What if I Could Start Over? | Jack Canfield

Hi, I'm Jack Canfield, and today I want to talk to you about what I would do if I had to start all over again, knowing what I know now about life and business. Before we begin, just a quick reminder that I recently hit 50,000 subscribers here on YouTube and I'm celebrating by giving away a huge personal success starter pack along with other prizes. So make sure to check the description box below for all the details. You know they say hindsight is 20 20. It's easy to look back on your life and see what you would have done differently. And while there's no sense wasting a moment regretting the past, there is some value in looking back and analyzing how you do things differently. Given what you know now, and by identifying the mistakes you made and the opportunities you missed, you're better equipped to avoid or act on them faster in the future. Now, I've been interviewed on more than 1,000 radio and TV shows, from the Today show to Oprah's Super Soul Sunday, and I'm often asked, if I had to do it all over again, what would I do differently? So I thought I'd share some of those things with you today. Now, the first thing I would do differently is I would start to write books sooner. I realize now that my career really took off when I wrote my first book. It was called 100 Ways to Enhance Self Concept in the Classroom, and before I wrote it, I was doing all right as an educational trainer and a consultant. But after I published that book, invitations to speak at workshops came flooding in. That book was a major boost for my career, and I wish that I quickly followed up with the second one. But I didn't end up writing another book until 10 years later. I was so focused on my consulting career that I didn't think I had time to write. Now, looking back, I should have made the time. That first book changed my life, and every book that has come after it has changed my life for the better as well. And if I had written my second book sooner, I would have probably written and published many more books. And I would have loved that because writing is one of my favorite things to do. Now, I read somewhere recently that John Maxwell, who is one of the legends in the area of writing about leadership, writes for two hours every day. And that is probably why he's written 65 books which have been translated into 50 languages with more than 20 million copies sold. Now, the second thing I'd do differently if I had to do it all over again would be to have gone to a lot more workshops and live trainings. You know, over my lifetime I've read more than 3,000 books. And while this has given me a lot of valuable information, if I had used some of that time I spent reading to have gone to a few more workshops instead, I would have learned much more, much deeper and much faster. Now, books are great, but they don't really give you the profound epiphanies or personal breakthroughs you can experience at a live workshop. That kind of live aha experience can change you forever. We often hear the phrase that experience is the best teacher. And the kind of experiences that are created in trainings focused on expanding your human potential are often very powerful. They can be as simple as taking turns answering a series of questions at a couples workshop with your partner. To those that are more impactful, like participating in a firewalk or an Outward Bound ropes course where you have to confront your fears and limiting beliefs, they can also be as spiritually profound as a 10 day meditation retreat or a weekend sacred dance workshop. You know, I remember the first time I did the firewalk experience. It taught me how many of my fears were totally unfounded, and it taught me how to transcend them. It was a very empowering experience that I don't think you can get from a book. And that's why I offer so many experiential workshops and trainings, as well as writing books and producing audio and video programs. Think about it this way. You can read all the books in the world about swimming, but until you get in the pool and start moving your arms and kicking your feet and learning how to breathe correctly, you are not going to learn how to swim. Not only that, when you read something in a book, it's easy to say that you'll come back to it later only to end up forgetting about it. But it's harder to forget a lesson you learn at a practical, hands on workshop where you're able to implement what you've learned right away. Now, I've experienced powerful takeaways at every workshop I've ever attended. And as I said, I wish I would have gone to more, especially when I was just starting out. Now, the third thing I'd change if I could go back and do my life over is I would hire an assistant sooner. One of the things that keeps many people, especially entrepreneurs, from reaching their next level is that they feel like they have to do everything themselves. When I first started out, I was running my entire company all by myself. I was setting up and taking down the rooms for my seminars, running the sound system and Performing many other time consuming tasks that while necessary, prevented me from focusing on growing my business. Then one day I was asked to conduct a one day teacher training in Marin county in California. And it turned out all the organizers were graduates of the S training and they provided me with five people to assist me because they have a lot of assistance at the S training and it was life changing. I had so much more time to focus on making the training even more effective to and was better able to act on the opportunities that arose during the course of the training. I went home from that seminar and I hired my first assistant. Now today I have a full time staff of 12 people and sometimes as many as 20 assistants in my longer trainings like our Breakthrough to Success training or our Train the Trainer programs. Now, a lot of people think they can't afford an assistant when they're first starting out, but you'd be surprised how affordable an assistant can be. Often you can find people right out of school who will work for extremely reasonable rates because they just need a job. They just need to get that first experience. You can also get interns for almost nothing from local colleges and universities because they also need that position to gain experience and to build their resumes. Or you may know people who are retired and would be happy to help you out. You can also hire virtual assistants online to help you with your online tasks or with writing or design work. Now, the more you're able to delegate the things you don't love to do or that don't directly create income, the more you can delegate those things to other people, the more you free yourself up to focus on your core genius. And that's what will help you grow faster and more effectively. Now, finally, the fourth thing I do differently is this. I would never stop doing yoga. I did yoga regularly until I was 29 or 30 and I was really flexible. In fact, I used to be able to do some of the more difficult positions you see on the COVID of yoga magazines where they look like they're a pretzel. One day though, I stopped doing yoga and got into running instead. I ran a lot and my legs and heart and lungs got very strong. But I lost that flexibility and I've never been able to totally get it back like I have when I was younger. Now I've started doing yoga again a couple of years ago and it's been great. But if I could do it over, I would have never stopped in that first place. The benefits of yoga are just too profound to ignore. Not only does it help you stay flexible and strong in your body. It also has spiritual and emotional benefits that help you develop a more calm, focused and positive mindset. I can think of many times in my life that would have gone much better if I'd still been doing yoga back then, and that's why I've made it part of my daily practice again. So there you have four things that I would do differently if I had to do it all over again and now here's a bit of brief homework for you to do after you complete watching this video. Look back over your life and identify at least one thing you'd do differently if you could do it all over again. Remember, this isn't about finding something to regret. It's about recognizing how you can improve your performance and your results now and from this point forward. And if you have any thoughts or comments, please be sure to leave them below because I'd love to hear what you have to say. So so thanks for watching. And remember, nothing in your life will change for the better until you do. Now, if you found this video helpful, please make sure you like it, share it with a friend who may need it, and subscribe to my channel for more videos like this one, and for some additional resources on personal and professional success, be sure to visit my website@jackcampfield.com thanks again for watching.