SS 009 Stop Creating Your Valleys

Standing Stronger Podcast Episode Numero 9! That's right, it keeps getting better, baby. What's up? Welcome back to another episode of the Standing Stronger Podcast. My name is Shannon. And I'm Shannon. That's right. We have the same name, baby. What's up? Big Shannon and Little Shannon. That is what they call us. Girl Shannon and boy Shannon. Whatever you want to call us. It really doesn't matter. Just don't call us bad names. We've been called worse. Yeah, my wife, huh, earlier today. She was calling me not good names. That's not true. Yes, I was fibbing. I'm just playing. She was actually happy because we went to the store and we pre-ordered our iPhone 6 Pluses.

I don't usually get excited over that kind of stuff. That's your thing, but I am excited to get it. Yeah, I'm excited too. Oh, I forgot to tell everyone. We are a podcast about stories of inspiration, motivation, and hope. That's right. If you are feeling lonely, depressed, anxiety, panic attacks, suicidal thoughts, this is the podcast for you. We're not doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, but we're nothing. You should listen not to a word we say. Don't listen to anything we say. However, it's just our story. We're here to try to lift your spirits. Yeah, we're excited to be here and share our past stories and what made us stand a little bit stronger. We're excited.

We're excited McKenzie is our live audience today. If you hear the jingles and coos and ca's and laughter, it's our little two-month-old baby. Yep, that's our little darling doing what she does best, and that's make us smile. One day we are going to have video of us starting this podcast, and the theme song comes on and we start dancing, and she's actually like jumping around, or not really jumping, but kicking her legs around on the floor. One day you guys will get to see how we really are when we start every time. When the podcast comes, you just cannot help but to move and shake your bootay whenever that comes on. I mean, it's what we do. It gets us going. Yes, it does.

Yeah, so today we went and got and pre-ordered the iPhone 6 Plus. Yes, I am an Apple fanboy, and I am addicted to electronics. I know. I just couldn't take it anymore. I had to do it. Yeah, I always like the way the conversation starts. Babe, let's just go and see what they have. We're not going to do anything. We're just going to look. We're not going to do it. We always do it that day. I've never, ever believed you when you say that, just so you know. That's right. She's like, okay, whatever. I think I'm getting an iPhone 6 Plus. I'm pretty sure. Yeah, so we did that.

Today we have a pretty exciting episode for you, and we're going to discuss four points, I think, we have on how to do something cool. But first, we're going to talk about a revelation that I had earlier this week. Basically, my wife and I were sitting in bed, and I've been studying the habits of successful people for a long time. I said, you know what, babe? There's certain habits that all successful people do. Like 80% of successful people have certain habits that they have in common. A couple of those habits, number one, they wake up early. Number two, they journal.

It led us into a discussion about how when I was in the military, when I got out of the military, I swore that I would not be disciplined, and I would not wake up early in the morning. Number one is I hated getting up in the morning and doing PT. I just did not like it. Five o'clock every morning, running four miles. I was in the infantry, so what we did was we stayed in shape. That's what we did. I said, you know what? I'm not going to do that. I probably woken up before 6 a.m. maybe 10 times since the time I left the military. Do you think it's more than 10 times? Maybe less than 30. Yeah. I mean, I can remember the conversation when you got out of the military, and you're like, that's it.

No one's going to tell me what to do, when to do it, how to do it. I'm done. I'm not waking up early. I'm not doing it, and you haven't. Yeah, and I set a goal that I will not set a schedule. I will do what I want to do when I want to do it and how I want to do it. I lived a very undisciplined life for the last 15 years. Man, 15 years. No, wait, it's 14 years. 14 years I've been out of the military, and I've led a very, very undisciplined life. Now, I've had my successes, but I've also had my failures. And one thing, I don't want to say I regret it. However, looking back, my decision to not be disciplined and my decision to never wake up early has hindered me.

