Category: positive

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Accountability Change Ethics Inspiration Leadership Leadership Principles Mentor Morale Morality Motivation positive

2024: TAKE CHARGE! TAKE ACTION!

This week, I want to talk about taking charge and leading yourself.
Yep, a topic that is near and dear to my heart. You could call it my passion and that topic is SELF-LEADERSHIP.

For so long I did not know I was NOT actually in control of my life.
I was a people pleaser. I was the “nice guy.” The “don’t rock the boat” person. The Never Say No person. They knew where they stood with me. To people close to me and distant, I was just a shiny beacon for those that want to take advantage of someone, there I was.

For most of my life, I felt that was not in control of my life. Others were taking me in the direction they wanted me to go. Some had good intentions while others were just there to string me along for their sadistic pleasure.

Then over time, I started to realize that my priorities were wrong. I was willfully handing over power to those to use it or abuse it and use and abuse me, as well.

Then came a day when the breaking point was reached.

I had had enough of the lies, the manipulation and most importantly being blamed for their shortfalls and their inadequacies. I found myself in a place that something had to give, something had to happen.

It was time for me to TAKE ACTION.

It was then and there that I had to take a long hard look at myself and see where I was and where I wanted to be.

I re-assessed my place in life. Then I made the changes I felt I had to make to keep my marriage intact, free from third party influences, keeping myself present in the lives of my children. Just like that I had to do what I had to do to keep myself where I had to be as well as on the path to where I was going.

It has been a very rough road and as I am still on it, it continues to be rough. However, when it comes to being the leader of your world, a leader of your own life there will be times you have to do what must be done. That is non-negotiable.

What is also non-negotiable, is that you will be tested. Tested every day.

You will be tested by people that are looking out for your own interest.
You will be tested by people that are not looking out for you, at all.
Of course, there will be some that will not be test you but attempts will be made by individuals that believe you deserve nothing and they deserve everything you can give them. No questions asked.

These tests can be huge challenges when you find yourself worrying more about them than you worry about yourself.

However, these tests are nothing and should mean nothing to you as the only test you should take in life is you doing what you can to be better today than you were yesterday.

See, at the end of the day, there is a certainty that no one can ever change: you are responsible for yourself.

Many will fight you but at some point, in life, things must change, you must change. Remember change is part of growth.

A harsh reality is that at some point in our lives our parents will NEVER stop being our parents but they will stop parenting us and let us live our lives based on what they were able to do and NOT do in raising us, yet all the while they are hoping for the best for us.

People you once called friends may at one point or another stop being friends only to become someone you used to know.

And some people will attempt to gravitate back in your life but for what reason or why?

If they used you as a scapegoat in the past, are they looking to do that again? If that is the case, well they have not changed but you have changed. Remember that.

You are not that person anymore.
You are the leader of your life and your responsibilities.

It is not up to them anymore. It is all on YOU!

Your Future Awaits!

Thank you for your time,
David Guerra

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Accountability blog Change Decisionmaking Ethics Inspiration Leadership Motivation positive

