The following was written by Floyd and pulled from a recent newsletter. Enjoy!
Can you believe it? Ten words can --and will-- change your life for the better. I'm sure there are other limited word sentences that can have an impact as well such as, "Stick 'em up!" "Will you marry me?" "I do." "We're finished!" None, however, can affect your outcome more than these ten words: IF IT IS TO BE IT IS UP TO ME.
We are way too often tempted to look for the reasons why we can't do something or why something didn't work out as opposed to finding the solutions necessary to create what we want from life.
I'll give you an example. A man asked his neighbor if he could borrow his lawnmower. "I'd love to lend it to you but I can't right now," said the neighbor. "My wife is making chili today." Somewhat disappointedly the
man asked, "What does that have to do with loaning me your lawnmower?" "Nothing really," his neighbor replied, "but I figure if I don't want to do something--any excuse would do." What excuses do we tend to use to cover our failures, our mistakes, and our reasons for not even trying?
As a young man, I was a wide-eyed student in a Dale Carnegie sales course. The course was taught by a very exciting and knowledgeable trainer by the name of Bob Stackpoole. Much of the course content proved valuable to me over the years but one thing, more than any other, stayed with me and dramatically affected the course of my career. It was when Bob tossed out a bit of wisdom that I doubt was even part of the course curriculum. He told us that all of our successes depended on us and what we did with what we learned. He warned us to stop trying to come up with those reasons why we can't succeed and offered to give us a "self talk" affirmation. He said we needn't write it down because it was easily remembered since it had only ten words with only two letters each. I thought, "Gee, even I can remember that!" Then he shared this thought: "IF IT IS TO BE IT IS UP TO ME." Wow! What an impact that had of my belief that I could succeed.
Right then I learned to quit using external influences as excuses for my lack of success. It was, up to that point, so convenient to prefix so many of my goals and dreams with, "IF all goes well I will accomplish" or "IF my broker would provide us with" (doesn't matter what) or "IF the market was better I could be more successful." You know the ones. All those standard contingencies we get in the habit of using.
The truth be told, it is not up to anyone else, or any event or timing or luck. It's wrong to go through life "passing the buck" or putting the monkey on another's back. To paraphrase my friend and big brother, Zig Ziglar, "When one finger is pointing at the reason why we can't there are three times as many pointing back at the reason why we can." My belief is that is that in the end, God is in charge but He gave me Free Will to make my own decisions and ultimately it really is up to ME.
Chew on that this weekend! What I know for sure is that if you hang around Floyd's material long enough, this will become your default way to thinking, just as it has become mine.