I do believe that, and it's funny because as you were having this revelation, I'm thinking in my head, thank you. Thank you, God, because we've talked about this over and over again. Yeah, with my first business, my wife always said, because I would just work whenever I felt the need to work. Which was all the time. Yeah, I worked from home, and I just worked when I wanted to work. But like she said, it ended up being all the time. However, my wife would always tell me, make a schedule. Shannon, sit down, make a schedule. By 5, 6 o'clock at night, be done with it, and be organized. Get organized inside of your business. Don't just go after it willy-nilly.

And I would always, to appease her, I'd say, okay, I'll sit down and make a schedule. I would make a schedule for the sake of her, but then I would never do anything with that schedule. So I'd say, hey, babe, look, I made a schedule, and then never actually did anything. Because in my mind, I didn't want a schedule. I don't care about a schedule. I'm going to do what I want when I want. Yeah, that's pretty much the truth. Yeah, that's how I did it, and it did not serve me well. And one of the things that happened in the military, and the military was a trigger for me with all my anxiety and panic attacks and things like that, with the things I struggled with as a child.

So I started giving up on myself while I was in the military. When I got out of the military, I really gave up on myself. And I think that is why I wanted to be so undisciplined, because I didn't want to have the responsibility of actually being responsible for something, if that makes sense. Oh, yeah. I mean... Nope, she's... Mommy's holding McKenzie now, so you can actually hear her now. Yeah, we're going to have to take a commercial break. All right, we're back from our commercial break. And basically what we were saying is I gave up on myself. And that was one of the reasons why I think I put those stipulations on myself. One of the reasons.

So what we're going to talk about today is basically we're going to get into not giving up on yourself. I mean, I gave up on myself without a doubt. I gave up on myself. I achieved a lot. I was able to build a successful business. I was able to live out that dream because I rearranged my life to make that dream a possibility. However, I can only imagine how much more successful I would have been, how much more successful my business would have been if I would have added a little bit of structure to my life. One thing I always say is someone does not get six-pack abs on accident. They intentionally go out there and live the right way. They discipline themselves to make the right decisions.

They wake up in the morning and eat right. They eat throughout the day. They do not snack. They sleep right. They exercise. They get the daily activity in that they need to get in. Now, that doesn't happen on accident. That happens through discipline and schedule. Right now, at one point, I was 280 pounds, almost 300 pounds, severely overweight. That happens because of lack of discipline, not because of discipline. So if there's things that aren't the way you want them to be inside of your life, the great thing is you can change those. However, you have to change them with a little bit of discipline, and the way we do that is first realize why we're giving up on ourself.

So we're going to give you three points, or actually four points, you can use on not giving up on yourself and moving forward. I just want to make a quick point on that because I don't think when you were going through it, even anyone is going through things, that they realize they're actually giving up on themselves. No, they don't. You're right. It's not something you wake up and you're like, well, I just gave up on myself again today. Maybe I won't do it tomorrow. I don't think it's that conscious. What's the word? Conscious decisions. Right.

It's something that you can look back on and say, man, I really gave up on myself there for that period of time, and once you start living a different way, it's easier to see. But there's people that might be listening right now that haven't realized they've given up on themselves. Right. That's like, I didn't give up on myself. I get up every day. I you know but what are you doing during the day? What are you know these are points we're going to talk about that you might realize wow I'm that person and I need to reevaluate. Right just because you get up and you have a routine doesn't mean that you don't that you have a successful routine. We all have routines.

Before I decided to make a routine on getting up early my routine was to get up late and then sit in bed for a while while I looked at my uh my iPad then get up and and fiddle around on the computer and do work when I felt like doing work. You know that was my routine and you know some mornings I would brush my teeth when I first woke up some mornings I wouldn't brush my teeth till three o'clock in the afternoon. Yeah just depending on what you were doing that day. Right there was no there was no defined routine however my routine was uncertainty and a lot of people they live in mediocrity without knowing they're living in mediocrity because they they get stuck in that mundane routine.

Right they get up they go to work they come home they make dinner they watch their shows they go to bed they get up they go to work they come home they make dinner they watch their shows they go to bed and every single day it's the same thing it's just this mundane routine that doesn't move you any closer to your goals in life. Right. It simply you know allows you to be stuck where you are in life and then 30 years goes by and you realize wow I'm still where I was 15 years ago. So tell me Shannon how do you not give up on yourself? Well I'm glad you asked.

