we know about life is that it is always
       changing.  Sometimes you're up sometimes you're down.  Sometimes
       things go real well and sometimes they don't.  Sometimes you're happy
       and sometimes you're sad.  Now that's that thing called life.  When
       we begin to understand and know that, accepting [the] reality that we
       will never have things just on an even keel all the time.  You're
       gonna have some ups, and you're gonna have some downs.
       
       During those down moments, that's where the growth takes place.  The
       real challenge, the real challenge of growth, mentally, emotionally,
       and spiritually comes when you get knocked down.  Somebody said that
       adversity introduces a man to himself, or woman.
       
       When you're facing a challenge [and] you want to get unstuck,
       evaluate where you are.  Look at it assess yourself.  Assess yourself
       and assess the situation.  What brought you there?  What role did you
       play?
       
       Earl Nightingale had a saying I like.  He said, "All of us are
       self-made but only the successful will admit it."
       
       What has brought you to this point?  What did you learn from it?  Are
       you learning anything?  Are you doing it over, and over, and over
       again?  Somebody said that insanity is doing the same thing in the
       same way, expecting a different outcome.
       
       Life isn't fair.  Life just is.  It's not fair that birds eat worms,
       and they do.  If you want to begin to move you've got to clear
       your[self] of all the unnecessary luggage and baggage that's weighing
       us down.  I say to you, you're gonna have people do things to you.
       Things are going to happen to you.  The most important thing to do is
       to harness your will and let it go.  Move so you can grow, so you can
       get on with your life.  It doesn't matter about what happens to you.
       What matters is what are you going to do about it.  What are you
       going to do now Les?
       
       How long do you want to tell everybody at the bus stop?  Anybody who
       would stand and listen to you?  How long you'll repeat the same thing
       over, and over, and over, and over, and over again?  How many times
       do we have to hear that?  Don't go around telling people what your
       story is.  Everybody has a story: 80% don't care and 20% [are] glad
       it's you.
       
       All of us have experienced some tragedy and if we haven't, we will.
       You can either let it destroy your life or you can build upon it.
       You can permit it to hold you down or you can decide "I'm not going
       to let that happen to me!  I'm bigger than this!"  Make a declaration
       to yourself.  Declare all-out war that you're going to get out of
       this rut.
       
       I don't care how good you are, how talented you are, how much you
       work on yourself: there [are] times when things aren't going to go
       right.  They just are not going to go right.  There are times when
       anything that can happen will happen.  Murphy's Law will be knocking
       at your door.  Why?  I don't know why.  That's called life and you
       have to deal with it.
       
       Sometimes your life will be in a slump.  Just like sports some of the
       best shooters can't hit baskets.  Different times and games they get
       in a slump.  Do they sit on the sidelines and say your digestion hit
       a basket today?  No, they continue to execute.  I suggest to you that
       if you are facing a challenge don't stop.  Stay busy.  Work your
       plan.  Continue to do those things that you know work for you.  After
       you have evaluated yourself in the situation, continue to move.  Stay
       busy, stay busy, stay busy.
       
       Repeat after me: help somebody and help yourself, because what you
       give is what you get.  Find somebody that you can help so you can
       forget about you for a moment.  See sometimes the best thing to do is
       to be.  Sometimes you have to just back up and go within yourself.  A
       bow and arrow: you can't take a bow and just push it out.  You just
       can't push the arrow out.  You have to pull it back and then release
       it.  Sometimes you have to back up, go within, pray, meditate, and
       recharge your batteries.  Go away.  Clear your head and then come
       back and look at it from a different vantage point.  Don't operate
       while you are under the spell or the effect of what's going on.
       
       Next thing is that you've got to activate the thinker in you.  Don't
       allow your emotions to control you.  We are emotional, but you want
       to begin to discipline your emotion.  If you don't discipline and
       contain your emotions, they will use you.  Your mind goes on
       automatic just like a garden.
       
       You know I loved reading the book called As A Man Thinketh by James
       Allen.  He uses the analogy of the mind being like a garden.  You
       know weeds don't have to have any encouragement to grow.  You don't
       have to water them.  They don't have to get sunshine.  They don't
       have to have fertile ground.  They will grow through the cracks of a
       sidewalk.  Am i right?  But if you want to grow orchids or roses or
       any kind of exotic flowers, there are special processes and
       procedures you must go through.  Well, by the same token you don't
       have to fuss yourself or motivate yourself to think negatively, to be
       depressed, to hate somebody, to want revenge.  You want to get back
       at somebody, to beat yourself up over the head, to feel loaded with
       guilt, [then] you don't have to make any effort to do that.  Your
       mind is on automatic it will do that by itself.
       
       But if you want to begin to move into your own personal greatness, if
       you want to begin to really enjoy a happy, successful, healthy life,
       [then] you've got to be willing to go against the tide.  You've got
       to be willing to harness your will and say "In spite of this, I'm in
       control here.  I'm not gonna let this get me down.  I'm not gonna let
       this destroy me.  I'm coming back and I'll be stronger and better
       because of it."  You have got to make a declaration that this is what
       you stand for.  You're standing up for your dreams.  You're standing
       up for peace of mind.  You're standing up for health.  You want it
       and you're gonna go all out to have it.
       
       It's not going to be easy when you want to change.  It's not easy.
       If it were in fact easy, everybody [would] do it.  But if you're
       serious, you'll go all out.  Yes!  I'm going to turn this situation
       around.  I'm not gonna sit back and moan and cry over what happened
       and what went wrong and who did what.  I'm going to do something
       about this situation.  Expect things to get better for you because
       they say life is cyclic.
       
       What is it?  Whatever experience you're having right now, it has not
       come to stay.  It has come to pass.  Not to stay, just to pass.  It's
       just going through.  The biggest challenge is to know what's
       happening.  This is a part of this thing we call life.  This too
       shall pass.  Maintaining perspective.  Putting it in perspective.
       
       When you come up with a permanent solution for a temporary problem,
       that's game over.  See a lot of us, because of our limited vision of
       ourselves, a lot of us begin to focus on problems and enable them to
       overwhelm us.  We begin to think that we have no options.  We begin
       to believe that there's no way out.  Repeat after me, "There's always
       a way."  Where there's a will there's a way.
       
       Shake somebody's hand on your right.  Say "I'm unstoppable."  You've
       got to make those kind of declarations to yourself.  "I'm
       unstoppable, this will not get me down."
       
 (HTM) Abridged talk on Youtube
       
       tags: inspiration,self-help,spirit,video
       
       # Tags
       
 (DIR) inspiration
 (DIR) self-help
 (DIR) spirit
 (DIR) video