Cathcart Institute is the creator of http://Cathcart.com and of http://Academy.Cathcart.com
by Motivational Speaker, Jim Cathcart
Who is running your life? Chances are good that it is your belief system. What you assume is true is what you use to make choices. And your choices select your actions, which of course, determines your outcomes. So who’s in charge of you: A savvy, fully engaged continually learning achiever or…the old you with the outdated belief system?
When I was growing up the world around me led me to believe that I’d be ordinary. Nice, but ordinary. I did not expect to ever make much of a difference in the world. So, in school I was a good student but, after the 6th grade, not a great student. Until that time I had done very well in school and did more than was expected of me. Upon graduation from High School I was somewhere around 175th out of 430 graduates. Yay, top 1/2! Not a big deal. I had not been an athlete nor did I distinguish myself socially or academically. I was ordinary.
And I expected an ordinary life.
That belief system, or set of assumptions, continued until I was in my mid twenties. Newly married with a baby boy at home, I had a series of unremarkable jobs and was a clerk at the urban renewal agency, the Little Rock (Arkansas) Housing Authority. My role was “assistant loan specialist” and Bob Moore, my boss, wasn’t busy enough to need an assistant. Not only was my job unimpressive, so was my life. I had no hobbies, was 50 lbs overweight, smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day and never exercised. Though I went to church often I didn’t have a strong spiritual life either. Then things changed…a LOT!
One dull day at the office I heard a short radio program by Earl Nightingale, the “dean of personal development”. He said, “If you will spend one extra hour each day studying your chosen field, you can become a national expert in that field in five years or less.” I did the math in my head: 1 hour a day times 5 days a week times 50 weeks a year over 5 years was 1,250 hours. Hey, with 1,250 hours of focused study on one field ANYONE (even me) could become a leading expert. I can do this!!!
Over the next few weeks I explored career paths outside of urban renewal and decided that in my heart of hearts I wanted to become an expert on personal development (Applied Behavioral Science). I wanted to help people grow and succeed. But I had not personally succeeded at anything so I had a lot of learning to do. But with one extra hour a day I knew that ultimately I could do it. So I began.
I became fanatically dedicated to learning about human potential and personal growth. I studied books, listened to records, signed up for seminars, interviewed successful people, sought out extra duties at work, joined the Junior Chamber of Commerce (the Jaycees) and I devoted 2 hours, 3 hours and sometimes entire days to studying my chosen field. Within a matter of months I began to get opportunities to lead group discussions, give short presentations at company meetings and to assume leadership positions in the Jaycees. My life was UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT! And I loved it. I was fully alive for the first time since my childhood.
I got promoted at work, offered new jobs, asked to give advice to others and I began to take pride in who I was. I believed that in time I could possibly make a difference in the world. In the meantime I lost 52 excess pounds, became a jogger, stopped smoking forever, got more involved with my wife and son, became a leader in my community, and dramatically increased my income. Within a couple of years I had formed my own company to sell training materials and offer courses designed by Earl Nightingale. And within 5 years I was a full time professional speaker and author traveling all over the country giving speeches and seminars for, what at the time seemed, high fees.
I’m not telling you this to brag. I’m telling you so that you too can choose to put your Belief System UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT! You can change your beliefs if you’ll just expose yourself to more useful information on a regular basis. I did it by listening to hundreds of hours of motivational recordings. You can do it by subscribing to inexpensive resources online. It’s as close as your phone. Try Thrive15.com/acorn and get 30 days of free success lessons (110 of them are from me). Read Success Magazine, subscribe to Selling Power Magazine. Sign up for the High Performance Mindset Training that I teach with its creators Dr. Michael Bernard and Gerhard Gschwandtner. Start feeding your mind more useful information every day. You can be so much more than your old beliefs would have ever led you to.
Let’s discover how much more successful you can be!
For more information contact Jim Cathcart or Cathcart Institute, Inc. at http://Cathcart.com