Summary: Podcast Note: The podcast name has changed from "Life, Love, and the Movies" to The Successful Life Mindset. Can A Man Change His Stars? In the movie “A Knight’s Tale” with Heath Ledger, a young boy living in days of old watched as knights jousted and was intrigued. He asked his father if he could become a knight. The father told him he could be anything he wanted. A man in the stocks overheard the father and son talking. He laughed and said the boy, a commoner, might as well try to change the stars. The boy listened to his father, did become a knight, and did very well, but once it was known he was not a peer of the land, a simple commoner, he let the opinion of others influence his actions and his dreams all fell apart. So, is it possible for a regular person to do whatever they want? Absolutely! You must plan the life you want and make it happen. Plan it, visualize what that new life looks like, write it down and post it somewhere you will see it every day and soon it will begin to train your mind to look for opportunities to make that dream happen. Tracy’s partner, Jim Stovall, has told him on several occasions, “Most people spend more time planning a three day vacation than they do their life.” Cliff's Dream Cliff worked in his family-owned insurance business for eleven years. It was a comfortable, cozy place because being owned by his mother and father it gave him a level of job security not often found. Cliff did not take advantage of that security, he worked hard – was driven to perform well, but it was not the life he longed for. Eventually he stepped out in faith and changed his stars. Once he made the decision to move from insurance to full-time podcasting, things were going okay, but he got a very negative, discouraging email from a listener. It brought back some of the fears Cliff had to face when he left that security. He could have simply given up and gone back to the insurance business, but the only failures are the ones you allow to stop your dream. You may have to back up and do things differently than you first planned to make it work, but if you persevere, you will not fail. Don’t let the opinions of others stop you from changing your stars. People need to find a place where they can have it all – family, dream job, peace and happiness. You must believe you can. Share your dreams with someone that can give you facts, not opinions. You must be passionate about what you do to succeed. Find something you love so much you’d do it for free and then find a way to make money doing it. Retrain your brain to look for ways to be successful. Choose your goal; write it down, say it to yourself and eventually it will train your mind to look for the opportunities. Does your environment matter? The best answer is it depends. It is more difficult to become successful in an environment not conducive to success. One of the reasons is that you tend to gravitate toward the lifestyle of your friends. Jim Rohn said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” So choose as your friends positive, like-minded people. You will help each other succeed. In the movie “Pursuit of Happiness”, the Will Smith character was, at one time, homeless; however, he never gave up his dream and eventually he lived that dream. So, does environment matter? If you can change your environment to something more in line with your dream life, change it. If you surround yourself with friends that are constantly negative, change your friends. Most important is that despite your environment and friends, never give up. Tracy’s pastor from Minnesota told him “Your future is determined by the friends you choose and the books you read.” That’s good advice for everyone. Tracy gave an example of choosing friends wisely when he and Jim Stovall had a decision to make when Jim wanted to offer products at no charge and Tracy wanted monetary reward.
