The Art of Inspiration

I had an opportunity to sit down and interview my former neighbor and good frined Reid. Reid isn't the normal story. You knw the one we all heard, hitting rock bottom and rising up. Reid did indeed rise up from adversity, but the pain and struggle he perservered through is not your average story. It's one of true grit, one of perserverence, one of finding strength through movement and never stopping. Reid is a successful entrepreneur, but much more than that, he is succeeding at the game of life. He still takes it one day at a time, but his drive and determination are relentless. He is now following his passion and bringing his Jamaican roots to tables across the country.The best way to find Reid, order up some of his Jamaican Patties, made with love.Instagram: @thepattypushaEmail orders to: info@yourultimatepattyplace.com

Your Greatness Lies in Your Struggle.Personal growth is often accompanied by stress and uneasiness. That's because true growth occurs outside of our comfort zones.We are designed as humans to avoid stress. Our brains will try to pull us away from any situation that seems threatening. This is why so many people never reach their true potential.I feel the ultimate purpose of life is to reach for the highest expression of our existence. Moving forward towards that means walking a path of resistance.Remember these two things.1) If you are walking towards your dreams, you are on the right path.2) No challenge in front of you will ever be greater than the fire that lies inside of you.Stay Inspired!-RafInstagram: @rafgaray

Is 2021 going to be an amazing year?I think it is going to be extraordinary! Why you might ask? Because I know if you are reading this, you have some goals to crush and you are not going to let anything get in your way.Will what's happening in the world change? I have no idea, I don't think anyone does. But you don't need the world to change for you to have a complete breaktrhough in your life.A breakthrough is a product of continuous forward motion. So ask yourself, are you going to let anything stop you from moving forward.No!!! Absolutely not.The world is changing and times may be challenging, but therein lies your opportunity. We all have a gift to share with the world that can have a massively positive impact on others.Simply look inside yourself, find that gift, and use it to change the world. Inside the challenges that we face lies opportuntity.To move forward.To help others.To make the world a better place.See you at the top!Make sure to follow me on Instagram @rafgaray for my latest inspiration and business tips!

Today I had an opportunity to sit with James Patrick. James is an award-winning photographer, author, entrepreneur, and founder of the annual Fitposium Expo. His photos have graced the cover of over 500 magazines. Working primarily with fitness entrepreneurs, James saw an opportunity to address a common challenge faced by his clients. The challenge of what to do once their pictures went mainstream. James became a business mentor to these fitness icons. Teaching them everything from branding to the intricate art of entrepreneurship. Authoring an amazing book, building a conference for fitness entrepreneurs, and changing countless lives is just the tip of the iceberg for this accomplished yet still climbing entrepreneur.Tune in to hear about his story, his legacy, and his gift to the world.You can find james at:Instagram: @jpatrickphotoWebsite: https://www.jamespatrick.com/

The employment landscape has drastically changed in the last year, and aspiring entrpreneurs are driving to the online space in hopes turning their passions into a business.Today we sit down with one of my good frineds and former mentors Austin Medlin. If you are indeed one of those aspiring entrpreneurs, you will most certainly want to listen.Austin is an entrepreneur, sales expert and all around just an incredible person. Today we take a deep dive into the mindset of a true entrpreneuer. In this episode, Austin takes us on a journey, from heartbreak and almost losing everything, to becoming a highly successful entrpreneur, sales expert, and mentor.The ultimate message he delivers however; runs much deeper than business. Through the course of his life he realized that no matter what happens, you always have the opportunity to choose how you respond to events in your life.And Austin feels the best choice is to choose happy. I would have to agreeStay Inspired!-RafTo learn more about Austin's work, you can follow him on Instagram @amedss

Dani Speegle is arguably one of the top female athletes in the world, her story, however, details much more than that...It's a story of perseverance, dedication, and rising above adversity both on and off the field of sports.You can say her adversity began at a young age when she suffered a traumatic injury, but overcoming that struggle was just the beginning for Dani. Her college years were marked by inner turmoil and both a physically and emotionally abusive relationship.Rising above that forced her to look within. She made mindset shifts that allowed her to find herself and see her true inner greatness.She is a world-class athlete and entrepreneur, but so much more than that, she is a strong and determined woman. She is the true embodiment of INSPIRATION and GREATNESS, and she is just beginning her journey!I hope this light you up!

Never allow the opinion of others to rob you of your authenticity.In a world filled with comparison-itis, it's easy to let the opinion of others steer us off our course.YOUR happiness, YOUR goals, and YOUR success are determined by YOU.I certainly value the opinion of others, but I don't place any emphasis on what people think about me. When we start to care too much about what people think, we tend to hold back and change our direction.I'm here to tell you never to let anyone steer you off your path. YOUR authenticity is and always will be your superpower.Keep shining bright!-Raf

In this podcast I sit down with the one and only Eddie “Truck” Gordon!Eddie has a long list of accolades, and I believe his professional fighting career to be just of the many highlights of his life. Eddie has overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles to become a truly great fighter, entrpreneur, family man, and human being.Join us as we take a deep dive into the adversity he faced in his life, how he became a man with an indomitable will and what his number one piece of advice is for anyone pursuing a dream.You certainly don't want to miss this one.Stay Inspired,RafConnect with me on Instagram @rafgaray for my latest dose of inspiration!Watch the Video Here!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uQx8kr9Tvk&t=934s

Are you aware of how great you truly are?The reality is that so many people fall short of ever reaching their full potential. Why? Because we have so much great stuff inside of us, and for us to truly tap into it, requires us to stretch the boundaries of what we think is possible every day of our lives.My question for you, is will you push yourself? Will you reach for the highest expression of yourself?I feel the day is always won by pursuing our higher self. While I am still pursuing the highest expression of myself, I have found that by checking these 5 boxes every day have allowed to me inch closer to my true potential.I made this with love for you. I hope this lights you up!-RafVisit me on Instagram @rafgaray to get all my latset inspiration!

In this episode I sit down with Kari Pearce, the fittest woman in the USA to discuss training for the 2020 CrossFit Games, overcoming adversity and how having a iron will has fueled her to become one of the toughest competitors in sports..Kari began gymnastics at the age of 3 and found herself competing at the early age of 5. Since then Kari has not stopped for a minute. She competed in gymnastics all through college and competed in a host of other arenas from power-lifting, to physique competitions. She has fought through injuries and adversity on her journey. She has done and accomplished so much, but one thing she has yet to do is stop moving forward. She has a winners mindset and the competitive spirit in her blood which she attributes to her parents who met in a gym and remain fit to this day..Kari eventually found her love for CrossFit and has never turned back. She first competed in the CrossFit games back in 2014 and took the sport by storm, since then she has continued to dominate, being crowned the fittest woman in the USA 3 times and currently ranking as the 5th fittest woman in the world..Outside of sports, Kari is an entrepreneur and her PowerAbs program has been getting rave reviews! One thing is for certain, if Kari does anything, she does it all the way!.Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for the 2020 CrossFit Games where Kari is set to take center stage. You can find her on all of the links listed below:Website: http://www.karipearce.com/Instgram: @karipearcecrossfitFaceBook: @KariPearceCrossFitGamesAthletePowerAbs: https://www.pearcepointers.com/

In this episode I sit down with a very special guest. Those who have followed my journey know that I recently quit my corporate job and embarked on a journey of entrepreneurship as a business coach. What many people don't know is that one very inspiring speech gave me the confidence and energy to actually make it happen..That speech was delivered by none other than Ceci Orengo. In our interview Ceci talks about facing adversity, climbing the corporate ladder and finally breaking out into the world of entrepreneurship. Ceci is an incredible speaker, her message is amazing and her drive is beyond inspiring..You can find her coaching and delivering amazing content on Instagram @ceciorengo. This was truly one for the books. I hope you enjoy!.Stay Inspired!

In this episode of The Art of Inspiration, I connected with Margaux Celeste Alvarez for a discussion on life, resilience, and chasing dreams. Margaux is the founder and owner of The Goat Wine, and aside from being an entrepreneur, Margaux is a phenomenal athlete and one of the stars of NBC's The Titan Games!.After losing her sister in a tragic accident, Margaux began to question her path. The pain drove her to run, literally. She spent her days running through nature and took a deep dive into the fitness world. Those runs through nature evolved into 5 and 6 hour long workout sessions, that tested her mind, body, and spirit. She found that if she could push through complete exhaustion physically, that mentally she could break through any barrier..Her journey led her to become an entrepreneur as she founded her wine company. Her philosophy of “Work Hard, Wine Down,” alludes to her take on life. Work hard every day, but never forget to take the time and enjoy life..Margaux is currently a top competitor on season 2 of The Titan Games on NBC where she continues to inspire audiences with her amazing story and incredible athleticism. One thing is for certain, Margaux is not done running yet, she is on a path to greatness that has only just begun…Stay Inspired!-Raf.PS: You can find Margaux on Instagram @321gaux and be sure to stop by and check out her amazing wine at www.thegoatwine.com.