First we need to make a conscious decision to believe in yourself however in order to do that you need to first ask yourself the question what makes myself not believe in myself I guess you could say. Yeah I mean I think there's a lot of factors depending on who you are where you come from you know your background your work you know environment in your environment period.

Right we don't wake up in the morning and say oh I don't believe in myself from day one what happens is you have a series of circumstances a series of events a series of decisions that take you down a route or a route or a path depending on where you're at in the United States or any other country that gets you to that place. So for me it was a path of something happening to me when I was a kid which then related into anger anxiety and panic in as I grew up and rage was another big one I was very angry which led me to make decisions of leaving things I love like basketball like the military like you know I then formed a habit of quitting because it was the easiest thing to do.

So over those series of circumstances I went from the leader to the I don't want to say loser but I mean man I was in a bad situation and even when I was in a bad situation people still looked at me for my leadership because that's you know inherently who I am is I'm a leader inherently however inside of myself I was no longer that person so if I got in a situation where people started looking up to me I would self-sabotage I would intentionally get myself out of that situation because it was too much.

Yeah I definitely you know there's a cycle we talk about the cycles all the time on here that you go through and the patterns and you know right now I think about it as we're talking and I've made the joke that we'd have to quit calling Mackenzie pretty girl because she's going to start thinking that's her name because every time I see her in the morning and the first thing I say to her is hi pretty girl you know and I constantly all day pretty girl what are you doing pretty girl you know and you know my friends laughing like you sound like a bird you know but she's gonna think she's pretty until somebody tells her she's not right you know and that day is gonna come because there's there's evil in the world there's people that will tear you down you know and there's people that are listening right now that maybe have gone through that they've been told you're not pretty enough you're not smart enough you're not good enough right you know and you never will be you know these people have tried to make your environment of what they've probably thought of themselves and now laid upon you and they're you know that burden for you to carry because they weren't happy that's right it doesn't happen overnight but if someone consistently tells you like Shannon says you're not good enough you're not tall enough you're not good-looking enough eventually you start believing those lies well I can't do it and it's not that you think oh I can't do it because they said I couldn't do it however your subconscious starts to believe it because it's just grained into you each and every day you're not good enough you're not good enough you're not good enough you're not good enough one day you wake up and subconsciously your subconscious says well I guess I'm not good enough yeah you know and I know we're using children as examples but and that's our immediate environment right now but we see it in our in our son he's eight years old and what did he say today you know he came home with a C on his science paper and now anybody that knows him our son that he's very intelligent you know and what did he say his reason for getting the C was I forget because he wasn't good enough yeah I'm not good I'm not good at science and you know as I grabbed the science paper and I started looking someone has told him either he wasn't good at science or he's learned that I can use the excuse and get away with it right you know somewhere which he didn't get away with it wasn't in this house because you know immediately looking at the paper I'm going okay well what were the directions on this question oh I was supposed to do this and do this I only did one part of it okay well that was look in the microscope and draw what you see and then label right what you see he looked in the microscope yeah drew it but then did not label it so there was one question he missed then she looks down further on the paper and what do you see they just didn't answer it yeah just didn't he just skipped over one answer so he missed three questions which brought his grade down to a C however out of two out of the three that he missed was simply because he didn't pay attention so the result of that was not that he was not good enough right and we had to explain that to him and hopefully you know you're hearing that right now and realizing so what someone has told you you weren't good enough has there ever been anyone to empower you to believe that you were good enough you know we had to make him realize in that car we're not upset that you got the C if the C was the best that you could have done then that's fine but we just went over and know that that isn't the best that you could do if you would have answered the other two questions the way they were supposed to be answered you would have had an A so you are an A person you are an A student you know well all the other kids I don't care about you know I sound like my mom at that point you know how many people go back and I don't care what the other kids are doing I don't care what the everyone else jumped off a bridge would you jump off a bridge too you know but even as adults we need to be reminded that you know what are you the A student yes you are you know are you that A worker are you that A of course you are but somewhere you've let someone devalue you and then you got to get that back and then you quit paying attention and then you just glossed over it you gloss over your day each and every day just like my son glossed over that that that work that's what ends up happening to you is you just gloss over the day and at the end of the day you say up you know that was that was my best effort and it wasn't however that's what you're used to that's what you've become accustomed to that's what's comfortable for you so we're trying to change that make it a little uncomfortable for you put a little squeeze on you make you realize hey you know what maybe maybe this isn't the best life maybe I can make it better maybe maybe if I choose to change I can make some changes and that's that's what we're trying to do here so number one you need to believe in yourself we talked a little bit about why you don't believe in yourself and it's not that that you woke up one day and said you don't believe in yourself it's just been a pattern over time you began to believe that now you don't wake up in the morning say I don't believe myself you wake up in the morning and just do life instead of going out there and making the greatest life possible so number two now that now that we have all of this negativity in our life we start to talk to ourselves negatively as well we bring in that negative self self-talk babe do not kick the microphone again we're just normal people in normal situations we are not cutting that out so you got to get rid of the negative self-talk when when you're a kid I remember well shoot even with my son you ask him what do I what do you want to be when you grow up I want to be a professional baseball player okay so right now he still believes in himself he doesn't think I want to be a professional he's never played baseball yeah never ever not once has not played in a baseball league at all but he is going to be a professional baseball player right now that isn't immediately followed up in his mind with oh well I can't do it because I've never done it before I can't do this that negative self-talk isn't there yet because it's not ingrained into him and that's what society does is ingrains that that negative self-talk so what happens is we end up talking negatively to ourselves so throughout the day something happens and you're like oh well I can't believe I messed up man I'm such I'm such a loser like I did just earlier you know I said I went from a leader to a loser.

