Excerp From My Personal Journal

Below is an excerp from my journal. I was writing this to myself and thought I share with you a powerful message to myself. This was written I think just a little over a year ago.

I am sitting here preparing a company profile that I believe will enroll in the Aflac family. Among other thoughts, I have been thinking of is how to succeed in the insurance industry, and how to effectively build an insurance empire in an ethical manner keeping the interest of others before my own personal achievement goals. I am sure I will be able to accomplish both. However, with any endeavor you have to have a plan and solid foundation to build upon that will stand the test of challenges and time.

Question; Where do I begin? How do I start? I assume I will learn the Aflac program and become very good at growing my book of business. But I want something more, much more. I don’t want to have to leave a client with no solutions to their concerns or problems. I want to be able to service all my clients and potential clients. In order for me to do this I know I have to diversify my talents along with product offerings.

Aflac has a saying “All In”. I believe if anyone is to be successful in their field of their choice they have to be committed to becoming the absolute best at what they are doing, hence the term “All In”. That is me right now choosing to be committed to excellence and one of the best in the insurance field. Having said that my journey begins.

I will commit to envisioning myself becoming the best at serving others. I will perfect my craft as one who can provide solutions to intricate situations of others and provide the very best solutions this industry has to offer.

There is so much that I am learning and I thank God for his grace in helping remember much of what I have to do. It’s not every day we wake and physically feeling great. However, we can turn our situations around through the power of prayer, thoughts and actions.

There are times when our thoughts are captive to self-defeat, self-doubt, inadequacy, depression, and confusion. When those times arise, we are to recognize its power or lack thereof. We have the choice to wallow in its presence or lift ourselves up by the boot straps and declare, “I will not be defeated, I will not give in or give up. I will press forward knowing that this too shall pass.”

I want to talk about negativity that lives within our mind for a moment. We all have experienced limiting beliefs from time to time. The key is not to allow those thoughts to be our defining characteristic for failing at something we are trying to accomplish.

Negativity comes in so many forms and what I have found is that negativity comes natural to the human mind. To be positive, it will take practice and hard work with consistent efforts for life. You read that right. For Life! You have to work at being positive for the rest of your life for as long as you live.

Since negativity also comes in such subtle forms, we have to be careful and mindful to what we take in daily. What I mean by this is, we have to protect our thoughts, our language, and actions so that it reflects exactly what it’s supposed to reflect at all times, positive. Of course, that is only if you are seeking to be positive, some people are not and that’s ok too, for them.

When you dwell on negativity you are also opening the doors for the spirit of negativity to wreak havoc on your mind, feelings, health, and overall support system for your well-being. It will start to break you down slowly and as time passes you will wind up to a point wondering how you got to the place of despair. That situation can worsen to the point where anti-depressants are prescribed. Avoid this path at all cost.

If you don’t, this can become a domino effect that will eventually lead to damaging your temple, your body, the only vehicle you have to allow you do to the things you are capable of doing while here on earth.

I decided to continue to work diligently in this area of my life as well. I am learning a great deal about negativity and how it not only can be the stumbling block that derails us from reaching our full potential in the time frame we want. But negativity can be the thought of destruction that can eradicate any positive momentum preventing us from ever reaching our goals and full potential of becoming all that we want to become.

Taking stock in yourself is not enough, you must arm yourself every day with a shield of positivity. How do we do this. I must admit at first this is not easy and will take some getting use too. But the good news is everyone can do this. It doesn’t matter what your status in life is, we can all work on becoming consistently positive in our thoughts, conversations, and in our actions.

When I was starting out in my sales career, I was extremely excited by the thought of helping clients acquire what they needed and provide a solution that will affect the rest of their lives and give them peace of mind. For all us who are in sales know we are only as good as our present engagement. Meaning if we land the deal great and if we don’t land the deal our ego takes a shot of negativity.

Don’t get me wrong for some of us we will analyze what could we done differently to have cause a more positive out-come that would have ruled in our favor. We will then notate, make adjustments and move on with the added knowledge of what to do differently in the next engagement.

However, what is natural is so many people who try sales never master or get a handle on negativity and put it in check. For me this was hard to do in the beginning because I was conditioned with this handicap for so long as I suspect you have been too. Why? As I said previous it’s naturally ingrained in our DNA and is part of life, our life to see negativity in almost all situations. It’s doesn’t have to be that way if you learn and practice on being positive. It’s easy to be negative, but we have consistently provide effort to remain positive.