In my over ten years of studying some of the worlds most successful people, I found that there seems to be a common thread that weaves between all of them. They all come from different backgrounds, have different levels of education and come from different socioeconomic classes. So what is it then that connects these people from vastly different walks of life?I found that at the end of the day, some of the worlds elite performers, be it in business, sports, acting, music, or entertainment, all focus on three core pillars in their lives. They focus on building their mind, taking care of their health and wellness and building their business.In this episode I am going to share why mind, body, business has become a motto I live by. I hope this episode inspires you and sparks you to take action on building the best version of yourself!Stay Inspired!-RafYou can follow my latest inspiration on Instagram: @rafgaray

In this episode I am giving you 5 clear and concise steps to achieve any goal, no matter how large! Throughout my life I realized that attaining success in and of itself can be difficult, as there are always challenges. Life gets in the way, we fall down from time to time, and things just seem to slip away.While the actual attainment of our goals may not always be easy, the science to how we get there is astonishingly simple. Follow these 5 steps every single day of your life and if you refuse to quit on taking action and refuse to give up on your dream, I guarantee you will reach your destination.Sending much love!Stay Inspired!-Raf

On today's podcast I interview International speaker, 7-Figure marketer, and social media consultant Carolina Millan.Carolina discusses the ups and downs of her journey, from corporate HR to becoming a highly successful coach, speaker and consultant. Along her journey, she has had the opportunity to work alongside some of the best business minds in the world.Despite all of her success, Carolina remains humble. Her passion lies in helping others to realize their dreams and her message is extremely powerful yet simple, do what you love!Be sure not to miss this one!Stay inspired!-RafYou can find Carolina at the following linksCarolinaMillan.com (SpanishCarolinaMillan.net (English) Instagram: @carolinamillan

In this episode I had the pleasure of interviewing motivational speaker, coach and good fined Catherine Dean. Six years ago Cat suffered her first panic attack and was later diagnosed with several different anxiety disorders. She has had a long road to recovery and now shares her inspiring story of how she was able to shift her mindset and take back control of her life.She is now a coach and helps women who are going through the struggle of anxiety and gives them the hope, as well as the tools to cope with and fight this prevalent disease.Make sure to connect with Cat on Instagram @hype_girl_cat and be sure to also follow her awesome podcast @hypegirlpodcast

"True self-discovery begins where your comfort zone ends." - Adam Braun. At some point in our lives, we all feel pain, it is simply an inevitable part of life. Throughout my life, I have constantly felt pain. As a young adult, it was the self-inflicted pain of repeated mistakes, living an unsavory life and losing sight of the things that truly matter. I had a family that loved me but didn't like me as a person at all.Pain can be a crippling adversary. At the time, the pain I caused myself, pushed me into the darkness. It cultivated thoughts in my own mind that the world is unfair, that I was dealt a bad hand, and that there was no use in trying to right things because I was already too far into the darkness to ever see the light.Through a very eye-opening string of events, not the least of which was my own mother, a woman I love beyond words beginning to give up on me, I began to realize that I, me and me alone was the one responsible for the pain I was experiencing. That is the truth with most of the pain I personally ever faced in life. It is true that there are circumstances that happen that are completely out of our control, but what we can always control is how we view and react to those circumstances.We don't always sabotage ourselves, sometimes horrible things happen to the most amazing people, When this happens, I generally see one of two responses. I see the person who stays down when life throws a punch at them, I see them begin to fall into the darkness, they blame life for not being fair, and never take accountability for their own reactions. They say, looked what happened to me, it's just my luck, that's how my life has always been.Then I see the other response, the person who refuses to stay down. The person who refuses to let the circumstance dictate who they are or what they do. For these people, it hurts more to stay where they are than to move toward where they want to be. Tony Robbins states that "change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change."What many don't know is that intrinsically, pain is one of the most powerful driving forces we have. When I hit rock bottom, and I finally woke up, I saw my dreams in front of me. They were a far way off, but they were there. I had found hope and belief in myself. The hard part was changing. But the pain made it all too easy because it literally burned me inside to do anything that took away from the spark of light I saw at the end of the road. Any action that wasn't consistent with my dreams literally killed me inside.So I got away from all of the destructive behavior that brought me to such a low place in my life. And my change happened at lightning speed, like the flip of a switch. Not because I am strong, or disciplined, or because I had a concrete will. At the time I was broken. I changed so quickly because it hurt too much not to.Now, I live a very positive and fulfilling life, and my dreams are larger than my own existence. I want my dream so badly that now it literally hurts me not be where I want to be. So the pain of not having everything I ever dreamed of drives me forward through life with an unbroken tenacity.Life will always give you challenges to overcome, whether it throws a storm your way or you build a dream so large that it requires you to climb to the ends of the earth. Adversity will always be the path through which we grow, through which we become the best versions of ourselves.And when the pain of not achieving your brightest dreams becomes larger than the pain of letting of who you are...Then you will be able to overcome any obstacle, you will be able to accomplish anything you set forward to pursue and you will become the person that you were always destined to be...Stay inspired-Raf

How does one prepare themselves for a journey they have never been on before?You see when you are looking to improve yourself in any facet of your life, you are essentially embarking on a new journey. You are trying to become a person that you have never been before and do something you have never done. This could be building a business that you always dreamed of, it could be becoming a better life partner, becoming less stressed and more present or making improvements to your health.As a motivational speaker and coach, I am a big proponent of taking action, but I also am a big believer that if you are going to do anything in your life, you need to prepare. You wouldn't go white-water rafting without an oar to steer you through the water and you sure wouldn't go skydiving without a parachute. You would make sure you packed the proper gear before you took off or else you will end up going wherever the wind takes you.The same is true in life, so many of us have lofty goals, yet many never take action on them. Often the ones that do, fail to take the proper measures to prepare themselves for the journey they are about to take. That's why for years now my motto has been Mind, Body, Business. I created the Mind, Body, Business video series as a complement to the Art of Inspiration podcast. One designed to be a catalyst for action, the other designed as a tool to pack in your suitcase or backpack so that you will be prepared for the journey.So back to my original question, how does one prepare for any journey they are looking to embark on?1) MINDLet's start with the mind. The mind is neuroplastic, it craves new information, it loves to learn new things, so feed it. The world is flooded with new information every single day, no matter what you want to do I am more than sure that there is a wealth of information out there on the subject of your choice. Become an expert, know the ins and outs. You just don't want to do something, you want to do it well.Learn to focus, if you are looking to do something to the best of your ability, you need to be able to hone in on it with laser-sharp focus. An expert marksman can hit a target at 1400 yards dead center because they have extreme focus. If you want to hit your mark, find some way to focus. I use meditation, but it can be whatever you want it to be. Try new things and learn what works best for you.Your mind is now should be filled with new information and focused, ready to go. Now that your mind is ready, it is time to build your mindset! To go out and win, you need a winning mindset. If the thing that you want in your life is significant enough, it most likely will be difficult to obtain by some degree. The first step is coming to terms that it won't be easy, but also understanding that if there is anything in this life you truly want, and you dedicate your time and focus to it, you can have. You may stumble and fall once or twice, but remember, it's not that a winner never falls, its that they refuse to stay down when life throws a challenge at them.2) BODYNext is your body. So many people overlook this aspect because so many fail to believe that having a strong body has anything to do with accomplishing a goal. I can't stress the importance of this enough, if you are unhealthy and lack the energy to power through a day, you will most certainly also lack motivation, focus and most of all, you will lack the winning mindset. This does not mean that you need to become a world-class athlete. What is does mean, however, is that you need some degree of vitality in your life. You gain vitality by eating right, regular exercise and rest. Break one of these links on the chain and the whole fence falls down. Never underestimate how important your body is on the mission. It is the vessel that will carry you to where you want to go, so treat it as such.3) BUSINESS/GOALSWhen it comes to your goals, your business or anything you want to attain, you must first become very clear on what you want, more importantly, you need to have a clear understanding of why you want it. Write these two things down, your specific goal and the reason it is important to you. You see you simply can't plan to drive somewhere if you don't know exactly where that place is, you need to know exactly where you are going. So many people forget to connect the importance of a goal to the act of attaining it, and that's why so many people never get up after they fall, and believe me if your dream is big enough you will fall. But when you remember the importance of the goal, that becomes your why. And when your why is strong enough, it will pick you up and lift you over any barrier. A person's why can become their greatest asset, make sure to remember yours on the journey.These concepts my friend, are equipment for you to put in your backpack. The journey to the top is never easy, but you will be ready so long as you have the right tools to get you there.I'll see you at the top, stay inspired!-Raf

