“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” ~John Steinbeck
I once believed that Winter was simply a season. Then, as good fortune would have it, I met Jim Rohn. He described winter in a way I had never heard it described before. He spoke about winter as a season of life.
As a matter of fact, he wrote The Seasons Of Life in 1981 and I heard about this “philosophical glimpse into the common threads interwoven among the laws of nature and man” when I attended my very first seminar in 1991. It’s interesting that I attended this seminar 10 years after he wrote the book and was blessed with the opportunity to get a copy of the new book he was releasing at the time.
It wasn’t just any copy. It was a signed, limited edition copy that is now one of my prized possessions. The Five Major Pieces To The Life Puzzle, Copy Number 251 of 2,500 and is hereby certified by the author on the date indicated below and signed Jim Rohn, 2/21/91.
Inside the front cover of the book are scribed the following words:
Bobby,
For the best of life and treasure,
Jim Rohn
I left the seminar with both book and notebook in hand and inside the notebook filled from front to back were the words of wisdom he shared that day. As a newly sober college student I had no idea what to expect when I walked in the door. The only thing I knew was to come prepared to take notes and because my mother prepared me, I had my notebook and I managed to get out of that seminar with all of the information that would become the foundation for the rest of my life.
“The first great lesson of life to learn is that winter will always come; not only in the winter of cold, and wind, and ice, and snow, but the human winters of despair and loneliness, or disappointment, or tragedy. It is winter when prayers go un- answered, or when the acts of our children leave us shaken and stunned. It is winter when the economy turns against us, or when creditors come after us. It is winter when competition threatens, or when a friend takes advantage. Winter comes in many forms, and at any time, both to the planter of crops as well as to the person in business, or even to our personal lives.”
Prior to attending Mr. Rohn’s seminar, I had never heard the adversity of life described as winter. I knew Shakespeare had words about the winter of discontent and Mr. Rohn did not disappoint in this arena either.
He talked about the winter when you can’t figure it out and the winter when it all goes wrong. He talked about the winters of our life. The winters of a death, of a divorce, of a tragedy, of the things we can’t understand; things like Covid for example… However, he also talked about what we do know and that we know it’s possible for us to weather any storm. It’s possible for us to get through all winters.
Mr. Rohn talked about the passing of time when he described how we get through winters. He simply said you can’t change the winter and you can’t change the seasons, but you can change yourself!
His answer was for us to all ask ourselves about what we can do to get through the winters of life. He suggested we could be better prepared to deal with the winters as they naturally present themselves with the same regularity of the seasons.
He suggested we could all get stronger, we could all get smarter, we could all get better. He then stated this applies to all of us, me included. I’ve gotten better, we can all get better.
I remember him describing what happened the first time he stood up to give a speech. He said I stood up and my legs sat back down. I stood up and my mind sat back down. He then went on to describe the secret of his success… He said, I stood up and did it again, and then I did it again, and then I did it again and I kept on doing it until my mind and my legs stood up with me. I did it when I was scared, and I did it when I didn’t want to, and I even did it when I was ill. I did it when it didn’t work well, I did it when it wasn’t appreciated, I did it a lot of times when I didn’t really even know what I was doing and I did it anyway and eventually, I learned, I got better. I got better in spite of the winter, in spite of the downturns, in spite of money problems. I got stronger, I got better… I can still hear those words in my head 30 years later because that’s how profound an impact his words had on me that fated day.
I also remember him saying the key is not to wish for a better winter but to wish for more strength, more wisdom, more courage, to get better, to get wiser, to get stronger. He said, there’s no winter that you can’t overcome, there’s no winter that you can’t figure out how to survive. He finished with the understanding that winters don’t last forever, hang on!
The final piece of advice I remember was Mr. Rohn reminding all of us to never let the effects of winter interfere with the arrival of Spring!
Spring is here! What will you do with this one wild and precious Spring?
