Month: November 2018

Week 3 “Change Your Thinking”, The First Step to Discovering Your Destiny”

Week 3.

Change not my favorite especially as I have progressed in life, which really means “older”. Yet in looking back my life as actually been about change going all the way back to junior high. One would”think” over the last 40 plus years I would have made friends with change and learned to accommodate it in my life and actually have some mastery over and with change.  The truth is, I do, and my purpose is to encourage and challenge you in that regards so let’s begin, by asking a question, what is change?

Webster’s unabridged says;

Change verb (action)

  1. Make or become different. To take or use another instead of.
  2. The act or instance of making or becoming different.

Author Unknown

Change Is…..

“Change is something that presses us out of our comfort zone. It is destiny-filtered, heart grown, faith built. Change is inequitable; not a respecter of persons. Change is for the better or for the worst, depending on where you view it. Change has an adjustment period which varies on the individual. It is uncomfortable, for changing from one state to the next upsets our control over outcomes. Change has a ripping effect on those who won’t let go. Flex is the key. Even a roller coaster ride can be fun if you know when to lean and create new balance within the change.  Change is needed when all the props and practices of the past no longer work. Change is not comforted by the statement ‘just hang in there’ but with the statement ‘you can make it’. We don’t grow in retreat, but through endurance. Change isn’t fixed by crying, worrying, or mental treadmilling. Change is won by victors not victims; and that choice is ours.”

“DLCSr”…..

Our minds work to make us right! There are thoughts flying around all the time, and some of them land on you and me LOL. You get to choose what you keep and what you discard. If you tell yourself something often enough and long enough it will become your reality. I know you’re thinking I don’t know about this, but think of it this way. When we practice for an event like sports, theater, singing, delivering a church sermon, or public speaking what are we doing. We are teaching our minds, and our thoughts to behave, to “think” in a way that we instruct it to. By providing the information to our thoughts about what we want to do, and how to do it we instruct our actions to participate.  To deliver and perform those thoughts and actions we have rehearsed mentally and now want to display physically.

So what to do. Start by first deciding to live like who you are and what you do make a difference. What you tell yourself about who you are and what you do on a regular basis becomes your reality. Determine to take daily steps to eliminate thoughts that do not serve you, your life goals, and purpose. Write it down, make a list of what you want to do and who you want to be. Decide what you are willing to accept and what you are not. Seek out those people places and things that support your vision and your purpose in life. Most importantly decide to hold yourself accountable for taking those daily, often small steps to change. I promise you will be glad you did.

I have included my original list of those people, places, and things that gave purpose to my thinking and determination to my commitment to change. Why because they matter to me. Those lessons I have learned and experienced over time through failure, and success. They may not be applicable to you but at least a place to start that’s not just random but a road traveled by someone you know, Me.

  1. You will dilute your efforts by not having (owning) a predetermined outcome or benefit (goal).
  2. Prayer, reading, exercise, nutrition, supplements, sleep, rest, social activities are extremely important to your wellbeing.
  3. At peace is powerful, do and complete those things, priorities, events, & things that support and empower you.
  4. Express your ideas, frustrations, intentions, and your passion.
  5. Learn that as you visualize who you want to (be) you will act as if (do) and overtime your dreams and desires will come true (have).
  6. You will become tomorrow what you say and do today.
  7. Acknowledge & own your shortcomings.
  8. The only control you have over tomorrow is what you do and think today.
  9. Use your surroundings as an expression of who you are.
  10.  Always acknowledge others, help or intervene as a way of life.
  11.  Swearing and anger are a sign of mental, social, educational, and weakness as well as a lack of discipline.
  12. Manage those assets entrusted to you with discipline, passion, logic, and heart.
  13. Accept today, you will come to a time where you understand the past and have vision for the future.
  14. Always reward those who give great service.
  15. Your cloths are a representation of you, choose wisely.
  16. Checking off your list will free up time, money, and your thinking.

Remember you make a difference and your family and friends need you. Your destiny is made up of many things,people, places, and events. Next we will talk about the power of “WORDS”.

“It’s just words”.
Dwight L. Carter Sr.
Writer, Speaker, Author.
www.tellthemyourstory .org
dwightspeaks@gmail.com

Week 2  “Thoughts The Beginning of Our Destiny”

Week 2  Watch Your Thoughts

“Truth”

Sometime around 6th or 7th grade I began to have difficulty concentrating. It showed up in my school work and specifically my grades. I was pulled out of class one morning and taken to the principal’s office. That particular event is still not clear to me even to this day. I do remember being asked lots of questions and taking several tests. In the end apparently they determined and told my parents in essence I was not applying myself. To make this even worse my complexion began to show the signs of being a teenager. Personal appearance and grades, the end all be all of teenage life.

I will tell you the next 5 years until way after high school graduation were difficult for me. The truth is I don’t remember much of it. I guess in my mind it was just too painful so I set it aside to move on. The embarrassment of struggling to concentrate and study along with the shame of thinking not only was I not very smart but physically flawed as well. Don’t get me wrong I fought to keep up a good front and did the best I could. Those who knew me then may have just thought I was just another struggling teenager. A nice guy but really nothing special. The truth is how I saw myself and the world around me in hindsight was distorted as a result of wanting to be what others seemed to be to me.  Better.

In my thinking at the age of 14, as a result of looking at those around me, I decided that to be successful, I needed to be more than I was. I came to the conclusion that to be successful in life, and by successful I mean that the girls wanted, pursued, or made a fuss over me, the guys respected me, and people in general admired me. So with that bit of false wisdom I decided (1) I needed to be tall, (2) I needed to be handsome, (3) I needed to have great hair. That seemed to be the key for others why not me. Now that may very well be the roadmap for success at 14 but quite the disaster for lasting success in the real world. Yet in my thinking it made perfect since. Truth was I was not really any of those what I believed to be necessity’s for success.