So many people quit going after their dream because, after a few months of hard work, they don't see any results. Even worse, some people just don't want to put in the hard work, to begin with. We live in a world of instant gratification, where we can type a few words on the computer and we get a list of answers. And if for some reason those answers take more than 1.2 seconds to load, we start to complain that things are taking too long.I was the biggest offender of this, so many times in life I found myself frustrated with where I was, but I never truly took the steps to move out of that place. I fell victim to "excusitis... " I don't have the time, it can never be me, life is too unfair, I don't have the money, and so on the with a laundry list of excuses.When I did get moving I would put in the work, but just enough to say I went for it but it didn't work out. I wanted success to appear in my life just as fast as Google can provide you with up to date information on the weather. I wanted it now.The reality though my friends is that success rarely happens overnight. Even the so-called overnight successes tend to have a history of trial and error that they went through way before they ever became a success. We don't see the years of them falling and picking themselves back up. We only see the product of them finally having a breakthrough.With that said, I want to share a few concepts that have helped me on my journey, and I hope they help you as well.1) If you are driven, life will be a constant struggle. Why? Because when you are driven the moment something becomes comfortable, you step outside of that zone and reach for the next goal. A truly driven individual will live in a perpetual state of discomfort. Learn to thrive in discomfort and your life will take on a completely different meaning, I promise you that. You will build more confidence, you will walk and talk differently, you fear less and live more. Most of all, you will continually learn, grow and evolve until the day you die.2) You will without a doubt fall many times. Notice I didn't say fail, you only fail when you give up. But if you have a large enough dream it will take much trial and error to accomplish it. You only fall so you can become stronger, so you can learn how not to do things and get one step closer to finding out how to do it right.3) It will not happen overnight and it will not be easy. If you are not ready to put your heart, blood, sweat, and soul in something, you should turn off this podcast, forget your dream and go be like everyone else. But if you understand that true excellence takes years and that your dream will only come true if you are relentless, you are heading in the right direction. Success takes a unique blend of passion and sheer insanity. Because you need to be absolutely insane to get knocked down so many times and keep getting back up. And in order to do that, you have to be an incredible amount of passion for the things you do.Your dream is the prize for never giving up. We did not come here to have a dream that is just that, a dream. We came here to pursue our dream and to face our challenges, most of all, we came here to win. And it won't happen today, and it won't happen tomorrow, but if you put your head down for the next five years and go after your goal every single day. If you are willing to sacrifice the person that you are for the person that you want to be, if you have an insane drive that will stop at nothing and an unbreakable passion. If you get up every time you fall, if you learn and evolve daily. If you change your plan because it didn't work out but you refuse to change your goal. If you see it, live it, breathe it every step of your life... You will win.Go win your dream, stay inspired!!!-Raf

These are 3 steps I have used to overcome adversity in my life. For full show notes be sure to head over to rafaelgaray.com for this and all my podcast episodes.Stay Inpsired!-Raf

Throughout my life, I have learned so many lessons. Many of them I learned from multiple failures. It took me a long time to learn lessons when I was younger, I was somewhat of a glutton for punishment. Finally one day I decided to open my eyes and look back at all the times I fell. Looking back uncovered a treasure trove of lessons.Moving forward in my life, I began to study what we call study some of the worlds top performers and continued to learn valuable lessons, only this time, I learned as a student. I no longer needed to fall to learn these lessons.I want to share with you some of the most valuable lessons I learned along my journey and hope they can help you with yours1) Growing up I was raised by a single mother until I was about the age of 7. I had a step-father who came into my life and to say the very least, we did not get along. He was a great man but I was a young stubborn kid who refused to take any guidance from him because he wasn't my real dad. Words being exchanged soon turned into threats of physical violence and it sent me on a downward spiral. I could go on with the story but it would be a chapter in a book. It took almost ten years for us to even speak civilly and it almost tore our family apart.Fast forward today and I couldn't picture my life without him. He is an amazing man. He took care of our family, was a great husband to my mother and an excellent father.Lesson number 1: We rarely get things right the first time/ failure is never final. We always have a chance to go back and mend broken bridges. The game simply isn't over until we stop moving forward, so long as we breathe, there is always an opportunity for greatness.Moving past that time in my life, into my 30's, I started to find success in my career. It started as me just want ing a job and paying my bills. I was dead broke and hungry, and I quickly began to climb the corporate ladder. I learned how to make money and learned how to invest. In short, I found financial success. It was what I always wanted until I had it. I soon realize I wasn't doing the things I loved. I love this! Writing podcasts and speeches, coaching and inspiring people, and I realized I traded that for financial gains. This brings me to the net lesson.Lesson number 2: Ensure that you have the right definition for success. I was on the grind for years and earned myself this career and learned how to invest, but I wasn't happy, because I wasn't doing things that set my heart on fire. Life is too short not to do the things you love, and I can guarantee if you do what you love and add value to other peoples' lives, the dollars will follow.Do what you love. Period.Finally, very much related to the second lesson, I learned that sometimes success can be a trap. I had the financial success, a nice house, nice care, amazing vacations and everything I could ask for. I knew it wasn't what I wanted, but I was content, so instead of coming home and writing a podcast, I sat on the couch and relaxed. So my final lesson:Lesson number 3: Never let short term success put out our fire. You came this far, and let me tell you, there is greatness inside of you. With all of that greatness, I can tell you with absolute certainty that you are only halfway there. You are capable of so much more in your life. Go for it. Never let your fire burn out!Failure is not fatal so long as you pick yourself up. Live with love in your heart and fire in your belly. And never, ever stop driving forward!Stay Inspired!-Raf

When you think about your passion what do comes to your mind. For myself, it has all but become clear, what I want to do with my life and how I plan to give back to this world. It is so clear to me that at times I feel that it should be a given that you know what you want to do with your life, so I am sometimes shocked when I hear that people, don't know exactly what they want to do or what their dream is. What I need to do is simply remember that I didn't at one point either, in fact, it wasn't until I explored many different avenues that I finally found my passion.It is sometimes easy to overlook things when they seem like they should be so natural. That is when I realized that finding your passion is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle to success in life, happiness, relationships and everything in between.As a coach and motivational speaker, I feel it is my duty to give some guidance on how I found my passion, or better yet, how my passion found me. I knew when I gave my memorized speech in 7th grade I had a good feeling inside me. I also know that when I was in high school I gave what ended up being a probably my first motivational speech. Even with all those signs, I still went in so many other directions when I was growing up. Knowing exactly what you want is a gift and just like everything else in life. it takes time to find it.The first thing I will say is that if you do not know exactly what you want to do in life, do not worry!!! That is a good thing, because it only means you have a whole lot of exploring to do and a world of opportunity ahead of you.The first step is to go explore!!! Try new things, and try to stick them out whether you like them or not, sometimes the thing we love isn't a love at first sight. When I first started Jiu Jitsu, I did not like it at all. I was not good at it and I never thought I would be. I didn't quit though, I kept going. One day I actually got good, and now I it is an absolute passion of mine that I simply can not live without. You never want to keep going down a road that will lead to nothing, but you can't quit at the first sign of discomfort. Give things a chance.The second step is something I learned from my younger brother and his non-profit "Hypelite." His message is to bridge your passion with purpose. This is a powerful message and made things so very clear for me. Think in terms of what you want the world to know about you when you are gone. What lesson do you want to leave behind? If there was a gift you could give to the world before you go, what would it be? If you answer that question, you just might uncover what your true passion is.The final remark I will leave you with is an answer to a question. How do you know when you find your passion? The answer..... You just do!Stay Inspired!-Raf

He who masters his craft, becomes the architect of his future…I remember being in the seventh grade and we all had to remember a speech. The speech I chose was The Gettysburg Address. The speech stuck with me so much that till this day, over 20 years later I still remember it word for word. I really didn't know it at the time but that speech became the foundation for what would become a passion of mine later on in life.In life we have two choices, either we live the life that we want to live, we plan our lives, we architect it from day one, or someone else has the pleasure of architecting that life for us. I feel that for most of us, not all, that when someone else architects our lives for us, we end up unhappy in some way, shape or form. Either we are in a job we don't like, we have a lifestyle we don't want or simply the inability to do the things that we want most in life.I am a firm believer in gratitude, and I try and be grateful for everything in my life, but even I still find myself unhappy sometimes. And I start to complain, sometimes to myself, sometimes out loud, and it's always the same thing. I feel that I have come such a long way in my life, but I am not near where I want to be.That's when I remember two things:1) It's not the destination it's the journey.2) If I want to get to where I want to go, I need to master the things necessary to get there.This is I used to get it so wrong, and I wish I could go back and tell myself years ago that it doesn't matter what bright idea I decided to follow, what mattered is that I mastered the craft.I never wanted to master the craft, I thought I did but I really didn't. I wanted to tell a story about how I had this great plan, how I was going to do big things. I would do that day after day over wings and beers until the dream faded and I was right back to complaining about where I was in life. What I wanted was something easy, I wanted to go halfway in, learn a little bit about something, talk the talk and then just have success come.Let me be clear, you can have anything you want, just go master the skills required to get there. It doesn't come easy and don't expect it to. Don't give yourself the excuse that you don't have the time, you don't have the money, you don't have the resources, or whatever it is you keep telling yourself you lack. Don't become a master excuse artist, I need this I need that. Don't master the tough talk, I am going to be big, I have these amazing plans. Don't master going out to parties every Saturday. And most of all, don't master complaining. Master your craft.So back to the Gettysburg Address, I didn't know it at the time, but the feeling I had in seventh grade when I gave that speech, is now one of the best feelings I get. I love when I can talk to people and lift them up with my words. My dream is to be an amazing motivational speaker. And it will happen, want to know why, because I choose to master my craft every single day, I am obsessed with it. I read speeches, I give speeches in my head. I listen to a speech nearly every night before I go to sleep. I study how certain words, the tempo of your voice, and the tone at which you deliver can move someone. I am simply obsessed with it.Some of the best advice I can give you, if you are not where you want to be, master what you need to get there. Have a plan, study from the greatest people doing it. If you make it your mission in life to completely and utterly master the thing that you are after then there is nothing in this world that will hold you back from greatness.Become a master, and I will see you at the top.Stay Inspired!-Raf

