The Road To Nick's Youth State Championship---Part 1

Chasing Down A Youth State Championship---Part One

Nick Develops Into A Force To Be Reckoned With

The next three years were super exciting for Nicky and our family. By now it was very apparent that he had the potential to be a great high school wrestler.  So my beautiful wife Pam and I did everything we could to position him for future success while first letting him be a little boy.

One of those things was to NOT wrestle him a lot during the off season.  I wasn't scared of "burning him out" or anything like that. I just wanted him have a lot of Summer fun and take part in other sports.  

Fishing and boating with our friends, shooting his BB gun, riding his dirt bike and 4 wheeler, playing with his little brother Kevin and Alex, the boy who lived next door, pitching a tent in our backyard, playing in the woods and building fire pits with old dad. Lots of fun stuff to do when you're a little guy.

So I...and this differed greatly from a lot of the other dads who had high caliber youth wrestlers...did not continue bringing him to a room anywhere to practice a few times per week.  Nor did I put him in countless tournaments over the off season.  I would put him in a few tournaments each Summer...with no practice and he would usually end up winning, but of course occasionally wouldn't place or placed 3rd or 4th.  It may seem like a bizarre strategy, but I wanted to see how much he was retaining and once again I did not want his life to be dominated by the sport at such a young age.  I rather he played a variety of sports and it was through the participation of other sports where I really began to grasp how athletic Nicky was.

When Nick was just a toddler I would bring him to any basketball court around where we lived to watch dad shoot around and to play. So his love for basketball began that way.  I knew basketball was a real threat to his wrestling, so I let him indulge himself in the off season when he was young and play as much as he wanted.  And believe me when I tell you...he's good. This picture was when he was 11 years old and the first time he beat me...hit all his outside shots and outran my fat ass for the rebounds!  So I memorialized the moment by taking a picture of me palming his head.  One good turn deserves the other! 

I have zero doubts that if he had of chosen basketball he would have been a spectacular point guard...and while he was in high school he probably could have started on many teams in the Greater Cleveland area.  I played him one on one as he was growing up and he has an incredible outside shot and can drive to the hoop with solid ball handling skills. Basketball was how I introduced him to Charlie Hustle...giving your all out running a man to get the loose ball rebounds, following your shot for the rebounds and things like that. He loved it...and so did I.  Great memories.  "Again daddy. Let's play again."  Over and over until Big Daddy couldn't play no more!  What a motor that kid had.  

Broke his forearm at the end of his first year of wrestling doing wall sprints.  Stuck his arm out straight to stop himself and broke it. We had to explain the concept of "pulling up" as he approached the wall so that would never occur again!  Hardly shed a tear.  Tough. Got a cast on & all his friends signed it.  So we signed him up for soccer the Summer of first grade.  Didn't want him to play football for fear of it breaking again.  He would have only been allowed to play flag anyway as he was seven.  He scored 35 goals in 7 games! I thought it was the second coming of Pele!

The summer of Second Grade he began tackle football for the Southern Hills league.  He was QB, running back and outside linebacker usually.  Played football until 8th grade.  Position player...usually the best open field tackler on the team...and one year with the North Royalton Bears averaged 150 yards per game from the QB position.  Have the DVD's to prove it.  Also played on a Pop Warner team called the Southwest Seminoles started up by a friends dad.  He faced better and tougher talent on the teams in this league, but still played great. 

 In Eighth Grade, or before 8th grade I should say, we sat down and talked about the risk of injury that football posed, especially as football season is right before wrestling season.  We decided that it was best to not risk injury and that was the end of his football career. Besides risking injury we felt that Nicky's best bet of obtaining an athletic scholarship was through the sport of wrestling. It was a decision we both were happy we made in the long run. We seen a few really remarkable youth and middle school wrestlers have bad injuries that pretty much put an end to their wrestling careers.  That being said, it's not like I didn't miss seeing Nicky out on the football field and often in his high school years I use to fantasize about what could have been.  I think it would be safe to say, based on watching the careers of the boys he played with, that he would have been a star football player as well.  Oh well.  No regrets.

