The Resilient Mind - Dare To Pursue Your Dreams - Les Brown

Episode Date: May 27, 2024

Les Brown is a dynamic personality and highly-sought-after resource in business and professional circles for Fortune 500 CEOs, small business owners, non-profit and community leaders from all sectors of society looking to expand opportunity. Book: ⁠You've Got To Be HUNGRY: The GREATNESS Within to Win⁠Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Now⁠⁠ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Resilient Mind podcast. In this episode, you will be listening to, Dare to Pursue Your Dreams with Les Brown. Get access to the Resilient Mind Journal by clicking the link in the show notes. Enjoy. If you want a thing bad enough to go out and fight for it, to work day and night for it, to give up your time, your peace, and your sleep for it, if all that your dream and scheme is about it, and life seems useless and worthless without it.

And if you gladly sweat for it and fret for it and plan for it, and lose all your terror of the opposition for it, and if you simply go after that thing that you want, with all of your capacity, strengthen sagacity, faith, hope, and confidence, and stern pertinacity. If neither cold poverty, famished or gall, sickness of pain of body and brain can keep you away from the thing that you want. If dogged and grim, you besiege and beset it with the help of God. you'll get it. Deep is to hunger, the voice of the genuine, the sintering moment. During the time after receiving 238 radiation seed implants,

I was reflecting on his words, and these words kept me up that night. He said, the ideal situation for a man or woman to die is to have family members praying with them as they cross over. He said, but imagine if you will, being on your death bed and standing around your bed, the ghost of the dreams, the ideas, the abilities, the talents given to you by life, and that you for whatever reason, you never went after that dream. You never acted on those ideas. You never used those talents. You never used those gifts. And there they are standing around your bed and looking at you, with you never acted on those ideas.

large angry eyes saying we came to you and only you could have given us life and now we must die with you forever and the question is if you died today what dreams what ideas what talents what books what music what leadership what voice will die with you Miles Monroe great Oriton, speaker said the wealth is placed on the planet, it's not in a four east where there's oil in the ground, it's not in South Africa where they're diamond mines. He said, the wealth is placed on the planet is the cemetery. Because there you'll find greatness that we've never seen. There you'll find talent and genius and potential never actualize.

Perhaps that's why Henry David Thoreau wrote the words, oh God to reach the point of death, only to realize that you've never lived. Maybe that's why some unknown writer wrote the words, what if you live your life? whole life only to discover that it was wrong that it was wrong that you were chosen to do something else and you didn't do it repeat ask me please live full die empty I want you take some notes and some things and I want you to think about your goals and dreams in the three categories that I mentioned personal professional and your social contribution how many of you

serious about your goals and dreams. Raise your hands, please. Thank you very much. How many of you don't want to take your dreams to your grave with you? Raise your hands, please. Very good. Shake someone's hand on your right and left. Look them in the eyes and say, get out of your head and step into your greatness. Do that right now, please. Say, get out of your head and step into your greatness. I want you to write this down. Let us say together. As you think about your goals and dreams, let us say together, it's possible. Together, please. Yes, write that down. See, ladies and gentlemen, as an entrepreneur, I've been an entrepreneur for 20 years. It's my 21st year. I could have been speaking and training for 34 years. But for 14 years, I was living in my head.

For 14 years, I stopped myself. For 14 years, I used to go see Zig Ziglar that I considered the number one motivational speaker on the planet. Zig Ziglar and Tony Robbins, they're the best on the planet. Bob Proctor, they are the best on the planet. Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hanson, T.Hah Thakard, I would go and see them and then I would leave and my conversation with myself was my heart would say, I can do that. And then my mind would ask how? How would you do that, Les Brown? See, when I was in the fifth grade, I was identified as EMR, labeled educable, mentally retarded, put back from the fifth grade to the fourth grade. I failed again when I was in the eighth grade. I have no college training. And a man changed my life,

and I'll never forget his name, Mr. Luray Washington. He's in his 80s now, and he's blind from glaucoma, but he gave me a different vision of myself. I was in his class waiting on another student. He came in and said, young man, go to board and work this problem out for me. I said, oh, sir, I can't do that. I said, why not? I said, I'm not one of your students. He said, look at me, yes, sir, sir, go to the board and work the problem out anyhow. I said, sir, I can't do that. He said, why? I said, sir, because I'm educable, mental retarded, sir. I'm in special education. And the students started laughing. They said, that's Leslie. That's not Wesley. He's D.T. Wesley is the smart twin. He said, what does D.T. stand for? I said, I'm the dumb twin, sir. And as the students

laughed at me, he came from behind his desk, he looked at me and he said, don't you ever say that again? Someone's opinion of you does not have to become your reality. On one hand, I was humiliated. But on the other hand, I was liberated because he looked at me with the eyes of Gertrtle who said, look at a man the way that he is, he only becomes worse. But look at him as if he were what he could be, then he becomes what he should be. And so we developed a relationship. And one of the things that I can just tell you as you think about your goals and dreams, all of us can say in a spirit of integrity that it's possible.

that if anybody at any point in time live their dream, then it's possible that I can live mine. And what I did was, I made a mistake. I looked at my goals and dreams, and my mind said, how will you do that? I went from my heart to my mind. And I stayed up there for 14 years. 14 years.