My name is Bobby. I am The Inspirationalist!
I inspire people to pursue their gifts!
If my words somehow inspired you to pursue your gift, then I succeeded…
By the way, if you enjoyed this article, I believe you will thoroughly enjoy my next book, Advance Confidently. I look forward to sharing it with you on the 4th of July.
Keep Pedaling, Keep Going, Keep Growing!
Advance Confidently!
If you enjoyed and found value in this article, please share it.
In Gratitude,
Bobby Kountz, Author, Speaker, Sobriety Scholar, Inspirationalist!
PS. You can find out more about me here. You can find my book on Amazon.
“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did.” ~T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom
A-ttitude
C-larity
T-ime
I-nspiration
O-pportunity
N-eed
Sitting at the end of this acronym is one more letter. The letter is “S.” It stands for SUCCESS. Success is the natural result of commitment. It is the natural result of taking action. It may not be the ultimate success we’re looking for, but it will be a step in the process moving toward whatever it is we choose to be, become, or create.
Attitude.
Much has been written about this word. Rather than trying to recreate the wheel, sometimes it’s best to just capture the essence of someone who said something really well as it relates to whatever it is we’re hoping to discuss. As it relates to attitude, I believe the following may be the best I’ve ever come across.
Attitude– The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, then education, then money, then circumstances, then failures, then successes, then what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company… A church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string what we have, and that is our attitude… I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you… We are in charge of our attitudes. ~Charles Swindoll
Enough said!
Clarity- Why clarity? The reason I selected clarity is because clarity leads to confidence. The clearer we are about the outcome we desire, the better the chance we have of bringing about the results we seek. If we are unsure about what we want or about the result we’re seeking, then we are liable to get a result different than the one we desire. However, when we’re clear, when we are sure, when we know exactly what it is we we’re after, then we will be prepared to take the necessary steps required, to put in the effort, to do the work of bringing into reality whatever it is we have visualized for ourselves.
Time- the reason time is important is because what gets scheduled is what gets done. If we don’t take the time to schedule what’s important to us, then whatever happens to interrupt our day will take precedence over whatever it is that we are not defending. We must defend our time. We must draw a line in the sand and create blocks of time for ourselves to accomplish whatever it is that’s important to us. If we don’t map out our day, if we don’t run our day, then as Jim Rohn used to say, our day will run us.
There are so many demands on each of us in this fast-paced world we now find ourselves living in. If we don’t defend the most precious resource, the most precious asset we have, then we will find ourselves at the end of the day wondering what happened to it. We will find ourselves asking where the day went. At the end of the day, we can do one of two things, we can either celebrate, or we can wonder. We can wonder what happened to the day, or we can celebrate everything we accomplished. As it relates to time, it is important to schedule in breaks for ourselves as well. We function better when we step off our hamster wheel. Schedule 5-minute breaks or 10-minute breaks in between your blocks of time so that you can refresh your mind and begin the next task with a renewed sense of vitality and energy.
In other words, Pause, Breathe, Reflect…
Inspiration- When we become curious, we will find all the inspiration we need to accomplish whatever is important to us. Inspiration is everywhere and in everything if we have our eyes open and if we’re looking for it. The quote at the beginning of this article is a perfect representation of the difference between dreaming with our eyes closed and dreaming with our eyes open. When we dream with our eyes open, we stand a chance of discovering whatever we need or whatever is required to bring that dream to life. When we act upon our dream with open eyes, we will be in the process of bringing it into existence, of bringing it into the physical realm. Dreams may begin in our mind, but for them to become a reality, we must bring them into the physical world and our dreams are brought into the physical world with A.C.T.I.O.N.
Opportunity- Who knows what an opportunity is? It has been suggested that success is what happens when opportunity and preparation meet each other. When opportunity and preparation meet, during the time allowed to bring ideas to life, there’s a great chance that with some form of action, the opportunity will be turned into something. An opportunity that presents itself but isn’t acted upon will be simply that, an opportunity, nothing more, nothing less.