A man much wiser than me once said that success is 80% psychology and the rest is mechanics. So the challenge becomes, how do you stay mentally strong when things don't go in your favor. Every single person faces adversity and in order to truly become successful, we need to understand the mechanics of how to change your perspective.I have faced many setbacks in my life and as we speak right now I am going through a struggle. I have had a low back injury from and in recent months it has finally taken its toll on me. For over a decade I have been a competitive martial artist and this injury has left me on the sidelines. It has been a very long time since I have been to a jiu-jitsu or Muay Thai class and honestly, it has been eating me at my core.It may seem insignificant to some people but when you are so passionate about something, it hurts on the inside when you feel like it has been taken away from you. Not to mention the fact that I am living in daily pain to the point where sometimes it hurts to bend over and tie my shoes. It has been a stressful few months full of physical therapy and spinal injections.So what do you do when life throws one at you, how do you answer that challenge and how do you face the adversity in your life? One thing we all do on a daily basis is talk to ourselves, we talk to ourselves all day. It's in that self-talk that lies the answer to becoming successful.I could tell my self the story that I am all messed up and I am missing a part of myself that is so important to me, or I can change the narrative and say this is life telling me to slow down and change my direction for a bit. So what have I done in the time that I have been on the sidelines? I still stay active, I still go for my morning runs, I still go to the gym and lift and I still keep a healthy diet. But in the time I have that I would normally be on the mats training, I found something else.I found myself doing yoga. I do it with my wife, it's extra time that we get to spend together. I found myself writing more content to inspire those around me. I have more time just to sit and be with myself, and sometimes you just need to detach from the world for a bit so your vision can become clear. In this time I made the decision to invest in my own education with a business mastery course and paired with an amazing coach who is helping me to pursue my passion for coaching and speaking. In short, once again in my life the thing I thought was a setback turned out to be one of the best things that could have happened to me.Now my heart is truly on fire, I feel more than ever that I have a purpose in this world. That purpose is to lift up and inspire as many lives as possible.Learning to reframe your perspective is one of the surest ways to overcome adversity. What does an Olympic athlete do when the competition zips by them in a race? Do they slow down and give up, do they say it's unfair. How does that athlete respond to the pressure? It's simple, the run stronger, harder and faster.The middle of the pack is so crowded, there is so much noise there. This is where everyone starts off, people are hungry to achieve, but there is always challenges on your way up, and most people jump ship. Some people simply lack the grit and mental fortitude to climb through the challenges, but the ones that do, always end up on top.And back to success. That self-talk we mentioned earlier, that's the voice we need to take control of. So many of us have negative self-talk. It manifests as fear, stress, and anxiety. Learn to take control of that voice, find meaning in the challenges you face in your life. So go out today, tell yourself you are amazing, remember the challenges you face are a window of opportunity to a better life. Pursue your dreams with passion and intensity, and I will see you at the top!Stay inspired!-Raf

Napoleon Hill stated that desire is the starting point of all achievement. Having a strong understanding of exactly what you want in life is crucial in order for any dream to become reality. In my last episode, I talked about becoming clear on exactly what you want in your life. Having that vision will begin to propel you forward.One of the things that I have always struggled with is consistency. I have told my listeners more than once that I have had so many great ideas in the past that I started but never finished. The reason I never finished is that I was unwilling to sacrifice what I was, in order to become what I wanted to be. What I wanted was to be an overnight success. I didn't want to put in the work. I could do a little bit, and that little bit was always the fun easy stuff, and the fun easy stuff usually involved me talking to a bunch of my friends how I had this great idea and I was going to be rich really soon.To say the very least, most of these ideas fizzled out very quickly. Why? Because I could easily talk the talk, but I never wanted to walk the walk. When it came down to it, I didn't want to sit in on a Saturday while my friends were out partying. And when I was done with my day job, which at the time was being a massage therapist, I didn't want to do any more work. When work was done it was time to crack open a beer and relax.Even when I started this podcast, I went all-in! I was working close to 60 hours a week at my day job and coming home and working all night. And you know what? It felt good, it felt good because I was driving towards my dream. At the same time, I was slowly burning myself out. But I had desire. I had a desire because I made it real, I read my goals out loud, I envisioned them. But then one day I just stopped. I had a lot of things going on in my life, and they were good things. I bought my first home for me and my wife who at the time was my fiance, I got promoted and I was finalizing my wedding plans.With all of this going on, "The Art of Inspiration" took a back seat to the rest of my life.Two things happened here:1) I stopped being consistent: By being consistent, I just don't mean writing content and recording episodes. I mean I lost consistency in all aspects. I stopped reading my goals, I stopped visualizing. My morning routine began to falter. Keep in mind, I had great things going on in my life, and this ultimately made me comfortable. I had a good career, good income, great new home, and an amazing woman that I was getting ready to marry.All of this lead to....2) I lost my desire. The happy comfortable place I was in, contributed to me losing my desire. My podcast wasn't taking off like I thought it would, and I had all this other stuff going on, so it slowly faded away.What do we take home from all of this? First, your consistency and persistence towards a singular goal are just part of the puzzle. You need to learn to bring consistency to every aspect of your life, especially your mind and body. If one of those things begin to falter, everything begins to fall. It wasn't just that I stopped writing, I stopped all the other things I was doing to make myself better. I skipped workouts and meditation sessions and I started to slip up on my diet. If you think those things have nothing to do with your success in life I highly advise you to go back and put some thought into that. What good is being highly successful if you are unhealthy and constantly sick, and what good is having everything you want if your life and your mind still breathes negativity? You will never find happiness that way.Secondly, your desire, your drive. No matter how driven you are, your willpower is a finite resource. To be realistic, no matter how positive you are, from time to time, your fire will go out. Even myself, as a motivational speaker, sometimes I just lose my drive. Sometimes I don't want to get up and go to work, I don't want to get up and run or work out. It's normal, I am a human being. So what do I do?The key difference for me is something I learned in my studies of highly successful people. I have learned that human beings have two primary driving forces, we innately seek pleasure and avoid pain. Of these two drivers, the innate instinct to avoid pain is by far the stronger of the two. This holds true for both mental and physical pain.So what does this all mean? It means we have that vision board, we read our goals, and we want them, we truly desire them. It brings us pleasure to get closer to them. But what happens when we lose the drive one day? That's when we need to flip this concept upside down on its head and force ourselves to have a drastic shift in our mindset?And what is that shift? The shift is to ask yourself, what is the price of not achieving my dream? What is the price I will pay of not living life on my terms? What is the price I will pay for not being where I want to be financially, mentally, physically? Maybe it means you can't take care of your parents the way you would love to, maybe it means you can't be there to watch your kids grow up because you spend your days in working a job that never truly satisfies you. Maybe it means your dream of traveling the world will never be anything more than a dream.We only have one life to live, we can either have the life we always dreamed of, or a dream that never came to life.You have to want your dream so bad that every single day that it kills you not being there. That is the kind of drive that will bring you through anything. So when our desire begins to fade, when we lose the energy and motivation to put in the extra work, ask yourself. Am I willing to pay the price for not having what I want? Or, will I go after the things I want.The answer is simple, we will never stop, we will never slow down, we will never lose the vision. And what will we do? We will rise up, we will find meaning in our work, love in our heart and the unstoppable force in our spirit. And we will never stop climbing.See you at the top!Stay inspired!-Raf

