Do you ever get inspirational messages Dfrom friends in your e-mail? They are usually quotes from famous people saying positive things about love and life. I have a network of friends and clients who send me this stuff by the truckload every day. Cyber-space if full of clever sayings and sage advice. The problem is that we get so many of these good-will messages in our mailbox each morning that we often gloss over them
and move on to the business of the day. It's a classic case of too much information. But there is one message that you should not
ignore. It has been circulating the globe for a few years now, so you might have received it several times from a few different sources. It is
one of the best and most important aphorisms of our time. Even if you delete every other clever quip you receive this year, save this one. And remember it well. It is from a speech given by Nelson Mandela, and it reads like this: For me, as a motivational speaker and life coach, this message is a godsend. It is just what I need to shake certain people out of the doldrums, and get them believing in “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate....

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, to be gorgeous, talented, and fabulous. Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that others won't feel insecure around you. We are born to make manifest the glory of God within us. And as we let our light shine, we consciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

themselves again. I make it my job to get people on the right track to realizing their full potential and making their most sincere dreams come true. And, in all my experience, one of the primary skills that any Dream Builder needs is a solid understanding that they have choices, and that they really are in charge of their life. But many people react negatively when they hear this. They have become comfortable with the notion that they are powerless and without choices. But when I can produce a powerful quote from a world-respected role model like Nelson Mandela, even the biggest defeatist I know is willing to re-consider his own worth.

For those of you who don't know or have forgotten, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela has lived a life of perpetual sacrifice and hardship. He has been a revolutionary, an activist and a political leader since the first time he was expelled from University for participating in a student strike.

He traveled across South Africa, organizing resistance to discriminatory legislation, and, in 1952 he helped to open the first black law firm in that country. He has spent nearly three decades of his life behind bars and sacrificed his private life and his youth for his people, fighting against Apartheid and remaining South Africa's best known and loved hero.

But how does a man fighting oppression under a racist regime come to see himself as “powerful beyond measure?” How does he come to believe that he has choices in his life?

If we were to ask the man right now, he would probably say that it is certainly true that we do not choose to live under oppression, or be born into a dysfunctional family, or into poverty, or to be in a near-fatal accident. However, often the only way of escaping the pain of these predicaments is to embrace, with all of your heart, the fact that we each of us can choose how we deal and react to the hard knocks that life doles out.

Embracing the idea that we can choose how we react gives us the patience to select that best course of action for each situation. We can choose to give back to he world, we can choose to fight for our political rights, we can choose to struggle for success and to see our dreams come true. We can believe that the struggle itself is beautiful noble and worthwhile. This is what Nelson Mandela means when he say that “we are powerful” and what I mean when I stress in my seminars that we are all free to choose. This belief in choice is at the heart of the philosophies of many compassionate people from all walks of life. Ghandi believed it, as did Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King. It seems there is no positive change in our world without the belief that we can choose!

The point of saving a quote like the one above from Nelson Mandela is that we have to remind others, and ourselves every day, we have choices. The inertia of our culture is in the opposite direction, and the current in our society pushes against any person who knows he or she is free to choose. That is why deciding that you have choices is a revolutionary act! Working not to fall back into the bad habits of thinking like a victimtakes persistence and will power, even after you have made up your mind to live as a free person. It also takes the support of friends, and, as such I strongly recommend any person who wishes to be in control of their life to stay away from the many Dream Crushers out there who will try to discourage you from acting and thinking as a free individual. Get rid of the baggage that is holding you back! At my job, I often advise people to “dream big.” Not just for themselves, but for those they love, and even for the world. The biggest Dream Builders that this planet has ever seen have been those men and women who saw fit to dream of not just a better life for themselves, but a better life for all people. And along with the loftiness of their dreams comes the greatest satisfaction. But it all starts with the understanding that, yes, you DO have a choice.

Michael McGauley, B.A., ATM, is a national motivational speaker, coach and corporate trainer. For additional articles or to book Michael for your next event, visit www.thedreambuildersinc.com, email mike@thedreambuildersinc.com, or call 1-866-878-8289