Another You

One thing that is constant is change.

From the day we were born, we’ve been going through (and adapting to) change.

Think about the journey we all went through from birth. We all came into this world as infants, completely helpless and wholly reliant on our parents. We were bundles of joy, with our proud parents showing us off to anyone and everyone, but we wouldn’t stay as infants forever.

After a few weeks, we started to sleep through the night (to our parents’ exhausted delight), and we started to grow. We discovered our fingers and our toes. We started grasping and playing with toys. Then, out of the blue, we discovered we could roll over.

We were starting to change.

We started to make the transition from liquids to baby food, transitioning to being fed with a spoon rather than a bottle. Our teeth burst through our gums, and we learned how to bite and chew. From there, we were introduced to some solid foods, and we discovered we could pick up our own food and feed ourselves. Later on, we learned how to use a fork and spoon.

All the while, we were learning to make sounds, then babble, and eventually start to form words. Words became phrases and eventually morphed into sentences. We were learning to communicate with our parents, siblings, and extended family and friends.

We also started learning how to inch and crawl, and soon we were scooting all over the house. Then, we learned to push ourselves up, to sit, and then we started to pull ourselves up. Before our parents knew it, we were learning to stand on wobbly legs and gain our balance.

What came next? Our first steps.

We were still changing, becoming a different version of ourselves.

After we learned to walk and then to run, life was never the same. We started to climb, explore, and adventure into the unknown. We started to learn to dress ourselves, brush our own teeth, comb our own hair, bathe ourselves, and how to interact (and play with) others. We learned to recognize letters, then words, and started to learn how to read.

We learned our colors, as well as how to color. Sometimes we stayed within the lines, and sometimes not so much. We learned to draw, paint, and how to assemble puzzles. We were introduced to Legos, Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, Matchbox cars, Hot Wheels, baby dolls, Barbie, and games. Soon, our closets were overflowing with toys.

Yes, we were continuing to change, becoming another version of ourselves at an accelerated, ever-faster rate of change.

From there, we started kindergarten, then elementary school, middle school, junior high, and ultimately high school. We made friends and we lost friends. We learned to read and write. We learned basic math, then algebra, and geometry. We studied history and science. Some of us joined the band or the choir. Others joined a sports team.

We went from riding a tricycle to a bicycle to driving a car or riding a motorcycle. We ventured into the work-a-day world, with a few adventurous souls venturing into entrepreneurship early in our young lives.

We all went through puberty, surviving pimples, acne, braces, and voice changes in the process. Girls got curvier. Boys got more muscular and started growing facial hair.

We were continuing to change, evolving, and becoming another version of ourselves.

We were no longer infants or children. We were changing, morphing, into adulthood.

Most of us started dating, experiencing our share of breakups and heartaches along the way. Many of us went on to get engaged, married, and start our own families, only to see the process of change repeat itself with our children.

But, for many of us, somewhere along the way, we stopped changing.

We decided we’d grown enough, learned enough, done enough, and experienced enough. At that moment, we said to ourselves, “This is far enough. I’m done. I will go no further.”

In that moment, said to ourselves that good enough is good enough.

We made a choice to stop learning, growing, and maturing.

We settled for less.

I believe that every single person who has lived, who is living today, and who will live in the future, has been put on this earth on purpose, for a purpose. I don’t believe anyone is here by accident, simply taking up space. I believe we all have a passion and a calling placed on the inside of us, and we’re called to pursue that passion, chase that calling, and fulfill our purpose.

We are all here to live exceptional lives, making an exceptional impact on the lives of others.

How big and how broad that impact may be varies by the person, but even it if is affecting a single life in a positive way, that impact can ripple through the ages as that life then goes on to impact others, who also go on to impact countless others.

We were created to continually keep moving up, one level higher, as we learn, grow, and apply, expanding our reach, influence, and impact in the process.

We were NOT created to rise to one level and stay there.

We were created to keep leveling up.

Like the transformation that happens from birth to adulthood, as we continue to learn, grow, and apply, we continue to transform our lives in the process. We expand our knowledge, increase our insight, cultivate our gifts, hone our skills, and add to our capabilities. We continue the process of evolving into another, even better version of ourselves.

That’s what Black Belt Leaders do.

When we choose to settle, it’s like having an amazing toolbox full of tools that could make our lives, and the lives of those around us, much better, but we never take the time to learn how to effectively use these tools to make that a reality in our own lives and the lives of others.

If we don’t avail ourselves to the tools we have available to us, those tools are useless.

I also believe we have not only been put on this earth on purpose, for a purpose. I believe we have been equipped with what we have need of to fulfill this purpose. However, we must first discover what we’ve been equipped with and then develop these gifts, skills, and abilities (as well as the quality of our thinking) before we can deploy them to fulfill what we’ve been put on this earth to do.

I have been attending a leadership and personal growth conference in Orlando a couple of times a year since 2017. It’s become somewhat of a ritual that on the night before the event starts, a handful of us make the pilgrimage to Golden Corral to enjoy an all-you-can-eat buffet. It’s a great time, catching up with friends, and enjoying endless steak, shrimp, meatloaf, pot roast, green beans, corn, hot rolls, and ice cream. (At least, for me.)

So, imagine winning a lifetime all-access pass to Golden Corral. All you can eat, all day, every day, for the rest of your life. BUT…unless you show up and fill a plate, you miss out.

That’s what happens when you stop learning, growing, evolving, and improving.

When you put yourself in the Growth Zone and stay there, you continue to discover that you are capable of saying, doing, and becoming more. Doors you thought were closed, or didn’t even realize were before you, will be discovered. Pathways to success that you felt were inaccessible, you now see how to navigate.

But, you’ve got to open and walk through those doors. You’ve got to choose to traverse that pathway. Otherwise, you remain where you are, as you are, unchanged.

You were created to continually keep moving up, one level higher, as you learn, grow, and apply, expanding your reach, influence, and impact in the process.

You were NOT created to rise to one level and stay there.

You were created to keep leveling up.

That’s what Black Belt Leaders do.

As you grow into the next version of You, here’s what you’re becoming: a more confident, secure, prosperous, capable, creative, equipped, motivated, gifted, talented, knowledgeable, wise, disciplined, passionate, accomplished, intuitive, intentional, and able individual.

You will also find the quality of your thinking improving in the process. As a result, new, bigger, and more frequent opportunities will start to reveal themselves. They were always there, as abundance is everywhere, but you’re now in a position to not only see them, but to seize them and capitalize on them.

You were created to continually keep moving up, one level higher, as you learn, grow, and apply, expanding your reach, influence, and impact in the process.

You were NOT created to rise to one level and stay there.

You were created to keep leveling up.

It’s about daily becoming an even better version of You than you are right now.

It’s about becoming Another You.