Each and every day you have 86,400 chances to get it right, to share another page in your story. That’s your time, the number of seconds you have in a single day to share with other people, or more importantly to tell yourself your story.
I just finished watching speaker and trainer Tom McCarthy tell our group at USHEALTH Advisors that to change what’s going on in your life, to make it “better” than it is today, you need to change the story you tell yourself, and you can do it by changing your perception, how you view yourself and what you believe is possible.
As Tom explained, “most people live according to the story they told yesterday.” Even though that day has long gone. They get trapped in the trials, tribulations, or even decide to rest on the laurels of their past success. But yesterday is old news. Want to change your life? Not happy with who you are, where you are, or where you are going?
Then change your story. Everything is inspired by a story. (See any Sunday Series on this blog) 🙂
Tom explained whatever story you carry around in your head makes you feel powerful, or weak. You are the story you tell yourself of who you are and you have the power to create your own story every day. Your reality is simply your perception of yourself and your abilities, or even better, your possibilities. Maybe the most striking thing he said is this, “you already have everything you need inside you. You just need to believe in and love yourself.”
To be a leader, which is what the meeting was all about, you have to make sure the story you are telling yourself and the one you are sharing with those you lead is full of the belief in limitless possibilities, in the power of personal development, steeped in compassion and empathy and the guidance of others to help them change their story if it’s not one that’s working. As Tom said, “average leaders conform to reality. Great leaders expand it.”
In reality we are all leaders anyway, especially of our own lives and definitely of our own stories. You can help someone to change their perception of themselves, how they view situations, how they view challenges and how they view the world – but in the end – it still comes down to the actions that person will take to control their thoughts, to improve their life and to make their story one which leaves a legacy.
In life it doesn’t pay to leave anything on the table, to leave anything behind, anything inside you which you should have given, you should have shared, but you didn’t. It was Coach John Wooden who said: “Don’t measure yourself by what you’ve accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.”
It pays huge dividends to embrace every moment. Remember the 86,400 seconds. It’s all you’ve got each day to get your story straight, to get it right, not just for yourself, but for others whose lives you touch every day. And when each day ends the unused seconds, the moments missed, the unrealized potential of that time is lost.  You get a new day, but there is no carryover from what you failed to do the day before.
We only get so much time in life and we have no idea when that time is up. You can’t control time, you can’t replace it. But you can certainly use it to work in your favor to make every second count, to leave your mark so the world knows you were here. The world needs to know you were here, that you lived a life that lasts long after you are gone. We all possess this ability, you already have everything you need to make this a reality, your reality.
I will end with this, being open and vulnerable with the exercise Tom McCarthy asked us to do, to define the legacy I want to leave behind, the story other people will tell about me because it is the one I wrote, page by page, every day while I lived here on this earth.
My story: To positively impact the lives of a billion people. To inspire and to show them how to find their why and their way, to transform their lives through the gifts I have been given, which in turn transforms my own. To become everything I know is possible, and even that which was once believed to be impossible, by helping others to do the same.
Until next time thanks for taking the time,
Mark
(markbrodinsky@gmail.com)
Mark Brodinsky, Author, Blogger, Speaker, Speech Writer, Emmy Winner, USHEALTH Advisors
Author: The #1 Amazon Best Seller: It Takes 2. Surviving Breast Cancer: A Spouse’s Story
(http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Brodinsky/e/B00FI6R3U6)
Huffington Post: (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-brodinsky/)
The Profile: (http://www.talkinggood.com/profiles/MarkBrodinsky)
The Podcast: (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sunday-series-courage-inspiration/id1028611459)
USHEALTH Advisors:Â (http://www.prweb.com/releases/markbrodinsky/072015/prweb12862708.htm)