Tag: Success

Categories
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

Categories
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

Categories
Accountability blog Change Ethics Inspiration Leadership Motivation Walking Leader

2024: Fall and Bounce Back

We all fall. Sometimes we fall because we stumble over our own two feet and then there are times that others will do what they can to ensure that we find ourselves on our backs looking up.

No matter the reason, and most of all, no matter who is the one knocking us down there is only one thing that we must do: BOUNCE BACK!

We have no time for anything else but to bounce back and rise strong.

You fall and get back up so many times, that resilience eventually becomes an art. The art of resiliency?

While everyone wants to succeed and to never have to fall to bounce back.

Folks, life is not that way. Life will knock you down and you will have to bounce back.

For those that are hell bent on believing that reality does not apply to them, they are in for a very rude awakening.
Seriously, those that truly believe that falling, failing, and getting back up again does not apply to them then most certainly are going to be found in one of two places: EMERGENCY ROOMS or PRISONS.

That is because both are full of people that really believe they could get away with it and not have to worry about falling and getting back up, again.

Accountability or the lack thereof is what put those individuals where they find themselves.

When it comes to falling or failing and bouncing back always remember the following:

Falling is part of the process.
Getting back up is also part of the process.

There is NOTHING you can do to circumvent those facts.

However, there is something you can do to move through and beyond those facts.

As I mentioned you can MASTER the art of falling and bouncing back.

You may be thinking to yourself that you do not have the time to master falling and bouncing back. Please do not kid yourself. It is going to happen and a word of advice, the SOONER you master falling and bouncing back the sooner you will get to the success you truly want to achieve.

Again, I do understand that you do not want to go through failures to get to the success. Trust me, I do.

However, when it comes down to brass tacks it is part of life. We will have our ups and downs. It is non-negotiable. Again, that is all part of life. Those that choose to ignore that fact, well you know where we can find them. Yep, emergency rooms and prisons.

As for the ones that gave up getting back up, gave up on bouncing back, we find them right where they have always been. We find in the exact same place they were last week, last month, and sadly, right where they were this time last year.

Usually, those individuals are also found playing the victim.

They play the victim crying that the system is rigged or someone is out to get them.

I have seen these individuals first hand and it all comes back to lack of accountability and failing to hold themselves responsible to get to where they want to be. They lack the grit and determination to see themselves do what it takes to reach the finish line.

They blame others when there is absolutely no reason to.

It is through grit, determination, and lots and lots of self-discipline that will help take you to where you want to be, where you need to be, and most of all, having grit, determination, and self-discipline is how you bounce back better after falling.

YOUR SUCCESS AWAITS!