It has been lots of years since then yet in many ways how I allowed my mind to run me then has to be managed, even today. I have had lots of life experiences, lived in numerous cities and states as a result of my work, been places and have had the opportunity to do things not everyone gets the opportunity to do. I have been kidnapped at gun point while sitting in my car at a mall in Houston Texas, I have ridden in a helicopters taking me to work on numerous offshore drilling rigs, as well as being in some of the most sophisticated manufacturing plants, petro chemical, food and beverage facility’s, as well as ridden on a giant tunneling machine while it was boring and setting the concrete walls as it moved along an underground train track 50 yards below ground in downtown San Antonio Tx. Not to mention the people I have met.

Ok let me just mention a couple LOL Boomer Isaisan, Vernon Jordan Bill Clintons lawyer, Mrs. America Debra Downs, General Brannon US Air Force, Pat Robertson, Actress Stockard Channing, The CEO and his wife of Exxon mobile, and many more. I unexpectedly was offered a job during an interview for sales position that required me to work as a corporate Chauffer for 12 months after a layoff. Their importance and success had nothing to do with me or changed how I saw myself for the better. I did learn a valuable lesson “work is about service not about self”. More on that later.

 

So what’s your point Dwight? It’s this, that even though my forward progress in life was going well, in my thinking more often than not, I was still that insecure teenager especially in what I wanted or thought I needed in life. So for many years I struggled, failed, got back up and failed again, got back up and so on. As I continued as most of us do to make my way along what I refer to as the Broken Road I realized in a rather dramatic encounter that there was actually a very simple yet difficult answer to my ongoing problem.  “Change”

“It’s just words”.
Dwight L. Carter Sr.
Writer, Speaker, Author.
www.tellthemyourstory .org
dwightspeaks@gmail.com

“Life is like a 1000 piece puzzle”

Life is like a 1000 piece puzzle for which you have no picture. You are given one piece at a time, and you are to figure out where it fits. At first there is no clear vision of what you are putting together, It becomes confusing, Frustrating, and sometimes seems impossible.

Through diligence,  determination, commitment you begin to see. To see is inspiring, you feel as if there is a pattern,  and overwhelming plan. You begin to be willing  to take each piece you are given  and figure out where it fits.
The challenge becomes,  a desire  to be a part of the bigger picture. You have a sense that  there is a purpose,  a reason, for all that you do. You become a willing participant,  an enthusiastic creator. Waiting,  watching,  anticipating,  that next piece  that encourages  inspires and moves you to discover just where you fit.

It’s an awesome discovery to see that all you do is a part of a beautiful, moving, and fulfilling piece in the puzzle. Be grateful,  thankful, and excited  that you are part  of creating  a one of a kind, masterpiece.  Planned by the Master from its very beginning, to truly be work of L.I.F.E

L. Live in confidence that who you are and what you do make a difference.

I. Invest in others daily.

F. Faith in God, your purpose and in others.

E. Elevate your thinking.

1996

“Its Just Words!”
Dwight L. Carter Sr.
Writer, Speaker, Author.
dwightspeaks@gmail.com
www.tellthemyourstory .org

 

 

 

Week 1″Thoughts the Beginning of a Destiny”

Week 1

                                        “THOUGHTS”

If failure were money I would be a millionaire.

If uncertainty was an educational degree I would have a masters.

If disappointments were rewarded I would be the guest of honor.

If anxiety was a temperature mine would at least be 103. Not enough to kill me but enough to really keep me down.

 

In spite of these ongoing challenges in life I have managed to earn my living over the years in several capacity’s that from the outside some would say I was not necessarily qualified for. I have been granted access in manufacturing facility’s pitching products or services that were beyond my expertise. I have been trusted with and been on dangerous assignments on offshore and land based drilling rigs where a simple mistake or a moment of indecision could be fatal. I have asked for and been granted appointments with business leaders way above my socio, educational and economic level. I have provided advice, and expertise in areas where some would say I was not qualified for. I have been given guidance and direction from individuals who had nothing to gain from me, and yet were compelled to do just that.

The commonality in all was and is my “thinking”. I am convinced I just didn’t realize I wasn’t qualified, and drive and ambition blindly pushed me forward toward what I wanted to be, do, or have. Given some thought could be that true for you as well?

I know it’s not just that simple, to think and it will be. Yet in 1937 Napoleon Hill wrote a bestselling training and motivational book entitled “Think and Grow Rich”. Maxwell Malts in 1960 wrote “Psycho-Cybernetics”. His work defines the mind-body connection as the core in succeeding in attaining personal goals.  My favorite Zig Ziegler wrote “See You at The Top”  “The how to book that gives you a checkup from the neck up to eliminate stinkin thinkin and avoid hardening of the attitudes” in 1982 and many others until his passing in 2012.

All of these men studied, researched, and provided instruction as to the importance of what we think. Eastern philosophies touted the benefits and importance of our thoughts. The Bible in addressing maters of the heart or spirit addresses the challenges of what we think and allow into our minds: Simply put, “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he” Proverbs 23 vs 7.

It has been said we only have control over three things in our life:

The thoughts we think.

The images we visualize.

The actions we take.

I have found that to be true in my life have you?

So what do I do, if how I manage my thoughts and how and what I think is so very important, how do I go about managing what I think?  Or can we?

see you next week!

“It’s just words”.Dwight L. Carter Sr.
Writer, Speaker, Author.
www.tellthemyourstory .org
dwightspeaks@gmail.com