Last week at Shanda’s 7-Day Revenue Challenge our guest speaker was the amazing Rex Crain. His talk on Day 5 was so powerful that we wanted to offer the spirit of his presentation to you in the form of this blog. You will see in the links offered with this blog the full video which runs for some one and a half hours – it is so great that we commend this as a one-and-a-half-hour investment in yourself. 

When BP Brooklyn was seven years old he was diagnosed with polio. Within six months he lost his ability to move his lower body. One day he had a vision of himself walking and running. His mom told him there was no cure for polio and that he was imagining things, and then she kept him safe by placing him in a box where she could watch him while she worked. 

But “no” he insisted; he believed in himself, and he began, slowly at first, building his muscle strength and then moving his body around in his box, rocking it from side-to-side. Sure, he fell and failed time-and-time again, and his mom kept telling him he wouldn’t be able to do it. But you know what? He did! One day he crawled out of his box, to a table; believing he could walk, he pulled himself up. His mom, well… she was scared for him and tried to reach out to stop him, to get him to sit down again but, instead, he took his first step in seven years. Then his second step, then his third, then his fourth… then he ran!

See not everyone’s going to believe you when you start to do something they never thought possible. They’re going to put up reasons and doubts and unless you have strong enough reasons, strong enough dreams and desires, to take the next step you’ll stay imprisoned in the box you’re in and you’ll never step forwards.

It’s Time To Rock Your Box

I don’t know what box you’re in right now. Maybe it’s a low financial situation. Maybe you feel stuck in your career. Maybe your marriage is in trouble. Maybe you’re trying to get a business off the ground – it’s just an idea in your head and you want it to go beyond the drawing board of your mind and to make the invisible tangible and real. 

Do you want to be stuck in that box? To work in it, live in it, breath in it – to become conditioned to it, settling for a life that puts you to sleep, or worse, depresses and demoralizes you? What are you allowing fear to do to you? Talk you out of what you really want to do? Letting your “can’ts” silence your “want’s”? Have you become that forward person stuck on backward mode? Do you tell yourself “I can’t, I didn’t, I don’t.” 

I’m not that kind of a person. No way. And neither are you! You’re going to take your dreams off the starvation diet today and you’re going to breathe and feed those desires and you’ll start rocking your box. You’re going to find your reasons to get up out of your box to reclaim the life you were meant to live. To reclaim the kind of man, the woman, that you’re called to be. Reclaim the lover in you, the dreamer inside you. You’ve got to reclaim who you’re destined to be. You’ve got to reclaim your integrity and reclaim your drive and your passion. 

Try this.. try that you’re in the correct vehicle right now. That your box is a box of destiny because you know you can rock it in that box. You know you can move in that box. You might find yourself in the box… for this moment in time… but that box does not define you, does not control you, does not manipulate you. You have the ability right now, to use your faith, and believe in where you’re going, to move yourself forwards and to pull yourself up out of your box. 

Hold On to Your Vision

Maybe there’s a vision that’s been placed inside your heart that you’ve been putting in a box for a while. It’s been trying to crawl out but you keep putting it back in. Maybe you’ve let people down in the past because you haven’t followed your faith, you haven’t gone after it, full all in. And so yes, when people around you test you, their feedback may be “I don’t trust you.” At this point you need to say, “I get it. I don’t deserve that trust right now. I’ve got to take my power back and I’ve got to show up.”

You’re the master of your life. Your vision is a product of what you desire. It’s a picture of your potential, where you can go that you’ve never gone, what you can do that you’ve never done, what you can achieve what you’ve never achieved, all that you are that you’ve yet to reveal. What are you dreaming about? There’s power in your dreams. There’s power in your vision. If the dreamer and the visionary inside of you could talk, what would they say? Would they say, “Oh, it’s been hard watching you settle for less than your life, working a job beneath your talent, accepting roles other people design for you, even though they did not create you… letting blind people proofread your vision.” You will only move forwards when you build a platform where your vision has a voice.

Your vision gives you hope. Hope’s not based on what’s seen. It’s based on what’s unseen. We’re all designed and wired to live by faith. It takes vision of where you’re going to go, who you’re going to become. Who are you going to let decide that for you?

Whatever vision you have, it is yours. No one else’s. 

When you have a vision that’s compelling for not just what you want to achieve and create, but who you’re going to become, that gives you hope and meaning that you’re willing to fight for. When you’ve got a vision, it lets you live, watch, with intensity, with passion and focus and lets you concentrate your energy and effort on what matters the most. Your how shows up when you believe in your vision, persevere, have faith and in the end, when you step out of your box.

Life Is A Sacred Gift

Most people in our world right now – actually 63% (according to Harvard University) – feel their best days are behind them and they’re powerless to change their future. They’ve given their permission to the government, to the media, to COVID, to a political party to dictate how they live and how they engage with this life. 

