I am blessed to have had an amazing conversation with a very successful CEO of an International Corporation last night but even more so blessed to call him my friend. It started off as the usual catching up and led into him inquiring how I have been feeling since I had a mini stroke just a few months ago. We shared some laughs over how I recalled laying in my hospital bed with my neurologist standing over me, my entire right side of my body motionless, my inability to swallow, or even say the simple word, “Huckleberry” off of the white piece of paper my doctor was holding up in front of my face. My friend and I laughed because I shared with him, that in that exact moment, although my body did not want to cooperate with me; I was 150% mentally there. I understood everything my doctor was saying and felt so frustrated that I was simply trapped inside my own body. I shared with my friend, the mental thought I had looking up at my doctor. I explained that at that very moment, I remembered telling myself, “Dammit, I teach people every day the power our mind has and I will be damned if I am going to lay here and be a hypocrite!” So, looking down at my right hand that was stiffened into the shape of a claw and my right leg unable to move, I continued to tell myself “You WILL work!” My friend laughed at me as he responded to my story with a big smile, “I have no doubt you told yourself that and I agree just how powerful our minds are.”

It was this story though that prompted him to propose two scenarios that he said he has often asked others when they experience ‘life changing moments.’ You see, he, himself, was not supposed to live past his mid twenties and he continues to prove that diagnosis wrong over 20 years later. And so he continued,

“Jacque, if I had told you five years ago that you would live a normal life, experience all the success you have to date, of course go through any medical hiccups any one else would in life but then all of a sudden you would have a life changing event occur one day. And from that event, if the coin was flipped and landed heads up you would be able to carry on. However, if the coin landed tails up, well, you know what would happen then. Anyway, if I was to tell you this, what would you do different now? How would you view things?”

As I thought about the questions but before I could answer, he proposed his second scenario.

“Jacque,” he said, “the other question I sometimes ask is; What if I told you that you just won one million dollars a year for the rest of your life? You have won the lottery! What would you do now that you haven’t been doing?”

Again, he went on to explain that throughout his life he has proposed these scenarios to people along the way and he found that in both situations they would explain the life course corrections they would make, the life changes they would consider or even some simple things like buying a new car, spending more time with their families, starting a business, or just even changing jobs. He then paused and waited for my response.

“You see, ironically I have always believed that all happens for a reason; good or bad. I have a great deal of faith and try to teach my children and even my clients that I truly do believe that life happens for us not to us…so, although I experienced challenges and had a medically unexplained mini-stroke; I viewed even that as God’s way of forcing me to sit down for a minute, expand and grow the TITANIUM seminar content, start my book, and inspire even more people through what I do each day. Don’t get me wrong, even I had my frustrations and days of questioning but would catch myself and get back on track. As for winning the lottery,” I continued, “well, I used to say years ago that if I had won the lottery I would start a non-profit organization to help even more people, give back to even more people; and to make the largest impact possible. However, today, I realized that I stopped waiting to win the lottery to do that. I have copy written content and patent pending techniques that can help so many and that is why I am excited about my mission of not only helping individuals and corporations on a daily basis build more Confidence, so they can take more Actions, and achieve the ultimate Results in life but to be able to host these seminars for non-profit organizations to give others that normally wouldn’t have access to these coaching sessions or training. So, I am doing what I have always wanted to do when I won the lottery. For me, now, anyway…I wouldn’t do anything different than what I am doing today and every day.”

He just smiled and we continued on with our conversations, catching up, and the partnering that we will be doing together to make that ‘lottery mission’ of mine even more of a reality for so many others. But it was later last night that I realized how many people do wait to hear those words before they take the actions to STOP holding themselves back? Why must you hear that you are dying? Why must you win the lottery? Any reason that is going through your head right now is just an excuse! And when you stop telling yourself the excuse and START taking Actions, no matter how small they may seem, only then will you realize we are ALL dying but we ALL have also won the lottery. The lottery of life, free will, and the choices to LIVE and INSPIRE!

I have won the lottery and I am dying but I am proud of it! Are you?

CONFIDENCE. ACTIONS. RESULTS. ™