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Ideas to Change Your Life

Seventeen ideas to change your life and these air just kind of little quotes and little things that really made an impact on my life and I just want to share him with you first one look for hope in the simplest of blessings and I want to tell you a story about father francis a friend of our family my in laws were having a fiftieth wedding anniversary and they brought father francis to our lunch father francis have had a very, very hard life uh, father francis um what? Oh, I start here father francis if he was coming on a boat to america his boat got raided by pirates and killed every single one of the people in the boat and they thought they killed him as all of his family was killed and took all their possessions everything they left him for dead uh they thought he was dead. It was still live even at some point. Father francis was also imprisoned and he's hot talked a little bit about, um I found a little bit about his story while he was in solitary confinement there and uh, he's viet...

namese and he was in there and he said the only thing that kept him saying the only thing that gave him a little bit of hope was in his solitary confinement little area that he wass that there was a little crack where some light could come through and so all day he would just look at that light because that was the only ray of hope that he had that could get him through those times and sometimes we go through life and we're just thinking like, wow, would you know we've got all this stuff we've got christmas shopping we got to do we gotta all that, but sometimes you just have to pull back and we just have to enjoy the blessings that we have even in the most simplest things and just enjoy life look for the hope in look for hope in the simplest of blessings and father francis is his entire family was killed on he was left for dead being imprisoned and seeing that a tiny little opening where light could come through and that's all he could look at to get get him through that day. And I think when we start that journey and we're going for it, I truly believe, you know, uh, kind of a spiritual person I know I truly believe in your super suits during searching for that truth and wanting to be who you feel called to be that kills little rays of life when we're feeling down and out will be there for us at all times do what you love, okay that's a hard thing to do this again remember we have that closet and it's all filled with stuff and there's some of that stuff that we don't love in there but it's too hard for us to pull it out because it brings change and we're afraid of change. But when you do what you love, you start to reach the extraordinary life uh, lisa talked a little bit about that's not about getting rich or whatever it's that freedom. And so when you do what you love, you have a passion about something and when you have a passion than thus innovation and then when you can innovate, then you could have signature style. Then you can bring something to the industry. Okay, that is the main thing here. If you want success, you have to bring something unique to the industry and it all starts with doing what you love hitting rock bottom can lead to the best blessings and that's exactly what happened to me thirteen years ago, I was rock bottom. I was like, I told you I was only making ten thousand dollars a year and I couldn't even provide for my family and then made me feel so sad. It was just my wife and I try year after year after year, and she would continually have to support us. And we also tried to have a family and biologically we could not have a family and everybody's having kids except for my set for us and my wife is just feeling so sad and she gets to this point where she goes, why can't I have something so basic in life? And it seems like god is playing a cruel trick on me we're good people why does this happen? And so you know, the reached a point where it was I was so rock bottom I mean I would never kill myself but literally I felt like I could walk out into the street and a car ran me over that would be great because my wife could collect the insurance money and she could marry somebody else that's how I felt I needed to be rock bottom I needed be humbled I needed to the bp to the point where life could actually teach me a lesson and so what I am when I got to the bottom I said I had nothing I could risk that point and I said I need to change my life and sometimes rock bottom allows us to freely change something in our life and so that's what I did I said, listen, I need to do something different I said, stacy, you're quitting your job, we're spending our entire savings and we're going to adopt her child and then for somehow I'll I'll give you your dream you've been trying to do my dream for twelve years you've been trying but it's it's your turn I am going to give you your dream and we're going to start a family if I gotta work three jobs that's fine but you know what? Life is funny it's when you want to give to somebody else guess what I got back everything I ever wanted in return because when I was at that point I found photography because I wanted to make a few extra bucks doing photography but I wouldn't never did that if I didn't first think about giving to the person that was most important into my life and so when you give you always get back more than you could ever imagine and that's why I give so much because life has taught me that that is the secret because when you give you get everything back so muchmore so if you are there if you're feeling low in your life if you're feeling like there's hardly any hope there is a ray of light and that's exactly where you