I often wondered why I felt terrible when I didn’t get my way of something didn’t work out the way I wanted. I believe there is a healthy disappointment and an unhealthy disappointment as well, sort of like checks and balances and cause and effect.

We choose which to dwell on and allow to uplift us or bring us down. We chose how we want to feel at all times. It’s not what happens that defines the outcome of our story but what we do about what happens that dictates the victory story we are able to tell or the disheartening defeat that we would allow to be our legacy. We choose! It’s our CHOICE!

When you want to build your bicep muscles you have to exercise your biceps a variety of ways for maximum results. You can do curls with weights or resistance with an apparatus that allows the biceps to contract and build. Some may enjoy doing pull ups which will also build the biceps as well as a host of other exercises to improve muscle density and strength. For best result one may engage in all these forms. You have to do the same thing with your muscle of positivity.

What you mentally ingest will set the tone for your behavior and how you allow yourself to feel. I had to learn to wake up with gratitude and thank God for allowing me another day to learn and be taught so that I can be able to teach others all that I have learn. Life is one eternal round, what goes around is what comes around. I am sure you have heard that before. How can we begin to become more positive in our lives? As a person think, so they become.

By working at it consistently and persistently every day. We seek out the goodness in everything and in all situations. There is goodness in everything whether you see it or not. They say when someone leaves your life someone new comes in it. By the same token an old relationship perhaps is rekindled.

Your mind is a fragile but yet so powerful that with your imagination you can literally smell the sea water if you ever been around it. Concentrate and meditate and it will happen. I once watched a movie called field of dreams. Although, I am sure this was a great movie the only thing I can remember from the movie is the message of hope and power to believe in something. “If you build it they will come.” This is simple and yet so powerful. If you believe and profess it, you can achieve it.

Have you ever had a dream that seem so real that it has awaken you out of your sleep just for you to exclaim it was only a dream? That is the power of your imagination and subconscious mind at work. Powerful right? Perhaps, I am sure you have thought of or hoped for something and then there was a little voice in your head that said you may not get what you were hoping for because you were to short, to fat, to tall, or you had too many tattoos, or perhaps they would not like the color of your hair, or the color of your skin.

Stopped for a moment and think about what just happened. You literally said to the universe why you don’t deserve what it is you were hoping for. Therefore, why should you receive what you hoped for? Can you see the insanity of this situation?

That is the chief reason you didn’t get whatever it was you desired. You hope and wish in a negative fashion. You must be able to say without a shadow of a doubt, I am going to achieve, obtain, retain, earn, make, what you desire in a positive fashion.

Let me give you an example; I went to a job interview and they ask “why should we hire you?” Instead of directly answering the question and talk about my talents and qualifications. I thought outside the box and showed assertiveness, I share my philosophy of a positive vision that uplifts the interviewer and leaves them better off than when I first encountered with them. Leaving them with a positive feeling and reason to say, we need this person on our team, not only is he qualified but he will be an asset to the organization to help keep moral high. He’s a perfect fit!

Here is another example of a question that so many job interviewers ask, “tell me a little about yourself?” Turn this question into your “why” or mission statement with flare. Instead of answering this question, give them synopsis of your motion picture, your awesome story of who you truly are. This takes practice, because you have to build yourself up to you first. You have to become more positive about who you are. True to your values, integrity and self-worth.

Please don’t take this opportunity for vanity affairs, your goal here should be to build a trust factor, likability, dependability, as well as to show you are adaptable, teachable, coachable, and have the ability to work independently with groups under pressure just to name of few characteristics. More importantly, integrate how grateful you are of who you are and what God has blessed you with being.

A negative attitude is within the fear family and once fear has its grip on you, I believe it will lead to your independent thought process somewhat subdued or mitigated, if not all together rendered incapacitated. God has not given us the spirit of fear.

You cannot be happy when you fear, you cannot be positively constructive when you fear something or are negative. So, work on being more positive. I know it’s a work in progress for me every day. I continue to work at it every day. Why? Because, it appears we gravitate to negativity more easily than positivity. My suggestions, make a mental note as to what is guiding you.

We all have our mental challenges and when we can analyze ourselves, meaning our thoughts, habits, and actions as well as our interactions with others. We must not leave out our feelings. This thing we call life is truly amazing and extraordinary. To navigate through the intricate process of life’s mazes we as students of life have to be astute in our process while improving our experience in this life.

Life if full of choices. We get to choose our destiny. Make sure to order your hoodie today.