Arel Moodie International (AMI)

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

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Why Self-Confidence Is Important

Self-confidence is the cornerstone to great leadership. Bill Clinton’s quote in an earlier blog post says it best. If you say something with a straight face and confidence, people are more likely to believe you than if you say the same thing in an unsure voice. When I conduct my leadership presentations at colleges, I teach student leaders how to demonstrate self-confidence to their team members so they can get through tough situations by simply acting as they think a confident leader acts.

It’s not about lying; it’s about speaking with authority. Let’s do a little exercise to illustrate this point.
  • Think of someone you consider extremely successful. Get a very clear picture in your head of this person. Got it? Good.
  • Now I want you to think of someone who you think is really unsuccessful or someone you don’t want to be like (we all know at least one person like this, keep it real, it’s just you and me). Got it?
Okay, now in your mind’s eye, get a clear picture of both of them standing side by side. If you had to list out everything you notice about them, what would be one of the first things you notice?

I bet the extremely successful person just exudes a self-assurance the other person does not. To be a leader, which I have a funny feeling you are, having the self-confidence to lead is fundamentally important.

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, April 26, 2010

Planned Obsolescence

Have you ever heard of the term “planned obsolescence”? Planned obsolescence is the process of a product becoming obsolete and/or nonfunctional after a predetermined period of time or use. The manufacturer plans or designs this. In other words, all of the things you buy have a predetermined time they will break or go out of style. In fact, fashion and design are set up the same way. You ever notice how companies constantly keep coming out with cooler, newer iPods, computers, and clothing? They do this so if you don’t have the newest version of something, you are seen as less cool. The system really is set up to make it next to impossible to stay on top of the latest trends and fashions.

This is a very interesting topic but will go beyond the scope of this blog. If you really want to learn more, I recommend you go to www.yourstartingpointonline.com and watch the video “The Story of Stuff” to get the full story on why trying to keep up with the Joneses is foolish at best, and how your stuff is created to make you constantly want to buy new stuff.

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, April 22, 2010

The Second Pillar: The Secret to Building Unstoppable Self-Confidence

This pillar has fundamental importance in all areas of your life. Self-confidence gives you the edge on the competition to land you the dream job, find the love of your life, negotiate a better price for a used car, and succeed in school as well as in life.

“People would rather have someone who is strong
and wrong than someone who’s weak and right.”
-Bill Clinton

We gravitate toward people who demonstrate strong self-confidence: we immediately see them as more attractive, more successful, more charismatic, and so forth. But how do you develop self- confidence? What is it? Where does it come from?

Self-confidence is simply defined as the realistic self-belief in one’s own judgment, ability, power, and so forth. How can you make sure no matter what happens in your life, your self-confidence is built on an indestructible foundation?

The secret to self-confidence is attaching your worth to something that never changes.

This pillar is the true foundation for never losing your belief in your abilities and what you can achieve. In our society, we’re taught our self-confidence is based on short-lived things.

We are made to believe we are only as good we look. If you’re beautiful, then you should have confidence. If you’re smart, popular, athletic, or rich, then you are allowed to have self-confidence. This idea gets perpetuated by celebrities, gossip magazines, music videos, and really everything in the media. And it is the worst bunch of crap I’ve ever heard.

Nothing can be further from the truth.

At some point, someone will always be smarter than you, better looking than you, faster than you, or stronger than you. When your self-confidence is based on something so trivial as outward appearance, it is extremely easy to shatter it.

The truth is that someone may be better than you at a specific thing, but that doesn’t make that person better than you as a person. If you judged how good a lion is based on a dolphin’s abilities, the lion would seem pretty inferior. It can’t swim as fast, it can’t jump in and out of water, and it can’t hold its breath for long periods of time.

So then why is the lion the king? A lion judged as a dolphin is inferior, and a dolphin judged as a lion is equally inferior. It’s comparing apples to oranges.

