Ready to Rise?: Plan for Change to Attain Real Success in Your Life

Welcome to LegalBiz Cafe! Digitally remastered with AI, in this podcast series, Attorney Shaune B. Arnold gives to frustrated professionals like YOU the tools and resources you need to make the LEAP to entrepreneurship so you can start, build or fix a business you will absolutely LOVE. 

 In this powerful episode, Shaune shows you how to break free from the past, ignite your purpose, and rise like a phoenix from the ashes. Discover why courage, planning, and thinking outside the box are the keys to finally building the business of your dreams. 

Transcript

Hello, everyone! And welcome back, …my goodness …welcome back to LegalBiz Café. I am your host, Attorney Shaune B Arnold, and I hope that you are ready and raring to go if you are wanting to get to your goal. Let’s start there tonight. In order for you to get to your future, you have to be willing to release the past.

You have to be willing to burn your ship in the harbor. In keeping with that theme, tonight, I was interviewed today by Carl Thornton Junior, who is in the Augusta, GA, area. We talked about rising like a phoenix from the ashes.

So many of us have had a difficult time for years now. The pandemic was crazy and the aftermath has been equally devastating for a lot of folks. They haven’t yet found their footing, as if they ever had it. We are going to examine this phenomenon tonight.

Have you ever found yourself looking at the people around you and seeing that they are struggling …and that they continue to struggle but refuse to make any changes to end their struggle? They keep doing the same thing in the same way, and they're expecting a different result. Some say, that's the definition of insanity, ...right?

Well, we’ve talked about this and I want to lean in just a little bit further on that topic. You see, I think there are certain strategies that you can implement to get results.

First of all, as I said, you have to release the past. That is exactly what I mean by burn your ship in the harbor. If you are stuck on what they said to you; If you are stuck on what they did to you; If you are stuck on how much it hurt when they betrayed your trust …then you are not going to move forward with your life.

I implore you to light that flame of commitment to yourself, to your business, to your family, to your dream, and to your life. Light that flame of commitment. And then set that ship on fire. Let it burn!

Here's what's real about the past. It does not exist. It is simply a set of neurons firing off in your brain. There is no place you can point to and say that’s the past. It’s literally all in your mind. And the only thing that exists is the story you created and the meaning that you attached to the story.

It’s time to release that story. Release it so you can rise like a phoenix from the ashes. You are going to rise, my friend, from the ashes of all of the difficulties, from the ashes of the pain, from the ashes of the sadness. You are going to rise and I am going to share with you some tips on how to do that.

The first thing that I want you to do is going to take me a moment to get it all out. Bear with me. I was recently flown to Minneapolis to emcee the Spirit of Success Entrepreneur and Motivation Summit. I was speaking to some people in the audience and what they told me really blew my mind.

They told me there are people in Saint Paul, who absolutely refused to cross the river into Minneapolis, and there are people in Minneapolis, who absolutely refuse to cross the river into Saint Paul. They said the issue has caused problems in families when marriages happened across the river. I just couldn't believe it! There are generations of people that live by this self-limiting credo. They’re afraid. But what are they afraid of? Well, you'll have to ask them. I think they're afraid of the unknown.

I think they're afraid of what is different. I think they're afraid of change. And so that would be my first piece of advice to you this evening. Whether you are in business now or whether you are seeking to get into business, do not be afraid to cross the river.

Do not be afraid to reach into the unknown because that is where your blessing lies. That is where your growth lies. That is where your destiny lies. Don't be afraid to cross that river.

We have to think outside the box. We have to be ready to take on new challenges. I want you to spend some time in the early part of this month planning. If it’s early in the month when this podcast posts, do it in the early part of the month. If it’s late in the month, plan for the next month. If it’s the middle of the month, just jump in!

When you plan, ask yourself what you want to do for this entire year. Then break it up into quarters. What do you really want to accomplish and what can you realistically accomplish in the first quarter or the second quarter?

Do you have a wall calendar? I encourage you to go to the office supply store and get yourself a wall calendar, some dry erase markers and erasers and spend some time actually planning out the next year of your life.

