hat Does It Take to Really Change Your Life?

By Michael Masterson

I was 13 when I first heard the word "underachiever." Mrs. Growe, my ninth grade English teacher, used it to describe a student who had, in her opinion, failed to work to his potential. The student? Yours truly.

"Mr. Masterson," she announced to the class, "is the classic example of an underachiever. He doesn't complete his work assignments. He shows up late for class and then wastes his time daydreaming. As a result, he produces C work. From a child with modest potential, I would be happy with mediocre results. In his case, I am very disappointed."

I was not surprised at the assessment. It was accurate. I couldn't deny it. The female maturation process held my interest at that time. That and football. And goofing around with my friends. And just about anything else but schoolwork.

I wasn't a good reader. And I couldn't sit still during class. Much later I discovered that I was suffering from a combination of dyslexia and what is now called "attention deficit disorder." But neither Mrs. Growe nor I knew about such things then. As far as she was concerned, I was a perennial slacker. I shared her opinion.

At least once a year, however, I promised myself that I would "turn over a new leaf." I sensed, as Mrs. Growe did, that I was not as dumb as my grades suggested. And I felt, deep down in my bones, that eventually I'd make a success of myself.

But before I could be successful, I had to change something very fundamental about myself. And that change began at the end of my senior year when I woke up one day and realized I was disgusted with myself.

I was tired of being the perennial screw-up. I was sick of getting lousy grades and playing the fool in class. I wanted to become the person Mrs. Growe thought I should be. But it seemed to be too late. There was only a month to go before graduation, and it was obviously impossible to rectify four years of poor performance in so short a time.

Since my grades were mediocre, I had no chance of getting a college scholarship. And since my parents couldn't afford to help me with tuition, I had no choice but to attend a local community college. The community college was happy to take my $400 a year, and would be equally happy to give me the Cs I had been earning in high school. But I wasn't willing to live that life any longer.

I realized that, oddly enough, my lack of success was a benefit in disguise. I was about to put myself in an academic environment where mediocrity held sway - where I would be competing with other high school screw-ups just like me.

What if I used the remaining time I had in high school to prepare for a new and better life in college? What if I directed my energy toward developing skills and habits that would help me succeed over the next four years?

And that's exactly what I did. The Saturday after I made my big decision to change, I drove my '56 Bel Air to Nassau Community College in Hempstead, NY. I gathered together everything I could about the school and the curriculum I was going to be involved in. I brought it all back home with me and spent the rest of the weekend carefully reading every pamphlet and brochure.

I was doing something I had never done in school: getting ahead of my competition by planning my success. In the next few weeks, I became a minor expert in that little college. I knew every course they offered, every major they offered, and every teacher who'd be teaching freshmen that year.

Taking the initiative to plan my success gave me a very positive feeling. I could actually feel myself changing. I was becoming - even before I began - a serious and committed student.
 
I realized that I would be starting college as a brand-new person. None of my teachers would have heard about my high school antics, and none of my fellow students would be expecting me to be the class clown.

Starting college without the bad reputation I had established in high school was like a gift from the academic gods. I could walk into my new classes as an interested, enthusiastic student who was there to succeed.

And that's what happened. I showed up for classes in September on time, prepared with the required texts. I sat in the front row and raised my hand whenever the teacher asked questions. I did my homework assignments and spent my spare time studying. Between attending classes, studying, and running a house painting business on the side, I worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week.

By the end of the first semester, I had the reputation of being an A student. Throughout the rest of my college and graduate school career, I never retrenched.

I sometimes think about what would have happened to me if I hadn't finally become disgusted with myself. Or if I had failed to make those preparations that allowed me to turn over a new leaf.

It's highly likely I would be grinding out a living somewhere, working a job I didn't like, struggling to pay my bills and making futile resolutions - knowing I'd live out my life as a habitual underachiever.

The difference for me was the simple realization that if I didn't change myself, my life wouldn't change - not then or ever. I had wasted my high school years making promises I never truly meant to keep. But I was tired of doing that.

Thinking back, I can see that there were several factors that allowed me to change in a serious and committed way:

• First, I had bottomed out emotionally. I had finally reached a point where I truly detested myself for not achieving what I felt was my potential.

