Arel Moodie International (AMI)

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

Monday, August 30, 2010

The Fifth Pillar: The Single Most Important Determining Factor to Your Continued Success

“You will never catch an eagle flying with seagulls.”
-Arel Moodie

Do you want to know the single most important determining factor to your continued success in school and in life? You can have all of the ingredients to be wildly successful on the inside — all of the knowledge and skills — but this external factor could lead to more chaos and destruction than you can handle. All of the previous pillars can be destroyed if this one pillar of success is not properly attended to. The Fifth Pillar is “The Average of 5,” which states:

You are going to be the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

My best friend and former business partner Bert Gervais introduced me to the idea that if you’re hanging out with five knuckleheads, you are going to be the average knucklehead, and if you’re hanging out with five millionaires, you’re probably going to be an average millionaire. Who you spend the majority of your time with will reflect how quickly or how slowly you move toward success. The people around you will either motivate you or drag you down; they will support you or cause you to fail.

Those surrounding you will greatly influence everything you do.

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, August 26, 2010

The Biggest Mistake People Will Make With the Pain-Pleasure Principle

But wait, what about those people who give to the point of burnout? If all I do is give and give, won’t I get worn out, tired, and stressed? As I teach in my seminar “The Secrets of Exceptional Student Leaders,” you have to make sure you are not drawing water from an empty well. To give fully, you must first have something to give. You probably have heard of the saying “It is better to give than to receive.” That saying has been altered over time from the original statement. If you trace that adage back to its origins, you’ll find the proverb actually says “It’s better to be in a position to give, than a position to receive.” Changes your whole concept of the phrase, doesn’t it?

Too much giving doesn’t make you feel bad; it’s the taking from yourself when you have nothing to give that makes you feel bad. Trying to spend five days straight with no sleep and no food so you can volunteer your time to help the homeless is noble, but foolish. You and I are humans, and we have needs that have to be met. As you start your journey to success, giving will bring you the greatest joy in the world. But the knowledge that to give, you must first have something to give is the true key to unlocking this pillar’s potential.

And while you should always give to others, be sure to give to yourself as well. Many times it’s much easier to give to others before we give to ourselves, but there is nothing selfish about making sure you are well taken care of. You are the only person responsible for yourself, as we talked about in the First Pillar. Therefore, if you haven’t joined a group or created something personally fulfilling yet, now is the time to start.

Believe me, you can contribute more to the world than you have already. It’s amazing how much we can stretch ourselves if we need to. Just remember that if you stretch a rubber band too far, it will eventually snap.

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, August 23, 2010

Get in the Habit of Wanting to Help Others

It is a known principle of success that if you help others get what they want, you will get what you want. It starts from wanting to truly help others for the sole purpose of helping. If you want to have a really great experience in college, and not just a normal experience, you need to get involved in something. It’s not just about what the group can give you; it’s also about what you can give to it.

What will you do to make your campus and your local community better than before you attended?

Giving and helping others provides meaning in your life. If you want to know whether your life has had meaning when it’s all said and done, don’t measure it by the number of dollars in your bank account. Measure it by the number of people’s lives that are better off because you existed.

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, August 19, 2010

Isolation Equals Unhappiness

If you have ever felt depressed or sad (and yes, we all have at some point), then you probably have isolated yourself from those around you. When you start feeling a little unhappy or you are feeling detached, you’re most likely moving away from being a part of something. Isolation can lead to depression faster than anything else. Why do you think they put the hardest of criminals in solitary confinement while they are in prison? Being lonely is akin to torture.

When we get stressed out about life, we often choose to detach ourselves from others in an attempt to feel better. However, prolonged isolation will eventually make us feel worse. It is okay to spend some time alone, and sometimes it is the best thing to do. But you must make sure you don’t spend so much time alone you forget how to function normally in society.

That is why it is so important to get involved in activities on campus. Becoming a student leader, volunteering your time, or joining a social club like a fraternity/sorority is extremely important to help you feel fulfilled and happy in your collegiate career.