should be because there is going to change that's gonna happen over you and it's gonna give you the biggest blessings that you can't even imagine right now so keep moving forward learn to create excellence in one area before moving on to the next and I see this time in time and I hope up you you saw a pattern amongst all these people that you've seen of torren and germ and of lisa and that you look at their work and guess what their journey first started because they had quality work so I am going to impress on you as photographers to learn about posing and toe learn about lighting and know it inside out like the back of your hand and once you learn that then you can move on and to combine other aspect aspects and you but you first have to create excellence excellence is the one thing that's going to give you new opportunities it's going to give you that extraordinary life because everybody's attracted to perfection and when you have perfection everybody wants a piece of you and now you're in control and you'll get many opportunities if you can produce excellence in the market place you will get opportunities and that is the extraordinary life because now you get to choose what you want to do and you are not handcuffed that's exactly the life that lisa feels she list unstoppable because whatever you try you know the effort that's needed you've produced excellence in one area so you can produce excellence in another right and that was with me it's like oh I knew what produced excellence and photography I know I could produce excellence and being an educator and so forth so handle one skill first master it learned howto produce excellence in that and then move forward and do other things combine two or more passions to find your signature style and so that's what I've been learning lately is that when you compile two of your passions it makes you unique because not a lot of people have those same two passions and so that's what happened to marie lisa scene combined her photography with her passion with crossfit and getting healthy and then it opened up doors for her in that arena that's what I did I combine my passion for teaching and photography and it put me in a different place like contribute so be aware of your passions and creatively figure out a way and how you can combine them and you'll develop a signature style you'll develop placed in the marketplace except the greatest challenges except the greatest challenges because you know why that's when life really kicks in and that's when you really enjoy life is when you're tackling a challenge and you're learning and when you tackle the greatest challenge you are taking that journey to perfection you are saying I want to be the most perfect I khun b I want to develop my potential at the highest you can on lee do that when you accept the greatest challenges and then you will learn so much you will grow so much and then you will start to experience this extraordinary life because these opportunities will come for you from everywhere because you're so desirable in the marketplace never stop dreaming even when you're at that rock bottom place is that this dream that you have in you is I believe it's a gift from god it's telling you who you are and that that is the journey that you I need to take as I mentioned before ever since I was at the age of you know high school I felt that I was to be doing this I felt that somehow some way even though I'm going through my worst moments in life and I mean when I look back at it I really realized why why did I do why did I feel like I was destined for something why did I get that gift what did you get that gift of that feeling off I I am going to be something some day and I'm going to be able to help others in a in a large scale way and I realized that I needed that gift to get through my rock bottom times wow that was a blessing the dream was a blessing because it kept me going so I could hold on to something when I felt nobody believed in me and so that is the keys that you have to keep dreaming and keep moving forward but with that dream you need to create a plan you just can't be this happy dreamer but and not create a solid planned for it because that dream will lead you to places that you will not believe and it's something that you're meant to do travel travel I wouldn't be here if I didn't travel and if my wife didn't force us to take that trip to europe in paris and I remember specifically getting out that plane and then you know if you get off at the airport in paris it's a little bit of drive into the city okay and so we got on that bus road and they believe it was er about sunset at the time and we're driving in and I look at the small little cafes and the beautiful buildings and I go oh my gosh this is a completely different world for me I've never experienced this in life and what traveling does is it allows you to see beauty from around the world and as photographers I have not known one photographer that has said I hate to travel what you know right you because I like every photographer what we I want to do is we want to capture beauty and it's such a privilege and it's so inspiring to capture beauty in a different way and to meet beautiful people from all over the world it drives us it inspires us it it creates a new path for us to see things differently so see the world your greatest joys are often nestled in your greatest fears and that was me that was definitely ni I remember every year when I was a wedding photographer the first year uh I would go and I would say hey, what am I most scared off and then I would tackle that task whatever it wass right? And so I remember one year I was thought to my said, okay, I want to make my wedding work