Here though… I want to talk about the beliefs that are deep rooted… the ones that pop up and surprise us. Even myself, I was brought up in a primarily Christian home, and I still have a lot of Christian beliefs, (and I have to emphasize and specify that I have a lot of limiting Christian beliefs) that still pop up every now and then. I’m not saying that Christianity is a limiting religion. We’ll leave that for a whole other discussion.

But there are a lot of interpretations of various aspects of the Christian religion that I do feel can limit a person. I know that I can say it has limited me. As I said, a lot of these beliefs will resurface every now and then, and I have to catch myself and say, “Oh my gosh, that’s not what I want to create for myself. Yes, I was taught that when I was younger. But wow, that is not what I want to create for myself. I want to create ____.” And I shift my focus to that.
Again, this is someone who’s done 20 years of this type of work, not only on myself, but I’ve been teaching others as well. I still have belief systems that are just latent, that just come blasting out every now and then. It just kind of throws me for a loop.

It is these latent beliefs that we have to catch on change. Catching it once is not going to be enough. This is a process that we have to work on a daily basis, putting the positive influence there. Realizing that our old way of thinking can still creep in and throw off all of the good, new, positive work we have been doing on ourselves.

Anyway, I just want you to walk away from reading this post and not be discouraged, and not be frustrated, but actually be encouraged to know that you can make any shift you want. You can make any change and shift your paradigm to anything you want. The thing that I want to put out here as a suggestion, as a recommendation of making this process easier for you, is to not expect it overnight. Be kind to yourself. Give yourself grace and recognize that just because you watched the secret last week or last month or even last year doesn’t mean that you’re going to be a millionaire this year. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to have all of these things just showing up.

Now things will start happening quickly because there may be some areas that you were able to shift very, very quickly. But in those other areas that may be a little more deeply-rooted than others, give yourself grace. Be kind to yourself and love yourself. Give yourself the time that you may need to shift from one place to another. This will benefit you on so many levels.

I’m just left Philly, doing a business mastermind session and I was told on a couple of occasions that, I was acting “uncharacteristically aggressive”.

One person even went as far as saying, “If I didn’t know any better, I wouldn’t know you weren’t from Philly.

Hmm…uncharacteristically aggressive… in other words: “mean”.

That was funny to me…because a few days prior, I was caught saying, “The people here are really mean…even wen they’re being nice to each other, they’re being mean.”

I said this as a result of an incident I had in Philly:

I was in a car where the driver was letting a person cross the street…the driver told the guy to cross, then the guy told the driver to go…eventually, they got into a shouting match about who should pass first. Geez

The very same day, I was in a funeral procession and the person in the car with me nearly got into a fist fight with another driver because they almost cut us off (reminder: this was during a funeral)

Of course “people in Philly” aren’t mean… that was just my limited perception at the time.

However, it made me think about a conversation I had a few weeks ago about how people from the North East (New York, Jersey, Philly, etc) seem to be more “aggressive” that people in the South.

Disclaimer: If you’re from the NE, please don’t get mad at me…because the conversation was actually started by a guy from NY who said, “Why are people in Georgia so nice? It’s really weird, and freaking me out.” Go figure, “nice” freaks someone out.

So, in the conversation we were talking about what factors impact the makeup of a city, a community and ultimately the individual. We talked about the weather, the politics, the income per capita, etc. Even one woman talked about the energy of the Earth in those areas.

Whatever the reason, the one common theme is that people allow themselves to be influenced. (going back to my favorite word – choice).

They’re choosing to be influenced.

This is one of the reasons why most smokers’ children are smokers; abusers’ children are abusers, etc.

No one HAS to act like their parents, no one HAS to behave like their neighbors… it’s a choice.

Though sometimes we have to adjust ourselves to ‘fit into’ situations…meaning: you probably don’t talk to your friends like you talk to your mother …and vice-versa… we can still choose to be who we are.

After recognizing how ‘aggressive’ I was being, I chose not to continue acting that way because it wasn’t serving me.

Practical Application

Take some time to identify what areas you’re allowing your environment to influence you.

Ask yourself why you’re doing it. Is this how you “really” want to act? Is this getting you closer to your life goals?

CHOOSE to be YOU…not your parents or neighbors

About 2 years ago, a guy heard the audio and was impressed with the information I provided on the audio. He Google’d me, found one my websites, then bought one of my products.

Just 1 month ago he ended up attending the event I did in Ohio… and now he’s a $2,000 coaching client.

The intention I had for creating the audio was to help others and show myself as knowledgeable in the area of the audio program but the situation didn’t turn out that way at that time.