You don’t have to believe me right now, but I challenge you to test me by asking a question that will prove this is true. Find someone on campus who is having a blast, who is living the best life he or she possibly can, and ask that person this question: “What groups are you involved with on campus?” I’ll bet that person rattles off an entire list of things he or she is part of on campus and in the community.

Then find someone who is having a horrible time in college and who just hates everything. Ask that person the very same question: “What groups are you involved with on campus?” I’m pretty confident that person will respond by saying he or she is not involved with anything; everything sucks, so that is why he or she doesn’t join anything.

The bottom line is this: for you to begin your journey to success in the right way, you have to feel fulfilled. You start this process by get- ting involved with groups that give back, be it through community service, fundraising, education, and the like.

Many people will agree they enjoy helping others. It is something that offers a universal feeling of true happiness. You can never get sick of seeing the joy on someone’s face that you helped; you will never have that gross feeling of eating an entire carton of cookies when you help someone. And if you have been reading this far into the book, that means you are truly dedicated to creating success and happiness in your life, so I’ll give you a bonus right now.

The secret to wealth is providing value to other people’s lives. The more value you give to others’ lives, the more you will get in return, and money will be a byproduct of the value you add to others. If you are good at making a difference, you won’t have to worry about making a dollar.

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, August 16, 2010

What Is the Greatest Feeling of Happiness?

By definition, the greatest feeling of happiness can never make you feel bad. So the greatest pleasure that you could ever bring into your life, is not smoking, drinking, eating, or anything like that. The ultimate pleasure is being part of and contributing to a larger community, something greater than yourself.

Have you ever been to a live professional sports event, like an NFL game, before? It’s an experience like nothing else. But why in the world would anyone want to go to a game live? Think about it.

At a live game, it could be snowing wildly, causing people to huddle together freezing their tails off! But in your house, you’ve got climate control. You can make it as warm or as cool as you like. At a live game, a $2 hot dog will cost you about $8 bucks, a $1 drink might run you $10 bucks! In your house, you have a comfy couch, but at the game you are hunched over on a bleacher without proper back support. At home you get to see all the angles of the game perfectly with instant replay, and you can listen to commentators help guide you along the game. Everything you need and more is in your home... so why in the world would anyone want to actually go to a live event?!?!

It’s the energy of being there, that’s why. When you are at the game, you are surrounded by thousands of other people who are rooting for the team with you. You are part of something massive, and electricity is in the air. It’s amazing to be part of 50,000 people doing “the wave,” yelling at the opposing team, and high-fiving each other when you are winning.

When the team wins, you win, we all win. So it’s worth it. It’s worth the long drive, the cold, the overpriced ticket, and the overpriced food. It’s all worth it to be there live, part of a larger community.

This applies on a larger and smaller level too. Would you want to play and win the championship game with none of your family or friends with you, or would you rather win the championship game with all of your closest family members and friends in the audience rooting you on? That’s a no-brainer, isn’t it? We all have a unique desire and want to share our experiences with those around us. We are social creatures by nature.

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, August 12, 2010

Whoa! Slow Down and Don't Get it Twisted

So you may be saying to yourself right now, “SWEET! He just said happiness is the best thing, and feeling good is what it’s all about. Awesome! I’m going to go drink, smoke, and party like a rock star! WOOOO! Yeah, this book has given me the excuse I needed to act a fool.”

Let’s be clear: that is NOT what I’m saying. Let me repeat that: it is not what I’m saying at all.

The problem most people face, unfortunately, is they have a false understanding of what true happiness is. The problem is most people don’t find happiness in things that temporarily make us feel good but that are extremely destructive in the long term.

If I eat one cookie, it makes me happy. Yes, I believe in healthy living, but I love me a cookie every now and again... especially those Thin Mints the Girl Scouts sell. Mmmm. (Sorry, I got lost in a memory.)

But have you ever eaten an entire package of cookies? They may taste good going down, but you probably felt pretty gross afterwards. You can only eat but so many cookies before you hit the coma-inducing “I Can’t Eat One More Cookie” point. So clearly something like junk food can’t bring ultimate happiness, even though in the short term it makes us feel good.

