I believe there is a third group as well. This consists of potential winners whose lives are just
slightly out of alignment. I call them wayward winners. It may be that they just need to learn
how to be real winners. Perhaps they've hit a bump or two that has knocked them off course
and they are temporarily befuddled. A failed relationship, a lost job, financial problems,
unformed goals, a lack of parental support, illness...many things can send us off course
temporarily.

Wayward winners are not lost souls; they just need some tweaking and coaching and nudging
to get them back on course. A map might be nice. Many of these wayward winners are easily
identifiable because they are always searching.

Right now, there are many wayward winners out there braving rain, sleet and snow because
they too still believe that they have untapped talents. They attend motivational seminars and
listen to inspirational tapes and they plunge onward, believing that sooner or later they will find
their way again.

Other wayward winners have temporarily given up. They are damaged and disoriented, their
confidence badly eroded. They tend to drift through life numbly. The friends and relatives and
loved ones of wayward winners see that they are out of sync and wonder why they can't be
satisfied, why they don't settle down. They wonder how people who have such obvious abilities
and great potential can be so disoriented and unsure.

It is difficult for others to understand the rawness of a broken heart or the aching emptiness of
an unguided spirit. You and I know. We have been there. Wayward winners know that there
are possibilities out there, but too often they feel locked out from them. Some are afraid to risk
any more because of what they have risked and lost already.

I know now that as difficult as it may be for you wayward winners to do, it is necessary to
continue to test yourselves. Even though you have been hurt before, it is the only way to grow.
We all have the capacity to change, to lead meaningful and productive lives by awakening our
consciousness.

You know there are going to be tough times as you go about changing your life, so brace
yourself and you will be able to handle them. When you get into your seat on an airplane, what
is the first thing they tell you to do? Fasten your seat belt. Brace yourself for the turbulence.

When you decide to move your life to the next level of accomplishment, you must fasten your
mental and spiritual seat belts because it is going to be a while before you reach that
comfortable level again. You will reach it, but you must endure the turbulence of change in
order to grow.

Try this technique to help you through the difficult times of change and growth. Find four
reasons why you cannot succumb to your fears and your troubles. Find those deep sources of
motivation that can lift you out of the turbulence and above the clouds. You must change your
life because, for example:

You have not yet tapped the talents given you.
You want to leave something more for your children.
You want to live life rather than letting life live you.
You want to do what makes YOU happy.

It is in these rocky early moments of bringing change to your life that you discover who you are.
In the prosperous times, you build what is in your pocket. In the tough times, you strengthen
what is in your heart. And that is when you gain insight into yourself, insight that leads to
self-mastery and an expansion of your consciousness as a life-force in both your personal and
professional lives.


Les Brown is an internationally recognized speaker and author. He has changed the lives of
millions of people around the world with a powerful message that inspires, excites, and creates
a passion for life that you have never experienced before.
PERSISTENCE
By Les Brown

I believe there are three kinds of people. There are winners, who know
what they want and understand their potential and the possibilities. They
take life on. Next are losers, who don't have a clue as to who they are.
They allow circumstances to shape their lives and their self-image.
Live Your Dreams (Paperback)
by Les Brown
List Price: $12.95    Special Price: $11.66

High-octane speaker Les Brown Brown, , a.k.a. The Motivator, here offers his personal
growth message in print. Once labeled educationally mentally retarded, he has been a
sanitation worker, disk jockey, activist, state legislator, and night club emcee. Through
his "Nine Principles of Life Enrichment," he proposes that anyone can succeed by stoking
the fires of hunger for a dream. Brown's belief in our responsibility for our own success at
times suggests a Pygmalion complex.
WCO Wealth Creating Opportunities
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