To be successful I have always felt that you need to focus on three areas. You focus on strengthening your mind, you focus on keeping your body healthy, and you focus on your goals. Most of all, you focus.Focus has and always will be one of the areas I struggle with the most. It's ironic when people tell me that I seem extremely focused at work and in the things I do daily. The truth is that it doesn't come easy. I am focused but only because it's something that I work on every single day.One thing that I can absolutely not understate is that extreme focus is absolutely required in order for you to turn your dreams into a reality. Go back and read that sentence over and over until you truly understand the importance of focus.One reason in the past that I never moved closer to my goals is simple, I did not focus on exactly what I wanted. My first business as an entrepreneur was actually a staffing company which I ran out of my home office. I knew the foundation of building any home-based business was to provide a service and find a way to market effectively to my target customers and continually build my business. I signed one contract and all of a sudden I made it! I needed the advanced website, the dial by name phone system that made my company appear larger than it was (even though I was the only employee.) And of course, really cool looking business cards. All the while I lost sight of the fundamentals. In short, I lost focus.I ended up leaving that business behind for a promising opportunity, but looking back I could have done really well had I stayed focused on the plan.If you can learn anything from my shortcomings, it's that staying focused is one of the keys to creating your destiny.When I think focus, and how it pertains to your goals, I think of two things. First is long term focus. Your long term focus is what you want in life. This is your ideal scenario, the end goal. Your best-selling novel, rising to the top of an organization and becoming CEO, becoming the next LeBron, or becoming one of the best inspirational speakers in the world. If you are not focused on that thing, whatever it might be, on a daily basis, you are not moving closer to it.You need to be extremely clear on what you want, don't just say I want to be one of the best motivational speakers in the world, say I want to author a New York Times bestseller, say I want to stand on stage in front of 10,000 people and lift every single one of them up and say I want to travel the world to inspire millions of people to be the best versions of themselves. The goal is to become exactly clear on what you want.Now that you know exactly what you want, I want you to do two things, first write it down. Your goals are just thoughts in the wind if you do not write them down. When you write them, they become real. And read them aloud to yourself at least twice a day, when you get up and before you sleep.Next, I want you to go make a vision board. Take everything you just wrote down on paper and put it in pictures. I thought this was a silly exercise until I actually incorporated it into my own life. Now, look at this as many times a day as you can and imagine yourself there already.What does this do? If you follow these two steps that means you have written your goals, you have heard your goals out loud, you see them on paper in words and pictures, visualize them and you will feel them. The more you do this, the more you focus on your dreams, the more real they become. Cal Newport states in his book "Deep Work," “Who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love—is the sum of what you focus on.”Now that you have your goals firmly implanted in your mind, body and spirit, you need to go get them. You build a plan. If you are unsure how to build a plan, check out my episode "Sharpen Your Vision," you start with your end goal and work backward.This is where your short term focus is most crucial. Your short term focus is your ability to stay dedicated to one task and one task only. If you are writing that novel, then write that novel. If you are preparing a speech, then prepare your speech. You aren't texting your friends or checking your social media. You are focused on accomplishing the thing that is in front of you with razor-sharp precision. When you are working on your goal, nothing else exists.Your ability to focus and dominate the tasks in front of you will ultimately pull you miles past your competition. One of the tools that has helped me to focus, is meditation. I began my meditation practice about a decade ago. I wake up at 4:30am every morning and start with a breathing exercise and then I start meditating. I practice several forms of meditation, Chi Gung, mindfulness, an1`d visualization most notably. It starts my day on a positive note, it helps me put meaning into my work, it slows me down, but most of all, it helps me focus.I have learned so much in the last decade. I study the most successful people relentlessly trying to find a winning formula for success. If there is one thing among the winners of the world that I have found is that they have a damn strong mind. They have a determination that can bend the will of a perfect storm, and a razor-sharp focus that can split the entire world in two.An unbreakable focus can cut through everything that stands in your way, you don't see problems anymore, you don't see anything but your dream, your goal, your vision. Build your focus today and put these ideas into practice. What we think, we become. Never lose sight of what you want most in this world. Live it, breathe it, feel it, every single moment of your life, and one day, just one day. Your vision becomes real.Stay Inspired!-Raf

"Our Lives are full of moments, one of our greatest gifts lies in the ability to decide if those moments define us or if we define those moments."I used to wonder how my life would be different if I hadn't gone through all the adversity that I faced. I had an interview yesterday with Catherine Dean and she asked me a very profound question. She asked if I would be the same person I am today if I had not gone through everything I went through in life.I am normally good with questions, but I must say that I had to pause and look within for a moment. After a brief pause and a very long-winded answer I actually learned something about myself.Everyone goes through hardship in life, we lose people we love, relationships fade, we make mistakes. We trip, we stumble, and we with the right mindset, we dust yourself off and we get back up again.Being incarcerated wasn't the worst thing to ever happen to me, almost losing my family was my rock bottom. The man I am today is a reflection of the lessons I learned along my journey. Had none of that happened, would I still be motivated? Would I still be driven? I would like to think I would be. I would like to think that no matter what happened to me in my life, underneath my exterior, was a pure heart. The reality though is that without all the heartbreak, all the setbacks, all the missed chances, I would not be who I am right now. Not in a million years. Some people don't need to go through all of that to bring out the best in themselves, I guess I did. I remember sitting with my wife one night, we were dating at the time and looking to take the big step of her moving in. We had been together for some time but I never really told her much about my past, in fact until this podcast, I never really spoke much about it. It was just a thing that I hoped never came up in a conversation. I figured if she was moving in she should probably know everything, so I came out with it. The funny thing was her reaction, she looked at me and said, I knew it! Call it a woman's intuition. She said, "I always knew there was something." She also said I should be proud of it because it made me the man I am today.Do the moments in our lives define us, or do we define them? I think both. Hitting rock bottom helped shape the man I am today, but on the other side of that bridge, I get to define exactly what rock bottom meant to me in my life.The challenges you face in your life will ultimately shape you, the awesome part of is that we are the sculptors of our own destiny. We get to decide if that bump in the road will tear us down, or if it will force us to rise up, and stand with more strength than we ever knew we had. We may not know it at the time but the challenges we face in our lives are ultimately a blessing.When I hit rock bottom, that didn't mean it was time to lay down and die. When I hit rock bottom I decided that it was a sign, and the sign said, you are at the bottom, and the only way to go is up.The hard part about that is learning how to define your perspective. Nobody goes through a tough time and says, oh man, this is great, I'm so excited to be going through this nightmare. A powerful tool I learned simply just to pause. We can't have control over the entire outside world, but what we do have power over is how we react to changes in our environment. There is always a meaning, if you look hard enough you can find positivity in any situation, but you have to find that meaning for yourself. I still go through struggles every day, just like everyone else, and I am nothing but thankful for it. Why? Because I know it is continuously shaping m to be a better person.For anyone out there that is going through a hard time, if you are stressed-out, if you just lost a friend, lost your job, or if someone you love just died. My advice is to let that moment shape you. Being shaped by moments means we are learning, it means we are growing. The "X" factor to this equation is always remembering that we get to decide how it will shape us. Will it turn us bitter, will we lose hope, will we give up, will it break us? No!!!! It will not!! Why? Because we will not be broken! That is your moment to look inside and ask yourself, how can I use this, how can I grow from this, how I can this make me a better person. Never forget how powerful you are, there is a way over any mountain that stands in front of you, so just when you feel like you are down, and life keeps pushing you, and you feel like you are crushed by the weight of all the pressure, you look inside and you find it. You find a way to rise up, you find a way to win, you find a way to learn, you find a way. No matter what, you find a way!The challenges in your life are a blessing and they can mold you into the best version of yourself. This very moment, right here, right now. Let it shape you. When the wind comes, look inside, you will find your answer.Stay inspired!-Raf

I once talked to someone who said they didn't feel successful. I remember hearing their story of all the adversity they went through in life and how they felt like they were in a good place now. It reminded me of myself. Sometimes I don't feel successful because I haven't achieved my ultimate goal yet.This leads me to the question, how do you define success? Life has taught me so many things. When I was living life on the wrong side of the tracks, I remember making a lot of money in the wrong way. I could go to the mall and buy anything I wanted, but I couldn't look at my mom in the eyes anymore. I learned a long time ago that success is not money, it's not a fancy car, it's not a big-time job. Success can have a lot of meanings, but to me, it's not any of those things.One of the most important lessons I learned in life is to follow your heart. When I finally came home from a long time away, I went to massage school to become a therapist. When I graduated, my mother gave me a card, it was a poem, and the title was "Follow Your Dreams." To me that meant so much, it wasn't just the message or the poem on the card that touched me. It was the fact that for the first time in a long time, I felt like my mother was proud of me.As time went on, throughout my life I always had goals that I was chasing. I slipped up from time to time, but I am ok with that. What matters the most is that I changed my life. I learned to see life through a different lens. And I chase my dreams every day. There are so many motivated people out there, all with big dreams. My message today is simple, if you are following your dreams, you already are a success. You don't have to wait for the big day you achieve your dream, because guess what, you will probably have another one.I still have the card that my mother gave me so many years ago, and I stare at it every day. It's not the words so much that matter, but remember the feeling I had when she gave it to me. Always follow your heart. I learned that to live your life in pursuit of your dreams is a life well lived, but none of it matters if you don't have love in your life.I once gave a speech at my old high school, it was I guess you can say one of my first motivational speeches. Afterward, a young student came up to me, he was partially blind, and he told me that he wanted to be a lawyer, but that everyone, including his parents, told him he couldn't because of his disability. He came up to me and said I inspired him to go after his dreams. As a speaker, I have dreams of being on a big stage one day, but that to me was success.Always follow your heart. If you are chasing your dreams, you are already a success. You will always slip from time to time when you climb a big mountain. When I fall, I remember the feeling of that young man telling me I inspired him, I remember the feeling of my mom giving me that card. When you fall, remember what you love. The things in your heart will lift you up, they will drive you forward, they will make you fearless, and they will give you the strength to push through, any mountain, any wall, any problem. Love is the most powerful thing in the world Anything that stands in between you and you where you want to go in life. If you have love inside of you every day, you are already a success.Always follow your heart!Stay inspired!-Raf