I see this all the time when I speak at high schools. A student will come in wearing the newest Nikes and feel like he is the king of the world. “Look at me, I’m good because I have these sneakers.” And then somebody comes by with a more exclusive pair plus a hot shirt, jeans, and chain. BAM! The first student’s self-confidence goes down the drain. Then it becomes a game you can never win, because you always have to keep up with what’s new and hot. In addition to being foolish, it’s VERY expensive.

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, April 19, 2010

Just Blink

Now that you have decided to take full responsibility for ALL the things that happen in your life, here’s something to notice. No matter how old you currently are, you are going to wish you had begun this journey years ago. You’re probably thinking if you had found your starting point years ago, then today you would be where you wanted to be, right? I’ve got news for you: it doesn’t matter how old you are, you would still think that.

If you are eighteen, you would wish you would have started when you were fifteen. If you are twenty-five, you would wish you would have started when you were twenty. If you are forty, you would wish you would have started when you were thirty. If you are eighty, you would wish you would have started when you were seventy. It goes on and on the same way because we all have the “I Need It Now” syndrome.

What do we want? A better life. When do we want it? Now!

The passage of time is not what it seems. I believe in something I call “Just Blink.” Time really does go by fast. When you are living it, it goes by slowly, but when you look back, it happened in just the blink of an eye.

Think about this: I bet right now you can remember what your elementary school cafeteria looked like (hopefully you weren’t the kid eating the glue!). That was a long time ago, right? But it feels like time just flew by when you think about it. The same thing will happen for your future. Before you know it, it will be five years from today. What life will you be living? Just blink, and you will be in the future.

Let’s do a little experiment. Right now, think of an impending deadline coming up in your life. Something not too far away. Let’s do your next cell phone payment. That can’t be more than one month away. As you read this, “Just Blink,” and the next thing you know your cell phone payment will be due. When you get your mind around this concept of time, you’ll stop worrying about not having a specific thing now, because if you work properly, you will soon be at your goal.

When your cell phone bill actually does come around, I want you to use that as a trigger to say to yourself, “Wow, this Just Blink thing is real. I was just reading Arel’s blog and now I’m paying my bill.” The point of this is to reinforce that even though you probably don’t have exactly what you want right now, and it seems like there is a long journey to travel to get to it, literally, before you know it, you will reach your goal.

So get excited my friend, the time is now to start creating what you want.

Just for Fun:

Would you like to have some fun with this? I recommend taking a photo of yourself in a white t-shirt on your birthday every year. This way as the years go on, you can create a flip book to see how you have progressed over the years. (The reason you should wear a white t-shirt is so the clothes will be the same in the picture, and you can just see the progression of your facial characteristics and body type.) It’s a lot of fun—try it out.


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, April 15, 2010

Don't Get Too Hard on Yourself

Often, when people first understand this principle, they initially go through two phases. The first phase is excitement to think about all of the things they can start achieving in their lives. I call that the “honeymoon period.” Then they start looking at their current situation and get bummed out because they feel it’s their fault they are in the current mess they are in. They shouldn’t, because it’s all good news.

Wherever you currently are in your life is a result of your past actions. Think about it: everything you have in your life is because of what you did in the past. (For example, your current weight has little to do with how much you ate today, but more with all the foods you chose to eat in the past.) If you want to take control of your life for the sake of your future, you have to start today. You have to say you are willing to accept the past and change the future.

What’s done is done, but now, today, and for the rest of your life, you will be able to live the life that movies are made of.

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, April 12, 2010

Making the Principle Real

Let’s go over a real-world scenario to illustrate taking full responsibility of your life. In this scenario, you are taking a class that is really important for your major. It’s a tough class and the professor is extraordinarily mean. You are convinced the professor hates you. You work really hard on the first paper he assigns you, but he gives you a D.

What are you going to do?

A) Throw your hands up in the air and say, “It’s the professor’s fault; there is no way I can pass this class. He hates me, I did a great job on the paper and he still gave me a D. It’s not fair! Life sucks.”

B) Stop showing up to class because what’s the point anyway, right? The professor hates you and will fail you no matter what.

C) Complain to your friends that you are stupid and that you don’t deserve to get your degree and you will drop out of school and work in McDonald’s forever!

