Arel Moodie International (AMI)

What is Success? Who is Arel Moodie? Why Should I Care? These questions are answerd in this blog :)

Monday, March 29, 2010

Perception is Reality

To properly and actively create the life you want, you have to take full responsibility for your actions and results. All of the successes you have had and the failures you have experienced are all because of you. It is interesting how so many people attribute their success to skill, and their failures to luck or chance. The truth is everything you do or don’t do is within your control.

After speaking at a college orientation program about the five pillars discussed in this blog, a young lady who was visibly upset approached me. She let me know she had a problem with my presentation. When I asked why, she said everything I said made sense to her except this one principle. I asked her to explain.

She told me a lot of things have happened and still continue to happen in her life that she has no control over. She then told me her chances of success were limited because she grew up poor. She felt if she only had grown up with a rich family who could afford to pro- vide her more things in her life, she would be better and have different results. She wanted to know how could I stand there and tell her she is responsible for growing up poor and not having the same opportunities as others.

At this point, I stopped and took a moment to think about what she had just said, because I could tell she was swelling with emotion and this was a sensitive topic for her. I then replied by saying, “Yes, you are correct. You had nothing to do with where you were born or who your family is. That was out of your control.” I visibly noticed her sigh a deep breath of relief, since it seemed as if I were letting her off the hook. Then I said, “Let me ask you a question. Have you ever heard of anyone else who grew up poor, in a bad neighborhood, and with little opportunity who became successful?”

She said “Well, yeah, you hear these stories all the time about the American dream, rags to riches stories. What’s your point?”

I then said, “Well, do you think any of those rags-to-riches individuals are better than you? Of course they aren’t. If another person can do something, so can you. If only one other person came from a similar or worse background than you and succeeded, there is no reason you can’t. The only reason you can’t is because you tell yourself you can’t.” Our different backgrounds start all of us out on uneven playing fields, but the one thing we all have access to is the opportunity for change. As Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right!”

You may not be able to change the past, but you can change your future.

You have to just believe what you want to achieve and who you want to be are possible. Motivational speaker Les Brown once said you can say two words to yourself that will keep you going when you feel like quitting — if you say and believe these two words, you are on your way to achieve massive success no matter your background. Those two words are “It’s possible.” When you want something in your life, just say to yourself, “It’s possible.”

As long as you believe it’s possible and you actively move toward your objectives, you will achieve your goals. Taking full responsibility for your life starts with developing a mindset that believes your dreams and aspirations are possible and you will make them come true.

Taking full responsibility for your life means no matter what has happened to you in the past, you are willing to change your future. Taking full responsibility for your life means failure is not an option.

Arel Moodie is widely known as America's Top Young Speaker. He has spoken to over 65,000 students in 39 states and 2 countries on the topics of student success, student leadership and student entrepreneurship. He is a leading authority on helping students of this generation succeed in school and in life. He is also the best selling author of the book Your Starting Point For Student Success. To find out more about Arel's book, go to www.startingpointbook.com. To find out more about Arel's speaking please go to www.arelmoodie.com.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

The First Pillar: The Key to Creating Success in Your Life, Fast

Many people constantly look for the key to success — that mythical secret that once you know it, all of the unknown mysteries of the world will be unlocked, leading to a life of luxury, riches, and happiness. Well, believe it or not, that key actually does exist... to an extent. And you are about to learn it. The only thing I have to tell you is this secret really isn’t that much of a secret. And no, it is not some magical mantra you must train with an ancient Tibetan monk for countless years to earn the right to know.

Most people may think they already know it (the operative word is
“think”), but here it is:

The only person responsible
for your life, your results, and your success is you.

The reason why I emphasized the word “think” two sentences ago is because you really don’t know something until you apply it fully to your life, until you use it consistently and make it part of who you are. Until that point, you have just heard about it, read about it, or spoken about it, but you don’t really know it. Knowing comes from application.

Taking responsibility for yourself is the most important, fundamental principle of success you have to “know” to truly become successful. In the classic book The E-Myth, author Michael Gerber nails this concept by stating the major difference between extraordinary and ordinary people. Extraordinary people (and I know you want to be extraordinary or else you wouldn’t be reading this book) actively create the lives they want, while ordinary people passively respond to what has been given to them. Your life begins to dramatically improve when you take responsibility for everything in your life — everything.

Arel Moodie is widely known as America's Top Young Speaker. He has spoken to over 65,000 students in 39 states and 2 countries on the topics of student success, student leadership and student entrepreneurship. He is a leading authority on helping students of this generation succeed in school and in life. He is also the best selling author of the book Your Starting Point For Student Success. To find out more about Arel's book, go to www.startingpointbook.com. To find out more about Arel's speaking please go to www.arelmoodie.com.

Monday, March 22, 2010

How To Get The Most Out Of This Blog: Success Tip – Don't Just Read... Learn!

My recommendation is to read this blog and choose one of the five principles to implement into your life. Work on one, then move on to the next, then the next, and then the next. I would also recommend instead of working toward quantity, work toward quality. No prize is given to the person who has read the most blogs and remembered the least. Work on mastery, not just volume.