So many of us are great storytellers, the problem is that we are always telling the wrong stories. And when I say storytelling I am referring to the excuses we often give ourselves as to why we can't go after one of our goals. The goal could be a simple as losing one pound, or as big as becoming the next superstar athlete. I know all too well because I am a great storyteller, or at least I used to be before I stopped making excuses for not being able to become a motivational speaker and started writing this blog. The stories I told myself always followed a common theme, I don't have the time or I don't have the money. Sound familiar?One day I decided to throw caution to the wind and get going on my website. I purchased my domain and started building my website. I didn't know anything about building a website or recording a podcast. Google and YouTube were my teachers and countless hours of trying and trying again finally earned me a website that a first-grader could proudly call their own. Now on to the content, I had it all in my head, and I wrote all the time, but I always wrote to myself and never for an audience, If you have never written something that you hoped one day to be consumed by the masses, believe me, it is much different than the memoirs you write to yourself or the countless ideas you put on a scratch pad. So it was back to the basics, I had all the concepts in my head, now I just needed to get them on paper. Then the fun part came, trying to record what I put on paper in a way that sounded good and then trying to edit the whole thing. Keep in mind, I had just downloaded the software to do all this the night before. Saying I was an amateur would be giving me too much credit.May 6th, 2002 may not ring a bell for you, but it is one historic day that significantly changed the world. Why is this day so important you might ask? This is the day Elon Musk founded "SpaceX", this was his attempt to reduce space transportation costs and also had larger goals of civilian flights to Mars. What is interesting is that Elon did this without knowing all too much about rockets. According to some of his colleagues, Elon simply had a goal in mind and began from there. Weeks later he was knee deep in several texts on rocket propulsion. It's a very long story, and if you are an entrepreneur I suggest you read about it, but the story itself is not what I am here to talk about. What I am trying to express is the fact that this man essentially went after a goal that the majority of the world thought he was crazy, couple that with the fact that he was by no means an expert on rocket propulsion or space travel, but he had an idea and he got to work. He undertook one of the biggest tasks of the 21st century with no experience and no road-map, so what did he do? He just stared... He literally just started, he knew there would be tons of work to do, but he didn't care. He knew from building successful businesses before that if you ever want to succeed the first thing you have to do is move."There will never be a perfect time, and you may never truly be ready, just get going!!!!"Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook in his dorm room with an idea but no roadmap for where it would go. Edison saw a lightbulb in his head long before the world thought it was possible, and he had no idea how he was going to do it. But he started anyway!!!!I can tell you that I am no Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg or Thomas Edison, but I don't want to be, I want to be me. I don't have the best web design or the best audio on my podcast, but guess what? I have a podcast, and I have a website. I made it, and I made it before I knew how to. Through the past year, I have learned so much and I continue to improve as time goes by. Here is another thing I learned, you have to believe in yourself, but sometimes the way to believe in yourself is just to go out there and do something. Because the truth is that when you have big dreams you may at times doubt yourself, but when you get up and do something and turn around to look back at it, you begin to build the belief that you can accomplish anything.The barriers to our dreams lie inside of our own minds, and our minds only. It's the willingness to put the extra work in when we are tired, the willingness to drive forward when the wind blows against us, and the willingness to start before we are ever ready.If you have a dream just go for it, don't wait for the things to line up perfectly, just go get it. Forget the story about why you can't and tell the story of how nothing can hold you back from getting to where you want to go.Stay Inspired!-Raf

I was just starting to take off in my corporate career getting promoted ahead of schedule, given the really big and challenging projects to work on and despite challenges, I always seemed to get things done. I studied leadership extensively so I had a keen understanding of the fact that I didn't need to know everything or be good at everything, I just needed to surround myself with people that complimented me. I wasn't exactly the most organized, so I hired someone who was. In a sense it wasn't me who was winning, it was my team. Not having to be good at everything was a groundbreaking concept for me, because I always thought the people on top had it all. I was starting to understand the concept of leverage.Henry Ford is maybe one of the greatest examples of leverage. When brought in front of the Supreme Court for breaking America's anti-trust laws, Ford was asked a series of questions about the nature of his business. to which he did not have the answers. For those who know history know the rest, Ford broke out into a historic rant about a series of bells situated at his desk, to which on the other side was an expert in every area of the business. who could answer his questions at any time. “The Men Who Built America”, as coined in the popular History Channel documentary understood the concept of leverage. For those of you who happen to not be experts at everything like myself, I assure you that it will never hold you back.So I was off to the races, a hungry young man with no college degree climbing his way up the ladder in a corporation where more often than not your alma mater was just as important as your relevant work history when trying to secure a job. People wore there school names like trophies. If there is one thing I know that school won't teach you, is the gift of the gab. I developed a knack for it and in my role as a recruiter, the gift of the gab was what I needed to succeed. The art of the conversation, which at times I learned was much more listening than talking. I excelled as a recruiter and learned the art of leverage, so I had my bosses attention, but in an organization so big, I knew that I needed the big wigs to be looking at me. I've talked about this is some of my previous podcasts, if you want to climb any ladder, you need to be noticed. And for me to be noticed, I did the only thing I knew how to do well, I bullshitted with the bigwigs. Every chance I had to walk past a CEO and just throw out a word or two, until eventually, they started being comfortable with me, asking about what I do, and then letting them know I am the best in the business and if they have a problem they could come to me.This was out of my comfort zone but eventually, I began feeling comfortable around very senior leadership. The one thing I strayed away from and that I was always nervous about was letting people know too much about me. After all, underneath all the big talk was a man with no degree and a spotty past. It' s interesting because my former life as a massage therapist taught me some critical communication skills. I had a different body on my table every hour and they were in pain. I had very little time to get them comfortable and get them to trust me with their bodies. How do you make someone comfortable and trust you? Rapport. That one word summed it all up. I developed a knack for building a rapport with people in a very short time. People from all walks of life, from doctors to yoga teachers, to construction workers. The key is to listen to them and learn to speak their language very quickly. When someone can identify with you it's as if they have known you for such a long time. It was crazy how good I became at it that people began opening up and confiding in me. I used this little trick on the Senior Leadership and they started really liking me. Now they would talk to me all the time and I started to worry that they might really start to ask more about me. More about my education, my family, or worst case scenario, my past. I was a guy with tattoos who did martial arts and lifted weights with no education in a massive company with buttoned-up MBA's.One day, one of the worst things that could have happened, happened. I was talking about MMA and competing when the CFO for the company came by and overheard my conversation. This was the man who essentially ran the funds for a billion dollar publicly traded company, he barely came out of his office and he barely spoke to anyone that didn't have a “C” in the front of their title. I'll never forget that day because the man looked over at me and said, " you fight, holy shit that's fucking awesome!” He then turned to one of the head CEO's and said, hey did you know this guy fights? It became a thing, they would always come to me and talk about my training. The CEO would even joke around with me and say he was going to sponsor me to fight one day. Long story short is that one of the parts of me that I never wanted anyone at that place to know about me became my ticket to sit at the big table. It opened up doors for me, that was not even accessible to other people on my team. When the most important multi-million dollar projects came up, they said, put Raf on it, the fighter, he's the guy.Your authenticity is what makes you special. I spent so much of my time trying to hide who I was in a world that I fought my way into but thought I didn't belong. Every piece of you is something amazing. Never waste a second trying to be something you are not. The very fabric of our existence is the culmination of events in our lives that shape us into who we are. Never change that for anything or anyone. You can be a million thing in the world but the most awesome thing is just to be you.Stay Inspired!-Raf

Talent, much like passion is one of the most misunderstood aspects of success. With passion, people tend to think that one day you just happen to stumble upon something and boom! You found your passion. In reality, passion is often cultivated over time. The first time you pick up an instrument, it is highly unlikely that you will love it and vow to become the next Mozart. It is usually not until after hours of mindful practice that you might find it to be even the least bit enjoyable.Now, let's look at raw talent, many people think it is a prerequisite for success. History has proved quite the opposite and the examples are all but too compelling to dismiss. I love sports, and as someone who studies successful people I tend to look at the best players in any sport, whether it be tennis, boxing, swimming, MMA, or golf, and research them extensively, I am almost always looking for commonalities. Traits that they share regardless of their sport. I have almost always seen the typical hallmarks of true greatness. The insane work ethic, mixed with an unstoppable competitiveness, and sheer will. Interestingly enough, not all of the greats were born with the raw talent to be one of the best. What they did have however are perseverance and an unwavering determination.Wayne Gretzky, arguably the best hockey players to ever live was not the most powerful skater. Many were faster and stronger than him, some might have even urged him to take up a different sport, as in hockey, speed and strength are extremely important. What Wayne did have however was the power of anticipation, he always skated to where the puck was going, not where it was. This is a skill he admitted to working on night and day so that he could be one of the best.This is just one of many examples. Harrison Ford was told he would never make it in the acting business. Oprah Winfrey was demoted from her evening spot on television and Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper for lack of imagination. Do yourself a favor and Google any one of those names if you have spent the last 20 years at sea with no wifi and have a look at their stories.Remember passion, how you build it over time as opposed to having a eureka moment, at least most of the time. These people all failed, but they refused to give up. Eventually, they hit their stride and developed the passion. The passion helped them to put in the blood, sweat, and tears when things were working against them, and the perseverance kept them moving forward no matter what setbacks they faced.Does raw talent help, of course? Do you need to be the most talented to succeed? Of course not. Will you face challenges? Yes. But perseverance will win every time.Stay Inspired!-Raf

