YES 2 NEW OPPORTUNITY

 

I truly believe YOU can develop your own intentional growth plan and taking action NOW!  If YOU are serious — Please, learn the seven proven blocks and start NOW!!  In addition, to the blocks I have also added some quotes I received this last week to assist in of your intentional growth.   WHY?  Because every great leader throughout history has had a quote or phrase which was used as a credo or motto.  

Here are the seven blocks:  

1. Start with the end in mind… where do you want to grow?

1. Make a commitment to grow. 

1. Make your commitment known to those that care about your success. 

1. Identify the areas you want to see developed in 90 days.

1. Invest 20 minutes - 1 hour a day in the areas you want to develop or grow. 

1. Invest 20 minutes - 1 hour a week for reflection and writing down what you are learning.  

1. Invest in books, audiobooks, magazines, or articles that target your attention of development or growth. 

Always remember — every thought you have is derived from an impression of the outside world.  When you use the five dimensional areas; SEE, HEAR, SMELL, TOUCH, or TATSE something it INVOKES a thought.  In other words, we are being controlled (really we are programmed) by the outside world. What we must start to do is live from the INSIDE OUT.  Give control to you, and the outside will then be a reflection of the INSIDE.

These impressions create our THOUGHTS and our THOUGHTS determine how we FEEL. Therefore THINKING and FEELING as a combination is the secret ingredient to IMPRESSING your mind.  I truly hope this short blog or message empowers, inspires, or resonates with you today:

1) Fear and Faith both believe in a future that hasn't happened yet. Choose faith. 

- Jamie Kern Lima

2) Danger is real but fear isn't. Fears are just the way you perceive a situation. Fears tell you lies. Don't let fear hold you back from rewriting your story. 

- Damon West 

3) Don't let your feelings dictate how you show up. Dominate a standard that you set in advance. 

- Ben Newman

4) THE LIE society tells us is that your success, your fame, your fortune are the most important things about you. 

- Alex Demczak

5) Love was the most important factor for our team in accomplishing what we have. 

- Sean McVay

6) Everyday I have to make a decision. Am I going to just stay there in bed? Or, am I going to pull myself out of bed? And when I make the decision to pull myself out of bed, I make the decision to be relentless in life. 

- Jay Glazer

7) Oftentimes we start with trying to find answers, but finding the right answers begins with asking the right questions. 

- Valorie Burton

8) If you know what your virtues, values, standards, philosophies, and non-negotiables are in your life. Your life will change forever. 

- Steve Weatherford

9) When something bad happens, it's not about what has happened, it's about what you do next that will change everything. It starts with you. 

- Octavia Goredema

10) You are only one encounter away from completely changing your life. 

- Ed Mylett

11) Choose to be your number one cheerleader. 

- Heather Monahan

12) Be the change that you want to see. 

- Derwin Gray

13) Adversity is life's greatest teacher. 

- Jeb Blount

14) Don't get distracted focusing on someone else's relationship with God, work on your own. 

- Jade Gordon

15) A lot of the success I have reached in my life has come from living outside of myself. Serve others. 

- Damian Lillard

16) Your greatest ideas can only find their full power when you find a way to communicate them. 

- Erwin McManus

17) Value people, you never know what God will do through another person. 

- Inky Johnson

18) It doesn't matter if anyone believes in you, you can still have everything you want if you believe in yourself. 

- Candy Valentino

19) Believe that your people have greatness inside of them. Because they do. 

- Stephen MR Covey

20) The people who win are either better than their competition or they are different from their competition. 

- Phil Beckner

21) Look for ways to redeem the wrong. 

- John O'Leary

22) Wherever you are or whatever your situation is, you are not going to make a change until you are frustrated about where you are. 

- Nathan Chan

23) In the locker room diversity is not an obstacle, it's a strength. 

- Stephen Mackey

24) When you have your season, moment or situation that feels like it's going to take you down, move closer to the people you love, hang on to your faith, and you will make it through. 

- Coach Yo

25) A lot of time the key to helping us figure things out is clarity, and when you don't have clarity you can't move on anything. 

- Kathryn Gordon

26) You don't have to knock someone else down to get where you want to go. 

- Elisha Jarrett

27) Buckle down, be positive, and realize sometimes in life it's not about what happens to you, it's about your response to what happens to you.

- Chris Singleton

Ralph Waldo Emerson put eloquent well: “Every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I have learned of him.”  If you want to learn, if you want to improve your life, seek out a teacher, coach, bibliophile, philosopher, or great books is a great start.  Of course, this approach will only be effective if you’re committed, determined, enthusiastic, and ready to let go of opinions you already have.  We all have to get to the point in our lives where we work from the inside out.  

With gratitude,

Coach Frank Sagasta 

Husband, Father, and Educational Leader

  

YES TO HAPPINESS

A friend by the name of Terrence Freeman, shared a beautiful book with me four years ago.  This is the third time that I’ve had the privilege and honor of reading.  It isn’t like some ordinary or average book.  In fact, it is like any other book you might’ve read over the past year or two. 