• Second, I made a decision to change completely - to go from being a C student to the top of my class.

• Third, I recognized that I would have to change not just my work habits but the way I thought about myself. I would have to "become" the A student I wanted to be.

• And last, but not least, I took action immediately. I didn't wait till September to make the change. I started right away by preparing myself to succeed during my final months of high school.

Have you made resolutions that you've failed to keep? Held dreams of success and happiness that you've failed to fulfill? Do you sometimes feel that, however much you've done, you are still, in part, an underachiever?

If so, there is good news. Your past behavior has no bearing on your future work habits. If you can change the way you work - even just a little - you can change the way you live.

Most people reading this will think, "I don't need another motivational speech. What I need is a change of luck."

I'm here to say that luck had nothing to do with the change in my life. And it needn't have anything to do with whatever changes you would like to make in yours. Had I waited for luck to come to me, I might be waiting still. My life changed when I got fed up and started planning my success.

You, too, can change your life if you are (a) dissatisfied with the lack of success you've had so far, (b) willing to make a big change - and not just a minor adjustment, (c) prepared to start working differently and thinking about yourself as a different kind of person, and (d) willing to start now by preparing yourself to succeed.

Are you ready to get going? ETR has a top-notch program that can help you get started today. Patrick Coffey tells me you can take a look at it with no obligation.
 

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top 10 goals

Listen to my children.
Devotions daily
Licensure in Counseling
Phd in Psychology
Own home with land and Garden
Financially free
Physically fit
Travel 1 time a year
Build support system
Theory to book form
Visit Europe with a friend

Top 4 \
Listen to my children
Licensure in Counseling
Financially free
Physically fit

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How to Raise Metabolism - 4 Practical Conclusions

1. Take regular exercise
This should be aerobic exercise that makes you breathe more heavily. Exercises that build muscle are also useful.

2. Eat Breakfast and Eat Regularly
To benefit from the Thermal Effect of food and ensure that your body burns calories willingly, eat breakfast and then eat regularly throughout the day.

3. Eat a Balanced Diet
This helps to maintain a good supply of nutrients which in turn keeps your metabolism working smoothly. Anne Collins Weight Loss Diet is a good choice.

4. Avoid Pills
For the sake of your health and weight, avoid all supplements that claim to offer fat-burning and weight loss benefits.

Metabolism - The Bottom Line

The only safe and effective way to raise your metabolism is to take more exercise. The harder you work, the faster your metabolic rate.

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“This I did not write, but I respect....

I do not choose to be a common man or woman. It is my right to be uncommon, if I can. I seek opportunity, not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk, to dream and to build, to fail and succeed. I will not trade freedom for beneficence, nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master, nor bend to any bully or terrorist threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid, to think and act for myself, enjoy the benefits of my creations and to face the world boldly, and say, “This I have done.’

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places I must go

Climbing the mountain is hard,
but, standing in the midst of the dry valley,
With miles between me and everyone I look to.
is an experiment in solitude.
The experiment replayed often,
searching, seeking for a hand not given.
And yet, when I stand still there,
and study to be quiet,
a still knowing of His presence,
leads me to know,
there are places I must go alone.
In allowing for this,
I am with Him the more.
And I am glad for that place.
Kandy

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Theory of personal nonsymettrical balance.
 I used to live in Huntsville, Al
this is where the theory starts.
I was sitting at Monte Sano Mountain Park at  a garden house that looks much like a tea room.
In the garden house is an open round window, no pane. That particular day, someone had balanced a tree branch in the round window, concept of assymmetrical or nonsymmetrical balanced began to form in my mind. Tree branches are assymmetrical. They are not equal on each side. And yet this branch was perfectly balanced.
 Move forward in time 10 years, I was watching a sports show, people were snow skiing, this of course requires balance, the amazing  part of the show to me was a fellow who had only one leg, skiing perfectly balanced. boom.... another case of nonsymmetrical balance, or assymetrical balance.
 I remembered the concept at that time about the tree branch. This is the thought I got from this....
 No person is perfect, only Jesus was... Thus each person is a little dysfunctional, or personally nonsymmetrical in their ways. It occurred to me that it is the people who find their balance in the midst of their dysfunction. in their window of their world that find their personal nonsymmetrical balance. And it is those who find their nonsymmetrical balance are the ones who shine.
Each person must find their own unique balance, for each persons dysfunction is different from any other person, and their window of the world, or envirnment is different also.
That is why perfectionist find it so impossible to achieve happiness. They see other people shine, and want to shine too, but so often they try to copy the form and not the spirit of the person. For the perfectionist is trying to balance like another, which won't work, for their dysfunction is unlike any other, as all humans are truly unique, in their qualities and their dysfunction.
  For the perfectionist to shine, they will have to not imitate the form and balance o;f another,. but to find their own balance and whatever form that takes for them , then they will truly shine in their own way.
                                           Hope this helps, Kandy