I don't want to say I'm a loser because I know that is negative. I know that I'm not a loser. So I have to take that negative. And what I do is I do a switcheroo on everything because my initial reaction is horrible on everything is go to the worst possible solution. Would you agree with that, babe? Yes. I mean, it's bad. So I have to make a conscious effort when a negative pops into my brain to switch it and throw it out and use a positive because they say it takes up to seven positives to negate that negative that you just put into your mind. So when something I'm trying to think of an example I could use that's not crazy.

I guess in terms of I mean, I'll just say that with McKenzie, though. I hate this story. However, I'm going to tell the story. With McKenzie, when my wife found out she was pregnant, I was happy. And then the next day I was terrified. And the reason I was terrified is because I think like this. What happened to me was I was abused when I was a child sexually. So in my mind, I think like this. Jordan, I have to protect him. I have to protect him. I have to protect him. However, he's going to get older. And once he hits a certain age, once he gets a certain size, he's going to be able to protect himself. And I don't have to worry that much anymore. Oh, my gosh, now I'm having a little girl.

And guess what? She's never really truly going to be able to protect herself from the type of attack that I went through. And I'd never want her to go through that. And so immediately my mind goes to that worst case scenario. And I have to catch it. And I have to say, you know what, you know, take take the negative out of your mind. Because, you know, you don't I don't want to attract that into our lives. I don't want to claim that into our lives. So I take it and I look at the positives. You know, my beautiful baby girl. I mean, I look at her now and she's just so beautiful and amazing. And I take that negative and I take it out of my mind and replace it with positives.

Now, that's an extreme case. And for me, I'm an extreme person. I go to the extremes. However, it's as simple as, well, here's another example. I struggle with ADD a lot. And I beat myself up when I go to the store and I have to call my wife because I've totally forgotten what I went to the store for. You know, or I'm driving down the road and I know we're going home, but I drive right past our street because my mind is. And then all of a sudden that negative comes in. Oh, Shane, you're so stupid. You're such an idiot. Right. You know, you're such a loser. You know, those things come into my mind and I got to I got to take it out and say, you know what, you're you're amazing.