Ok I have to back track a bit right here.  At the very end of the Nicky's first season Nicky wanted to keep wrestling...and so did I. So upon asking around I was told by another wrestling dad that practices were being held at the Strongsville practice room. Going there would have far reaching implications.  The guy running the practices was a gentleman name Mike Heil. 

Mike has five sons, three of whom wrestle.  All of them are excellent. One of his sons was four years older than Nick and is a phenomenal wrestler.  His name is Dean Heil.  Dean just won his second NCAA Division 1 National Championship, and is a three time All American at Oklahoma State.  As he was growing up he won everything...and I mean everything!  In high school he wrestled for the powerhouse wrestling program Lakewood St. Edward's and was a four time State Champ!  He also won the prestigious Super 32 and the Ironman tournaments. Without a doubt a very special kid who is now a very special young man.  Here's a picture of Mike with his youngest son Logan.  Logan was a Sophomore this past year and is a State Placer.

Mike's what I consider a great coach.  From my first time being in his room and watching him run a practice I could see a big difference in the quality of his instruction and the way his practices were run.  I decided to have Nicky attend his practices as much as possible. The only problem was that sometimes he didn't have a room to work out of in the early days.  Nevertheless we became acquainted with each other and began our friendship.  

The group of boys that were in Mike's rooms formed the club that later became his club team. They were known as Team Wrecking Crew (TWC).  What a kick ass name huh?  Kids like Garrett Lambert (3X State Placer), Josh Heil (Mike's other son who was the first 4X State Placer at Brunswick High School and who was Nick's main drill partner for 3 of Nicky's high school years), Matt Fields (who Nicky wrestled with and has been friends with ever since the North Royalton days...also Matt is a 2X Finalist who won his 1st OHSAA State Championship this year), Stan Bleich (State Runner Up this year and 3X State Placer), Tony DeCesare (4X State Placer), and many other tough kids.  I guess what I'm trying to say is...results speak for themselves.  Nick is still great friends with all of these guys.  Here's pics of a few of them throughout the years:

Because Mike is a great coach, I would have him coach Nick whenever possible if we were at the same tournament. Mike would also travel to different tournaments and welcomed any and all who would like to travel with his group and compete.  He would travel to the toughest tournaments where our sons could match up with the best competition and see how they stacked up.  It was awesome. His advice regarding wrestling was always sound and I consider him a mentor to this day.  More about Mike later as it turns out he was one of Nick's high school coaches.

The beginning of Nick's 4th wrestling season we chose to join the Brecksville Bee's Youth Wrestling club.  It turned out to be great move.  The high school program had emerged as a public school powerhouse under the guidance of Coach Todd Haverdill.  Todd took an interest in all the boys in the youth and middle school programs and it serves as a great feeder program for the high school.

The room was brutal.  Full of talented boys, many of whom also would go on to become youth, jr. high, and high school state placers with a couple of State Champions thrown in there as well! Sonny Lucas, Austin Hiles (who Nicky lost to in the OHSAA Finals match his Junior year), Danny Morell, Frankie Regalbutta, Luke Strnad, Kevin Naim, Nicky Kiussis, Zach D'Anna, Andrew Perelka, Jason and Jarod Bronstrup...what a great room and awesome group of hard working, fun kids.  What made it even better was that I got along great with all the parents and we just had a blast watching our youth team decimate other teams.  I remain friends with just about all of them to this day. Here's some pics of Nick's Brecksville days:

So for the next two years we would wrestle for the Brecksville youth program.  They did it right.  They had a tough tournament schedule and it wasn't a 90 day program like North Royalton.  If you put your kid in a tournament you could bet that he would have a teammate there to warm up with and spend time with throughout the day.  