I can't bring those 14 years back. Those years are gone. And I've made a mission in my life to help people to stop putting it all. and procrastinating. How many ever thought about something you wanted to do and you procrastinated? You talked yourself out of it.

Raise your hand, please. There's a proverb that says if there's no enemy within, the enemy outside can do us no harm. And so as you look at your goals and dreams, every day we must convince ourselves, we must sell ourselves on that it's possible. Every seminar, every workshop, every book that I've ever read, every speaker that I've ever heard.

It interrupted what I was believing about myself. Everything that you do, everything matters. As you go through each day, I know now as I look back at age 63, looking at my life, everything matters. T. Hoff is right. How you do anything is how you do everything. And I realize that the choices I was making was based upon how I saw myself. Let us say together, it's necessary.

Write that down. It's necessary as you look at your goals and your dreams, it's necessary that you have a strategy and a game plan to change the story that you believe about yourself. And that's an ongoing process. I've discovered, and many people have, that what we do, what we accomplish, what we produce is a result of the story we believe about ourselves.

My favorite book says, Begee not conform to this world. Be it is a being transformed. by the renewing of your mind. And so as I began to work on myself, I realize that I'm getting out of one story and stepping into another story. As I become aware of some things,

there's still some things, I'm not aware of. So I'm still growing, I'm still developing. I'm like the lady who said, Lord, I ain't what I want to be, ain't what I'm going to be, but thank God I show ate what I was. But I realized that you have to work on yourself on a regular basis and write this down for mental mindset, for mental mindset and stamina.

Because things are going to happen to you. I believe that the reason that most people go to their graves where their talents and abilities and skills in them is because of the fact, number one, many are like me. They didn't know that they didn't know and thought they knew. I thought I knew myself and I really didn't know myself as well as I thought. I've discovered that sometimes people can take you to a place within your that you can't go by yourself. The other reason is I was afraid.

I never worked for a major corporation. I wanted to speak for corporations. I was afraid I would be exposed because I don't have a college education. I felt inferior because of the fact that I don't have a college education. I allowed that level of fear of failure to stop me. And because I never had an experience in it, I assume that I could not do it.

I was paralyzing my life. paralyzing myself by believing and assuming the limited part of myself as opposed to believing that I had something special. You have something special. There's something you want to do because you don't know how to do it doesn't mean that you can't learn. I like something that I heard. You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.

Repeat, I have to be, please. Leap and grow your wings on the way down. See, the people that will live their dreams, the 2% that are. will do that. These are, and write this down, become a risk taker. They're risk takers. They don't mind failing. They don't mind making mistakes. They're willing to take life on, take life in the collar. Viscard said, if you're not willing to risk, you cannot grow. And if you cannot grow, you cannot become your best. And if you cannot become your best, you can't be happy. And if you can't be happy, then what else is there? I don't care how good you are. I don't care how talented

that you are, I don't care how much you work on yourself. There are some times when things aren't going to go right. They just are not going to go right. There are times when anything that can happen will happen. Murphy's Law will be knocking at your door. Why? I don't know why. That's called life.

And you have to deal with it. Sometimes your life will be in a slump, just like sports. Some of the best shooters can't hit baskets different times in games. They get in a slump. Do they sit on the sideline and say, you know, I just didn't hit a basket today? No, they continue to execute. I suggest to you that if you are facing a challenge,

don't stop. Stay busy. Work your plan. Continue to do those things that you know that work for you after you have evaluated yourself in the situation. Continue to move. Stay busy, stay busy, stay busy. Repeat out to me.

Help somebody. And help yourself. Because what you give, is what you get. Find somebody that you can help so you can forget about you for a moment. See, sometimes the best thing to do is to be. Sometimes you have to just back up and go within yourself. A bow and arrow.

You can't take a bow and just push it out an arrow. You just can't push the arrow out. You have to pull it back and then release it. Sometimes you have to back up and go within and pray and meditate and recharge your batteries. Go away. Clear your head. and then come back and look at it from a different vantage point.

Don't operate while you are under the spell or the effect of what's going on. Next thing is that you've got to activate the thinker in you. Don't allow your emotions to control you. We are emotional, but you want to begin to discipline your emotion. If you don't discipline and contain your emotions, they will use you. Your mind goes on automatic, just like a god. I loved reading the book called

As a Man Thinking by James Allen. He uses the analogy of the mind being like a garden. You know, weeds don't have to have any encouragement to grow. You don't have to water them. They don't have to get sunshine. They don't have to have furrow ground. They will grow through the cracks of a sidewalk. Am I right?

