His dad taught him this lesson that changed his outlook on life.
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My dad was telling me about the day he had become the manager at his current company when I was visiting my hometown during the holiday season.
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He said that he could have allowed the doubt to overtake him.
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He had been with the company for two years before his boss was fired for stealing money from the company. At that very moment, he was promoted to manager.
He said that he could have allowed the doubt to overtake him because he was thrust into the management role. Instead, he went into the new position with a positive mindset and has been in that same position for 36 years now.
The one advice that he told me that has stayed with me was: “Never Say That You Can’t.”
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I wish I could say that I have always followed that advice. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
I have always struggled with self-limiting beliefs because I have heard from others that I was nothing.
I did not have many friends, and I felt like an outsider whenever I was spending time with people.
I can see who were the real friends because I could have felt the energy of those groups who were hanging out with each other. I don’t know why that is the case. Maybe that comes with being an introvert.
Whenever I have tried to achieve any goals like attending conferences or being at a sporting event, the self-limiting beliefs tried to take root in my mind.
For example, I had missed out on the first annual Podcast Movement last year even though it was held in Dallas.
At that time, I had just moved to the Houston area to live with a family member. I didn’t have to worry too much about the expenses for the hotel and the tickets.
However, I fell for the excuse that I could not have afforded to go to the conference, and I saw on social media the testimonials of attendees from Podcast Movement.
At that moment, I made it a goal to make this year’s Podcast Movement 2015. I was able to achieve it.
I will admit that I felt like an outsider at times at the conference. But, I did not allow the “outsider syndrome” to stop me from interacting with other attendees because I had already known them from building tremendous friendships on social media.
Just the fact that I made it to the Podcast Movement was an accomplishment because there were times when I thought I would not have made it to Fort Worth.
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I can say that I have fulfilled one small part of my dad’s advice.
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If I had allowed the excuse of not having enough money to stop me from attending the conference, I would have been in the same position of looking at stories of the attendees like Patty Elizee, Amy Robles, etc.
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However, I don’t have to live with the regret of not attending Podcast Movement because I did not allow the lack of money or my limited self-belief hinder me from deepening friendships and making new friends in Fort Worth.
This shows that if you want to achieve your goals like financial independence or to become a better person, it can be done.
I can say that I have fulfilled one small part of my dad’s advice, “Never Say That You Can’t.”
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Photo: Flickr/ Emmanuel Frezzotti