I’m referring to Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.  It truly is astonishing and amazing at the wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and sheer intelligence of Marcus Aurelius, a young man at the age of 13 was being groomed to be the Emperor of Rome.  I truly believe that if someone were to speak of the expressions he left behind.  It would be a sense of brilliance, never mind the pondering from a young man born just 121 years after Christ Jesus died.   

“The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.” 

~ Marcus Aurelius 

This young empire was the head of the Roman empire back during an age when it was pretty fuck’n common to chop a man in half with a sword like a piece of bacon.  It truly is remarkable to think of all the principles, methods,  and strategies he left behind that far too many have never heard of today.  I genuinely cannot imagine what it would’ve been like to live back during those harsh times.  When young boys became man at a rapid speed.  

It is hard to really wrap our minds around the idea of living back then and I believe it is because our whole life has been comprised of modern civilization.  In fact, for the last 80 years it is all we’ve ever known.  Could you imagine Elon Musk creating a time machine to go back in history only to drop your ass off in 121AD with no way of returning to the present time.  I am more than certain that some individuals would certainly consider taking their own lives.  This truly makes me wonder how the future civilization will look back at us.  

As modern civilization — We have waged war against lands that are not are own.  We have looked to government for direction and guidance.  We have allowed technology to be our demise and distraction.  We have allowed pharmaceutical industries to poison our hearts, minds and livelihood.  We have seen what corruption, ignorance, arrogance, fear mongering, and psychological behavioral modification through television networks.  We have seen the global advancement of high-speed planes, trains and electric cars.  We have lived in a civilization where information is instantaneously at the hands of those 5 years old to 80 years old  We have seen the power of Wi-Fi as well as pocket-size drones launching missiles into civilians.  

I think it’s hard to see because we’re living in the middle of it, the paradigm. However, I believe history is going to study as carefully, the professors. The bibliophiles, scholars, and researchers are going to be stunned and in uh at the speed of our own destruction that came so quickly.  Marcus Aurelius, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Epictetus, and many other stoics and historical leaders will look down in disarray as to what we’ve allowed our civilization to become.  

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius ruled from 161 to 180 AD, and developed a reputation for being the ideal wise leader Plato termed the "philosopher king." Emperor Marcus Aurelius has remained relevant for 1,800 + years largely due to his writings collected as Meditations.  Your energy and time are both limited, so do not waste them on what those inconsequential to your life are doing, thinking, and saying.  Emperor Marcus Aurelius says: “The duty of a human being is to help others that we share life with, and one should not fill one's mind with anxiety-inducing, frivolous thoughts, especially since they often lead to negative outcomes.”  Ryan Holiday cites author Nassim Taleb's definition of a Stoic, which is someone who "transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking."  As Marcus writes: "Something happens to you.  Good. It was meant for you by nature, woven into the pattern from the beginning... Get what you can from the present — thoughtfully, justly."

In closing... The Emperor Marcus Aurelius was heavily influenced by the thinking of the first-century stoics, perhaps in part because his time on this earth was so difficult.  I personally believe our time on this earth right now is difficult to some degree or in some different way.  I believe the modern man or woman can find much in the knowledge, wisdom, understanding of Marcus Aurelius that still applies perhaps more than ever today.    

The End 

With gratitude, 

Coach Frank Sagasta 

Husband, Father, and Educational Leader

FRESH BULLSHIT

 

     FRESH BULL 

Every single moment is a chance to turn it all around, but it starts and ends with you.

I have to ask… are you stressed?  Are you genuinely happy?  You’re not alone.  In fact, the numbers of students, teachers, parents/guardians have been stressed or unhappy for some time.  And it is the number one obstacle people are facing today when trying to live a balanced and fulfilled life.  I know most of us think we are relatively happy, but are we truly?  Could we improve just a bit more daily or do we have to eat the same fresh bull?  Some of those Stoics, bibliophiles, thinkers, philosophers, and life learners have been exploring the question of happiness for thousands of years and the theories abound. 

In these minutes reading you will learn not only what I have discovered and practice  for balance but how to conquer your days with some tips, methods, or strategies at the end.  I truly appreciate you sharing your time with me this day and I hope you enjoy and share with others.  

Nearly half of all U.S. adults say that stress has negatively affected their behavior. These stress statistics illustrate what stress looks like in America.  By Singlecare Team | Updated on Jan. 20, 2022

Medically reviewed by Dr. Scott Dershowitz, LMSW, and CMC. 

— Depression derives from the word “depressus” in Latin. The word “Depressus” means pressing down, suffering, exhausted, woeful, sorrowful, discouraged, and deaden.  And the origin of the word “anxiety” is “anxietas” in Ancient Greek and its meaning is “worry, fear, curiosity.”  The word “stress”, which comes from ‘estrica’ in Latin, refers to a warning sign on the health and peace of people, is perceived as a warning and therefore, it represents physiological and psychological reactions that are not distinct towards the poorly addressed events. Stress is regarded as a situation that shapes the attitudes and behaviors of the individual and the whole environmental, individual and organizational factors to be effective in certain proportions.. 

