Hi, I’m Rick Sessinghaus. So this is video two in what I call “The Influencer” series. It is what has influenced me to both good and bad in my life and understanding those influences. So obviously, if it’s a positive one, to keep doing it. But really, what I want you to start thinking about is what has influenced you in your life, and have they been positive or negative?
One industry, I’ll call it the personal development industry, has been a huge influence on my life. Now, I know a lot of you out there may say, “Okay, self-help and so on and so forth,” and I get it. There’s a lot of theories out there that maybe are debunked and maybe it’s not sometimes the most ethical industry. I get it. But hear me out.
Personal development industry was very important and continues to be for me for a couple reasons. One, when I was younger I had a little bit of low self-esteem, and I had my identity all tapped into my golf game; and that I was a good person if my golf game was good. And I had a very difficult time seeing myself as a good person, for instance. And yet, that’s when it came along some great books that I read and some at that time cassette tapes to help with the message. And the message was, you know what? You can still develop personally maybe, some of those weaknesses. Turn them into strengths. But also become more aware and identify that we kind of all have had our issues, right? We’ve all had maybe some self-doubt and some fears and stuff. And it really helped me understand that there are tools out there.
Now, do all the tools work? That’s debatable, right? But I at least had some hope. Hope is a key thing. Is that I could now do something. I could actually make a change. So that was huge for me is that the personal development industry, books and audio and such, became kind of my go-to, my own little therapy as you say.
The other part that I want you to understand is that not all of the self-help gurus out there were correct. But, it helped me think that there are many different ways to look at problems, instead of just being in my own little world. So I could see those different things, which helped me a lot.
Now, the negative. It can become a crutch. Somebody else’s tools are better than my own tools. Or somebody else is doing it better than I am. That becomes a crutch sometimes that I had to be somebody else instead of just looking at my self and saying, “Whoa, wait. What can I do to improve?” So I had to get that, at the moment almost get addicted to personal development. The next book, the next this is going to be the difference, instead of I actually have to apply it. So, application of this was very important.
What has continuously been so important for me with this industry is that it’s taken my focus and kept me on some pretty powerful positive parts of life. When I read biographies of people who have been successful when I listen to a podcast of somebody who has beaten the odds. That helps me focus on the good in the world. Believe me, there’s enough crap right now on social media and the news to take our attention and our focus on what’s going wrong in the world. So my way is to take that attention from there and focus it on human potential, for myself and for my clients.
The personal development industry has certainly influenced me and who I have become and I would like you to think about what are those things that you can go to? That continuously influence you with some positive energy. So now you can perform for success.