Leap Into An Open Mind

I mentioned before in the beginning that change is always going to happen in our lives, both good and bad. But what you have to realize is that the "bad" turns out to being a "good" as an end result. It is crucial that you open your up to this truth. Most of us have a hard time doing just that. Having an open mind about "life" and what comes your way is not only crucial, but also life changing. It is so life changing that you don't realize it until you start noticing positive changes that happen and more good starts to manifest into reality.

When one opens their mind up to the world is when one closes off their ignorance to the world. Think about it for a minute. Repeat what you just read for a second....."When one opens their mind up to the world is when one closes off their ignorance to the world." Are you still trying to twist your mind up around that statement. Let me go into a little further detail on this.

If you look up the world "ignorance" on Merriam-Webster dictionary, it says, "Ignorance (the state or fact of being ignorant: lack of knowledge, education, or awareness.)"

Merriam-Webster also states the definition of "UNAWARE" as "not aware : Ignorant <unaware of the problem>"

Now that you know the actual definition of "ignorance", let me tell you what Merriam-Webster's definition of "open-minded" is. It says, "Open minded - receptive to arguments or ideas." Hmm...receptive to arguments or ideas. It is simple, short, but full of substance and truth. Now, when I said earlier that when one opens their mind up to the world is when one closes off their ignorance to the world, it means that you have to stop ignoring what comes your way as an opportunity that you cannot see NOW, but take in consideration what you may see LATER.

Opportunities pass by us every single day of our lives. Most of the time we don't even see it or realize it. You have to be aware of everything that is going on around you. I just said a key world everybody..."aware". Remember the definition of Ignorance? Ignorance rooting from ignoring is a selective state of "unawareness". If you are unaware of what is going on around you, expanding your life into a further level is going to be non-existant.

I want to share a real-life story with you. As I mentioned before, I was blessed with a great career opportunity back in 2008 when I met this kid with a brand new Escalade. I started doing marketing promotions for gyms all across the country and made great money for not having a college degree. I got promoted to a Regional Marketing Director and made more money. Things were great! I couldn't ask for a better situation. Then changes started happening with the owner of the company I was working for at the time. He got greedy and started cheating out his employees out of substancial amounts of money. Not just his employees but his VP was also out several thousands of dollars because of this man's greed and selfishness. I alone was cheated out a couple grand. It wasn't much but it was enough. Everyone started to quit one by one including the VP. I was the lone ranger of this company and the heart and soul of it now that everyone was gone and my boss had no one else but me. I liked the money so much I still stayed, but not for long.

He continued to treat me poorly and my stress levels began to rise. Finally, I became "aware" of an opportunity. Being happy and stress free was, by far, more important than money at that point. So I left and temporarily lived outside of Dallas, Texas with a good friend of mine. I mentioned this briefly before in the beginning of the first chapter about me being a club DJ. I've been DJ'ing for 7 years now and my dream was to make it big doing just that. In the 5 months I lived in Texas I scrambled for gigs and got nowhere fast. I did some gigs out of state in Indiana, Wisconsin, and finally got myself a resident DJ spot in North Dallas. I met up with a girl in Indiana I knew from a prior contract I was on in the same town I DJ'ed at. Long story short, we fell in love, I put my DJ'ing aside and moved to Indiana in February of 2011. I was willing to open my mind up to a different job industry I never thought I'd get into. I got hooked up with a permanent resident DJ gig 4 nights a week and a job as a car salesman for a Chevrolet dealership. It wasn't my ideal dream job but I was happy at least.

To spare all details, I started becoming unhappy little by little. Her and I got into more arguments and very heated fights. The place I was DJ'ing at was becoming no fun anymore. Selling cars was tougher than I thought it would in a small town of 15,000 people in the middle of the country. Life for me was not what I thought it would be. Again, I became more aware of it and was determined to make changes to make it better. I wanted to make my relationship with my girl at the time better. I felt a lot of it had to do with my unhappy situation at work. I was willing to open my mind up to new ideas. Remember, be aware of what's going on and open your mind up to new ideas.

The VP of the old company I worked for called me and told me about this new company he had started himself doing the same exact thing we did before. The only difference was he owned it. This VP, Brian, was not just another boss I had in the past but a friend and mentor. He is the poster child of a true leader in my opinion. He kept asking me not once, not twice, not three times, but four times to come work with him in his new company. I turned him down 3 different times because I didn't want to leave my girlfriend. I wanted to make things better with us. Of course things never turned around. So Brian told me on the fourth time of talking to me that maybe a little space will do us some good. As smart as the man is, I listened and was open to that new idea. So on the fourth time of him asking, I said, "Yes, I'll go for it again."

I went back on the road doing what I used to do. I loved it. I went back to selling gym memberships and made great money again. Things never turned around for her and I. They got worse actually. It was very heart breaking and depressing but I got through it. Eight months into working with Brian and his company, I felt like I was on the ninth cloud. More opportunities have come my way since then and were still coming.

There are two points of the story. The first point is that a good situation turned into a sour lemon. So I turned that lemon into a margarita, not lemonade. The second point is that I kept an open mind through all of those situations. It didn't matter if my situation turned bad or good, I stayed aware and opened my mind to new ideas. The idea of me being a car salesman didn't play out the way I wanted to but I continued to stay aware of any opportunity that came my way. Obviously, opportunity came my way four times. I was ignorant to it for a while but changed my ways because I found myself still in the same situation as before and it wasn't going to change anytime soon unless I did something about it.

I'm telling you, keep your mind open to EVERYTHING! You never ever know what will present itself right before your eyes. I can't stress this enough to anyone. If you want to move into the next level of your life, don't be ignorant, be aware. It will change your life in more ways than one.