flow easier what would I have the most fear about? And I said I've got a fear about opposing the bride can you believe that that was my fear because again I told you this before growing up I just didn't feel beautiful I just didn't you know, I think the way our society is and how the asian man is reflected into our society entertainment like I mentioned you will never find and you know, I hated this question when you would go around the room and ice baker you would say um named the character the movie star that you most resemble it's like shoot you know they always make the asian guy look nerdy or whatever I don't know one american asian man that would had a role in a movie that he was the heroine that he was the romantic love interest or anything like that that he was actually idolized and so growing up in that atmosphere it really had effect on me it cast a lie in my life it was literally alive right? And I believed it I bought it and some of you are believing the lie right now but you can't you can't and so your greatest fear sometimes are these lies that we believe so don't believe them and so I once I was able to get over that and to you know, win awards into really, really those awards aren't for my clients or anything it was just for me it was just to know that I was worth something that I could do something well, you know, after dropping out of college and and all your friends making a lot more money than you and all that kind of stuff I felt so low and so after doing those things and building up that confidence, I realized I had a real passion you have to look back and after I got through that insecurity that baggage I could realize what I really had a passion for and that and what it is is that I just believe that the female form a woman is the most beautiful thing in the world and that's what I like photographing and and once but I had to get over myself I had to just stop believing the lie and move forward and so you never know all those things that you're afraid of in life they could be preventing you from bringing out your greatest joys and helping you find your giftedness the lies will hide your gift nous nous so don't believe them be a friend oh man, I don't you guys feel different don't you feel like nobody relates to you like what? Growing up it's like I never knew one entrepreneur in my life I didn't have ever never had they'd never I just felt like nobody understood me at all and on top of that then you're going to be an artist on top of that like I just feel so alone sometimes and I know that's true and so the whole one of the main reasons why I wanted to do workshops internationally was I wanted to create a community which I have created off people that are like minded and so I'm still glad for creative live because it's creating those communities but before when I was growing up without the internet and there was no such thing as forums and things of that nature, it was a lonely, lonely process and so what I'm telling you is go out with that friend that you know, uh, that's also an artist and support each other because this is a very, very difficult road and I know you've heard a theme here about people thinking our spouses right and of just these people that has have helped us and it's so true you can't go through life without a loving and a caring community you can't do it, you can achieve the impossible without it. So please be a friend don't be a knowledge junkie, um don't just collect all this stuff and never do anything, and I feel like you ever have those friends that, you know, collect something like maybe it's ah beany balls are its license plates or coke bottles from around the world or whatever and then you go to their house and it's just like all these cold bottles of like, what are you doing with all this stuff here and there's? No real function to it, it's, just the collection that's what we do with knowledge a lot of times is that we just collect, collect, collect, but we're afraid to use it and go out and do something with it. So with this knowledge that you have just don't collect it, use it and go forward and don't be afraid to try and to get your ten thousand dollars ten thousand hours in your journey is uniquely your own. What am I saying here? I'm saying, don't compare yourself that's what it is sometimes take a break from freaking facebook and don't look at anybody else's work don't look at my work don't look at torrance where don't like a girl's there don't look at lisa's where don't look at what don't look at it because if you start to look at everybody's work your start you're starting to look a everybody's best how could you ever feel good after you look at everybody's best there's no way you can compete and so just realized you have your own journey I had my own timeline right if I compared my journey to somebody else's if you would you know at age thirty seven okay I should be earning this amount of money I should have this kind of house I should have this many children my children should be in college or whatever at that time that was in my timeline that's now my journey and we feel this pressure that our journey should be like everybody else's journey but it's complete the different you have your own timing you change the world when you change the world don't compare yourself believe in your own journey you have lessons that you need to learn before you can go to that next level but you gotta keep believing in yourself feed least I don't even think I need to talk about this but it's it's uh it's all about believing in yourself go big or go home that's what it is and so if you want that extraordinary life if you wantto just enjoy life and wake up every day and just love what you're doing with a