Monday Morning Wake Up Call

Your Motivation, Inspiration, & Direction for the Week Ahead

Follow Your Passion! Happy Monday! Isn’t it great to be alive? What if you knew you only had a year to live? How would you approach today?   I recently read the story of Anthony Burgess, who was just 40 when he learned that he had a brain tumor and had only one year to live. He was completely broke at the time and didn’t have anything to leave for his wife, Lynne, who would soon be a widow.   Burgess had always dreamed of being a writer but had never pursued the passion. His desire was to create income that his wife would have after he died. If he published a book, his wife would receive the royalties. With that thought in mind, he put a piece of paper into a typewriter and began writing. Though there was no guarantee that he would be published, he couldn’t think of anything else to do. “It was January of 1960,” he recalled, “and according to the prognosis, I had a winter and spring and summer to live through, and would die with the fall of the leaf.”   Burgess wrote energetically, finishing nearly six novels before the fall. The irony is that Burgess did not die; his cancer went into remission and then disappeared altogether. In his long, full life as a novelist, he wrote more than 70 books. He’s best known for A Clockwork Orange, which also became a movie. If not for the death sentence Burgess thought had been handed down by cancer, he may never have written at all. It’s a great reminder to live every single day, week, month and year for all it’s worth!   Something to Think About Many of us are like Anthony Burgess – hiding greatness inside, waiting for an external emergency to bring it out. Ask yourself what you’d do if you were in Anthony Burgess’s original predicament. How would you live differently today?   Weekly Challenge Is there something that you can do differently in the second half of 2015 to move your real estate career from good to great? What do you need to do for that to happen? Take at least one step toward greatness in your career this week.   Words of Wisdom “Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone.” – Anthony Burgess “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” – Mark Twain “A great man is always willing to be little.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson “You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it courageously.” – Steve Maraboli “Today is a new day. Don’t let your history interfere with your destiny! Let today be the day you stop being a victim of your circumstances and start taking action toward the life you want. You have the power and the time to shape your life. Break free from the poisonous victim mentality and embrace the truth of your greatness. You were not meant for a mundane or mediocre life!” - – Steve Maraboli