You're created in the image of God. You're here to do great things and you are going to do great things. You have to choose to do great things. And these negative thoughts are not going to get you where you need to go. Yeah. You know, and when we were talking about our show notes and things, I just jotted down. But, you know, I wonder why our makeup is, you know, to believe all of the negative things that are said to us. Why is it so hard to believe the positive things that are said to us? Yeah. You know, why is it that my husband can tell me every day and he does that? You're so beautiful. I'm so lucky and so blessed to have you as my wife. Do I believe it?

Well, I mean, I know he's blessed to have me. But, you know, that beautiful comes through and it's like, oh, yeah, yeah. You know, why don't I believe him? You know, why is it so hard to believe that I'm beautiful? You know, I find that hard to grasp of why we can't take on the positive things that are said about us. I mean, I have wonderful people in my life that have said wonderful things about me. You know, they love me dearly and, you know, things, whether it was at work or at home or, you know, wherever. And they've said beautiful things about me that, you know, I just cherish in my heart. But why don't I see what they see? Why can't I believe what they're saying to me?

Is the truth about me? Why do I believe the negativity? Why do I believe that I'm ugly? Why do I believe that I'm not skinny enough? Why do I believe that, you know, whatever it is I'm struggling with that day, why do I believe that over the positives? Right. And let's just correct something. I do not tell my wife every day that she's beautiful. I tell her that she's smoking hot, baby. What's up? I do. I said, dear baby Jesus, thank you for my smoking hot wife. That is my morning prayer. And I believe it. But she's right. She does struggle with that. So we need to take those negatives out of our mind.

And when I say take them out of our mind, I don't mean you're never going to think a negative thought because even the most positive out there, Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, Anthony Robbins, negative comes into their mind. However, they're good at taking that negative, pushing it out and replacing it with a positive. So that's what you have to work on. When that negative comes in your mind, realize the negative is there. Push it out. Focus on the positive. And as you get better and better at this, you'll realize more and more that the negative thoughts aren't as frequent as they used to be. Right.

And that self-loathing, I can remember when you were battling with the depression so bad and the things that you would say about yourself, you know, it finally got to the point where I had to say, you know, do you want me to believe that about you? Is that why you say it all the time? Like you want me to think that about you? You know, think about that. What you're putting out there, is that really how you want people to see you? Do you want people to look at you and say, oh, here comes Shannon. Great. I don't even want to know what's wrong with him today. What you think about the most becomes your reality. Yeah. I mean, and I've talked about this before.

I mean, I've worked with people, you know, and you see them come in and you go, oh, Lord, I got to turn the other way. You know, I have patients that come in our office and I know, oh, boy, I'm in Target and got to turn the cart the other way because I just, you can't handle it, you know, and that person doesn't even realize what they're putting out there about themselves. So if you don't love yourself, if you don't feel good about yourself, you know, how do you expect other people to feel and think about you? Exactly right. All right, let's go to our next point, which is affirmations.

Now, an affirmation, if you've never heard of an affirmation, but that's basically a self-talk and it's ingraining, instead of ingraining the negative into your subconscious mind, it's ingraining the positive into your subconscious mind. And one of my self-talks is what I do in the mornings. One of the reasons I do the Daily Joel, it is you are great. You are built for greatness. You're built in the image of God. You're here to do great things. Now it's up to you to go and do great things. Let's go. And that's one of my affirmations and I say it to myself over and over and over again. I say it every day when I'm talking to you guys on the Standing Stronger Daily Podcast.

And that's one of the reasons that I do it is because I need it. And I also look in the mirror and tell myself, you are an amazing person. You are awesome. You're a God-fearing great leader and you're here to do amazing things. So go out there and do them. And you know what? I'm starting to believe it. Yeah, I can remember when you first did affirmations. Jeez, I don't know, when we first got married, would you say? Yeah. Around that time. We've been married almost 12 years, but you know, I was like, are you kidding me right now? If I see another Post-it, if I see another index card or something else written somewhere about how great he is, you know, but it works. It really does work.

And I know for me, I was doing it a while and I really need to get back to doing it is writing scripture, you know, and what God says about me and who I am, you know, that really helped me, you know, with the, again, you know, knowing that I'm beautiful and what I'm created for and, you know, how he sees me, you know, that's important. And when I was in my deepest depression, when I was in that spiral of getting ready to be at the point where I attempted suicide, I was not doing affirmations. My day was consumed in self-loathing and negativity. You know, that's all I thought about. And I guess what, just like I said a second ago, I started to believe it.

