Maximize Your Life

You’ve heard me say that when I was doing time at Leavenworth, I was amazed that so many guys would get re-arrested after they were free, despite swearing they’d never return. I was also amazed there was no programming to teach people how to be successful or to be prepared to reenter society. 

I was the youngest of seven, raised on welfare by my single mom. I was the first to graduate high school conventionally, the first to go to college, the first to become successfully self-employed, and the first to become a millionaire. 

I was also the first to lose a multi-million dollar real estate investment portfolio and the first to go to federal prison. Part of my downfall was that no one ever taught me how to be successful. Sure, I made money, but making money alone isn’t a success, given how easy it is to lose! No one taught me how to keep my success and grow it.  

Making money alone isn’t a success.

Some incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people think they can’t be successful because of their criminal history. As a felon, I can tell you that’s not true! The trouble is, until this course, we weren’t taught HOW to be successful. Most of us had a hard enough time just trying to survive, much less trying to be successful. 

You don’t have to be rich to be successful

Everyone has their own definition of success. You don’t have to be rich to be successful. Trying to be rich sometimes makes you compromise your beliefs, and take risks that have consequences. I liked being rich, but I’m happier now.  For me, success is living a comfortable life, providing for my family with all of my needs met, and still being able to help someone along the way. 

Whatever success means to you, I want to share a couple of simple and practical tools that successful people use to be successful, maintain, and grow their success. You don’t have to wait until you’re released to use these. Mastering these tools will help you get out and stay out!

To maximize your life, you need to grow in all areas of your life.

In my book Illegal to Legal, I recommend you focus on your strengths because your strengths will give you the best results for your work.  

I still believe that, but there are two problems with focusing on your strengths:

1. Our greatest strengths are also our greatest weaknesses. 
2. Focusing just on your strengths can make your life unbalanced.

I’ve been to Kenya numerous times and I learned a saying while there:

“If your only tool is a hammer, all of your problems are nails.” 

The reason I think sometimes our greatest strength is also our greatest weakness is because we tend to use our strengths for every situation. 

One of my strengths is I have a strong work ethic. I work hard and get a lot done. It’s also my greatest weakness. Over time, I became a workaholic, which helped cost me my first two marriages. 

I enjoyed my hard work’s success, but at what cost? 

It’s easy for me to tell you to focus on your strengths and focus on your goals, but the reality of life is while focus is good it doesn’t solve all your problems. You have to try to maintain balance in all areas of life for the best possible life. 

If you don’t figure out how to balance your life you may end up with two divorces like me, or worse! 

It sounds hard, but it’s not, once you master and practice the simple tool I will teach you in this course. 

First, let’s nail down the areas in life to focus on for growth. 

I believe there are Six Aspects of Life:

• Spiritual/Mental (This area is important and often overlooked. We exercise our bodies to be healthier, we need to take care of our spiritual and mental parts too! This includes mood, motivation, and overall well-being)
• Relational (how we relate to, and have relationships with, other people in our lives) 
• Personal (how I manage myself, my life, recreation, habits, addictions, hobbies)
• Physical Fitness/Health (exercise, eating right, weight, diet) 
• Work (my job, career, or business)
• Financial (how I manage my money and my standard of living)

To maximize your life you need to grow in all areas of your life. It’s easiest to grow in the areas closest to your strengths and passions. For me, it was easiest to focus on Work, but I didn’t make enough of an effort in the Relational category so my family life suffered. 

I know guys who spent so much time at the gym, addicted to working out, that their Relational and Work lives suffered. 

Another example of how our greatest strengths can become our greatest weakness.