2024: Take All The Steps Forward

Welcome.
All my life it has been my privileged honor to be witness some wonderful things, places, events, and people.
At the same time, I have witnessed some of the most inhumane things that man can do to another man, either in the name of the family, pride, ego, religion, greed, or gluttony or any combination thereof.
All the while both, the good and the bad, have inspired me to keep moving forward.
Now, moving forward means that you will continue to encounter things that will challenge you, that will motivate you, and of course, things that will make you stop dead in your tracks.
However, none of that should cause or prevent you from moving forward. From taking that next step and the next step after that and so on.
Remember, it is the journey and not the destination is the true adventure.
No matter the destination, the journey begins with the first step. However, the real journey takes place when you take that second, third, fourth and every step afterward moving forward.
Over my lifetime I have seen so many individuals be celebrated for the journey they are about to undertake. They make the plans, take that first step, then nothing.
Nothing because they failed to consider the next step and all the other steps ahead of them.
The first time I saw this was back in High School when a “football player” receive a FULL ride scholarship to Notre Dame university. Big fanfare, a huge accolade for what today would be a slightly above average high school football player. So, this guy leaves and the next thing I know he is an office manager at his father’s real estate agency. See he could not hack it, both academically and athletically.
He may have been a big fish in the small pond that was high school, so naturally college was going to be a cake-walk or so he thought. Like so many others that have had reality slap them in the face, he was wrong and properly awaken to the real world.
Once on campus, yes, he did make it to the Notre Dame campus, but he quickly found himself as a tiny guppy in a huge pond full of piranhas. He was no longer big man on campus.
Now he was just like everyone else. Just like everyone else.
This is where being the big man on campus becomes a huge disservice to anyone who always had it handed to them and never held accountable for their actions or inactions and in turn this guy never thought he had to ask for help. Because as I mentioned he had everything handed to him, everything except for a huge dose of reality.
So, what did the hometown hero do? What else could he do but to come back home with his tail tucked between his legs and all while he never admitting defeat.
By not being prepared to face the real world this high school character never stood a chance.
Never stood a chance at taking the steps forward he needed to succeed in college and college sports.
By not admitting failure this individual would rather go hide under a rock instead of taking the failure as lesson learned and using that L as a stepping stone towards success in something else.
Now that is as far as it got with the Big Man on Campus Mr. Football Star because high school was over. Like so many of my classmates we had other more important things to do than to wonder what the BMOC was up to. I joined the Army and the rest is history.
I made new lifelong friends, started a family, and had a couple of kids all the while knowing that to make a success out of yourself, you have no choice but to know and accept that the only way to get to where you want to be in life is to take ALL the steps you need to take to succeed.
Friends, ignore the fanfare and just put in the work. Start taking all the necessary steps needed because as I have stated before: YOUR SUCCESS AWAITS!

There it is because I said this!
David Guerra

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Accountability Change Leadership MBWA Morality Motivation positive Walking Leader Work Ethic

2024: Challenges & Opportunities

As we go through life there are numerous certainties. Here are two:
One, we are constantly bombarded by challenges
Two, far too many times we fail to recognize those challenges as opportunities.

Folks, every challenge is an opportunity to grow.

Let us look at this way, opportunities do not come along as often.

However, as we are constantly being bombarded with challenges there is no escaping the opportunities that come with them.

Seriously, think about this, Day in and day out. Opportunities are all around us. There are of course, there are going to be challenges.

When it comes challenges, they are not as bountiful.

Challenges come in two flavors:

The challenges we inflict on ourselves.
and
The challenges we allow others to inflict on us.

Both types of challenges are actionable. Actionable in that we can do something about those challenges:
We can accept them and let them overtake us.
We can accept them and we can overcome them.
Or as far too many people do: Ignore them in hopes they go away but instead those challenges WILL steam roll you.

Where is the opportunity in these challenges?

Simple, opportunity is found in all three options.

The opportunity is there to make something good happen for you or to allow something bad happen to you. What you decide is solely and strictly up to you.

Another reality is that you do have control over what happens.

The harsh truth is that there are far too many people that would rather settle than to do something about their situation.

That means when they are faced with challenges, they would rather roll over, play dead, and let happen what is going to happened to them. That is WEAK!

They see the challenges but give up on overcoming those challenges and in turn they give up on themselves.

Because they gave up on themselves, they will never get to see the opportunities those challenges bring.

Giving up may seem like the easiest thing to do but when you give up it is the hardest thing you can do to yourself.

It is the hardest thing that you can do to yourself for one simple reason: The moment you give up on one thing, the easier it will be to continue giving up on other parts of your life and eventually you will give up on yourself.

Trust me on this. I know. I have given up on myself many times. However, one day an challenge popped into my life. I saw that if I decided to take it, it was going to be a huge challenge.

The challenge was accepted and the opportunity has turned out to be one of the greatest ones in my adult life.

It is truly up to you to take the challenges as they come and turn them into opportunities.

But remember, there are no opportunities when you would rather stick you head in the sand and avoid the challenges.

And if that is you? I wish you luck!