D) Realize the paper you wrote did not meet that particular professor’s standards. Schedule a meeting to meet with the professor during office hours to specifically find out what was missing from your paper. Ask yourself why you think the paper could have been better (and actually answer it). Look at how you prepared for the paper and find out how you can better prepare next time. For the next paper, make sure you finish your first draft with plenty of time (at least two weeks) before the deadline to meet with your professor or TA to see if your next paper is up to par. Ask the professor whether you can submit extra credit to help counterbalance the first bad grade you received. Regularly meet with the professor at his office hours to build a relationship with him so you are not just a social security number but a person. And get tutoring at the tutorial center if you find yourself falling behind.

I think you know what the correct choice is. Do you see how this can apply to your life? Can you think of people you know who are not applying this principle to their lives and are suffering because of it? Can you think of times in the past where maybe you blamed others instead of looking inside yourself?

You are responsible for everything. EVERYTHING! How you approach, react, and respond to situations is in your hands.

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, April 8, 2010

The Big Lie

A lie has been spread around like a virus and has infected way too many students. The lie is that right now, you are unworthy of actually having or even wanting the things you desire in life. Unfortunately, so many people believe they are not good enough to have that special someone, a nice home, a 4.0 GPA, a college diploma, a nice car, etc.

That idea is a huge, stinking pile of cow poop.

We are all, every single one of us including you, worthy of the best this world has to offer. Why? Because you are alive. Simply because you are living you are worthy of greatness, success, happiness, riches, love, and everything you want. If your heart can feel it, then you’re worthy of it. If you weren’t worthy, you wouldn’t have been born. If you weren’t worthy, you wouldn’t even have the desire that is the subject of your thought.

Plain and simple, G-d does not make junk. And G-d would not have made you unless there was a purpose for you. So if you have ever felt like you wanted to achieve something but you weren’t good enough for it, now you know you are. If you weren’t worthy, you wouldn’t even have the idea of what you want. Go ahead, think of something you truly would love to have in your life.

Let’s say you want to be a dean’s list student. Just because you have that desire, you have the right to it. The missing link is that if you want to be an A student but you only see yourself as a C student, you will never break free from the mental image of yourself to take the necessary steps to get those A’s. You have to be able to first see yourself as an A student before you can ever become one.

Just because you have the ability to have the thought, you have the right to obtain that goal. It’s that simple. You, my friend, are worthy of anything and everything you desire. That dream job, that perfect internship, that great GPA all can be yours with the right mindset that believes you can have these things.

Why? Because once you feel this, you will believe it’s possible for you, and that will allow you to start taking the actions an A student would take. Think of what an A student would do (or find out if you don’t know) and then do those things.

But here’s the caveat: you’re entitled to absolutely nothing. I know that sounds harsh, but it’s the truth. But consider this...

You’re entitled to zilch, zero, nada, nothing... but you’re worthy of everything. You have to understand the difference. To get what you truly want out of life and school, you are going to have to relinquish your comfy, effortless ride in the passenger side and get into the driver’s seat. What this means is kicking excuses out of your life forever. In his book The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Eric Hoffer wrote, “There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement.”

No one will walk up to you and hand you everything you want. And honestly, if there were someone who could do that, you really wouldn’t want that. I’m serious. Believe it or not, the struggle to overcome challenges is what makes accomplishments truly worthwhile. Tom Hanks’ character Jimmy Dugan said it best in the movie A League of Their Own: “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great.”

Think of it like this. Let’s say your favorite sport is basketball. Which scenario would you prefer to be in?

  • Scenario 1: You decide to join one of the most competitive basketball leagues out there. The day before the first game, every other team gets sick and has to forfeit the season, and your team is named the National Champion. You never had to lift a finger,but you are now the champ.
  • Scenario 2: You decide to join one of the most competitive basketball leagues out there. You play some of the most competitive b-ball of your life. You practice harder than you’ve ever practiced before; you shed blood, sweat, and tears preparing and playing this season. You barely make it into the playoffs and win each game by less than five points until you advance to the finals. You go all the way to game seven playing one of the best teams in the league. With less than thirty seconds left in the final game of the championship, with your team down by two points, you get passed the ball, shake a defender, get an open shot, and release a three-pointer that lands right as the clock shows “0.00.” Now you are the champ!