The opportunity only becomes something tangible when acted upon with effort and an idea. It is wonderful that as human beings we have the capacity to come up with new ideas. However, it must be clearly understood that an idea without action behind it is just an idea. An idea, written down on a napkin, and then acted upon when taken back to the office the next day becomes something much more than an idea. It has been said that entire businesses have been created from an idea written on a napkin. That is only half the truth. It was actually the action taken on the idea that turned it into something in the physical realm. Otherwise, it would have simply remained words on a napkin…
Need- The word need is here as a reminder for us to ask better questions. For some unknown reason we tend to ask how. I believe how is a poor question. I believe there are two better questions that could replace how. The first question is who. Who do I need to become to accomplish whatever it is I want to accomplish? The second question is what. What skills will be required for me to achieve or accomplish whatever it is I’ve decided is important to me? Asking the two questions, who do I need to become and what skills will be required, sets us up for potential success.
If we’re attempting something that we’ve never done before and we’re asking how, it can be an exercise in frustration. However, when we shift the conversation from how, to who and what, we give ourselves a chance to identify whatever is in the gap between where we currently find ourselves and the desired result we choose to bring into the world. When we examine where we are compared to where we want to be, in the examination of those two points we will identify a space and asking the questions who and what gives us the opportunity to fill in that gap with what we need to grow into, and the skills required to achieve or accomplish whatever we desire. All skills are learnable.
If we identify in the process of inquiry the skills we are not interested in learning, then this is just merely an indication about what portion of the project needs to be outsourced. Sometimes, this is the most important piece of the puzzle. When we come to the realization that we don’t need to do everything ourselves, we only need to be able to identify what needs to be done, what actions need to be taken, then we can either, insource, outsource, or manage around whatever it is we don’t want to do ourselves.
When someone says they don’t have enough time, what they’re really saying is they don’t have enough team. TEAM Is what makes all the difference. We each have the ability to assemble a team around us. Who are the people better at whatever it is you really aren’t even interested in doing and how might you get them to cooperate with you on whatever project you’re interested in bringing to fruition?
Here’s an example:
A writer, who up until whatever time they decide they’re interested in writing a book might only need themselves and a second set of eyes to look at their work before they publish their articles. When the writer decides to become an author instead, then they will most likely need the help of some other people to help them bring their idea to life.
For me, I needed the assistance of several people to help me bring my first book to life. I needed the assistance of a content editor. I needed the assistance of a line editor. I needed the assistance of a formatter. I needed the assistance of a graphic designer to help create a compelling cover for my book. My first book is far from ideal, but what I have come to learn, know, and understand, is that version one is 10 times better than version none. I learned so much in the process and as I prepare to bring my next book to market, I am sure I will be learning many more additional lessons as I get closer and closer to my publication date of July 4th.
The one thing I know for sure, the one thing I am absolutely crystal clear about is that the only way my book will make its way into the physical realm is with A.C.T.I.O.N.
My name is Bobby. I am The Inspirationalist!
I inspire people to pursue their gifts!
If my words somehow inspired you to pursue your gift, then I succeeded…
By the way, if you enjoyed this article, I believe you will thoroughly enjoy my next book, Advance Confidently. I look forward to sharing it with you on the 4th of July.
Keep Pedaling, Keep Going, Keep Growing!
Advance Confidently!
If you enjoyed and found value in this article, please share it.
In Gratitude,
Bobby Kountz, Author, Speaker, Sobriety Scholar, Inspirationalist!
PS. You can find out more about me here. You can find my book on Amazon.
“We are all born with wonderful gifts. We use these gifts to express ourselves, to amuse, to strengthen, and to communicate. We begin as children to explore and develop our talents, often unaware that we are unique, that not everyone can do what we’re doing!” ~Lynn Johnston
One of the easiest ways to overcome the feeling of not being good enough is to stop comparing your beginning to someone else’s middle or ending. For some unknown reason, we have a propensity to compare ourselves to other people instead of figuring out what our own unique contribution might be.