However, YEARS later it’s turned into a much better opportunity for me AND a cool story to add to my next book.

Practical Application

Focus on keeping your intentions ‘pure’ and don’t allow temporary setbacks to get you off track. The universe knows what it’s doing — every time. Sometimes timing isn’t what we think it should be but everything ALWAYS happens when it should and as it should.

I played basketball with a friend of mine yesterday and I was amazed at how quickly I got tired running up and down the court. It’s totally different than running on a treadmill…

I don’t remember it being like this 20 years ago… but I wasn’t 33 years old, 20 years ago either

I have a different respect for basketball players…now.

Anyway, I’m getting back into my workout routine now.

A few years ago, I spent on average about 2 -3 hours a day in the gym. I was taking classes, hitting all the funky exercise machines, free weights, you name it. You would have thought that I was one of those ‘gym rats’…or more eloquently said, “fitness buffs” …but I wasn’t.

I really didn’t like it all that much…I got SOME enjoyment out of it because it became a social outlet for me and I was definitely pleased with the results I was getting,

So, in other words I didn’t HATE it, but I didn’t LOVE it either.

But because I work on the computer all day, I knew I needed to get some regular exercise, so I started going.

I didn’t like it.

I’d go for 2 or 3 days, get frustrated, then quit.

Get motivated again, go for 2-3 days, then quit.

This went on for several weeks, then I realized that I need to create some accountability to keep me there. So I got a personal trainer…. ha, ha, ha.

Well the trainer created the accountability I needed, but he made me dislike the gym more than I already did. He was pushing too hard (in my opinion).

I wasn’t interested in becoming the Hulk, I just wanted to get ‘fit’ and stay in shape…but he was piling on all the weights, yelling at me and making me do push-ups and laps when I didn’t want to be there in the first place.

So I fired him and tried it on my own again.

Same thing.

I’d go for a few days and quit.

So I went to a second trainer. Told him very clearly and directly that I don’t like coming to the gym and if it it wasn’t fun for me, I wouldn’t go. I told him I wasn’t interested in heavy weights and ‘hard’ workouts.

He started out a little better than the first guy, but after 2 weeks, he reverted to the ‘feel the burn’ mode…so I fired him as well.

So how did I get to the point of going to the gym 2-3 hours per day? Well, it took me 6 months to get to there. And here’s what I did:

I started where I was at the time.

I went to the gym, got on the treadmill – for 3 minutes and went home…I didn’t even break a sweat.

The next day, I went to the gym, got on the treadmill – for 3 minutes and went home.

The next day, the same.

I did that for about a week. on the 5th day, I increased my time to 5 minutes.

About a week later I was up to 10 minutes.

But here’s the cool thing. After 2 weeks I’d gone to the gym EVERYDAY consistently.

After about 3 1/2 weeks, I was totally SHOCKED by what happened. I’d gone to the gym as usual and got on the treadmill. By this time, I’d gotten an ipod and was listening to programs during my workout. Well, to my surprise, I finished listening to a program and looked at the treadmill to find that I’d been on it for 45 mins!!!

I shouted out Whoo-hoo!! Everyone thought I was nuts, but I was excited about that. I mean, this was only after being in the gym for 3 1/2 weeks!

So from there, I started using some of the other equipment in the gym and I took the same approach. I started out with 5 reps then stopped.

The next time I went, I’d do 5 reps and stopped.

I did the same build up until I was doing 3 reps of 15 on the different muscle groups.

After about 6 months, I was looking great, feeling great and semi-enjoying the gym.

What’s the lesson here?

Start where you are…

Whether it’s working out, business, relationships, etc. Start where you are and build on that.

So many times, we try to ‘get it all now’ and overwhelm ourselves, then we quit.

Trying to go to the gym and ‘doing what everyone else was doing’ was a BIG mistake for me. I was comparing my fitness level to that of people who’d been in the gym for months or years…

Additionally, I had no ridiculous expectations for myself either. I wasn’t trying to lose 50 pounds in 30 days…my life wasn’t in jeopardy. I just wanted to get ‘fit’

So where it took me 4-6 months to start seeing results, It may have taken someone else 2 months, but who cares? I’m not in a business where my physical make-up determines my salary and I wasn’t trying to impress anyone either…

And comparatively speaking, I was much better off than the people who tried to ‘hit it hard’ and quit forever.

Practical Application
Don’t try to ‘do it all’ right now…you can’t do that anyway, so why try?

Start where you are and pace yourself…especially in things you really don’t truly enjoy….there’s no rush. The world isn’t going to end because you didn’t do that extra set of squats

Take Care

~ Antonio ~