My life was consumed with my thoughts. My thoughts were negative. Therefore, my life was negative. And now I make a conscious, conscious effort to consume my life with positivity. Therefore, my life is more positive now than it's ever been need to fix the problem. And if you've gone through life and never had a valley, oh man, hold on, because the big one's coming. You are going to go in the valley. You are about to hit a ride, you know, of your life. Well, and a lot of people don't realize that they are in the valley. They've never seen the mountaintop. Right. And we're going to take you to the mountaintop so you see what that mountaintop looks like.

And we're not going to say, we're not saying, and I can guarantee this, even Shannon and I are not going to stay on the mountaintop. There will be another valley in our future. However, it is up to us to make sure that when we start sliding that we're able to catch ourselves. Instead of hitting rock bottom, we catch ourselves halfway down the mountain. You know, we dig in. We say, OK, we're sliding. That's all right. Boom, we're going to stop this slide. And we're going to start moving our way back up to the top. You know, we might slide down a little bit more, and then we're going to just move our way to the top.

You know, we might hit a loose rock, stumble and fall backwards, but we're going to keep on moving to the top. We're going to get to the top. We're going to say, yes, we're here. And then we're going to see a higher peak. We're going to say, well, let's go there next. And then we're going to start moving up to that higher peak. And we're going to slip and slide a little bit. We're going to move up to the higher peak. We're going to slip and slide, and then we're going to get to the top. And then everything might come crashing down, and we'll go down two peaks. But then we're going to see that third peak that we never made it to, and we're going to start moving back up.

And we're going to keep going. We're going to get to that third peak. It doesn't matter when you get to the top of the peak, when you reach the goal that you're trying to reach. When you get to the point in life where you want to be, there's always going to be a next level. And it's up to us to realize that now we're here. We need to go to that next level. Yeah, and I think it's important to know that you don't need to create the valley. You know, don't create the valley. Write that down, people. Write that down. You know, the valley is the natural things in life that's going to happen. But don't create it. You know, don't put yourself there. Oh, man. I just got excited.

I did something good. Oh, man. All right. We will be right back. Shannon is excited. Let's take a break. You're crazy. I'm just playing. Man, that's good. Keep going. That's all the wisdom I have for today. That's what we're going to label this podcast. Stop creating your valleys. Oh, that was a good one. Because the valley I was in when I was in my deepest depression was a self-created valley because of the negativity in my life. Oh, good one, babe. Write that down. Okay, move on. We can't because I'm still enamored. When something is profound, I will tell you. You'll know.

Wait, Zig Ziglar in his talks, he says, when I say something profound, you will know because I will tell you it is profound. That, my friends, was profound. Yeah, and I think, honestly, I mean, when you're going through something, you need to ask yourself, did I create this valley? Because if you created it, you can come out of it real quick. Bam, just like that. Once you realize whether you've put yourself in that valley or this is just another life turning point, and again, those are going to happen. But if you can, I always self-evaluate. How did I get here? Is this something I have control over? And if it is, then move forward. Don't stay in that spot. Good job, babe.

My work is done today. Oh, guess what, people? I am married to her. You're jealous. I know you are. All right, moving on. Next, we're going to go, this is our last point because we're hitting our time limit here, is continuing education. So many times, man, even people with master's degrees, they get through their schooling, their however many years that is. It's a lot. And then they never pick up another book or learn again. They say, I got my degree. I'm good. And they never continue their education. When I say continuing education, I'm not talking about going to college or university for classes. What I'm talking about is like Zig Ziglar calls it windshield university.

When I'm in my car, how often do I listen to the radio? Oh, it used to drive me crazy. Never. Yeah. Unless I'm with Shannon, we do not listen to music. I love music. When I'm by myself, I do not listen to music. I listen to podcasts. I listen to audio books. I listen to motivational speech. I learn something I want to learn. That is what I'm listening to because I want to continue my education. Now, I can fill my head with the lyrics of Bon Jovi. He's not even relevant anymore. Who's Bon Jovi? Bon Jovi. I think the people that are listening to our podcast know who Bon Jovi are. I can fill my head. I think the people that are listening to our podcast know who Bon Jovi are.