But if you want to grow orchids or roses or any kind of exotic flowers, there are special processes and procedures you must go through. Well, by the same token, you don't have to force yourself or motivate yourself to think negatively. To be depressed, to hate somebody, to want revenge, you want to get back at somebody, to beat yourself up over the head, to feel loaded with guilt.

You don't have to make any effort to do that. Your mind is on automatic. It will do that by itself. But if you want to begin to move into your own personal greatness, If you want to begin to really enjoy a happy, successful, healthy life, you've got to be willing to go against the tide. You've got to be willing to harness your will. And say, in spite of this, I'm in control here. I'm not going to let this get me down.

I'm not going to let this destroy me. I'm coming back. And I'll be stronger and better because of it. You have got to make a declaration that this is what you stand for. for. You're standing up for your dreams. You're standing up for peace of mind. You're standing up for health. You want it. And you're going to go all out to have it. It's not going to be easy when you want to change. It's not easy. If it were in fact easy, everybody would do it. But if you're serious, you'll go all out. to yes, I'm going to turn this situation around. I'm not going to sit back and moan and cry over what happened and what went wrong and who did what. I'm going to do something about this situation.

The next thing that is important is that expect things to get better for you because they are. See, life is cyclic. You're not, whatever experience you're having right now, it has not come to stay. it has come to pass. Not to stay, just to pass. It's just going through. The biggest challenge is to know what's happening. This is a part of this thing

we call life. This too shall pass. And maintaining perspective, putting it in perspective. I was doing a training at a college. And it was a two-day training during orientation. And in the training that I provide, I'm a motivational speaker, but I conduct processes and personal dynamics, where people begin to go through changes that stimulate the

right and left hemisphere of the brain, enable them to see themselves differently. I conducted this particular simulation with these young kids, 17 and 18 years of age, so that they would begin to see how they make decisions or how they would survive in this particular simulation process we gave them. We had them to do it individually and then collectively. Over 30% of them wrote down as their first option in order to survive, they would commit suicide. First thing they wrote down. Suicide among young people has increased 300% over 5,000 will successfully take their lives this year. Why? Why did they do that? They def- I said,

I was so shocked. I said, what do you mean? Well, at least we would not suffer. And then they had the nerve to write down all of the other things they were going to do after they committed suicide. I said, listen, Kadambo. No, when you come up with a permanent, a solution for a temporary problem, that's it. Game's over. That's it. You're not going to do anything. Anybody wrote suicide at the top, you can put your pencil down.

See, a lot of us because of our limited vision of ourselves, a lot of us who begin to focus on problems and enable them to overwhelm us, we begin to think that we have no options. We begin to believe that there's no way out. Repeat after me, there's always a way. Where there's a will There's a way Shake somebody's hand on your right and left And say, I'm unstoppable

You've got to make those kind of declarations to yourself I'm unstoppable This will not get me down And if I get knocked down I'm going to be like Leo Pascar You said you're going to have some low moments in life But when you do you will have high lows When you work on yourself

What are some of those things that you can do during this period of time? Go for walks. Do some things for you. Just go for a stroll so you can engage in some reflective thinking on life, on yourself, looking and enjoying the universe, smelling the roses along the way. Listen to upbeat music. Music that inspire you, I have only but goodies. I have strategies that I engage in to recharge my batteries.

I'm preparing for that because I know things are going to happen that I cannot anticipate. Very good friend of mine died the other day. I had a program for myself. I have books that I read that inspire me, tapes that I listen to that fire me up. Because you're going to have sometimes low moments when you won't want to get out of bed. Just want to stay there.

At times you won't want to come out the house. There are times you'll be feeling bad and don't know why I was wrong. I don't know. Just leave me alone. Why did that happen? I don't know. It's called life.

The other thing is take full responsibility for your life except where you are and the responsibility that you're going to take yourself where you want to go. Someone said we have two primary choices in life. We can either accept conditions as they exist or we can take the responsibility to change them. See, a lot of people want to exempt themselves from taking responsibility. All they want to do is talk about

problem. Every time you see them, they'll tell you their story over and over and over and over again. No, no. You want to take responsibility for your life. I got me here. I can get me out of this. And I'm getting out. I'm not going to be a volunteer victim. George Bernard Shaw said there are two kinds of people in life. You know, he said those that make things happen, those that watch things happen and those that don't know what happened. And he said the people that get along in this life look around for the circumstances that they want and if they can't find them, they make them.

So part of beginning to get unstuck, you've got to decide that the behavior pattern that you have adopted doesn't work for you. You've got to change your strategies. And changing your strategy means reinventing your life. And you have the power to do that. You can decide that you're going to change, that you're not going to be a wimp.

you can decide that you're going to stand up to life you can decide that I'm going to live each day as if it were my last you have the power to make that decision you can decide I'm going to work on myself and develop myself I'm going to empower me

and all of these things that are happening to me right now they're just temporary inconveniences they're not stronger than I am I'm in charge here Thank you for tuning in. Continue strengthening your mind by listening to our other episodes.