We know, it's wonderful to release the past; it's fabulous to burn your ship; it’s amazing to rise like a phoenix from the ashes. However, if you have no place to fly to, you might as well have stayed on the ground. So, let's prepare for flight.

Let's prepare for you to be able to make your way. And it doesn't matter if you don't have anybody on your side. It doesn't matter if you've got to struggle a little bit to get there. Nothing that is worth anything in your life is ever going to be easy. Not this year, not last year, not next year.

So, prepare for those obstacles by spending time planning. And the reason why I really want you to spend time planning is because I really want you to cast off procrastination and start making those tough decisions that you have to make in order to get where you want to go. In order to take charge of your life, in order to really take charge of your business, in order to really take charge of your dream, you're going to have to do that.

You're going to have to step up. That brings me to my challenge for you. I challenge you to get yourself a coach. Every world class performer has a coach. Ask Tiger or LeBron if it was instrumental in them in winning the Masters green jacket, and an NBA championship ring, respectively. Many people say that Michael Jordan is one of the best basketball players that ever graced the hard wood. But he never won an NBA Championship until he met Phil Jackson.

You may find yourself feeling stuck, if you feel that you cannot see the big picture because you're so busy working on the day-to-day, and you're so busy trying to keep the details together. What you need is somebody behind you that has some perspective. You need somebody behind you that has a depth of knowledge that you don't have. You need somebody behind you that can reorient you. You need somebody who can give you a new perspective.

I invite you to get yourself a coach so that you can see all that you can be and you can stretch and grow and accomplish all the things that you’ve been talking about doing for years.

You may be able to get the coaching you need by pulling together some joint venture partners that are going to help you gain some market share. They will help you do some things that you haven't done before that are going to help you think outside the box. You will do some new things for yourself and for your business.

I'm reminded of a community here in California that had a special problem. They were up in the mountains. And they had not had a fire in a lot of years, and that was really a blessing. But it also caused a problem. See, they had leaves piling up up, up, up, up, up, and up.

It grew to dangerous proportions. so that small community told its people, if you go into the forest and pull out truckloads of these leaves and bring them to this particular offloading center, we will pay you for those loads.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, there was a thinker in the crowd. I love thinkers. This individual looked around and saw that there was a trucking company that went through that small community on a weekly basis, sending 18 wheelers through that community to the other side of that forest.

There the 18 Wheelers dumped off whatever load they had and then they would return through this forest community empty. Well, this individual contacted that transportation company and contracted with them to come back to the forest on their way home and pick up an 18-wheeler truckloads worth of leaves and take them to the distribution center, drop them off and get paid big time.

The people who lived there, who had pickup trucks, of course, were really, really angry. They yelled and screamed, “That's not fair. You're taking advantage.” But you know what? It was a local person who thought it up. It was a local person who thought outside the box. It was a local person who took advantage of a market opportunity. It was a local person who made all that money.

So, what is around you that can be monetized? What is your business? Now, ask yourself. Who are your intended customers talking to right before they talk to you in terms of your goods and your services and who are they talking to right after they talk to you in terms of your goods and services? Those people that they're talking to are a good, compatible match for your goods and services. Those are your natural joint venture partners.

So, my advice to you is to get in touch with those companies that are in your area that provide goods and services that are compatible with what you do. So that you can gain that instant market share, see, it's going to require that you be clever. It is going to require that you look around you and see that there is money sitting on every street corner, sitting on the top of every building, but you're going to have to go out and get it. It is time for you to live your dream. It is time for you to start, build or fix a business that you'll absolutely love. It's time. It's time, my friend. It's time for you to burn your ship in the harbor. And it is time for you to rise like a phoenix from the ashes and get your dream going. I want to see you on the other side of your forest.

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for joining me today on this week’s episode of Your Business, Accelerated! I’m attorney Shaune B. Arnold. I invite you to follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter X. In all of those places, I’m known as S.H.A.U.N.E dot Arnold, like the former Governator.

In the meantime, and in between time, I am, …as always, reminding you to MAXIMIZE your COMPETENCE to get the CONFIDENCE YOU NEED to succeed. I’ll see you right back here next week, on LegalBiz Cafe. Bye-bye, friends.