That is why you should read this blog at least twice and use it as a ready reference after you’re done. The reason you want to read it twice is that you may miss something the first time, or something may make more sense to you the second time around. The reason why you want to keep referring to it is so you can take a self-inventory of how well you are actively applying these principles to your life. You will also have the opportunity to go to www.yourstartingpointonline.com to get more resources and materials to help make sure you are moving in the right direction.

I want to save you from making a lot of the same mistakes I’ve made over the years that countless other people make every single day when they think they are doing themselves a favor by educating themselves through reading. If you have committed this huge mistake before, it’s not your fault, because no one told you about it. But now that you are about to discover the solution to this common problem, you have no excuse.

First, allow me to demonstrate by example.

Have you ever sat down to study and read one page of your textbook over and over and over again only to ask yourself “What did I just read? I can’t remember anything?!?!” Oh, and it gets better. Have you ever taken an entire class and you can barely remember the name of the teacher who taught it, let alone one thing you learned from the class?!?

Keep it real, has that ever happened to you? Well, what that means is you have what I have diagnosed as “learningus for no reasonus.” What you read does not get committed to your memory because it didn’t apply to your life, and you didn’t take the few extra minutes to find out how it could apply to your life. So here is what you will do differently when reading this blog. You will ask yourself and ANSWER the following three questions at the end of each blog post so you can “get” the idea of the principles so you can apply them and use them in your life. Make sense? (PS: It’s a good idea to apply this philosophy to everything you are learning, whether in your classes or when you read a magazine, blog post, etc.)

Arel Moodie is widely known as America's Top Young Speaker. He has spoken to over 65,000 students in 39 states and 2 countries on the topics of student success, student leadership and student entrepreneurship. He is a leading authority on helping students of this generation succeed in school and in life. He is also the best selling author of the book Your Starting Point For Student Success. To find out more about Arel's book, go to www.startingpointbook.com. To find out more about Arel's speaking please go to www.arelmoodie.com.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Bridging the Gap Between You and Success

Right now, a gap exists in your life. A gap exists between where you currently are and where you want to be, between your dreams and your reality. This blog will help you close the gap between you and success.

As you follow this blog, you will be rejuvenated and totally pumped... ready to take life head-on. But this blog is not your life’s story; it’s just the first chapter—the prologue really. It’s a starting, or a turning, point for you.

Look, I don’t want to lie to you like a lot of other people out there often do. Many people make absurd comments such as, “This is the only blog you will ever need to read,” or “This one blog has everything you need to succeed.” That is a whole bunch of BS. No one blog has all of the answers. The bottom line is if you just want to read one blog and expect everything to be better, you are crazy.

Think of it like this: if you eat a salad once, will you become healthy? If you just go to the gym once, will you get six-pack abs? Absolutely not! It takes consistent actions over time of choosing healthy foods and working out to get in good shape. Your life is no different, and your success is no different.

BUT... if you get just one new idea from this blog, then your time was well spent. If you leave this blog with at least one concept that shifts your mindset and helps you grow, then you are on the right path. Just one idea could lead to complete success by influencing the decisions you will make from this point on.

Arel Moodie is widely known as America's Top Young Speaker. He has spoken to over 65,000 students in 39 states and 2 countries on the topics of student success, student leadership and student entrepreneurship. He is a leading authority on helping students of this generation succeed in school and in life. He is also the best selling author of the book Your Starting Point For Student Success. To find out more about Arel's book, go to www.startingpointbook.com. To find out more about Arel's speaking please go to www.arelmoodie.com.

Monday, March 15, 2010

What Separates the Truly Extraordinary from Everyone Else is One Simple Belief

“One thought can make you rich,
or it can put you in prison.”

-Earl Nightingale

Ideas lead to our beliefs. And beliefs become part of who we are.

Do you want to know what the most powerful belief you must have to succeed is? Okay, here it is...

But first, let me tell you about this funny video I saw on YouTube the other day...

Okay, I’m just joking, if this was a text message, this is where I’d type j/k... lol. In all seriousness, the one belief you need to know is

To be successful you must actually
start doing something and then keep going,
no matter what.

With so much information out there right now, what should you read first to get started properly on your journey to success? This blog was written to answer that question. It’s the starting point for your success. The entire goal of this blog is to get you started and to keep you headed in the right direction. And you’ll be able to do it by following five simple yet powerful principles I call Pillars of Success that will help you develop a solid foundation that will allow you to end up on top in a variety of situations.

Arel Moodie is widely known as America's Top Young Speaker. He has spoken to over 65,000 students in 39 states and 2 countries on the topics of student success, student leadership and student entrepreneurship. He is a leading authority on helping students of this generation succeed and school and in life. He is also the best selling author of the book Your Starting Point For Student Success. To find out more about Arel's book, go to www.startingpointbook.com. To find out more about Arel's speaking please go to www.arelmoodie.com.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Success is a Recipe

Yes, there is a right way and a wrong way to achieve the life you want. And yes, I will acknowledge exceptions exist to the rule, but let me put it to you like this:

I once heard on the news of this guy who had amnesia. He accidentally got hit in the head with a bat and miraculously regained all of his lost memory after the blow to his head. Just because that worked for him, I didn’t see any doctors going around prescribing baseball bats to the back of the head to cure amnesia! So what I’m trying to say is I can’t explain why there are exceptions to the rules or why a baseball bat to the head could be a medical miracle, but I can get you started on your journey to success using principles that have worked for countless people over and over again. I like to call it “Beginning the Journey.”