Everyone can succeed, period. Being successful isn't for the already elite. I will spare you the examples of rags to riches stories as they are so readily available and quite frankly if you have followed my writing you have already heard it. What I do want to do is highlight some areas that I have found to be a common denominator among people who accomplish their goals. This can be a goal of building the next Amazon, or it can be as simple as waking up 5 minutes earlier every day.Before I get started, I know what you are thinking. You probably think I am going to start talking about hard work and you have to dig your heels in, so on and so forth. Hard work is a given so no need to even go there. What I will tell you is that hard work is nothing without a plan. I know plenty of really hard working people that stay in the same space for their whole lives because they lack a plan.Planning is one of the most important pieces of any journey. This is where I will actually advise people not to innovate at first, Look for someone successful in your desired field or someone who has what you want. Now study how they got there, ask questions, network with people. Once you understand how they got there, you can start to build a framework for your plan. This is when you can feel free to innovate, but the point is to understand the steps to get to where you want to go. My guess is if you find several people who have achieved what you want, you will surely find some common ground. Plan very thoroughly as this is the most important part of your journey. If you don't have a map to follow, you are likely to get lost, and my guess is that Siri or Alexa can't help you out with this one.Next, I want to talk about the number one killer of dreams, the dreaded "Plan B." Never fall victim to it!!! Just having a plan B is you admitting to yourself that your plan might not work. You have to go into this with the mindset that you will make it happen no matter what. What happens is that people tend to start off strong when they are trying to achieve something, but then retreat as soon as they hit rough waters. Then they find a new goal and the cycle begins again. Next thing you know you are 65 years old and you never went anywhere. The moral is, you need to be persistent. You may need to rework your plan, but don't ever rework your goal. NEVER!!!!So there you have it, proper planning and persistence will always get you to where you want to go. Hope you enjoy the podcast!!Stay Inspired!-Raf

It's every entrepreneur's dream. Quitting their job and heading out to start the business of their dreams. The problem is that for most of us this is not practical. Many of us have homes and families. Mouths to feed and bills to pay. While there are many out there who have had success taking off with an idea and becoming wildly successful, for most of us, quitting our day job is not yet an option. Well, at least until our side hustle starts to grow some considerable revenue, or until we banked enough money on the side to last a few months while we focus on growing our business.I remember the day I started this website, all I wanted was to share some of the lessons I have learned in my life and inspire people to apply some of the rules of success I have learned throughout the years. My goal was to write one post a week and record a podcast to go along with it. For those of you who follow "The Art of Inspiration" podcast, you will know that I quite didn't hit my goal, I will note that it was certainly not for lack of effort. Quite the opposite to be honest. I work a 9-5 job, that is really more like an 8-6, add an hour commute each way into busy New York City on top of that and I am left with not much time for writing and recording, in fact not much time for anything at all.To make up for my lack of time I began waking up at 4:30 am every morning to squeeze in as much as possible before I left for the office. I hit my mark for the first few weeks, I managed to get my writing done, record and edit the audio so the podcast could make it to iTunes. To be completely honest, it totally burned me out. I was totally stressed from a high demanding fast-paced corporate career and adding more stress to myself just to get my podcast out. Not to mention at the same time all of this was happening I was planning a wedding, buying a house and moving. If you ask me it was a serious recipe for disaster.The past year taught me a lot about being an entrepreneur and what it really takes to build a business on the side. So what are my top takeaways? I'm glad you asked.It's Not Easy: If it were everyone with any decent spec of ambition would have already quit their job and be on there way to the Forbes' list of top entrepreneurs. Realize this before you set out and save yourself some heartache when things don't fall together on week 2. This brings me to my next takeaway,It Takes Time: So, your plan isn't coming along as quickly as you thought it would? Well as the old saying goes, "Rome wasn't built in a day." If you want this to be something amazing, it's going to take time. Never give up on the first sign of rough waters. Persistence is the key, it could take years but trust me it will be well worth it.Discipline: Unless you are somehow blessed to be perpetually motivated 24/7, there are going to be times when you just don't have the juice to put the work in. Even as someone who hosts a motivational podcast, some days you simply just don't have it in you. This is where discipline kicks in, you just do it anyway. Much like going to the gym when you absolutely don't want to, you will thank yourself later. Plan: I mean really plan. You need a roadmap to achieve your goals and you should always be following it. Study other people and see how they did it. Make your 5-year plan and know what you need to do in 1 year to be on track for that goal. Once you know that start breaking out a weekly list of things that must be done. Plan your time accordingly. Time management is key to planning. Like Jim Rohn said, " either you run the day or the day runs you." Mind and Body: If you think they have nothing to do with your success as an entrepreneur, think again. Building a business is stressful and it consumes a lot of energy both mentally and physically. If you are neglecting your body you are just going to fall apart. Try to eat as healthy a possible and get the rest you need to recover. Exercise your body and mind. Something as simple as a brisk walk and 10 minutes of daily meditation can have a profound effect on your performance. And entrepreneurs need to perform, so stay sharp!Building a business is not easy, with or without a 9-5 job. Can it be done, hell yes it can, and you can do it. Just plan, stick with it, stay sharp, never give up, and above all... Stay inspired!!-Raf

Everyone encounters some form of setback in their lives. Whether it be the the loss of a loved one, loss of a job, a failed business plan. Whatever it may be there are always things you can do to overcome your setback. Setbacks are a part of life. Like Tony Robbins says, success is never a straight line. Success in business, in relationships, and in life. We all need to fall down at some point in the process. Falling down actually allows you to learn and grow. Some of the world's most successful people have suffered massive setbacks. Steve Jobs was fired from Apple, Walt Disney was fired from a local newspaper, Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. The list goes on, the world is filled with many examples of people who fell and later became great successes. The thing all these people had in common was resilience. They never acknowledged failure, they took every fall as an opportunity to grow and become better.Below I have outlined some steps you can take to help you overcome challenges that you will inevitably encounter on your way to achieving your dreams. I have studied many successful people's strategies to facing challenges, but for me seeing is believing. I have personally used these strategies to overcome setbacks in my life, so I can attest they will work, but the one most important variable that will ultimately determine how successful these strategies are is your application. In other words, you have to use them, and I mean all the way.1) Accept It: Shit happens! That's right, it happens to all of us, you are not the first person to experience a setback and you surely wont be the last. Very simple, and not much to define, come to terms then you can move on to phase 2.2) Learn From It: Did life screw you over or did you screw up on your own. If are still thinking, " I can't believe this happened," then go back to step one, you aren't ready yet. On the other hand if you accepted it, now you need to examine it. Whether you messed up or you truly just got screwed over, there is always something to be learned. Search for the meaning and find something tangible that you can use and apply to your life that allows you grow from the situation. This will force you to dig down to the core and truly examine yourself. There is a seed in every setback, remember that! If you plant it, you will grow from it.3) Get Up!: Literally, get up! Go exercise, it is one of the best ways to deal with stress. Don't feel like getting out of bed? Just go for a jog or brisk walk, get the blood flowing. You will not only feel better from the release of endorphins, but it will give you a chance to organize your thoughts. Once you are going and your thoughts are organized, you can move on to the next step.4) Make a Plan: So what are you planning for? Well I am glad you asked. The answer, however, I can not tell you. You have to ask yourself what it is you truly want. You know the flaw, you just learned what might set you back, now figure out how you can improve and what your desired outcome is. Once you have that you can devise a plan to go after it. Remember there are always events in our lives that we can not control, what we can control is our response to them. Will you let it define you, or will you accept it, learn from it, get up and make a plan?See there are always things that will get in our way, if achieving great things was easy, everyone would be at the top. What separates the successful people from the ones who stay stuck is their willingness to move forward no matter what comes their way. A bodybuilder can't grow big muscles without first tearing the fibers in them, a tree wont grow deep roots unless the wind blows against it, and neither will you.Stay Inspired!-Raf