North Royalton only participated in the OYWA. Brecksville went to OYWA and the Ohio Athletic Committe (OAC).  The OAC State Tournament was scheduled about a month after the OYWA State Tournament.  They both are prestigious.  The OYWA is a mini version of the High School State qualification process.  What I mean by that is the top 4 placers in each weight class in a Sectional Tournament advance the following week to a District Tournament. The top 4 placers in the District Tournament then qualify for the State Championship Tournament. The OAC only has District Tournaments, and you don't have to be a varsity member on any league team (since there is no OAC league) to attend a District Tournament and qualify for their State Tournament.  

Kids that wrestle in the OAC are usually in a little better shape, and their skill sets are a little bit sharper with that extra month or so of additional practice.  Also kids participate from all over the state of Ohio.  The OYWA participants were limited to the teams that were in the league.  While it wasn't a huge difference, you will definitely see some very high quality youth wrestlers at the OAC District and State Tournaments that you didn't have a chance to wrestle in the OYWA. Also, because there were no varsity line up requirements, any wrestler could engage in the event.  So the brackets are huge.   
For the most part, the great wrestlers from the OYWA also wrestle in the OAC.  

I always wondered why the North Royalton Wrestling Club didn't do things like their more successful neighbors at Brecksville did. Like take part in the OAC. There were only two wrestlers from the N. Royalton Wrestling Club, when Nicky began, who eventually captured a High School State Championship. Nicky...and Matt Fields. 

                     

While Matt stayed at N.Royalton all throughout his youth career, in my opinion, it was the extra that he got in addition to the N. Royalton program that made that long term difference. Matt was in Mike Heil's room (right after the end of the N.R.Y.W.C.'s season ended...just like Nicky) and accompanied TWC on wrestling trips. In other words his dad also established a relationship with Mike Heil. His dad also made sure that in the off season he was attending camps and clinics from Eric and Scott Burnett who run the Burnett Trained Wrestling Club (BTW) and have excellent camps and clinics.  They are legends.  

I am not trying to disparage the N.Royalton Youth Club.  I am very appreciative of the help and instruction they provided Nicky in the first three years of his wrestling career.  But, in my opinion, their limited participation in the off season is why their wrestlers didn't have any notable long term post season success.  From 1st to 8th grades whenever Nick attended a tough off season tournament we would rarely see a N.R. wrestler there...whereas you would always see a TWC, BTW, Brecksville, Elyria, Wadsworth, or Westshore (St. Ed's) in attendance.  Like that old saying goes....success leaves clues.  And that is why I left their club. Word to the wise.  You have to do what is best for your kid. If someone can't understand this and harbors a grudge then that's their problem. 

My next 3 or 4 posts will wrap up Nick's youth career.  It sure is fun writing this and thinking back about all the great times and the people we shared them with.  The wrestling community is like no other.

Here's a video of Nick wrestling in an OAC District Tournament against a tough youth opponent.  See if you can catch the little elbow he threw into Nick at the very end of their match.  I didn't catch it myself..Nick told me about it.  Nick took it in stride. Cool and calm is how he handled himself throughout his entire career. Super proud of him.
    

My Son Nick Kiussis Accomplished A Major Goal In His Life!

My Son Nick Kiussis Won A High School Wrestling State Championship!

A Testimony To His Perseverance...

This past March, on March 11th to be exact, my oldest son Nick accomplished a major goal in his life.  He won an Ohio Wrestling State Championship (OHSAA Division 1) in the 160 lb. weight class as a Senior wrestling for Brunswick High School!

Of course I'm biased as I am his father, but I think most people who know the circumstances of this achievement view it as being somewhat special as well.  The next few posts are going to be, for the most part, the story of that journey.  I feel the need to document some of the important points of this experience before they fade with the passage of time. 

Nicky, as we affectionately call him in our family, started wrestling when he was in first grade at the age of 7.  He came home from school one October day excitedly waving a flyer around that was passed out at school that day. "Daddy! Daddy! They have wrestling! Can I join?"  "Of course you can buddy!" I replied.  That day set everything in motion.  A twelve year journey that now, when I look back at it, were among the most incredible years of our family's life.