I can fill my head with the lyrics of Shakira. She's not even relevant. Man, who's relevant now? Justin Timberlake. Is he relevant? Kind of. Oh, man. Pharrell. Pharrell. There we go. Well, that's a good one. Rihanna. I'm happy. I don't know. I can fill my head with Rihanna lyrics, or I can fill my head with positivity. People say to me all the time, they're like, oh my goodness, how do you have so many quotes in your head? I'll be talking, and I just start spitting out quotes that people say.

It's because I've intentionally gone out there and learned and memorized quotes of famous people because what they said, like Zig Ziglar says, when I say something profound, you'll know because I will tell you that is profound. And there's little bits of information out there that you can take in. And instead of filling it with the Grey's, what is it, Story of Grey? What is that woman's novel? Not Grey's Anatomy. Fifty Shades of Grey. Yeah, Fifty Shades of Grey. That woman's novel. That woman's novel. You know, that one. That women be reading. Yeah, talks about that fornicating and stuff.

Instead of filling your mind with that kind of stuff, start filling your mind with the wisdom of the Jim Rohns in the world, the wisdom of the Zig Ziglars, the wisdom of the Barefoot Executive that we just had on the podcast, Keri Wilkerson. The wisdom of these people that have gone through it. Now, the fastest way to get to the top is learn from those that are already there. And, you know, we're going to make our mistakes as we go. However, why don't we limit those mistakes by learning from our mentors? Yeah. You know, you'll constantly hear us talk about Zig Ziglar. He was just an amazing motivator. And that was the first person I... Influence in our life. Yeah.

That was the first person that you ever had me listen to. And I like Jim Rohn. And I just met Keri in our last interview. And boy, she already had an impact on me. So, again, that positive reinforcement you need. Now, I remember getting in the car and you would listen to talk radio and it could be... You know, it could just be left on that station and then somebody else was on and they're talking about worldly news and this and that and politics. And it would drive me bonkers because immediately I would go negative. I'm like, you can't... I can't do this. You're saying I can't listen to... I need to listen to people. And, you know, I get all of that.

But you have to listen to the positive people. You know, I mean, if you can't listen to it with your child in the car, you probably shouldn't listen to it. Right. You know, really. Yeah, that's true. And another good thing is podcasts. Now you can actually choose the education you get. There's thousands upon thousands of podcasts out there that you can choose to listen to. Now, instead, when you get in the car, instead of listening to Bon Jovi, listen to... On your eight track. Yeah, on your cassette player. Listen to the Standing Stronger podcast. Guess what? Now your day is not consumed with that negativity. It's consumed with our version of positivity.

So continuing education is important. I think if, you know, you apply all these four points. Again, we didn't overload you today. We're just helping you evaluate yourself. Self-evaluation is very important. So you want to recap. Yeah. So basically what we want to do is to not give up on ourselves. Number one, we have to believe in ourselves. In order to believe in ourselves, we have to realize that we might have that doubt inside of us. So what makes us not believe in ourselves? We're going to evaluate and look and say, okay, have I been in a situation where I'm not believing in myself? We got to evaluate that to see it.

Number two, we need to take the negative self-talk out of our lives and replace it with the positive self-talk. Now, like I said, you're not going some good affirmations about yourself. Zig Ziglar has a great course on affirmations as well. Go to zigzaglar.com and you can find it there. Anthony Robbins also has a great course, Unleashing the Giant Within, talks a lot about affirmations. And he talks about saying your affirmations while you're exercising, so you're moving. I am great. I am amazing. Money flows to me easily and effortlessly. All these affirmations while you're moving it drives it in. Number four is the continuing education, reading, podcasts, audio books. Never stop learning.