Fear is a mechanism used to help keep us safe. As described in an earlier podcast, the only two innate fears are that of falling and loud noises. All other fears we have learned through some experience or teaching. Many children grow up afraid of the dark because of boogeyman stories they were told.As we grow older many of us are often faced with more "real world" fears like whether they will get a good education, land a good job and pay all the bills. These are without a doubt areas of concern for almost anyone graduating high school or college and getting ready for the real world. Whether or not you graduate school or decide to pursue a different path, many of us ultimately have one question that produces both a good amount of stress and fear. That question is, "will I make it?" At some point I feel almost everyone asks themselves this question in one way, shape or form. Another variation of this question could be "should I go for it?" This question leads to one of the biggest dream killers of all time. Hesitation. Call it procrastination, call it putting it off, call it I'll get around to it. Call it whatever you want. Just realize that your fear leads to hesitation, which leads to you not living the life you wanted or starting the business you always dreamed of. It leads to not pursuing the acting career you truly want and it leads to not starting to write the book you pictured being a best seller one day.What I want to do right here and now is give you some pointers for overcoming fear and hesitation. I have picked up some of these through my own failures in life and some I have learned from my studies of successful people. These are the most simple and powerful tools I have picked up and my hopes are that they help you as much as they have helped me.Acknowledge: The first step to conquering fear and hesitation is to simply acknowledge what it is you are scared of. Write it down on paper. What is surprising about this is that when people are forced to articulate their fears, they sometimes just can't put their finger on exactly what it is that is scaring them. Be specific, don't just say that you are scared to start your business, what specifically about getting started do you fear?Educate: Once we have a specific fear identified on paper, you then need to educate yourself on it. The first question to ask is, why does this scare me? We may fear it because of a past failure, but my experience is that people mostly fear what they don't know, they fear the unknown. Well, if you fear something you don't know anything about, my advice is to start reading, educate yourself. You may find that once you have some clarity, that huge mountain that you fear may not be so big after all. Learn everything there is to know about your fear, become friends with it. Remember, we mostly fear what we don't know. Simply knowing your fear will help you to face it.Eradicate: We have written down exactly what we are afraid of, we studied this fear at it's deepest level. We know it inside and out, now what do we do? We eradicate it! We strike that fear down to it's core. Remember, we are only born to fear falling and loud noises. Everything else is in our own mind. The fear is then based on some experience, some reference we have. A limiting belief. So we now get new references. Once you know the why, you need to seek references contrary to your current beliefs. You fear starting the business because you think you will fail? Well then start looking at people who have succeeded at what it is you want to do. Study them, what they did, what challenges they faced and how they overcame them. You need to fill your mind with as much positive information that you can so that you form new beliefs Beliefs that empower you and beliefs that slay the fear that's holding you back. It takes time, practice, and courage, but if you truly embody these 3 steps, I guarantee you will be better off than where you started. Let your desire drive you past your fear to where you want to be. Picture yourself standing at the edge of a cliff, on the other side is everything you ever wanted, and all you have to do is take a leap to have it all. Would you jump? It would be scary? Yes. What is scarier is standing where you are watching your dreams slip away as life passes you by. Take the leap!!!Stay Inspired!-Raf

Today I have decided to give a quick motivational speech. My hopes are that you will listen to this when you need a little nudge to get you moving or when you want to add some more fuel to your success fire.I want everyone to be able to confront their weaknesses. Everyone has something that can be considered a weakness. I have many, but rather than running from them like most people do, I have learned to confront them. I think to be successful at any endeavor in life, you need to focus on your strengths. This however by no means should come at the expense of neglecting your weaknesses. Improving upon what we are not good at helps us to grow as individuals. I have learned that by not acknowledging my weaknesses, I empowered them. All of us have different areas of our lives we want to improve upon, but there are some which I have seen to be fairly consistent. From today forward, I want us all to face these together and move forward to become better versions of ourselves. So what are these weaknesses I speak of?Fear: Fear can be a good thing. If we were neanderthals hunting for food, fear was our survival mechanism. It helped us to not get eaten by hungry tigers. Today we are unlikely to be eaten by a wild animal on the street, but fear nonetheless will often hold us back from heading into uncharted waters. These are often the very same waters we need to cross to get to where we want to go in life.Frustration: We all get frustrated at some point, do we not? I know I do. My guess is everyone reading or listening to the podcast gets frustrated at some point right? Well, unless you happen to be a Zen monk living in Tibet. In which case you are probably not reading this. 1) Because you probably aren't looking for any self-help, and secondly because at the monastery in Tibet, I highly doubt there is any WiFi ( I could be totally wrong here.) If you are by any slim chance a monk in Tibet and you are reading this, please drop me a line. Seriously!For the rest of us, frustration is a big problem, mainly because when we become frustrated we lose focus, and when we lose focus, we simply can not hone in on our goals.I have explored fear before, if you have not already listened to my podcast titled "Tap Your Inner Child and Become Fearless", I suggest you give it a listen. On my next episode I will look into some specific strategies to help you overcome fear and hesitation. In the meantime, listen to this episode and let it fire you up.Stay Inspired!!-Raf

Heading in to the new year is a time when everyone thinks about what goals they hope to achieve in the new year. Here we will take a look at how a simple shift in your mindset can make everything possible. Head over to rafaelgaray.com and click on The Art of Inspiration for full show notes on this and all episodes. Stay inspired! -Raf

Ever read the book "The Secret"? It talks about being able to manifest your dreams into reality through your thoughts. It's a radical idea, and many across the globe started to believe deeply in the power of manifestation. What did the book forget to tell you? Tune in to find out, and be sure to head over to rafaelgaray.com where you can find full show notes to this and all of my episodes. Stay inspired! -Raf

Contrary to popular belief I feel it is perfectly OK to not be inspired and happy 100% of the time. Before you dismiss that last comment, be sure to listen and head over to rafael.garay.com/art-of-inspiration/ where you can find full show notes for this and all of my episodes. Stay Inspired! -Raf

Learn why not doing everything is sometimes exactly what you need to do to accomplish your goals. Sharpening your vision means figuring out the most important things that need to be done, and the steps you need to be taking right in this very moment. For full show notes head over to rafaelgaray.com Stay inspired! -Raf

Some of us spend so much time not doing the things we love and not going after the things we want most in life. All too often people look back at their lives and regret the things they didn't go after. Life is just too short to not go after it, and the time is right now. For full show notes head over to rafaelgaray.com. Stay inspired! -Raf

Exploring the importance of relationships in all aspects of life. From business to your friends, family, romantic relationships, and the ever so important relationship you have with yourself. Be sure to head to my blog at rafaelgaray.com for full show notes on all episodes.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit. Often times we quit when we are so close to our goals. What Aristotle knew some 350 years BC, and what some of the worlds most prolific people know to this day, is that true persistence conquers all. For full show notes please head over to rafaelgaray.com/art-of-inspiration/persistence. Stay inspired!

Today's episode is all about looking deep inside of yourself to find your happiness. Keep your focus on gratitude and the things you appreciate in your life. This episode will explore some easy yet proven techniques to shift your perspective and help guide you to have a positive mindset and a vibrant outlook on life. For full show notes visit rafaelgaray.com/art-of-inspiration/happiness

Children are born with two innate fears. The fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. Aside from this children are essentially fearless. In today's episode we will explore how to tap in to your inner child and overcome the fears that old you back in life. For full show notes head over to rafaelgaray.com/art-of-inspiration. Stay Inspired! -Raf

Today is about true leadership. When someone says the word leader who comes to mind? Now ask why. I think all to often we fail to ask these crucial questions about our beliefs and perceptions. The question to ask here is what would we want to see in someone leading us. What qualities, what characteristics? We can use these answers to paint a picture of what leadership truly means to us, then we must mold ourselves after that picture. I hope you enjoy the show. For full show notes visit rafaelgaray.com/becoming-a-leader. Stay inspired!

In this episode I share a personal story of some of the challenges I faced as a young adult. For those that have been following the podcast, you all know I had a very rough patch in my life. I hit absolute rock bottom and I developed many different patterns and behaviors which continued to hold me back. One day I looked up and had a clear picture of what I wanted. I realized that I was the only one holding me back from having everything I wanted and unbeknownst to me I began utilizing an extremely powerful tool that literally transformed my life. Inside this episode you will hear my story and this amazingly powerful tool that transformed me. For full show noted head over to rafaelgaray,com/art-of-inspiration/2017/4/21/breaking-the-mold. Stay inspired!

Todays' episode is all about belief systems. We have beliefs that empower us, and some that hold us back. The key is to identify and learn to crack the foundation of beliefs that limit us, such as beliefs that you are not good enough, or you are a product of your circumstances. Once you have done that you need to build new belief systems that empower you and drive positivity into your life and thought process. Head over to my website for full show notes on the episodes and enjoy the show!! rafaelgaray.com/art-of-inspiration

For some people finding your passion is often the most difficult step to achieving their dreams. Finding your passion is not always easy. One of the best tools I have used to cut throught the weeds and find my focus comes from Stephen Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People." It is to begin with the end in mind. Think of what your ast days could look like. What have you accomplished? Did you go after your dreams? Do you have any regrets? Who is with you and what do they say about you? What do you want them to say. Answer these questions an you may find that your goals become more concrete. At the end of the day, your time on this planet and the people you love are the most valuable things in life. Once they are gone you can never get them back. Never waste them for a second. Hope you enjoy the show. Stay inspired! -Raf

In this episode we will begin on our journey to success. The first step in any journey is defining the mission, the same goes for your life goals. You must clearly define what your dream is. This is of the the hardest part of the puzzle. Finding your passion isn't always easy, sometimes it finds you. Sometimes ts the complete opposite of what you thought it might be, life works in mysterious ways. If you have not found it then start to look. Look to try new things, revisit old ones, just keep searching. Once you have the the vision defined you need to build a roadmap of how to get there. Set clear timeline goals of where you want to be at any given point in the process. Once you have the dream, you have the plan, then you have to execute! You have to put the plan in motion, and stay motivated along the way. You need to stay inspired!!

Building resilience and a strong focused mind are two of the key pieces to the puzzle. Neither will be of much use to you if your health is in a constant decline and you lack the energy to get moving. Today's episode focuses on the body and what I hope are easy concepts for you to implement into your lives yet will have a massive impact on your health and well being in the long term. Your body is your machine, treat it right and it will take you far. For full show notes you can visit me at rafaelgaray.com/artofinspiration. Stay inspired!!