Arel Moodie is widely known as America's Top Young Speaker. He has spoken to over 65,000 students in 39 states and 2 countries on the topics of student success, student leadership and student entrepreneurship. He is a leading authority on helping students of this generation succeed and school and in life. He is also the best selling author of the book Your Starting Point For Student Success. To find out more about Arel's book, go to www.startingpointbook.com. To find out more about Arel's speaking please go to www.arelmoodie.com.

Monday, March 8, 2010

You Get Out What You Put In

Let me help you understand the importance of success principles with the following visualization exercise.

Imagine you want to go for a drive. No, that’s too general for a good visualization exercise. Let’s add some details to make this really effective. Imagine you want to go for a drive down the Pacific Coast Highway from San Francisco to L.A. in your dream car, a brand new, candy-apple red Porsche.

You are ready to go, but instead of putting gas in your sporty little ride, you fill ‘er up with orange juice. Now I don’t care how beautiful that car looks or how amazingly that car drives, if you don’t have the right fuel in the vehicle, you are not going to get very far. And if you don’t fuel your mind with the right knowledge, YOU won’t get very far either. You may start out going really fast and looking pretty good, but then the car will eventually break down.

Arel Moodie is widely known as America's Top Young Speaker. He has spoken to over 65,000 students in 39 states and 2 countries on the topics of student success, student leadership and student entrepreneurship. He is a leading authority on helping students of this generation succeed and school and in life. He is also the best selling author of the book Your Starting Point For Student Success. To find out more about Arel's book, go to www.startingpointbook.com. To find out more about Arel's speaking please go to www.arelmoodie.com.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

You Only Get What You Are Prepared For

This concept of having a blueprint applies to all areas of your life, success, and happiness:
  • You will not find love if you don’t build the capacity within you to have love.
  • You will not have deep friendships unless you build the capacity within you to have deep friendships.
  • You will never be an A student if you think you are only capable of a C.
Keep in mind you will only receive what you are capable of receiving. Therefore, your goal must be to build yourself up so you can appreciate and handle all of the external rewards you’re sure to receive in your life.

Jack Canfield, creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, has developed a great analogy for being “ready to receive” in the form of a post office box. If you deliver a package larger than the mailbox it is going to, it won’t fit, and therefore it can’t be delivered. However, if you deliver a package to a mailbox bigger than the package, it obviously can fit.

Translation: The mailbox is you, and the packages are the things you won’t achieve in life if you’re too small of a person and unprepared to accept success. The bigger the person you become, the more you can receive from the world.

Arel Moodie is widely known as America's Top Young Speaker. He has spoken to over 65,000 students in 39 states and 2 countries on the topics of student success, student leadership and student entrepreneurship. He is a leading authority on helping students of this generation succeed and school and in life. He is also the best selling author of the book Your Starting Point For Student Success. To find out more about Arel's book, go to www.startingpointbook.com. To find out more about Arel's speaking please go to www.arelmoodie.com.

Monday, March 1, 2010

The Path to Success

This next concept may surprise you. It certainly surprised me when I experienced it! At first, the results you will experience will happen inside of you. You won’t see the results of success on the outside, but you will feel them. And what you’ll learn is that the true journey to success starts with becoming a success... a winner... at your inner game before you attempt to succeed in the world around you.

This idea is essential. Most people don’t get that, and that’s why most people fail. Period. The results first develop internally, then they show up externally.

Now I define success as living a life you actively create to have the lifestyle you prefer. That includes living with passion, having free- dom, and experiencing the beauty this world has to offer. To put it another way, success is living a life with no regrets.

A life with no regrets should not be confused with a life with no boundaries. Living a life of no regrets requires discipline. As motivational speaker Jim Rohn often says, “We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces, while regret weighs tons.” That’s precisely what it all comes down to.

Did you know that most lottery winners are broke within five years? MSN Money published an article explaining this phenomenon. It explained that while the winners had a million dollars in the exter- nal world, they were internally poor. They hadn’t created a founda- tion within themselves for lasting success.

In the book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Eker calls it your “Money Blueprint.” People who suddenly become rich will eventually return to their original financial state because being broke is what they know and understand. “Nothing” is the amount of money they can comfortably handle.

Arel Moodie is widely known as America's Top Young Speaker. He has spoken to over 65,000 students in 39 states and 2 countries on the topics of student success, student leadership and student entrepreneurship. He is a leading authority on helping students of this generation succeed and school and in life. He is also the best selling author of the book Your Starting Point For Student Success. To find out more about Arel's book, go to www.startingpointbook.com. To find out more about Arel's speaking please go to www.arelmoodie.com.