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"Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content." -- Helen Keller
1. Potential by Ron White

The stage was a Texas Rangers baseball game and as I stared at David Dellucci, the Texas Ranger batter, I muttered 'Potential' as he held the bat over his shoulder waiting for the pitch. No sooner had the word escaped my mouth when my friend leaned over and said,' What did you say?' I replied to her,' I said potential...' Her confused question was, 'Okaaaay? – Potential in regards to what?'

I then explained...'Well, in science they have something called potential energy and it basically says that the higher an object is the more potential energy it has. For example, a rock on top of a building has a potential energy in it – if it were to fall. I was just thinking about the potential energy in the bat of Dellucci and how that relates to me.'

She looked at me intensely somehow sensing that I was telling the truth that these were my thoughts. She proclaimed, 'I never cease to be astounded at the weird things you think about.'

Perhaps it is an odd thought to cross my mind at a baseball game, however, it occurred. Potential energy basically says that the higher an object is the greater the potential energy. A ball on a six story building has more potential energy than one on a three story building. As a matter of fact, the doubling of the height doubles the potential energy.

At the baseball game, when I started thinking about potential energy I was considering it in regards to me – and you for that matter. You see, it has been said that to those who much has been given... much is expected. Based on the fact that you have access to a computer, understand how to read and have a thirst for learning – you have been given much. Or in scientific terms you have tremendous potential energy. You are like that rock on a tall building. However, if you sit there – the potential energy is never utilized or accessed.

One of the greatest tragedies of life is when an individual has tremendous potential energy and squanders it. That is one of my greatest fears. I am constantly faced with the prospect of not using my potential energy. To me that is one of my largest motivating factors. Everyday as I age, I look in the mirror and question if I did everything I could to use my potential energy. Did I do everything I could to figuratively jump off that building and expend the energy?

Pent up inside of you right now is tremendous potential energy that could be utilized to cure cancer, send humans to Mars, write a novel or become President of The United States. The great tragedy is not expending your potential energy and falling short. The great tragedy of life is to be that boulder – to have tremendous potential energy and squander it through inaction.

There you have it. I was thinking about potential at the baseball game. I was thinking about it because I know that humans with nothing more than primitive tools constructed the pyramids, Stone Henge and The Great Wall of China. These are testaments to the human potential. They are testaments to certain individuals thousands of years ago expending their potential energy for the ages to witness and marvel at. The challenge today for you may not be a monument for society or culture; however, it is a call for you to understand potential energy and implore you to seize yours.

-- Ron White

What's your Potential? Are you Ready to have
POTENTIAL

"Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential." -- Sir Winston Churchill

"The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become." -- Charles du Bois

"No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see the possibilities - always see them, for they´re always there." -- Norman Vincent Peale

"Poverty is untested potential." -- Denis Waitley

"The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be released and channeled toward some great good." -- Brian Tracy

"A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." -- William Shedd

"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar." -- Helen Keller

"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

"Human beings have the remarkable ability to turn nothing into something. They can turn weeds into gardens and pennies into fortunes." -- Jim Rohn

"Every man dies. Not every man truly lives." -- Braveheart

"Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don´t have to have a college degree to serve. You don´t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"We know what we are, but know not what we may be." -- William Shakespeare

"Dwell in possibility." -- Emily Dickinson

"The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible." -- Arthur Clarke

"If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astonish ourselves." -- Thomas A. Edison

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