This is a commencement speech I gave at a College in New Rochelle and got so much good responses from it I wanted to share it with you. Please forward this to anyone who is a recent graduate or anyone who needs some motivation to keep going.
Transcript below Click Here for Video | Click Here for Audio
Greetings and Salutations my fellow graduates! Welcome to the absolute first day of the rest of our lives! Today is the day that we continue to make our dreams come true!
For the past few years each of us embarked on a journey to maximize our full potentials and at this point, this moment, this very second we know for sure that we survived! No matter how we judge our journey, TODAY gives us the opportunity to do it better than we have ever done it before! Yes, we know it wasn't easy but will it be worth! You better believe it! Under no circumstance should we allow any past difficulties or hardships to stop us from reaching out full potential!
I once heard a story about a flea in a jar... Naturally, fleas can jump up to 15 feet. So, if you placed a flea in a jar, it would have no problem getting out. But if you placed a flea in a jar with a lid on it, the flea would jump in an attempt to get out but would repeatedly hit his head on the lid. After about 20 minutes, the flea would begin to learn that it cannot escape and then stop jumping as high as it did. Once he becomes used to the thought that he cannot escape, even if you remove the lid, he would not try to escape due to the fact that he BELIEVES he cannot. Because of his experience with hitting his head every time he jumped to his highest potential, he never even bothers to look up to see that the lid is no longer there. This is what sometimes happens in life! We are naturally made to be great, to soar with excellence... but as life keeps smacking us in the head, we become weary and stop trying to reach our greatness! We impose limitations on what we are able to do and call it "reality."
As Mahatma Gandhi once said "A person often becomes what he/she believes himself to be. If he keeps on saying to himself that he cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that he may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if he believes that he can do it, he shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if he may not have had it at the beginning."
Today we remove the lid! We become our natural selves and we remove our self-imposed limitation NOW!!.... Not tomorrow.... Not the day after... But NOW!! The so called reasons or excuses why people think they can't do something is the exact reason why they can't do it! But this doesn't apply to us because we are doers! We did it and we defied all obstacles. There are some who started with us that didn't make it.... a moment of silence for them....
But us, the survivors, the agents of change, and the leaders of the new school we have uninstalled our Limits!! And today is the time to continue to show our greatness! The time for procrastination and excuses is officially over! Ready or not, we have not only graduated from school but we have graduated to the next level of life! The level that only excepts actions and results! No more intentions and no more false starts! It's NOW or NOW!! Losing has never been and will never be an option that we have the luxury of taking! The mere fact that we have breathe in our body is all the indication we need, to know that we still have a purpose in life and by all means we need to fulfill that purpose! Imagine crossing a bridge into an unknown land and as soon as you reach that land the bridge is burnt down.... Yup!! that's what this is! We have entered the point of no return and our only choice is to win! We are powerful beyond belief and now is the time to settle into our greatness! Are you ready??? (Don't Answer that.... It was a trick question!) Strap up your boots, put on your war-gear, and get ready for your best years yet!! NOTHING CAN STOP YOU BUT YOU!!!