About 25 years ago I was given a set of cassette tapes called ATTITUDE by an American speaker called Skip Ross. I became totally mesmerized by what Skip said on these tapes and I have listened to them on a regular basis for many years. At the end of the tape Skip reads out a short article entitled THERE IS ONLY ONE YOU and this became my personal growth anthem. I wrote it out and over the years altered and added to it to suit my own beliefs and values and as many of you will know I often read it out at the end of my presentations:
There will never be in this whole world another person exactly like yourself, and before you laugh that off with a casual shrug or a comment like “Perhaps that’s a good thing”, just stop for a few moments and consider the importance of those few simple words. There is only one you, you are special, you are unique, you are simply one of a kind. You’ve been endowed with talents in abundance which when used to their fullest can make a real difference to your own life and the lives of those around you. You can be kind and considerate, or you can be the proverbial pain in the neck. You can be giving and generous, supporting others and helping them grow and develop or you can be stingy, greedy and selfish, jealous of other people’s success.You can be hard working, diligent and disciplined, going the extra mile in your efforts to produce your best. Or you can be lazy and idle, doing as little as you can get away with or just enough to get by. You can read great literature, feeding your mind with the thoughts of the worlds finest thinkers or you can get sucked into the pathetic world of the soaps, getting comfort that at least your life isn’t that bad.
You can keep your body fit and healthy with regular exercise and wholesome food or you can become a BOX person. Many people spend their adult lives sitting in a box, watching a box, eating from a box, waiting for a box. You can be positive and enthusiastic, generously edifying and motivating everyone around you, or you can be negative and cynical taking the mickey out of others for cheap laughs. It takes just a bit more effort to be positive than it does to be negative, which one are you famous for?
A few moments of sincere thought should tell you that when you are at your best you are quite a person, a wonderful, amazing, awesome human being. You must leave this place one day, with the world being a bit better or a bit worse for your having lived. There is only one you.
John Shackleton – Motivational Speaker and Performance Expert |