Positive Transformation; How bad do you want it?

Nearly every day I get to speak to amazing people across a diverse spectrum of society, engaged in many different projects and working in very challenging circumstances. Whether it is building a business, changing our own lives, the lives of others, or a combination of all three and many other factors, everyone today in some form or another is working in, and or through, some form of challenging circumstance.

While we all have problems, and some people just have better problems. Unfortunately without realising it, it is very easy to allow the natural chemical bias of the brain (5x the bias to Negative than to Positive) to live in negative future scenarios that haven’t happened, rather than focusing on what needs to be done now, in a positive way today, ensuring for ourselves that the only outcome tomorrow is the successful one we create.

Unfortunately many people unknowingly are continually sharing a negative view, propagating anxiety and negativity to everyone else around them. I could bang on about my own life experiences here and why a positive mindset, along with what we do, and don’t say is incredibly important, but I won’t. To illustrate the point I will use the true story of Brandon Burlsworth, the story of a young man who was told at every point in his short life that he wasn't good enough to play Division One football, absolutely no chance, never going to happen, ever. This wasn’t about small odds, this was about NO odds, everyone told him zero chance, never going to happen, give it up.

However, this young man understood an important factor in life that it took me many years of research, unlearning a poor education, and re-educating myself to fully understand this, whether he knew what I now know consciously or unconsciously is irrelevant, the fact is he did know there are greater forces at work beyond what can be seen in the world before us. And importantly, those same forces, whatever your beliefs, are creating a future that we control based on the way we perceive the world around us, and the actions we decide to take each day.

So this this young man, in the face of incredible adversity, continual rejection and facing overwhelmingly negative odds, took every conceivable risk in pursuit of his dream that to everyone else, in every area of his life, seemed beyond the realms of sanity, and yet he became the most respected player in the history of what is called the “walk on programme.” Having very sadly then died unexpectedly at 22 in an accident, the amazing achievements he made against all the odds inspired The Brandon Burlsworth Foundation.

The Brandon Burlsworth Foundation among other initiatives, provides underprivileged kids with tickets to Razorbacks and Colts games, with the purpose of sharing the message that Burlsworth was able to overcome repeatedly being told that he wasn't good enough. Perhaps more prominent are the camps put on by the foundation each year for high schoolers in Arkansas. The camps are run at the request of Burlsworth's mother, Barbara and they are staffed primarily by Burlsworth's former teammates.

Continuing his legacy, the Eyes of a Champion program began in 2007 when the Brandon Burlsworth Foundation teamed up with independent optometrists and Walmart Vision Centers to tackle the issue of children’s eyecare in Arkansas.

The Eyes of a Champion program provides free eye exams and glasses to low to moderate uninsured preschool through twelfth grade students who would otherwise go without. Proper vision care allows children to perform their best inside the classroom and sets them up for a bright future.

My point here is simply that it is easy to fall in to the trap of focusing on potential negative future outcomes that haven’t happened, and then spending time creating a self-fulling prophesy by worrying about them. We cannot know the future, we can only know deep within ourselves that we have the ability, courage and resolution to make what matters to us a reality, and to work together with the right people, who have a positive focused mindset, and the right level of skills to collaboratively deliver successful outcomes.

As I have said and will continue to keep saying when faced with people creating negative scenarios that have not yet happened. There are only three things worth our focus and attention every day. They are -

1. What matters to us now and in the future.

2. What are we going to do today to achieve a positive outcome in the future.

3. What are we going to remove today that is preventing that outcome.
   

Considering the heroic example of Brandon Burlsworth, just imagine all the things that wouldn't happen, simply because people do not act to create their own lives based on a fear of things that have not yet happened. And likely never would had they taken a more positive view.

The film by the way made about Brandon Burlsworth is called “Greater”, it’s on Netflix.

So in 2023, whatever you are working on and toward, simply ask yourself, how bad do you want it, how far will I go to get it?