Discipline Your Thinking—Unlock A Focused And Powerful Mindset Motivational Speech
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To be strong no matter what you're going through. Whatever you want to do in life, find something that you don't mind doing for the rest of your life. Find something that you like. And even if it seems like it's impossible, it's very, very possible. So don't get nervous. If you have a big goal, just chip away at it until you get to where you need to be.

Most of us that come from just normal backgrounds, we don't see ourselves doing abnormal things. The world is full of people who were born on third and think they hit a triple and they've got all this confidence, all this stuff. For most of us, it's not that way.

We don't think we're wired or programmed to do something great. Well, I'm telling you, that thought is nothing but a fear, nothing but a doubt. It's what holds you in place. So as we begin to look toward the future and look at what will it take for us to break through those fears, one, acknowledging the fear, knowing it's all right, some fear is healthy.

Beginning to know that your dreams, your passions, your drive to achieve whatever it is you want, as it has more power and meaning, it will move you past your fears. As you begin to feel that you deserve it, your passion and goal is so strong, the fears won't matter. You've been given the dignity of choice. You don't have to repeat this year the same as last year. You can tear up last year's plan, develop a new plan.

Now here's the choice on being a human being to be part of all we were meant to be or to be all to strive for all or half or some. The choice is up to you to develop one skill or 10 skills. And this is all a matter of choice. And when somebody says, no, you ought to learn for you got to resist all that because this is personal dignity and you don't want to destroy some dignity by doing all the odds and they feel we're lucky to do it. Now we've got problems.

You've got to work hard on understanding you have within you the power to change, the power

the power to do something great. And those fears are going to crop up, particularly in the middle of the night when you wake up and you're scared to death about what to do. They're going to crop up and they're going to hold you in place. Quite often if you're trying something different, they crop up in the middle of your dreams. When you're asleep at night, those fears and doubts creep in. Understand they're not real.

They are things in your head that have been programmed into you by your past life. Wrestle with those fears. You'll never conquer them, but control them. And go out and live the life you deserve. Choose to win. Control your thinking. And go win big.

I'll never forget Mr. Washington said, Mr. Brown, yes, sir. What do you want to do with your life, young man? I said, sir, I want to be a disc jockey, said Mr. Brown. I said, yes, sir. He said, you got to be hungry. I said, what do you mean by that? He said, people that are hungry are willing to do the things today others won't do in order to have the things tomorrow others won't have.

People that are hungry are willing to invest in themselves. People that are hungry will go to seminars and workshops. People that are hungry are always searching, always seeking higher ground. So how do you want to make it? I said, I want to be a disc jockey. He says, good.

Here's what to do. He said, I want you to read 10 to 15 pages of something positive every day. He said, you don't get in life what you want. You get in life what you are. You must program yourself to success. He said, won't you listen to Earl Nightingale and Zig Ziglar? Listen, faith comes by hearing and hearing and hearing.

He said, "I want you to change your relationships and I don't want you to ever lose your hunger." I said, "What do you mean by that?" He said, "People that are hungry are unstoppable. People that are hungry are no matter what people. They make it happen no matter what."

He said, "I want you to listen to Paul Harvey." Who is he? He's the world's greatest communicator. Success leaves clues, young man. Always listen and follow people who are doing what it is you want to do at the level you want to do it and learn from them. I told T-Hop when we were standing by the stage, I said, "Hey, man, I want to work more with you. I want you to coach me. I want to learn from you." See, I found you're never too old to learn and you're never too young to teach.

always have a thirst for learning. So I listened to Paul Harvey every day on the radio. While in school, I would go out and listen in his car. He gave me his keys. I was working to develop myself. And I continued to listen to motivational messages. And he would take me to see the late Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote the book, The Power of Positive Thinking. I toured with him before he passed. You, you have something special.

You have greatness within you. Don't allow your circumstances to determine who you are. Don't allow your negative thoughts to hold you back. You, you have something special. You can do more than you could ever begin to imagine. Dr. Peale was an incredible man. I admired him when he spoke. He gave me goosebumps. I can feel him in my heart.

And I'll never forget we were coming back to the school and Mr. Washington said, "Mr. Brown, yes sir, when Dr. Peel spoke you didn't move. When he spoke you were hanging on everywhere. When he spoke we didn't have to tell you to sit down and be quiet. Why?" I said, "Sir, I could feel him when he talked. I felt like he was talking to me, sir." He said, "He was."

I said, but he doesn't know me, but he was speaking to you. Did you feel him in your heart? I said, yes, sir. He said, most people feel him in their head. If you felt him in your heart, he said, listen to him, son. Follow him, learn from him. And I would go to seminars and workshops. Anywhere I would find where Dr. Peel was, I would be in the audience. I would drive 200 and 300 miles just to hear him speak.

