Hello and welcome to the Lawn Hustle.
I appreciate you being here today.
In this episode, I feel a need to just be open, be transparent, be real with you.
Life is not fair.
It reigns on the just and the unjust.
Good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people.
But I have found out that it's not what happens to me that matters.
That's how I react to what happens to me that really matters.
I am a throat cancer survivor.
I could have given up a long time ago.
I could have thrown in the towel and said, that's it.
I'm done.
What's the use?
I try.
But instead of giving up, I redefined myself.
I have found that when situations and circumstances happen to you in life, and they will happen,
because you cannot change the things that come your way, you have to learn to deal with them.
You see, I truly believe that every one, every man, every woman, every worker is worth minimum
wage from the shoulders down.
That's what happens from the shoulders up that makes the difference.
How you respond to the circumstances in this thing we call life.
How you interact with people.
How you react to troubles, trials, temptations.
That's what really matters.
You see, and it seems a little cliche, but let me just say, if you don't believe you
can be successful, you never will be.
If you don't believe you can get through your situation, then just sit down somewhere
in the corner and woe is me, and this is bad, and this situation, and this circumstances
are affecting me in my little world, or you can determine and make up your mind that you're
going to get up, you're going to strap on your boots, and you're going to go to work,
and you're going to get through your current situation.
Somebody needs to hear what I'm saying right now.
You're going through something that seems to be unfair.
You're going through something that doesn't make any sense to you.
Why you're going through this circumstance.
But I promise you, tough times don't last, tough people do, and it's a matter of how
you think.
Right before Jesus went to the cross, and I'm not here to preach to you, but I just
want to use this as an example.
Right before Jesus went to the cross, he was at a place called Gethsemane.
I have been there when I went on a tour of Israel, and I walked through that garden,
and our tour guide said some of these olive trees are thousands of years old, and I wondered,
would it be this tree that Jesus prayed, Father, not my will, but thine be done?
As God, He knew the cross was before Him.
He knew the anguish and the suffering and the pain that was before Him.
But He won the victory in Gethsemane, and the Bible says Gethsemane is called the place
of the skull.
He won the victory over His flesh in the skull, in Gethsemane.
And if you are ever going to overcome and ever going to win, you've got to overcome
and you've got to determine that you're going to win in the place of the skull.
You've got to make up your mind.
That's why I say everyone is worth minimum wage from the shoulders down.
It's from the shoulders up where millionaires are made.
It's from the shoulders up where successful businesses operate.
It's from the shoulders up where you make up your mind.
If I fall, I shall rise.
If I get knocked down, I'm going to get back up.
Abraham Lincoln was in all reality a failure that never quit trying.
And finally, after several defeats for Congress and Senate, finally was elected the 16th president
of the United States.
Had he quit after his first defeat, he would have never been president.
If he had given up after his second defeat, he would have never been president.
But he just kept trying until he was elected president.
I just feel like I need to tell somebody you've been knocked down before.
You have failed before.
You have made mistakes before.
Make up in your mind.
I'm going to get back up every time I fall, every time I fail, every time I make a mistake.
You see, winners are just losers that didn't quit.
And I want to tell you, whatever you're facing, whatever you're going through, the right mindset
can help you overcome.
Don't get caught up.
When the woe is me, I feel sorry for myself.
I'm going to sit down and suck my thumb.
Get up, brush yourself off, and get to work.
Make up your mind.
I will be an overcomer.
I will be successful.
This will pass.
They always do tough times, hard times.
They always pass.
You just got to stay in the fight.
You just can't quit.
You just can't give up.
Make up your mind.
You see, when I started this podcast, I knew it probably wasn't ideal for me because of
the way I speak, because this is what cancer left me.
Half of my larynx removed, 10 surgeries, sick for three long years.
But when I got to feel better with a tracheostomy tube in my neck, I went to work because I was
not going to allow that to define me.
I was not going to allow that to stop me.
I made up my mind.
I'm going to find success.
I'm going to be an overcomer.
I'm going to be a winner.
I refused to lose.
And I want to look at it this way.
I didn't have cancer.
Cancer had me.
It's a matter of how you look at it.
The glasses and always have empty.
It's half full.
So whatever you're going through, step back.
Look at it at a different angle.
Look at it with a new perspective.
And win the victory in the place called the skull.
In your mind.
If you cannot win in your mind, you will not win in any situation.
You got to make up your mind.
You've got to be determined.
You've got to settle the issue.
I'm not stopping.
I'm not quitting.
I'm not giving up.
If I can barely put one foot in front of the other, I'm going to keep walking forward.
I refuse to go backwards.
If it's in your business, your marriage, your place of employment, your health, whatever
the situation is, I challenge you to win the victory in your mind first.
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Welcome back.
In this episode, we've been talking about how life can sometimes deal you a situation
that's hard to handle.
And I understand that.
But I also understand that you can make it. I can make it if we win in our mind first.
If you're a business owner, you've got to determine it doesn't matter what the situation
or what the circumstance is.
I have to go to work because I have deadlines, because I have payroll to meet, because I
have a family to provide for.
I have obligations.
And even though there are days, it would be easier for you to not go to work.
Stay home.
Somehow you've got to work through that and make up your mind if I can just get there and
just do the first job and just get motivated enough to try.
You can find the strength and the motivation that you need to get through the day.
Don't let anything steal time from you.
You have to make up your mind.
You have to be determined.
And no, it's not easy.
Let me just tell you, I'll be the first one to tell you it's not easy.
And I am a little emotional right now because I look back on my situation with my cancer
diagnosis and it was hard.
It was tough.
There were many tears shed.
There were days I thought, why is this happening to me?
I'm a good person.
I try to provide for my family.
Why is this happening to me?
Why?
I still don't have the answer to those whys.
A lot of confusion.
A lot of hurt.
A lot of pain.
But somewhere through it all.
I had to make up my mind that I'm not going to let this detour me.
I'm not going to let this destroy my family.
I'm not going to let this destroy my life.
We're going to get through it.
I remember having a conversation with my wife about finances.
How are we going to pay the bills?
I can't work.
We're running up astronomical hospital bills.
In and out of the hospital, surgery after surgery, treatment, treatment, medications, medications.
How are we going to do this?
I remember my wife saying, I don't know how.
And I don't know when.
But it's all going to work out.
It's going to be okay.
We're going to make it.
And we did.
And here we are today trying to encourage you.
It's going to be okay.
It's going to work out.
This whatever you're going through will not destroy you.
It will eventually make you stronger.
It will eventually help you be a better individual and a stronger person.
Someone that has a testimony, someone that can share with others like I'm sharing with
you what you're going through right now can be someone else's salvation experience.
Because your testimony can save them if it sparks in them a determination not to give
up, not to quit, not to surrender.
I just wanted to be real with you today.
I hope you've enjoyed this podcast and I hope you have found value in it.
Be encouraged, be strengthened, and don't ever forget you can make it if you make up
your mind.
Thank you for listening to the Lawn Hustle.
We'll talk next week.
I hope you have a great week.
I wish you nothing but success.
We'll talk again soon.