If you’re feeling some form of not quite enough, it’s most likely because you’re comparing yourself to someone else who’s further along than you or who you believe shouldn’t be further along than you. Maybe, because they’re younger than you and you have a preconceived idea of where your life should be at a specific moment in time and because you have not yet reached the destination you originally identified, you somehow feel less than the person who’s already achieved or attained the thing you believe you’re also equally capable of achieving or attaining…
There is a quote often misattributed to Einstein about how “everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
It doesn’t matter that Einstein never actually said what the quote expresses. The important lesson is wrapped up in the message. As expressed earlier in the article, everybody has a unique genius. Our job is to figure out what that something is. When we stop trying to compare ourselves to everyone else and embrace our own unique gift, whatever it might be, to make the difference in the world that we were intended to make, in that moment, we become a genius.
I believe the moment we were born, God (insert your own definition here), placed something special inside us and it’s our obligation to discover what that something is. When we discover our gift, we will no longer need to compare ourselves to others. We will only need to compare where we are today in relation to yesterday. And, if we have taken even the smallest of steps in the direction of what we feel called or compelled to do, we will be on our way.
One of the best descriptions I have ever heard as it relates to our gift was a definition given by Steve Harvey where he said, “our gift is the thing we do the absolute best with the least amount of effort.” Once we identify our gift, if we acknowledge it and embrace it, our lives will be changed forever.
Where most of us get hung up is trying to figure out how to monetize whatever we believe our gift is. This is normal, this is to be expected, because each of us have a responsibility at a minimum to ourselves, and many of us to our families. It can be exceedingly difficult for you to pursue your gift if you’re the one who’s responsible for making sure that the rent or mortgage gets paid and there’s food on the table for your children. This is the trap. This is the trap that so many get caught up in and struggle their whole life to escape from. It’s hard to trust in something we’ve never done before and then if we follow that gift, if we follow that dream, that it will provide for us in ways that we can’t even imagine…
It should also be understood that following your gift will come with a cost. There is a cost associated with pursuing your gift. Something will have to be sacrificed. Something will have to be given. Most are not prepared to give what’s required to follow their gift. There are so many stories about the starving artist and the struggling writer, and those stories dissuade others from pursuing their own gift. It’s hard to understand that if they gave themselves permission, they could find a way to make it work.
Where we get trapped is in believing it can only be done one way. If your gift is music and you’ve decided that the only way you can ever make it with your gift is to be a musician, then that might not be what you were called to do. There is an entire industry that supports the musicians that play for their audiences and many of the individuals in the music industry make a great living for themselves, but they are not musicians playing on stage. Instead, they support the musicians with their gift, and they play in a band with their friends for their own personal enjoyment or to make music just for the sake of it, rather than trying to make a living from it but they’re still working in music and they are therefore fulfilled.
As a writer and a speaker, I don’t know at what point I’ll be able to make the kind of living I’m accustomed to. However, doing what I know is my gift will eventually make room for the level of income I desire. Patience is required and I am becoming better at being patient because I have already seen my desired outcome. I have visualized it and now I am simply waiting for The Universe to catch up. What I do know however, is that if I’m not attached to the outcome, in other words, if I’m open to everything and attached to nothing, if I’m working in my gift, my gift will make room for me. Do I believe that gift will be in the form of a book and a speaking career that comes forward from that book? Absolutely!