See, what very few people know outside of my family is that when my wife Pam was pregnant with Nicky I use to tell her...and Nicky inside her belly...that he was my wrestler and that one day he would be a state champion!  This wasn't a once or twice occurrence mind you...I spent a LOT of time rubbing Pam's belly and telling Nicky how much I looked forward to his arrival and all the things I wanted to do with him.  So he heard this a great deal.

The days both my sons were born were by far the happiest days of my life.  Nothing compares.  Since Nicky was my first born it was definitely the more emotional of the two...being a first time father present at his son's birth was just absolutely overwhelming to me.  I remember looking at him...and crying.  Just crying, unabashedly, because the love I felt was so instantly deep that I knew I would never be the same man again.  And I never was.  My reason WHY arrived.  And when my incredible son Kevin arrived 3 and a half years later my reason WHY doubled.  Being a great father to them and teaching them how to be stand up men was my purpose.

God blessed Nicky with extraordinary athleticism.  I was very athletic when I was younger myself, but because of a troubled home life and bad relationship with my father I never had the opportunity to showcase it in the school arena.  I was bound and determined to give Nicky and Kevin every opportunity within my means to showcase their talents...whatever they may be and however unique they may be to each boy.  Nicky started walking and a day later was running on uneven ground! Exceptional balance.  The lady's at the day care that he was at who witnessed this remarked to my wife how amazed they were by this.

The first few years of a young boy's wrestling career can be tough. For the most part it's all about teaching the kids the basics of the sport.  Ant that's what he began to learn in the North Royalton Youth Wrestling Club.  What a good stance is and how to stay in one.  Learning how to move. How to sprawl.  How to change levels and penetrate so you can accomplish a takedown.  How to spin around an opponent and get behind so you can score. A basic breakdown, stand up escape, and a pinning combination or two round things out.  It's really about teaching them the basics and teaching them to work hard while making sure they're having fun doing so.  

As with all sports, kids have differing levels of ability with some being able to advance faster than others.  This was the case with Nicky.  Halfway through the season the coaches felt it was appropriate to move him to the other side of the room to practice with the more experienced boys.  Kids who had at least two years of experience.  The youth club was for kids in grades 1-6 so, for the most part, the average kid had about three years of experience.  Not every kid starts in first grade like Nicky.  Some start rolling around as young as 4 yrs. old, and some start their first year when they are in 4th, 5th, or 6th grades.  Nicky began to wrestle some of the kids who were a couple years older with a few more years experience...and he gave them all they could handle.  By the time he was 9 he was wrestling varsity for the club and competing against the other boys in his weight class from other clubs within our league, the Ohio Youth Wrestling Association.  Here's a picture when he was 7 yrs. old and in his first year of wrestling with the North Royalton Youth Wrestling Club.  All 55 lbs. of him! He's in the red and black shirt with his headgear on hitting the double bicep pose!

 Life is all about relationships.  Over the course of Nicky's first three seasons I met a lot of other dads who I became friendly with. Some of them had a few sons who were wrestling and who therefore were more experienced in what it took to develop a young wrestler at a high level.  I took notice.  I listened. I learned.  I saw that I had many of the right ideas concerning Nicky's development. And because of this I decided that some changes and additional effort on my part had to take place.

The coaches at the North Royalton Youth Wrestling club were decent enough fellows...but the program was a 90 day club that did not make a commitment outside of that time period towards making the kids better.  No camps to retain the skills they learned during the season...no tournaments that they would go to as a team where the boys could continue to learn how to compete.  I didn't agree with this philosophy.  I took note that other teams, the feeder teams of the successful high school programs in our area, were doing things much differently.