Always continue to learn. I just want to add on that last point, just in my notes, people use the excuse, because we've done it, use the excuse, well, I don't have time to read. I don't have time to listen to a podcast. Okay, well, you drive in your car. You have time to listen to a podcast. Think about the TV shows that you watch. Even if you take those 30 minutes for a show and cut one out and read for that 30 minutes, something can always be replaced in your life.

So again, that self-evaluation of your time and journaling, you started journaling and actually whatever you did that day, it might not seem that great or important at the time, but you can always go back and look again, self-evaluate, what did I do this week? What did I do that I can do better next week? And you start to grow and you start to see that growth. And then you start to see patterns of, well, here in my journal, I see this pattern of negativity reoccurring. Why is this negativity here? And you can take it, you can readjust, and you can move forward. So that's another good point. It's funny because when I was in high school, or in school, how many books did I read? None.

I read them for you. Yes. When I had a book report due, my wife did them for me. She wasn't my wife then. We've been together since she was 13 and I was 14, so long time. But however, after... We weren't married in ninth grade. Yeah, we were not married in ninth grade. However, after I got out of high school, how many books do you think I've read? 150, 200? Bookshelf's full. I have no idea. Yeah, hundreds of books. And it's because I wanted to better myself. So if you want to better yourself the best way, readers are leaders. I didn't come up with that. I don't know who said it. However, lots of people say it. Readers are leaders. And if you want to be great, you need to read.

It was once said that President Kennedy would read six newspapers every morning. However, he was a great speed reader as well. He could read like 800 words per minute. However, he was able to take in all that information. So the more information you take in, just the more wise you become. So always keep that in mind. So those are our points today. That is our podcast. Listen, as always, I believe in you. That's right. You are an amazing person. You're great. You're built in the image of greatness. Therefore, you're going to do great things. You, my friend, have to go out there and do it. Now, before we get into our ending prayer, I just want to thank our sponsors.

And our sponsors are you guys. That's right. We are sponsored by the listener. So if you feel that this show is worthy of your support, go to standingstronger.com forward slash support. That will take you to our Patreon page. And the Patreon page is where you can support us. Anywhere from $3 all the way up to $100. Wherever you choose, anything helps us get to the next level with this podcast. Now, the cool thing about Patreon, we have some cool perks. So, for instance, you do the $25 a month, you get some really nice perks plus a T-shirt, a Standing Stronger T-shirt. Now, another thing I want to mention is we have a contest going.

If you go to standingstronger.com forward slash contest, we want you to rate, subscribe, and review the podcast. Then if you do those three things, we're going to put your name in a hat. After the contest is over, and I think it's about 52 days now, we are going to pull five names out of that hat. And then we're going to announce them here on the podcast. Those five names come, we're going to send you a free T-shirt. So, go to do that as well. I guess anything else you want to add before we close out? No, I just want to reiterate, you know, believe in yourself. You know, that's the most important thing is what you think of yourself. And don't create that valley. All right.

So, we're going to end how we always end. And we're about to offend the people that don't believe in God. So, if you don't believe in God, stick around. We've got something good for you. So, we're going to end in prayer. Dear Lord, we just thank you for this day and all the blessings you have given us. Please continue to allow Shannon and I to do this podcast. Please, you know, if there's anyone out there that wants to support the podcast, let them know that it's okay to support us and do that. Number two, we want to ask you if there's anyone out there that's struggling, that needs you in their life, that they seek you. You know, you've never left their side. However, they do not know that.

We just pray that they see your presence, that they know that you're there with your arms wrapped around them, that they are not alone. They may not have any family. They may not have any friends, but they always have you. We love you, Lord. We thank you for all the blessings you've given us. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. Thank you, guys. Have a fantastic day. And as always, hopefully I'll see you on the beaches of the world. Theme song! Walk through life. Every day is a new beginning. Shine your light. It's your day and the world is waiting. Move along to the song singing in your soul. Feel the beat, clap your hands, let it take control.

All you need, all you want, are you ready to find your way? Oh, oh, oh, oh. Because every day is a new day. Oh, oh, oh, oh. And everything's going your way. Oh, oh, oh, oh. And you want to make it last forever. We'll keep it together because it keeps getting better.