Which scenario would you rather have happen in your life? The first scenario is completely unfulfilling. The second scenario is what dreams are made of. So even if you could just get handed what you wanted, it wouldn’t be as rewarding. In fact, some people say, “Hard work is its own reward.”

And the best time to get to work creating your life is right now. I see way too many students just sitting back and waiting for someone to call them up and offer them a dream job, or just sitting back and waiting for Mr./Ms. Right just to walk up to them and introduce themselves. Get real!

Deciding to commit to your success and sticking to it is not always easy. You are going to fail more times than you have ever failed before. Let me just tell you that it is 100% normal. People will say “no” to you over and over and over again... but you only need that one “yes.” You only need that one opportunity that changes everything about your life. How you perceive life is your responsibility, and your reaction to the word “no” will greatly influence whether you become extraordinary or remain ordinary.

Think about professional baseball players. A hall-of-fame player will have around a .300 batting average. What that means is that seven out of ten times, the player failed. But the three times he did succeed helped make him a Hall of Famer.

Life works the same way. Countless extremely successful people started out failing more than anyone else. One story I love is that of Sylvester Stallone, the actor who played Rocky. His story is filled with failure after failure of how he became a blockbuster actor. If you want to see the video and hear his amazing journey and how he took control of his life, repeatedly failed, and ultimately succeeded, go to www.yourstartingpointonline.com.

When you begin your journey toward success, people will tell you that you are stupid, crazy, and a loser... or worse. People will tell you that you have no idea what you are doing and you won’t amount to anything. When you want to find that dream job, tons of companies will say you don’t have the proper experience or you are not what they are looking for. Don’t worry about the naysayers; they are put here to test your commitment to your goals.

It’s normal to experience haters. And when you do, then you know you are doing the right thing! When people start telling you that you can’t, in your mind, give them back the t and tell yourself you can.

Look, if you applied for a hundred jobs and got ninety-nine “nos” but got one “yes” that was for your dream job, would you care about the other ninety-nine? Once you realize the power of this and apply it to your life, people will wonder what your secret is, how is it that you are able to obtain so much, and you’ll know it’s because you understand this principle: you are in control and taking full responsibility for creating the life you want.

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, April 5, 2010

Getting What You Want

In case you didn’t know, let me be the first to tell you there is no one who is going to walk up to you and say “Hey, I’ve been looking for you, I want to give you this six-figure a year job with full bene- fits, a bunch of vacation time, stock options, company car, and paid-for house. Here you go, have a nice day.” The only person responsible for your success is you. If you want a career like that, you have to go out there, find it, and get it.

If you want to find out the little-known way to actually land your dream job, go to www.yourstartingpointonline.com to read an exclusive article on how to land your dream job.

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, April 1, 2010

Failure Does Not Exist

Most people hate the idea of failing so much they don’t do anything worth doing so they won’t have to deal with failing. That’s crazy! It is perfectly okay to make mistakes — in fact, it is encouraged. As Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek once said, “If you don’t make mistakes, then that means you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake.”

Failure allows you to learn how to become better at a much faster rate. My good friend and successful entrepreneur, Jason Duff, likes to call failure “accelerated learning.” It really is true: if you look at failure differently, it will open your mind to different and better possibilities.

Whenever you think you failed at something, change your perspective! Instead of beating yourself up, just think of it as a learning experience. This isn’t feel-good psychobabble. It’s the truth. Failure is the best teacher out there if you look at it from the proper perspective.

So in truth, every time you fail, consider yourself lucky because you now have the opportunity to learn and grow from that experience. To properly grow from a failure, just ask yourself the following

“What can I learn from this experience?”

Why didn’t you succeed? Were you not prepared enough? Did you not take your test seriously? Were you late because you underestimated the traffic? Did you not study enough? Should you not say what you said again? The list goes on and on. And trust me, this “learning from failure” technique will accelerate your learning curve, and you will eventually begin to fail a lot less!

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.