Another thing that made the decision to look for a different youth club for Nicky to wrestle out of rather easy was the fact that there was a personality conflict between the head coach and I.  It was nothing major...but I could tell that he didn't like me.  And well, the feeling was mutual.  I'm a pretty straight shooter.  I'm not everybody's cup of tea...nor do I try to be.  I was pretty aggressive about rooting on my boy (I've been told my voice carries) and I also wrestled Nicky at tournaments on the weekends when our club team wasn't competing at anything other than their league matches. While the other parents kids were getting one or two matches a week, Nicky was getting in four or five.  So in a nutshell, without going into a whole lot of details, I decided after Nicky's third youth season to enroll him into one of the more successful youth wrestling programs in the area.

Here's his win loss record for his first three seasons wrestling for the North Royalton Youth Club.

Season One: (23-10) Pins/Techs (20)
Season Two: (27-2)  Pins/Techs (19)
Season Three: (31-14) Pins/Techs (22) 

This wraps up the story of Nicky's 1st three years of his youth wrestling career.  The next entry will chronicle the following three years where he begins to emerge as a major youth contender in the State of Ohio.  Until then here's a few videos that you can check out!
   
a

Today Was Just One Of Those Days

What To Do When You Get In A Funk

"Happiness depends upon ourselves."...Aristotle

Sometimes it's just like that. There are those days when your best just doesn't seem good enough.  When it rains it pours kind of days. They strike you out of the blue.  It's the complete randomness that makes it so potent.  A sale or two may be canceled. Your vehicle breaks down. You forgot your significant others birthday...or worse your anniversary. Yikes.

Still got to get through the day though.  

This morning I had a dream about my dear mom who departed this world a few years ago.  So real it was.  Made me miss her a great deal and that pretty much set the tone for how my morning was going to go.  And then I found out that a few sales I made last week weren't going to pan out. Great huh?

But...

That's okay. Nobody but a prozac patient is happy all the time. It's okay to own the negative feelings that we all have. I recognized them and eventually made my way through them. I tuned into a few good videos that I found on the IQ Morning Report...I don't always have the luxury to tune in to the IQ Morning Report in the morning!  It's a great pick me up any time of the day actually. That began to turn my day around. See I get that just because I start my day off crappy doesn't mean I have to end my day in a crappy manner. And that's my message for the day.  Short and sweet. Like my wife. Who always makes me happy.

Until next time...

#YouMatterTremendously

#GoldenRuleLifeStrategy

Today's video: Here's a fella who gets it. What a powerful life philosophy he adheres to. 

     

Persistence

Persistence Succeeds Where Nothing Else Can!

"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."...Calvin Coolidge

"Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success."...Napoleon Hill

Persistence succeeds where nothing else can. I'll swear by this statement. We all have seen it time and time again.  That little boy who was average at best when they began a sport...but who persisted until they were a force to be reckoned with. The little girl who was told she would never be good enough at singing who went on to become a platinum selling artist. The business person or inventor who was told their vision was "crazy" or unobtainable who summarily discounted those opinions to achieve enormous success. We're all very familiar with these types of stories.

I read a great meme the other day. It said: "Tired of starting over? Quit giving up." Man...how true is that? I know there are at least 500,000 things that I could have mastered had I stayed with them. Okay maybe 10...but you get the point.

And we all know this beyond a shadow of a doubt. All of us have at some time or another persisted in something till we got what we wanted or achieved a goal. And the payoff that comes with doing such is incredible.  The emotional payoff is what I'm talking about here. There's very little that compares to the feeling of taking on something that others say you can't or won't achieve...and then achieving it.  It's like BAM!  Perhaps we all need to remember those victories when we are encountered by the obstacles and setbacks that too often derail us. 

It's important to stay motivated.  Things go wrong.  Mistakes are going to be made.  We just can't let these things crush our souls. Every mistake IS truly a stepping stone for another opportunity. There is, undoubtedly, a lesson...a takeaway from every experience we go through in life. Some of the strongest and wisest people I've ever known or encountered went through unbelievable adversity. Some of their stories were heart wrenching. The types of things you couldn't image experiencing. But they came through demonstrating remarkable resiliency and persistence.

Persistence.  That's what it takes to achieve anything worthwhile. Here's the formula: Persistence + Persistence + Persistence + Persistence + Persistence + Persistence + Persistence + Persistence + Persistence + Persistence = SUCCESS! 

