Thank you Rachel for piercing my heart and I’m sure the hearts of our many readers. What you offered yesterday in your Day 7 Blog about the 5 Fears and your own personal FEARS, took courage, clarity and authenticity. That’s why I respect you, love you and your writing, AND enjoy the energy you bring to the BTL Band!
A few of the lines that jumped off the page as I read Rachel’s blog yesterday are as follows,“I took on the acute pain….the pain of looking within and writing a lot….I clarified what I believe about living life on my terms. who I want in my circle, what I believe about those who see life differently. I made peace with myself, my identity. Once I was clear, I started to line up my behaviors with my beliefs, with my identity….more writing, more hard learning…..I’m at peace with all of it! I always have a choice, and so do you.” This is the work that every member of the Built To Lead Band has gone through, the process of Building a Strong Core, facing your Fears, answerring those tough questions, Are you living by design or by default? Are you living your life with 20/20 clarity? Have you authored your worldview, or do you merely parrot others?
This is a great example (Rachel’s Journey) of the BTL process at work, and the fact that if you read this blog for any amount of time you will begin to understand what Chet offered in todays blog, “Great Lives require a deep focus on this moment. Live today with gratitude and clarity of AIM.
For me, this quote is one of those Golden Nuggets of Truth! In order to live in the Present Moment, you have to be able to look to the PAST and forgive yourself, and be able to find Gratitude. You see a FUTURE through the eyes of Faith, Hope, Optimism and Openness, all of these are choices you can make that allow you to have the intense focus of This Moment or even a Moment of Truth!
I remember the day that Chet, my Builder at that time, challenged me with this question, (A Moment of Truth), If you were laying on your Death Bed and someone asked the following question, how would you respond, “Have you lived your life to it’s fullest potential and what God put you on this earth to do?” For me, it was a very simple NO! I had 30 good years working in the same company, leading, growing a business and having fun.” AND yet, I was teaching, coaching, facilitating classes in the evening for Dale Carnegies and speaking Gig’s for Corporations around town and reading 20 to 30 books a year on leadership…..that’s what energized my Soul, that’s the work that I dreamed of doing! So what was holding me back, pure unadulterated FEAR, FEAR, FEAR, FEAR!! I needed a Coach, a Builder to help me see the light through hard work, writing, rinsing, repeating, crying, that’s right, I cried several times, frustrated, scared to leave 30 years of COMFORT and do what my soul and heart were calling me to do! That was 20 years ago and thank God I chose Chet and Built To Lead. I had other opportunities with Leadership Organizations and through prayer, a strong wife and a great Builder, I made one of the biggest decisions of my life and one of the BEST!
Did I FEAR DEATH, you bet, the thought of not at least pursuing or trying with everything I had to do this work was cause for some real bad dreams, fear and those death bed scenes of, I chose the comfortable journey, the easy road, the average choice, a whole bunch of cognitive dissonance and that’s why you write and write again……clarity does come with effort and writing!
BUILT TO LEAD 