It could just as well however come from me creating a business that supports other people in the pursuit of their dreams. A business that helps people overcome their self-limiting beliefs, their doubts, their fears, their shortcomings, their misgivings. It could simply be me saying enough times what I absolutely believe to be the truth about human beings and that’s simply this:
“Hidden within each of us is everything we need to achieve anything we can imagine.” ~Bobby Kountz
it is my steadfast belief in my own ability that I am certain will be what opens the door of infinite possibility for me and the work that I hope to do in the world. It will be me being curious, not judgmental, it will be me following the advice of Walt Whitman that will open the door of possibility. It will be this philosophy that will allow me to focus on my gift and co-create the life of my dreams. And, it will be done, one day at a time. It will be done the same way everything that has ever been done is done. It will be done, one day at a time.
Whatever it is you want to do, be, or become, if it involves your gift, I believe your gift will make room for you. Let go of the how and focus instead on the who and the what. Figure out who you need to become and what skills will be required to support whatever it is you want to do, be, or become. If you will do this, success is almost guaranteed.
There is a caveat. It is simply this, success has its own timeline and rarely does that timeline ever match up with the one we have created for ourselves. There is no such thing as an overnight success. If you investigate the lives of those who have achieved or accomplished great things, you will see that their lives were full of obstacles and adversity that they simply overcame, one day at a time.
Make your commitment. Make it today. Begin the work. Stay the course. Pay the price. Do the work. Follow your dream. Embrace your gift!
I am a writer.
I am The Inspirationalist!
I inspire people to pursue their gifts!
If my words somehow inspired you to pursue your gift, then I succeeded…
By the way, if you enjoyed this article, I believe you will thoroughly enjoy my next book, Advance Confidently. I look forward to sharing it with you on the 4th of July.
Keep Pedaling, Keep Going, Keep Growing!
Advance Confidently!
If you enjoyed and found value in this article, please share it.
In Gratitude,
Bobby Kountz, Author, Speaker, Sobriety Scholar, Inspirationalist!
PS. You can find out more about me here. You can find my book on Amazon.
“I have come to accept the feeling of not knowing where I am going. And I have trained myself to love it. Because it is only when we are suspended in mid-air with no landing in sight, that we force our wings to unravel and alas begin our flight. And as we fly, we still may not know where we are going to. But the miracle is in the unfolding of the wings. You may not know where you’re going, but you know that so long as you spread your wings, the winds will carry you.” ~C. JoyBell C.
In his wonderfully inspiring book, The Boy, the mole, the fox and the Horse, Charlie Mackesy has the character of “The Horse” reveal something to the boy. Here’s how the conversation unfolds:
“There’s something I haven’t told you.” Said the horse.
“What’s that?” Said the boy.
“I can fly. But I stopped because it made the other horses jealous.”
“Well we love you whether you can fly or not.”
To their amazement, the next thing the boy and the mole realize, they are watching the horse’s wings unfurl…
In the next scene, the boy and the mole are seen crawling up the horses outstretched leg to take their place upon his back. The boy and the mole are seated on the horses back. With wings outstretched, the majesty of the horse is undeniable. The word “Ok” sits in quotes at the top of the page.
On the next page, we witness flight…
The next two pages provide for a powerful transition…
“Is your glass half empty or half full?” asked the mole.
“I think I’m grateful to have a glass.” Said the boy.
“We don’t know about tomorrow.” Said the horse. “All we need to know is that we love each other.”
The book goes on in this magical way and once again I offer my highest praise and strongest recommendation that you purchase a copy for yourself. It is a stable resource in my day to day, one day at a time, approach to life.
Why do we mute ourselves? Why do we hide our shine? What are we afraid of?
Why would our ability to fly make other horses or other people jealous?
Why would our response be to hide our wings?
Which fear is rearing its ugly head when we hide our shine or fold our wings back so no one can see them?
Each of us comes to this world with a special gift that only we can give to humanity. If we do not find the courage to give it, then as Martha Graham says, something wonderful will be lost.
Here is the good news:
“We always may be what we might have been.” ~Adelaide Anne Procter
In the Miracle Morning Room on Clubhouse today, we talked about self-confidence. We asked each other how the Miracle Morning and the SAVERS practice helps us to discover or further develop self-confidence. The array of answers is what the Leader of this incredible experience refers to as crowdsourcing wisdom.