Until next time:

#YouMatterTremendously
#GoldenRuleLifeStrategy

Here's today's video: 

Happy Independence Day America!

Happy Independence Day!  It's All About Your Freedom.

"America will never be destroyed from the outside.  If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."...Abraham Lincoln

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same."...Ronald Reagan

Sometimes I think about my little time and space. My life as it is in the grand scheme of things. And without fail I come away happy and proud to be an American. Especially on the Fourth of July.  I had a sociologist professor once...Dr. Krebs...who said that there are over 2,000 ways to be human. I always remembered that.  It's so profound.  So many different ways to go about the business of being human on planet Earth!

I'm pretty sure most people feel about their country exactly as I do about the United States.  It's just in us to identify with great passion and affection the country and culture we grow up and reside in. I'm also sure that there are millions upon millions of people who started out in another country and culture, who eventually made their way to the United States, and fell in love with our way of life. Most have never returned to their original homeland again.  Not after experiencing American freedom and prosperity.

We welcome everybody here.  It's easy to understand the appeal of the United States.  It's all about FREEDOM.  There is nowhere on Earth that so many people have traveled to in order to escape the suffocating pressure of oppressive and often punitive governments, stagnant economies, and restricted personal liberties. 

We are a nation born from a revolution that desired a level of freedom never previously experienced. Our growth and world standing developed from a shared national and cultural identity that says: "It's okay to be who you are...as long as who you are embraces and elevates our way of life."  You are free to express yourself completely, in every manner of doing so. You are free to sound off on our government without having to worry about being thrown in prison or being killed.  You are free to worship the religion of your choice.  You are free to live a lifestyle that many may not understand...or even agree with...but at least you are free to do so. So many who have traveled here came from places where these freedoms that I just described, and which we enjoy on a daily basis, would result in a swift death sentence.

It's easy to enjoy these freedoms.  But as we all know...freedom isn't free.  Our country has had many internal convulsions to figure out what is in our best interest. We endured a Civil War.  We saved the free world in World War 2.  We've played the world police when other nations stood by idly at gross injustices performed by rogue and tyrannical governments. We have advanced civil rights. We advocate worldwide human rights. We demonstrate our compassion by extending relief and aid by the hundreds of millions of dollars annually.  Our military personel sacrifice their lives and limbs to ensure our way of life and to help others who would be victimized and bullied by their very own people and governments.

True freedom is hard to come by.  It's not easy to be in our position. We are opposed and criticized at every turn.  There are now...more than ever...segments within our population who would love to see our way of life to crumble and be replaced with something different...anarchists abound.  Be careful what you wish for is what I always think.  Too many short sighted people.  We have done an unbelievably great job keeping such a diverse population content to the extent that it is.  I have a hard time imagining a society of our size being able to do it any better.

The convulsions will continue.  But so will the American way of life.  We will work out our issues.  Everyone has to be all in on this. Our national identity needs to be adhered to.  I would be leery of straying too far away from the ideas and philosophies that have led to the great minds and contributors that we have produced.  

God Bless the U.S.A. and HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!

Until next time...

#YouMatterTremendously

#GoldenRuleLifeStrategy

Here's today's video: An amazing story of how our National Anthem came about. 

   

Haters Gonna Hate

It Makes No Sense To Be Jealous

"The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves."...William Penn

Haters gonna hate.  You hear this expression all the time.  And I guess when you hear something all the time there's a certain degree of truth to it.  It does seem that people who are jealous like to rain on other peoples parades quite a bit nowadays.  The most puzzling thing about it all is that it's quite unnecessary.  It makes no sense to be jealous.  It's destructive and very self defeating to being the best version of yourself possible.

We should take great effort to avoid being jealous or worse, resentful of other peoples good fortune.  It's toxic thinking. It robs us of having an appreciation of all the things that we are in possession of and who we are.  And it in no way furthers your ability to improve in any area of your life.  