passion, then you gotta feed the beast because it's not going to come easy do not have the lottery mentality you know what that is it's like you see that is like oh, I'm gonna buy one lottery ticket and then I will wake up the next morning and I'm going to be a multi millionaire without doing anything without sacrificing anything without investing anything it's never gonna happen that way if you want the extraordinary life you have to put extraordinary sacrifice into it and there's no way around that your comfort zone is the biggest killjoy okay there's a lot of joy waiting out tio out there for you but you need to get out of your comfort zone to experience that joy and that's what I find I find that when I'm doing things that I've never done before and I'm a little bit scared about it, then it opens up these new opportunities it's this new experience and you know that wasn't that bad I can handle that and you've discovered this joy that you've never discovered before because you've experienced something different. So don't be afraid to experience something different because there's joy in that but it's ourselves it's that it's that broken record that we are because we are in our own thinking we are in our own security zone but this is what comfort does it make it's like a broken record and you can't get off of that track but you, when you break out of that, then you can learn to discover the new music that's waiting for you be a positive energy giver. I can't say this enough bring positive energy to the situation you what that is as simply being an optimist, the optimistic about things, maybe we don't feel that in our life, maybe we have the doomsday approach to whatever we're doing and then we can't give back, but we have to feel it ourselves first in order to give it, and it does take work. It takes a lot of energy to be a positive energy giver because it's, so easy to just sit back, just accept the positive energy. But those positive energy givers are the ones that get everything in life because everybody wants to be around a positive energy giver, so you're going to book mohr jobs than ever. You're going to be given mohr opportunity because you're bringing something positive to the situation every single time you meet somebody, be a leader, be a leader means in everything be a leader in your family, be a leader in your industry leaders are the ones that can change the world leaders are the ones that have the most influence, so if you want to make this world for the better, you want to make your life for the better, then you must be a leader being a leader is a little bit like being a positive energy giver it's hard being a leader means that I'm going to go in this direction but some people might not like me that's hard to do it's hard to put yourself out there and be responsible for the loss but that is the process that we need to go through in order have the courage to try new things and to present these to the industry so you need to lead yourself first then you need to lead your family and then you need to lead the world so we can make this a better place it's never too late this is the last one it's never too late I started at age thirty seven my photography career and I've gone far with it starting at age thirty seven there's no excuse for anything age should never be an excuse for anything in life and so I want you to feel like wow, you know, whatever well this is what I'm amazed about when I when I study the human success stories is that there has been every single disadvantage that a person has had maybe they've had no legs or maybe they you know, whatever had no father, no parents are maybe there, you know, just anything of whatever disadvantaged position you maybe you have a learning disability, I don't know there's tons out there but whatever that disadvantage wass there's always an example of somebody doing an amazing thing with that disadvantage you can't name one disadvantage someone has not overcome it and done something wonderful with the human body, the human spirit it's unstoppable. So whatever disadvantage that you feel that you have, you don't have a disadvantage, you just have to approach things in a different way and then you can make it the way that you want to and so I hope is like, go through, uh, these last three days uh, my main I guess, my mane I thought our main main goal wass to give them some valuable tills, but most of all, I think they have to realize that a it's a lot of work it's not very easy to do this be you're going to have to believe in yourself a great deal, you're gonna have to jump off at some point and if you keep trying and if you keep moving and if you keep having a wonderful community to be in, you will not fail. I guarantee it just don't give up, there is no plan b you've got to go forward and keep moving, and it might take you longer than the next person that's okay, but I guarantee you that it will be there for you because you can't keep a good man down you can't do it, and if I was able to be an encouragement to somebody to and and sharing my story, I'm like, so happy to share my life. And I feel extremely blessed to be where I am. But I'm not gonna lie. It took a lot of resource, is of sacrifice. Of resource is it took a lot of time, and it took a lot of guts that I had to learn a lot of faith to get where I am. But I just want to encourage you, as you're going through your journey, one to accept it and to embrace it, and to really want mohr for your life. Because if you want more for your life, you're going to take more risks, and then you're going to grow from those wrists. So it's definitely being been a pleasure being here with you, and I just wish you all your best in your journey. Thank you.