Discover Your Potential

Have you ever felt like you just couldn't get ahead in life? Like, no matter how hard you tried you seemed to hit a brick wall that stopped your progress?

I know that I have and yet I kept moving forward and discovered that I could achieve anything I set my mind to, yes, anything. After years of application I have put together all that I've learned that helped me to overcome any obstacle and accomplish any goal that I wanted.

Now you can discover your own potential to live your best life.

The Student Body President

When I was very young I began setting goals. And when I say very young, we're talking single digits. No one had taught me to do this, but I still have some of the original written goals from when I was 7. 

Setting goals helped me achieve a lot early in life, but I want to share a story about two student body presidents that helped shape me - as profoundly as setting goals.

When I was a junior in high school there was a new student that had moved in. There was nothing that really set this guy apart. He was kind and well accepted but he wasn't an athlete, he didn't excel academically, no one would call him remarkably attractive, he was simply the new kid... I'll refer to him as Paul.

About halfway through the school year Paul approached me and asked if I'd be a part of his campaign team, he was going to run for student body president. I had no aspirations to run for student body anything, but felt honored to be asked to help. I thought it was because I was so goal oriented. But I was part of a bigger plan.

Paul had asked a dozen or more people to be part of his campaign team. He had approached each person he asked individually or at most a group of two. He didn't ask or assign anything to anyone, he just put together a group.

He arranged a meeting with his campaign team and expressed his gratitude for our support and boldly declared that because of our involvement he was positive he would be the next student body president. There was no conceit in him, he made you feel like it was you, not him, that mattered. He made no assignments, just a thank you.

In the coming weeks there was another candidate for student body president... Jake. Jake was a star football and baseball player, he dated the head cheerleader, and drove a sweet Jeep. He was the perfect stereotype of the most popular guy on campus. 

Popularity vs. Planning

Paul called another meeting. He was all smiles and passed out a single sheet of paper to each of us outlining his platform. Paul also said that he would be making assignments in the next couple of days.

What I found most interesting is Paul did not spend a moment of time talking about Jake's candidacy. He didn't lament that a couple of his team members had left. He was happy and calm.

Jake, Mr. Popular,  was the first to put up a few, "Vote for Jake" fliers. The next morning Paul had fliers plastered everywhere. For every flier that Jake had, Paul had 20. In addition, Paul had banners in every hallway and had mobilized team members to pass out buttons and stickers.

In short, Paul was not reacting to Jake, he had planned each detail far in advance, and executed it completely on his terms. And it didn't stop, his speech and skit, were received with such enthusiasm that there was no doubt he would easily become the next student body president. The guy who was a brand new student just months earlier.

In fact, the rumor spread that Jake only got 9 votes. But you would never know that from Paul's account as he invited his team to celebrate and he expressed how thankful he was for our support and hard work. He said, "it was a hard fought campaign" - it wasn't even close.

Paul's positivity, planning, and humility made all the difference.

Popularity and Planning

I moved my senior year to a much larger school. I had made several friends, but curiously most of them where a year behind me. I think it was because my sister started at the new school a year previous and she was a year behind me.

One of my friends stood out among all the rest, Jacob.

Jacob was full of energy and was the kindest guy you'd ever meet. No one was ever left out if Jacob was around. He had his own gravitational field that just drew people in - the crowd moved with Jacob.

He was the most popular guy on the campus of a much larger school. His popularity was built on his genuine concern for others. He wasn't playing a part - that was who he was.

Jacob ran for student body president, he ran uncontested. There were still buttons and fliers... but Jacob's planning had been less about the nuts and bolts and more about years of thinking of others first.

Jacob's years of accumulated positivity made all the difference.

I wasn't involved with Jacob's run for student body president and not only because I was a year older, but about the time that all that was going on I had lost my father. The rest of my senior year was mostly a blur.

Positive Habits

I was in honor's English and after my father's passing the teacher encouraged me to drop his class and take an ethics class instead. I don't know if it was coordinated, but for the next two months I listened and read Steven Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" as part of the class curriculum. It is still one of my favorite books to this day.

I read that book a couple more times over the next year and a half. The past was the past or so I thought.

I had moved onto other goals and was in a different state. I had just finished lunch and was walking towards a trash receptacle  when someone called my name from across the room.

When I looked Jacob was just leaving a group of people that I didn't know. He quickly threw his arms around me and it became obvious that this new group of friends had already become familiar with Jacob's spontaneous nature of positivity as they laughed and hollered at Jacob as he introduced me to them.

It was just a brief reunion, but I can tell you that when he looked directly into my eyes and asked, "how are you, I've been thinking about you and your family", I knew that I had to become better. I wanted, I needed, that kind of innate goodness and positivity.

And though I might never get to the level of Jacob or even Paul I have learned that it is possible to get close.

Positive habits have made all the difference. And they can be learned.

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