Les Brown and other speakers push you to dream bigger and think differently about what's possible. They cite Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000-hour rule for building confidence, argue you're not limited by your current abilities, and say aiming high matters even if you fall short.
Chapters
I've got a question for you. Who are you? Who do you think you are?
For your dreaming, for your running towards your dream, I applaud you for believing in yourself because that's what life is about. Stretching and challenging, looking for ways that you can begin to improve yourself. And ladies and gentlemen, as a result of stretching out, of acting on my dream— and I don't know what that dream is for you, I can tell you that it's possible—
or will you give me what I want?
And I just knew that I couldn't share that with him because I thought that he would tear it down and break me, break my dreams. So I kept it in my heart. And no matter what happened to me in my life, there was something to look forward to.
If we're to fulfill our potential, we have to start thinking differently. We have to realize that we're not chained to our current capabilities.
I'm sure you've read or seen the quote, "Shoot for the moon because even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." Let me share something with you. It is something that's designed to create a shift in your thinking. It will inspire you. It will create a motivational environment for you or for someone you care about. It's good for children. It's good for adults. It's good for you. Give yourself the gift of motivation.
Shoot for the moon.
That's what we'll challenge you to do. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.
Because when you lose sight or belief in yourself, we're done for. I use the definition of self-confidence to be the ability or the belief to believe in yourself to accomplish any task, no matter the odds, no matter the difficulty, no matter the adversity. The belief that you can accomplish it. Self-confidence. The easiest way to build self-confidence— there's no magic button. I can't say, 'Hey, this plane is going down, who can fly it? Put your hand up.' 'I can, I'm confident.' Repetition, repetition, repetition, right? What does Malcolm Gladwell call it? The 10,000-hour rule. There's no magic button.
So let me ask a question: what kind of seed The seed is in you. See, I believe part of our responsibility in life is to find out who we are, to discover ourselves. First off, we need to respect our nature. We need to realize we are part of a continuing chain that carries a legacy and a responsibility. And if that's the case, then we need to recognize that we were not biological coincidences.
Magic?
No.
Repetition, repetition, repetition. The problem is we expect to be self-confident, but we can't be unless the skill or the task we're doing is not novel, is not new to us. We want to be in a situation where we've created— we've had so much pressure in that. And what I mean, because pressure builds diamonds, we want to be in a situation where, hey, I've done this a thousand times.
It's time to reimagine your life. It's time to define yourself. This is the moment you reinvent yourself.