Most of the people who enjoy a good amount of success in life have had to earn it. Sure there are many people who were possibly born into more favorable circumstances.  Perhaps their parents, or grandparents, or great grandparents...you get the picture...were the originators of the lifestyle they enjoy, but should we really hold that against them?  

People get where they are, and have what they have in life because they adhere to a certain life philosophy.  If your life philosophy is dominated by thinking things through and making good decisions, developing sound plans and then taking action to see those plans become reality. you can enjoy the rewards that are available to you in this world.  But fair warning!  Hard work, persistence, sacrifice, character, working well with other people...all these things will play a role in exactly how successful you can ultimately become. 

The greatest thing we can do...instead of being jealous of other people...is learn from them.  Try to emulate what they are doing, or have done, to allow them to enjoy the lifestyle we desire.  We all can learn so much from other people...and I truly believe that most people who enjoy a large degree of success also like to pay it forward. There is a lot of satisfaction to be gained by them knowing that they had something to do with another persons success.  Ask questions.  Approach people. Be bold but not obnoxious and I think you would be surprised how many people would carve some time out of their schedule to lend someone a hand.

Avoid jealousy at all costs. Learn how to celebrate other people's victories and good fortune.  It says so much about a person who is able to do so. Jealousy robs you of being secure in who you are.  It diminishes your self esteem and self worth. Your better than that. You have enormous value.   

Until next time...

#YouMatterTremendously

#GoldenRuleLifeStrategy

Here's another great video.  It's a pretty in depth look at jealousy.

Today Could Be The Day

The Best Day Of Your Life Could Be Today

"Learn from the past, but don't live there.  Build on what you know so that you don't repeat mistakes.  Resolve to learn something new everyday.  Because every 24 hours you have the opportunity to have the best day of (your) company's life....Harvey Mackay

Last Sunday was Father's Day and I made a post about how it was somewhat special as I live in the Greater Cleveland area and the Cleveland Cavaliers were playing for an NBA Championship.  It was Game 7 between the CAVS and the Golden State Warriors and against all odds the CAVS, led by the incredible LeBron James and the young superstar Kyrie Irving, pulled off the upset and won the Championship!  Let me tell you it was an amazing feeling to have a Championship team finally arrive in Cleveland!  The parade that occurred a few days later in downtown Cleveland was spectacular, with an estimated 1.3 million people flooding the area to express their gratitude to the team.

This series between the CAVS and the Warriors can serve to illustrate a few important life lessons.  The CAVS were down in the series 3-1 and pretty much all of the experts expected the Golden State Warriors to close out the series.  After all...no team in NBA history had come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the championship.

The CAVS can be symbolic of you!  Perhaps things have been tough for you for an extended period of time.  Perhaps much longer than you expected.  You may have sustained bruises to your ego and your self confidence may have suffered a bit. Life can be way more grueling than any sporting event can be.   It can be merciless at times.

The key to surviving it all is to "keep on keeping on."  Sustain the belief in yourself that you can overcome any obstacle given enough time. You just have to get through it all.  Along the way if you're doing the right things; keeping a good attitude, working hard at whatever you're doing, helping others as much as you can despite your own hardships and/or limitations, then life will surely take notice.  Life will introduce you to people who will help you if you allow them to.  Opportunities will present them to you if you are open to them...looking for them.  They may not be the opportunities or people that you were expecting.  That matters little.  What matters is your ability to persevere and your ability...your resolve...to see yourself through whatever it is life throws at you.

On any given day things can change for you.  A conversation.  A Help Wanted ad. An idea.  A chance encounter.  A friendship developed.  A relationship blossomed.  So many different things. Any given day holds the potential for the pendulum of good fortune to swing in your favor.  The best day of your life could be today. Or tomorrow.  Or the day after that.  That is one of the most beautiful things about life.

Until next time...

#YouMatterTremendously

#GoldenRuleLifeStrategy

Here's this week's video: It's awesome.  The Butterfly Effect.