In turbulence, it’s easy to make knee-jerk reactions based on the way you feel, because you’re not looking at the instrument that says, “This is where I’m going to. This is what I believe is right. This is what’s leading me.” You start believing in these feelings and if you’re not careful, your emotional state will disqualify you from your dream, your desire that will take you to incredible places. 

We can feel so many emotions but the truth is – I hope you grab this in every aspect of your life – you’re never what you feel. You’re always what you decide. 

Leaders Don’t Accept Life As It Is

What’s the difference in the quality of people’s lives? Even in the turbulent times that we’re in, what’s the difference? It’s people who decide to lead their life, not lease their life. Let me say that again. People who decide to lead their life, not lease their life. Leaders don’t accept life as it is. They have the ability and the fortitude just like yourself to do something with life and make it work for them and not against them. 

The only future you have is the one that you believe in. The only business that you have is the one that you believe in. People are going to buy into you, before they buy into your product. They’re going to buy into you before they buy into your service. You’re going to buy into you before you buy into what you’re selling and what you’re delivering to people.

Conform or Transform?

So let’s master the metaphor here for a minute, because I think this could help, because your beliefs are going to conform or they’re going to transform your experience. This is key for you. 

Here’s the master metaphor: Life is _____? How do you fill in the blank? If Life is a Race, oh my gosh, well, you must be busy then. Come on! You’re rushing. You talk to people outside. “Hey, how you doing?” “I’m busy.” “Well, what are you accomplishing?” “I don’t know. I’m just freaking busy.” Come on. “What are you achieving? Are you making money?” “No, I’m just busy.” Come on. People are busy. “Give me another Starbucks. Give me another coffee. I’m busy.” Come on. They’re going nowhere fast. Maybe that describes you. Maybe it doesn’t. 

Other people, Life’s a Battle. Ooh, they’ve been watching too much news. Too much Instagram, too much political news. They demonize everybody else except for themselves. Come on. They want God to judge other people, but more than that they want to see that judgement for ourselves. It’s amazing. We want to fight everybody if we see life as a battle. 

What about if Life is a Party? You just party and you don’t do much. You like to celebrate, but if life’s just a party, you won’t do much with your life.

But if Life is a Sacred Gift, think about how grateful you could be in this moment. I’m a part of a seven-day challenge that’s giving me tools and training me and educating me, empowering me, enlarging me, enriching me. I have so much to be grateful for. You do. One million people passed in the last six days. You’re still here. It’s a miracle. If you had a roof over your head, and maybe not the house you love, but the one that you’re in, if you’ve got any type of a roof, whether an apartment a studio, or you’re in a gigantic mansion, come on, you today are in the top 25% of the richest people on the freaking planet. If you’ve got 15 American dollars to your name, you’re in the 12% richest of the people of the planet. You might not be where you want to be, but think about how your perspective and belief can change. You’ve got a lot to celebrate. 

When you would look at things through the lens of Life as a Sacred Gift you begin to understand that perspective will either be a passport, or it will be a prison.

You Become What You Believe

We’re going to go all the way into this for a minute, and it’s going to touch your business, your core, and every bit of you. 

Your perspective is your passport or your prison. 

You take a turtle and a giraffe, they occupy the same territory in Africa, but they don’t eat at the same height. They eat at the level of their vision or at their level of belief. If a giraffe tries to eat at the level of a turtle, he’ll lose the oxygen to his head, and he’ll fall over and he’ll become roadkill to a water buffalo or a lion. You can’t afford to limit your perspective to other people’s ideas of who you are and what life’s to be about for you. You’ve got to be able to choose your life from the standpoint of, “I choose to believe this.”

All increase comes through people. So if I believe people are trash or they’re out to get me or they’re racist, it’s going to limit my engagement with them, where I don’t show them my best self. You’re never going to influence somebody that you don’t see value in. In fact, if you misdiagnose people, you’ll mistreat people, just like if you misdiagnose yourself, you’ll mistreat yourself. What if you say, no matter what their background, their color, what they’re wearing, what kind of car they’re in,, “You know what? That’s a potential client. That’s a potential person I could change their life. That’s a potential person that I could enrich and I can enlarge, I can empower.”

Don’t discount yourself now because other people rejected you in school or rejected you from where you came from. It’s time to get up out of that rejection, come on, and renew and go back in the right direction. But let me fill in this blank here for a minute. “I am.” “I am…” How do you fill in that blank? Is it, “I’m sexy. I am strong. I’m creative,” or is it “I’m not enough. I failed. I went bankrupt. I went through a divorce. I’m not at a good level”? Whatever follows your “I am” will come looking for you, your fate in your business. You never rise higher than that image that you carry of yourself. Who are you in your own eyes?