And to a greater extent — 10.6% of youth (or over 2.5 million youth) cope with severe major depression.  The number of youths experiencing severe Major Depressive Episodes (MDE) increased by 197,000 from last year's per: https://www.mhanational.org/issues/2022/mental-health-america-youth-data

I know this isn’t the best topic or the best subject most ordinary or average people like to discuss.  However, it does need attention.  The positive kind of attention because it effects so many in our homes, schools, churches, workplaces, and communities.  People of all ages get overwhelmed, stress, or depressed but something is different and it isn’t the people.  I have come to believe and accept the results.  This difference comes from society — our environments: mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, and financially.  The good news is everyday comes with an opportunity to change that IF you truly want too!  The change starts with small details and the amount of attention you place on willpower, discipline, and reeducation.  

You see those with a fixed mindset won’t step outside the comfort zone for long term results.  In fact, they won’t grow because they believe we cannot change our biological circumstances or cognitive abilities.  However, Dr. Carol Dweck describes it this way:“My work bridges developmental psychology, social psychology, and personality psychology, and examines the self-conceptions (or mindsets) people use to structure the self and guide their behavior. My research looks at the origins of these mindsets, their role in motivation and self-regulation, and their impact on achievement and interpersonal processes.”  You might sum it up this way — what is within our control to foster successes or achievements.  All to often… we see books, magazines, or articles selling people on the Secrets of the World’s Most Successful people which are overflowing on the shelves of bookstores or online business journals trying to share some tips, strategies, methods, or principles that may give meaning to a useful or more productive lifestyle. 

In my professional opinion — people of all ages must learn to be: mentally, emotionally, and spiritually strong.  We can all agree that each of us will face circumstances, situations, events, or setbacks in this life.  We cannot allow those to define us or worse…to derail us or sabotage us from achieving the balance or fulfilled life we truly want.  

WE MUST UNDERSTAND THAT WE CANNOT CHANGE ALL OUTSIDE EVENTS!  WE MUST UNDERSTAND THAT WE CANNOT CONTINUE THE PROCESS OF SKIMMING FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, TIKTOK, YOUTUBE, HULU, or NETFLIX.  

As much as we're interested in those things.  We need to be more involved in becoming resourceful.  With that being said, let's dive into the some tips and strategies that will be resourceful.  

 

Smart People 

What are ten tips smarter people use these days:

1. Read. Read from books that help improve your vision on life. 
2. Surround yourself with  positive people. They don’t need to be smart or smarter. They could be positive, hard-working, disciplined. As long as you surround yourself with people who have their own view and thinking, you’ve successfully surrounded yourself with good people.
3. Write. Try out writing every day. It helps you keep things in perspective. I think, therefore I am. How about, I write, therefore I am. It’s a fun twist to explore.
4. Don’t quit social media. I quit social media for a few months and while it had its positives, it also came with a few drawbacks. In today’s world it’s important to stay connected. It’s enough to make sure one doesn’t spend too much time on social media. But why quit if you can use it for good?
5. Learn to tell stories.
6. Talk to as many people as you’re willing to do. Be open, stay open, stay learning.
7. Think! Don’t live your life on autopilot.
8. Stay on your own path. Ask yourself where you’re wanting to be in a few years and try to work towards that instead of following the crowd.
9. Learn to be happy no matter the outcome.
10. Learn to face your fears, instead of avoiding them. It’s tough and difficult but it is indeed what keeps you moving forward!

What I have learned or re-educated myself on is habits and strategies that have put me behind the wheel.  Dr. Joseph Luciani, who is a psychologist in New York City — said: “Viewing depression or stress as a tendency rather than an illness puts you behind the wheel, so to speak, and may help you change your life.”  I truly believe Dr. Luciai is absolutely correct along with other great psychologist.  If we want to be more productive despite stress or depression we need to see depression or stress as a habit. A defective habit.  If you’d like to read — than I recommend Dr. Joseph Luciani's self-coaching book, The Powerful Program to Beat Anxiety and Depression.  

With all this in mind, stress, anxiety, and depression is a state of mind and body.  We have the power and abilities to learn to identify your external challenges as exactly that, external things that have caused you to stress or become depressed.  It is finding the trigger and doing the opposite.  We must realize that we can’t control all the external cards in life.  Whether it’s a difficult co-worker, family members, relationship or a global pandemic, you can’t do anything about it.  It is what it is — What you can control is how you respond to life and all the ups and downs that inevitably come with it.  My students are learning this now in sixth grade.  Because I want them to be prepared for the future of education and life.  I would also highly recommend that you read the book my students are using in class, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey.  

With gratitude, 

Coach Frank Sagasta 

Husband, Father, and Educational Leader

                                                                    

                                                       

                                                   

Coachfranksagasta LLC,  ©️ 2021