Other people searching for happiness turn to drugs and alcohol. In the short term, these drugs seem desirable because of the temporary euphoric feeling they give their users. But any rational person can see the horrific effects these drugs have on the human body and mind over time. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen a crackhead I wanted to be like. I’ve never seen an alcoholic I would want to model. Over time, drugs and alcohol literally destroy our bodies and minds, so using these false stimulants cannot be the greatest happiness.

A physical pleasure cannot be the greatest form of happiness.

And yes, that includes ALL forms of physical pleasure (I think you know where I’m going with this).

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, August 9, 2010

You Don't Really Want the Car and the Money (HUH!?!)

If I said I were taking you to a car dealership right now to buy you any car you wanted and it won’t cost you a dime, you’d probably be okay with that. But the truth is you really don’t want the car. If I said I were going to give you a million dollars, you’d probably be pretty okay with that too. But you really don’t want the money.

Now before you write me off as crazy, hear me out. You don’t want a million dollars. Why would anybody just want a stack of green paper with pictures of dead presidents on them? But that stack of green paper can buy you a lot of nice things, can help your family live a better life, can help you attain your dreams and goals, and it can help you better the world.

What money BUYS is the “why” you want it.

In Tony Robbins’ course Get the Edge, he explains we really don’t want any of the things we think we want. What we really want is the feeling those things will give us. Why do you want that brand new dream car? Because it will give you status and make you feel really cool. Why do you want more money? Because it will make you feel free and successful. So what we are truly going after is never the thing, but the feeling that thing will give us.

Our ultimate goal is to improve our emotional state to simply feel better.

Our mind connects having that new car with feeling successful. So what drives us is the feeling we attach to things, not necessarily the things themselves. We condition ourselves to believe we first must have X before we can feel Y. In other words, once I have a million dollars, then I will feel like my life has worth. It’s not the money we really want but the feeling of worthiness (by the way, to build a strong self-worth reread The Second Pillar.)

Are you getting this? Our goal is to start creating as much joy as we can in our lives.

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, August 5, 2010

The Fourth Pillar: The Mystery Behind What Drives All of Our Actions

We are all unique and different in so many ways, but this next principle is what unites all of us. Regardless of what religion you are, where you were born, your skin color, height, weight, or gender, this principle is the driving factor in all of us. It is the one thing that guides every decision we make, whether it’s done consciously or subconsciously.

This universal attribute is known as the Pleasure-Pain Principle. What the principle states is:

Everything we do is either to move toward 
things that make us feel good
or away from things that make us feel bad.

We’ll start with a very simple example of the principle, and then we’ll go into much deeper levels of how it applies to you and the choices you make. We all want happiness in our lives, so if we were hungry and saw a delicious, free sandwich, we would move toward it. Hunger makes us unhappy; therefore, a tasty sandwich would satiate us, and that would make us happy.

On the flip side, we all want to avoid things that make us feel bad (pain). If a crazy man wearing a hockey mask swinging a chainsaw were running in your direction, you would move away from him, right? I should hope so! No rocket science yet right?

Well, don’t worry, it doesn’t get that much more complicated. Every single one of us wants to feel good. It’s as basic as that. We take actions and make decisions because we hope they will bring us toward pleasure or away from pain. So our decision making process is based on what makes us feel good.

But the funny thing about it is we expect things to give us the most happiness. Where did we get that idea? Because you know what? All the things you want in life... you really don’t want them.

Could everything you thought you knew be wrong?

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, August 2, 2010

Putting It All Together

So here is how you will set and reach more goals than ever before:
  • First, know what you want. What is the goal you want to achieve?
  • Set a deadline.
  • Know why you want the goal and what the motivation behind achieving this goal is.
  • Use reverse engineering to start at the end goal and work your way back to where you are today, setting up mini-deadlines to achieve the goal.
  • Determine what the toughest part about your project is and tackle that first before anything else.
  • If you find yourself not knowing what or how to do something, seek the advice of people who know what they are doing and ask for help
  • Know that the conditions do not have to be perfect before you start.
  • And then actually do the work!


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.