Page 55 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself
P. 55
I had a friend named Art Hill, who spent most of his life in advertising. In
his heart, however, he always wanted to be a writer. So in his late 50s, he wrote
two books that got published by a small publishing house in Michigan. Then,
when he was 60 years old, Hill had his first national release with I Don’t Care if
I Never Come Back, a book about baseball published by Simon and Schuster.
The book was a popular and critical success, and his dedication page is
something I treasure above any possession I own:
“To Steve Chandler—who cared about writing, cared about me, and one day
said, ‘You should write a book about baseball.’”
Nobody cares how old you are but you. People only care about what you can
do, and you can do anything you want, at any age.
Don’t listen to the voice inside that talks about your age, or your IQ, or your
life history, or anything it can slow you down with. Don’t be seduced. You can
start a highly motivated life right now by increasing the challenges you give
your brain.
39. Come to your own rescue
After a seminar I gave in Vancouver, Canada, Don Beach, the sales manager
of Benndorf Verster, one of that city’s top businesses, sent me a tape of a song
that he wanted me to hear. He said it reminded him of what I had been teaching
his team about self-esteem. The song was a live performance by the old folk-
singing duo, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee. The song is called “Love, Truth
and Confidence.” It’s about how we foolishly chase after love and try to discover
the ultimate truth, while ignoring something much more vital to our happiness:
confidence.
The chorus of the song goes like this: “Love and truth / you can find / any
place, anywhere, anytime / but you can just say ‘so long’ / once confidence is
gone / nothing matters anymore.”
I never knew the true power of self-confidence until I began working with
Dr. Nathaniel Branden and his wife Devers Branden. Both are authors and
psychotherapists with the Branden Institute for Self-Esteem, and they have
provided me with the most powerful insights I’ve ever received into how I
operate as a human being.