Brianna Greenspan is the Co-Author of The Miracle Morning Art of Affirmations: A Positive Coloring Book for Adults and Kids and the Co-founder, Host, and Moderator of The Miracle Morning Clubhouse Room. Every morning, the wisdom of the room is crowdsourced to make the Universe just a little bit better for my grandchildren. (No, this is not the stated purpose of the room, but it’s “my personal why” for being a part of it).
Photo from Authors Collection
What I just described is the natural consequence of creating a safe container for people to come together with a likeminded purpose of growth.
Everyday, we “get to” witness the magic of the Miracle Morning. It’s as if we can hear the following if we are willing to listen:
I am the miracle. I am the morning.
“The Miracle Morning is elevating the consciousness of humanity, one morning at a time.” ~Hal Elrod
I am the miracle. I am the morning.
It repeats itself in every share and every affirmation of whatever is openly shared as a response to an intentional question, a vulnerable and authentic disclosure, or a deep reflection.
Not only is wisdom being crowdsourced, but so is courage, confidence, appreciation, humility, dignity, respect, self-love, self-confidence, self-esteem, self-reflection, gratitude, and ultimately, Joy and yes, sometimes, dare I say, even bliss…
When we show up with purpose and intention, grounded in community, we can do, be, or become, whatever we choose. We can do this because we are no longer trying to do it on our own or in an unsupported or unnatural way. We do it by showing up and putting into practice, to the best of our ability, the SAVERS.
Don’t make it harder than it is. One of our regular contributors who is all about doing it her way simply says this: You can start with 6 minutes if that’s all you have to contribute right now and then just show up for yourself every day. The cumulative effect of your one day at a time approach to honoring yourself will give you results you only once imagined were possible, but with the help of the community, you will see that they are possible for you as well.
If you are not interested in Clubhouse or not an iOS user, you can find the Miracle Morning and the SAVERS at MiracleMorning.com or you can find them on multiple social media platforms, in bookstores, on Amazon, or wherever you go to get your daily podcast download.
In other words, The Miracle Morning is everywhere. It is as is expressed by one of my favorite unique words, ubiquitous, which simply means in scientific terms, everywhere.
For those wondering, the SAVERS stand for:
Silence
Affirmations
Visualization
Exercise
Reading
Scribing (just a cool way of capturing what journaling is).
The SAVERS are not only the backbone of the Miracle Morning Movement, but they are also “the six most powerful, effective, and time-tested personal development practices known to man … known as the Life S.A.V.E.R.S.” and I assure you, if implemented into your daily practice, your life will be almost unrecognizable in the shortest amount of time possible.
If your life is already magical and magnificent, then someone might just ask you when you decided to let your wings show. They might ask you if you know your wings are showing?
Your reply will be humble, just like the horse, and you will invite them to join you on your journey of curiosity and together you will fly into the uncharted territory of self-discovery. You will not go alone, but instead, supported on your path of learning about all you are capable of, not all at once, but “one day at a time” in a community ready to support you on your quest to become whoever YOU choose to BE!
Together WE can!
I am the miracle. I am the morning.
If you enjoyed today’s article, watch for the next one where I will explain for those of you who have little ones, how to modify this practice for your kids. When the SAVERS become CHARMS, magic happens!
By the way, if you enjoyed this article, I believe you will thoroughly enjoy my next book, Advance Confidently. I look forward to sharing it with you on the 4th of July.
Keep Pedaling, Keep Going, Keep Growing!
Advance Confidently!
If you enjoyed and found value in this article, please share it.
In Gratitude,
Bobby Kountz, Author, Speaker, Sobriety Scholar, Inspirationalist!
PS. You can find out more about me here. You can find my book on Amazon.
Author’s Note: I completed my 30-Day Spring into 2021 writing challenge!
