Kansas City Chiefs, Defensive End Jared Allen posed an interesting question recently.

Imagine if someone walked up to you and said, “I’m going to give you more money than you ever dreamed of, absolute freedom in how you spend it, and oodles of time in which to do it.”

Life-long fantasy or a nightmare waiting to happen? It depends. Allen stated that’s what happened when he was drafted. It was an incredible opportunity, however, an individual’s ability to cope with such tremendous freedom can mean the difference between soaring high, or “crashing and burning” so to speak.

If you’ve followed sports for any length of time, you’re aware this is not an uncommon situation. If you take the following into consideration:

• Youth with access to new and unlimited financial resources
• Operating from unstable fiscal preparation
• Unrestrained totally, many for the first time
• Lacking in family values
• Lacking in family support
• No sense of personal accountability
• Surrounded with “fake” people and concern as long as there’s money

There you have it, a future recipe for disaster. Many elderly people used to say, “If you lay down with dogs you’ll get up with fleas.” I prefer to think of it the way some motivational speakers say it. “Who you run with says who you are.”

In any endeavor, it’s important to surround yourself with people who really have your best interest at heart. Who was there before the fame and fortune?

Everyone stumbles, that’s just life. Having people there to help direct and guide you on the process of getting up again, well, that’s just priceless.

Sally Field, the actress when receiving an award said,”You like me. You really, really like me”, or something similar to the audience. We can truly be our own worst critics, beating ourselves up over:

• Things that happened years ago
• Decisions we made
• Hurtful intentions
• Things we had no control over
• Life’s disappointments
• Missed opportunities

The list of “coulda, woulda, shoulda’s” can stretch for miles if we remain in this negative cycle of thought.

Instead, here are a few tips to get yourself up and moving.

• Honestly evaluate yourself and your life. Are you living up to your potential or settling for falling crumbs?
• Look for potential personality glitches that might be responsible for undesirable results you’re getting
• Check your “Chesire Cat” factor. In other words, are you a constant frowner-downer?
• “Straighten up and fly right” or reduce any tendencies to slouch
• Little words can create big problems if they’re never positive and uplifting.
• Do others scatter at the mention of your name, or hints of your approaching? You’ll have to find out why and change that perception with a newer more positive disposition.
• Is your state of dress a mess? Would you be interested in meeting you?
• Being self-centered and inflexible will keep you lonely. Learn to bend sometimes.
• Are you listening? Where are you really in a conversation? Stay present.
• If all the other person hears in a conversation is “I”, then one of you isn’t necessary.

Others can tell if you’re genuine or not so an honest look at your personality will go a long way. Are you making others around you feel important and that you care? When you show others that you are interested in them as people, that you value their thoughts and opinions, you will become an irresistible magnetic personality.

“Don’t just sit there, do something to improve yourself and your life today!”

“I Give Thanks That Every Day In Every Way I Am Growing Richer And Richer. Let There Be Peace Within My Walls And Prosperity Within My Palaces.”

~Catherine Ponder (Psalms 122:7)

Part of the great American dream is to have more leisure time and less of the drudgery that often comes from making a living. Funny, but it seems you have to work even harder than before just to process all the information telling you how to achieve that type of lifestyle.

There is so much “chatter” filling our email boxes, coming from online mavericks and maidens, the television, the newspapers, uploaded videos, downloaded content… how do you even begin to separate what’s real?

Another challenge is that once your mind can take all this information in, how do you find the time to process it, not to mention act on what you’ve learned?

It’s possible to work yourself into a frenzy like a mouse on a wheel trying to cover all your bases and get things done. What I find happens to me is that the more I work to get ahead this way, the more I fall behind.

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In order for you to start changing what is happening in your life, you have to be willing to take ownership, or responsibility for your life. It’s the one most important step to moving from where you are right now, to the place you really want to be.

Through the years, I’m sure almost everyone has come across a person with what I call the “doom and gloom” personality. You also have those who belong to the “Chicken Little Sky Is Falling Society.”

It’s hard to keep yourself on track if those types are in your immediate environment. If that’s the case for you, then you have to work harder to remind yourself that your environment doesn’t have to define who you are, or what you will ultimately become.

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