This is the determining factor. All the mechanics and the tools that you’ve been learning over these last couple of days have the ability, creating the pipeline because I believe systems create wealth. You are involved in a wealth system here that will generate for you. The only thing that will hold you back is your vision of yourself, your version of yourself. Maybe you need to ditch and sign the death certificate on old versions of yourself and say, “You know what? I’m breaking clean with that today. I’m forgiving myself. I receive grace. Today’s an opportunity. I could choose to believe the best about myself. I am loved. I am a nice person. I am worthy of respect. I am making a good vision.” Start with that.

Whatever Follows Your “I Am” Will Come Looking For You

Whatever follows your “I am” will come looking for you. If you say, “I’m old,” oldness will come tracking you down. Come on. If you say, “I’m big-boned” or “I can’t lose the weight,” weight will hunt your butt down. Come on. If you say, “I’m unlovable,” every chance somebody comes to give you love, you’ll put up a Do Not Disturb sign. Let this be a day where you change what follows your “I am.” You have the sight, but right now, you’ve got to get into the might, the might, the might skills. A skilled man stands before leaders, kings. Wow! Recognize this! If you don’t get skilled, your talent will fail you. If you don’t get skilled, opportunity will fail you. It’s your skill that counts.

We say, “Well, other people have this. Other people have that.” Decide how you want to use this opportunity. That’s why you can’t look at other businesses to define and decide what you’re going to do. You’ve got to say, “This is what I want to deliver to the world.” Watch how powerful this is!

Do Different

The Bible says, “All things are possible to a person who believes.” Believing starts everything. Unbelief stops everything. I wonder who could use you becoming a different version of you, a better version of you as a lover, as a dreamer, as an executer, as a producer. Because I don’t think it’s just about you. I think it’s for all the people that are waiting on the other side of you breaking through the barriers that you’re currently facing to build the business that you desire to build, and empower and touch people in a significant, meaningful way.

We all know the phrase “Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.” So if things are going to become different, you’ve got to become different. 

In fact (let me just throw this little nugget and take a detour), if you ever discover what makes you different, you’ll always recognize what people will need from you. Let me say that again. If you recognize what makes you different, you will always perceive what people need from you. That will reward you. That will empower you. That makes you super necessary right now. Now, that’s powerful.

Most people study their similarity. While your similarity creates comfort, it’s your different that creates your rewards. Let me say that again… your different creates your rewards. See, you weren’t mass produced on an assembly line somewhere. The greatest mind in the universe designed you, and you’ve been sentenced to success. Whether you like it or not, you were planned and put on this planet. It doesn’t matter what background you come from, what ethnicity you come by. You have an opportunity in this world to do something special, because there’s a thumbprint of something different inside you.

Through this idea, I hope you start to develop your different, because other people need you to become different. They need you to discover your difference, because there’s rewards and solutions inside you that are not just going to benefit and profit you, but are going to profit thousands and thousands and millions of other people. 

Find Your Passion

I want you to think about this just for a second before I dive further into this concept. Think about this. What you love is a clue to you that it’s something you contain. It’s inside you. What do you love to think about? What do you love to learn about? What do you love to read about that never goes away? You might be working a job right now, but a job is a career. But you know that there’s a calling inside you to produce something special. What do you love to think about? What’s the problem you want to solve?

I often think what I usually hate the most is what I’m designed to correct the most or what I’m used to change the most. 

What draws the compassion out of you? If you will ever discover what draws the compassion out of you, you will recognize what you are designed to bring healing to and fix and change on the planet. You’ve got something that gives you the resolve to take action when you don’t feel like it. something that gives you the resolve, the inner drive, the inner power to get out of bed, to fight through challenges, through setbacks, because you know of the difference you’re making. And now you’ve got a business idea.

Today, there’s such a demand for us to find significance and meaning in our life. You won’t find it in your similarity, so you can stop looking at everybody else. You’ve got to be able to discover it inside of you. They say a life unexamined is not worth living. You’re a miracle. You made it here. The fact that you made it through COVID, the fact that you made it through this political mess, we’re still making it through the political mess, if you’re still here at 2020, it’s a miracle that you’re here. Wouldn’t it be worth taking a couple moments to discover why you’re here and the difference you’re called to release and contain and live rewarded by? I believe there it is.

The real you is making a demand on the you that you’ve become and maybe the you that you’ve settled for, because you know there’s a lot more to life than what you’re currently living. Today, it’s not going to take a million ideas to change your life. But one idea that you’re willing to look for and adopt and act on to transform. A little shift can make a massive difference.

Learn More From Rex Crain’s Talk

Invest your time devouring Rex’s inspiring talk, that’ll life your spirits and motivate you move forwards out of your box.

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