And my dream and vision was to share the stage with him. I thought about it. What is your goal? What is your vision? I want you to hold it in mind. There's some power in that because

When I became involved in speaking, I'll never forget, I got a call from Og Mandino who wrote the book "The Greatest Salesman in the World". He said, "Less, I'm stuck in Philadelphia, I need to be in Kankakee. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale is appearing, I can't make it. I heard you're in Chicago." I said, "Yes, I am." "Can you go and open for me?" I said, "Yes, man, oh my God!" "Dr. Peale!" I said, "Yes, I'd love to do it."

And I went there and I came, I said, "Hi, I'm Les Brown." He said, "You're not the band of renown?" I said, "No, I'm Mrs. Mamie Brown's baby boy. I'm here to speak." He said, "Come backstage." And his wife Martha was there. And she said, "Papa, Les Brown is here, the speaker." And he said, "Les Brown, Les Brown, shoot for the moon, because even if you miss your land among the stars." I said, "Sir, that's my quote."

Now let me give you three steps to personal development. Let's get down to the nitty-gritty. What does it take to really make the changes starting tomorrow?

It takes more than philosophical pronouncement. I know that. It also takes more than enthusiasm. I know we're hearing a lot about enthusiasm these days, but see, that just won't do the job. We're still hearing the old cliches of the 30s, right? To be enthusiastic, you must act enthusiastic. But see, that's not going to help.

after you have leaped about there are some things you got to do or it isn't gonna change. See you can get all excited about lifting 200 pounds till you get to the gym and then you need a new excitement and the new excitement is called discipline. Major step to human progress, discipline. If there's one thing to get excited over that's it. Get excited over your ability to make yourself do the necessary things.

What could you make yourself do starting tomorrow that would change it all? No! Tell me! Now see, that's exciting.

On any given day, you can massively change the direction of your life. Murder is a clear example that any one person on any given day can forever alter the course of their life. It just happens to be a negative act. But just as sure as you can commit a negative act, you can also commit a positive act and forever alter your life whenever you wish. Now that's exciting.

And whatever that act might be that changes your life, the guy finally takes a shotgun to his car and blows out every window, destroys every tire, puts a hundred rounds in this shabby old thing. And he says, I have driven this embarrassing thing for the last time. And not only will I never drive it again, nobody else.

will ever drive it again. And he lets that shuddering thing stand there for a while as a monument to the day he said, "Today my life changes." Now who can do that? Anybody. When can you do it? Whatever day you pick. Now here's the key to discipline. Start with the little disciplines. Get excited over the little disciplines and get right on those because those will lead to the big ones. You can't handle the big challenges in life unless you take on the little ones. Make a list of all the things you can do. Get right on those. Discipline yourself for those.

both for the results and for the muscle and for the practice. So that when life hands you some big challenges, you'll be ready, you'll have the muscle. But see, if you don't handle the small ones, you can't take care of the big ones. Okay, here's what else it takes for life change. Self-motivation.

Key phrase, self motivation. I don't know why we call it self motivation. It's really the only kind there is. You've got to motivate yourself because I found out you can't change people. They can change themselves, but you can't change them. Lord knows some I've tried.

But see, it won't work. People have to change themselves. I learned some of those lessons early. I built a little sales organization way back in those early days. I'm 25 and I had some nice people. I said, I'm going to make these people successful if it kills me. I almost died. I mean, you can't do that. What is my outcome in this situation? It's about disciplining your emotions.

You know, something as simple as food and eating is not about your body as much as it is about your mind. It's getting command of your mind to be able to choose actions that are in your own best interest. Look, ain't no more talking. This is it.

If you're ready to take your game to the next level in whatever it is, sports, life, business, whatever it is else, listen to me very closely. You got to change that mindset. Motivate doesn't mean to yell and scream and encourage. No. To motivate actually means to provide a motive, a reason why.

Because you can come up with a question like, what should I do? You're going to end up with a long list. Self-love is, hey, look, I know you got a test on Monday, you know, and I know you really want to go out with your friends. It's Saturday night. You want to go out. But if you fail that test, you're not going to feel good about yourself. You know, I just I love you too much to let you go out tonight.

And so I realized like, yo, E, you sleep in, you play video games, don't lie to yourself. You are powerful, but you have some vices. So I started saying, okay, E, you got to discipline yourself. And this is for me, this ain't for everybody. You have to watch. You have to watch every single second.

the path to strength and health and intelligence and happiness. But we get caught up in our patterns. So we want to get really sensitized, acutely sensitized, sensory acuity to whether what we're doing is working or not. You don't have time. That's a lie.

Fault and responsibility do not go together. It sucks, but they don't. When something is somebody's fault, we want them to suffer. We want them punished. We want them to pay. We want it to be their responsibility to fix it, but that's not how it works, especially when it's your heart. Once you put away your phones and your computers and all that you have nowadays, that's great. We're up to date, but your brain...

is the only thing you have when you're going through depression. So cast out the lies, earn them down. I can't swim, I'm negative buoyant. Go back again. I can't swim, go back again. Go back again. Go back again. I got it. An incessant fight that doesn't stop against weakness and against temptation and against laziness. It's a campaign of discipline.

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