Success Lessons From A Vampire??

Wow...talk about an unlikely place to find a powerful concept.

The other morning, Easton (my two-year-old) and I were the only ones awake and -- while he was pondering the joys of Thomas the Tank Engine -- I decided to flip through the channels to see if anything interesting was on.

And I happened upon a show called "Angel". If you've never heard of this show or what it is, I hesitate to even tell you because of how crazy it sounds.

But it's basically a show about a vampire who's given a soul to feel remorse for what he's done...and he spends his time in L.A. as a detective "helping the helpless".

Yeah, I know. And it went for 6 seasons.

As it turns out, this particular episode had some interesting characters and some good writing. And as I was watching, I heard something that made me bolt upright, look at the screen and say, "Yeah! That's RIGHT!"

The gist was that the main character (the vampire Angel) is telling another character about his perspective on the world. And he said

Nothing in the world is the way it ought to be. - It's harsh, and cruel. - But that's why there's us. Champions.

It doesn't matter where we come from, what we've done or suffered, or even if we make a difference. We live as though the world was what it should be, to show it what it can be.

Wow. I love that language.

"Living as though the world is what is SHOULD be....to show it what it CAN be."

Mahatma Gandhi said it a little differently: "Be the change you want to see in the world."

There's a powerful success lesson in these words and it's simply this: change starts with understanding that you are a cause, not an effect.

A lot of people get bogged down when they look a their bank account. But that's not who you ARE....that's the result of who you were being over the last few weeks or months. The same is true of your relationships. And your physical health. And your spirituality.

YOU are the cause of your life...

And if you want to start living successfully, take the advice of a vampire: "Live as though the world was what it SHOULD be...."

Be the leader. Followers are a dime a dozen.

Tony Rush