What I learned from Dyslexia…

Don't be an observer of your own future. Be a part of it. Take the uncomfortable action. Do the work. Know this. We all have our stories, right? We all have our backstory. We all have the thing that brought us to this moment. I can remember so many things in life that were a millimeter away from derailing me, right? I think I remember in my 20s, you know, I was running away from a childhood without money and watching my parents get married and divorced a lot. And some days going to school without lunch money. And I had dyslexia, so I wasn't the best in school. And I can remember having two voices in my head, I don't know, probably as young as seventh grade. I can remember being in seventh grade with Mrs. Thompson, who was my special ed teacher, because I had dyslexia really bad. And I remember going to her classroom, remember the special ed room? Listen, most of you walked by the special ed. I was the kid in it. I was the kid in there. And Mrs. Thompson always used to yell at me, just sound it out. Are you dumb? Are you stupid? Just sound it out. And I can remember being in that room having trouble reading because my dyslexia was so bad. And I can remember all the way back in seventh grade saying to myself, wow, I'm never going to amount to anything because I don't get to be one of the smart kids. I can't read as easy as everybody else. I don't like school. I feel like just not even showing up here. And then there was another part of me in seventh grade that was like, screw her calling me stupid. I'm going to make more money in a day than she makes in a year someday. Does anybody remember having those two voices? Sometimes we still have those voices. Like, screw you. I'm not too old. I'm not too young. I don't need money, I don't need education. I can freaking do anything I put my mind to. Don't you love it when we have days like that? And then there's the other days and go, wow, with this government, with this craziness, with this separation, with this recession, with this inflation, with a husband that doesn't have my back when I need him to have my back, with friends that think I'm crazy, Maybe I should just be lucky or fortunate for what I have. Don't we all have that crap story, those stories going on inside of ourselves always? Well, I want to tell you, I want to make sure the story that tells you you're meant for more. You could be More you could do more is the one in charge. There's a difference between motivation and transformation. You can go watch a seven minute YouTube video of, you know, Nelson Mandela or other amazing people and you can be inspired and motivated. I want to motivate you today, so I'll be transparent. I want to inspire you today. I want to get you to take uncomfortable action. I want you to commit to yourself that you will not allow yourself to give up on the man or the woman God designed you to be. But I don't want to just motivate you today. I don't want to just inspire you today. I want you to have the tools to transform today. And if it sounds like I'm being a little cocky or overly confident, maybe I am because I've been here. I, you know, I was telling you a little bit, for those of you who don't know my story, I'm not going to go back a long story. I'll just tell you. I had both of those voices and I was, my parents were married and divorced nine times between the two of them and I did move 20 times by the time I was 19 years old. And I used to go to lunch with a school without lunch money. And I remember being that kid that said, wow, I guess this is just, this is my life. But I also remember thinking, no, there's other people who've been where I am and they've achieved incredible stuff and I'm not going to settle because I am meant for more. And if I want to be more, I got to do more. I got to have different thoughts, I have to have different capabilities. I have to do things different than my parents did. I love my parents, but I had to do something different. I had to be different. And sometimes if you're on this group, you are the different one in the crowd. There should be, everybody in your family should be here. Who in here invited a friend that probably won't show up because they think, ah, you don't need that stuff. I'm just going to work hard. Does working hard alone get you the dream you want? You all probably work hard, but we need to work the right way. We need to find, we need to break through new layers, we need to take new uncomfortable action, gain new capabilities.