As I write to you, we are officially in the second month of 2021. The time is moving rather quickly and I hope that you are making progress and being productive. Unfortunately, by about the third week of January most people have given up on their goals and returned to life as normal. That does not have to be the case for you this year. You can break cycles, interrupt patterns, and create lasting change in your life. I would like to share a few keys with you on how to discern and leverage key moments of opportunity in your life for momentum and breakthrough. I hope that these principles will help you to harness the seed of your potential and achieve extraordinary things in 2021 and beyond.
You have to eliminate excuses. If you did revert back to what was familiar in January, then I want you to own that and take responsibility for it. One thing I have learned over the years is that you cannot change what you are unwilling to take responsibility for. So take some responsibility for your actions. Excuses only empower our failure and perpetuate cycles of frustration in our lives. The greatest cure for excuses is execution. You can keep naming all the reasons why you cannot change. Or you can make the decision that this is the moment that you are going to change your life. Excuses are nothing more than monuments that we build to mediocrity in our lives. You can settle for comfortable but you will never see change in your life. It is only when we are willing to get uncomfortable that we see breakthroughs and radical change happen in our lives. Make this the year that you get rid of the excuses and you take responsibility for your life. Responsibility determines the dimension that you live from and ultimately the direction that your life takes.
You have to shift your paradigm. If you have followed my work over the years, then you know that I believe that all change begins with thought. In other words, you will never see radical change in your life until you first renew your mind. I discovered decades ago that many times we live our lives adjusted to old paradigms. Old paradigms are shaped by environment, family dynamics, conditioning and circumstances. In order to shift your paradigm, you must address self-limiting beliefs and perceptions. These are the ideologies and philosophies that imprison you to cycles of inferiority, dysfunction, fear, frustration, failure, etc. Toxic thoughts must be replaced with healthy intentional thoughts. This is not an overnight process. However, it is absolutely essential to your success and prosperity. We have all heard the saying that a mind is a terrible thing to waste. However, I would venture out to say that a mind is a deadly thing to neglect. You must remain devoted to the guarding and the growth of your mind if you want to see breakthroughs in every area of your life.
You must be positioned for moments of opportunity. I've heard so many people over the years tell me that opportunities never seem to come their way. However, before they can finish I normally cut them off and tell them that is not true. I am sure some of you are saying what do I mean by that. At one time in my life, I told myself that no opportunities were coming my way. Then I started renewing my mind and that changed everything for me. I realized that the opportunities had always been present but I was not positioned to take advantage of the opportunities. Your posture is critical to your success and prosperity. One of the most dangerous places to be is out of position and out of divine timing. Your ability to remain postured will determine your progress and the possession of every promise in your life. Opportunities do not always favor the most talented or even the most prepared. Opportunities favor those that are able to position themselves at the right place and at the right time. So make a decision that you are going to position yourself for all the great opportunities that are coming your way. You will never take advantage of what you have no aligned for. Alignment is the womb of access. Alignment is the portal into amazing new possibilities.
You must be able to discern moments of opportunity. Several years ago, I released my autobiography and in the book I talked about the lessons and principles that have governed my success. My life and work has earned me respect around the world. However, what most people fail to understand is that success was not overnight for me. In fact, my failures empowered my success. My failures were never barriers to my success but building blocks that laid the foundation for success and prosperity in my life. While many principles have contributed to my success over the years, the principle of discernment has been pivotal on my journey. Positioning for success is very important. On the other hand, positioning without perception will only paralyze the seed of your potential. How have I been able to make progress and see consistent wins in my life? My success is the product of me learning to seize key moments of opportunity in my life. Where others saw obscurity I saw opportunity. While others were living with possibility blindness, I was perceiving breakthroughs in my life. Discernment is the doorway to a life of dominion. If you want to thrive in 2021, then I want to challenge you to perceive key moments of opportunity in your life. You can see the glass as half empty or you can see the glass as half full. Your perception will determine what is possible for your life. What you cannot perceive you will never possess. Perception gives you the ability to see life in places where others only see death, to see hope in places others only see hopelessness, and to have faith when others have surrendered to fear. Perception is the ability to see the invisible and seize the impossible.