Welcome to the Toilet Paper Salesman Podcast. My name is Mike Merarky. This episode marks episode 10 for our podcast. It's a milestone that most podcasts don't reach, so we've been blessed to persevere through and to have 10 episodes, and we hope to have many, many more. Today we're going to continue to talk about the anchors that hold you back and the anchors that stop you from reaching your fullest potential. Last episode we talked about fear, and today we'll be talking about more anchors that hold you back. But first let's start by talking about discouragement. As we grow up and we start to discover our gifts and talents and separate ourselves from our peers, we begin to excel in certain areas. That's when discouragement starts. People will naturally discourage you if they feel like you're passing them by or they feel like you're moving to a different place, because it makes them feel bad about themselves and that they're not keeping up or they don't have the talents that you have. So that they're not keeping up or they don't have the talents that you have. So naturally, what they'll try to do is pull you back to be equivalent with them, or a group will do that as well. If you internalize this, then what happens is you end up getting pulled back into the crowd.

Earl Nightingale, who is a classic motivational speaker. I listened to Earl Nightingale in the 80s and actually rediscovered him recently. His material is just incredible. But he talks about as you achieve success. It's like going to the top of a pyramid, and as you ascend to the pyramid you're leaving people behind. You get up to the top of the pyramid and the air is fresher. There aren't as many people there. It's a better place in some ways. But you've also left people behind because they're not willing to achieve or to focus on success the way you have, and so as you become more successful, the journey gets a little more lonely. That's why it's important to separate yourself with people who aren't successful and to align with people who are successful, because they'll help you to stay in that mindset. You're the only one that can let happen that they discourage you and pull you back. It's up to you whether you want to continue on with your path or you want to just go with the crowd, and many people go with the crowd, and it's not just when you're a child, it's when you're an adult as well.

As you outgrow a person or relationship, the other person is going to try to hold you back. They're going to try to keep you in that relationship out of fear of losing you, and they'll do that by discouraging you, by telling you things that aren't true. The challenge is when we internalize those words, those statements. Discouragement also can be self-inflicted. You know, we say things to ourselves that we would never allow anyone else to say to us.

The things you say, the words you say, are one of the most powerful tools you have. Your mind is the most powerful tool you have. Things you say to yourself or to others will determine how successful you will be, both positively and negatively. If your self-talk is negative, then you're going to bring negativity into your life. If your self-talk is positive, if you're working on positivity, then you'll bring positivity into your life. What comes around goes around. If you're projecting positivity, you're going to get positivity back. If you're projecting negativity, if you're gossiping, if you're always negative, if your talk is negative, if you're talking people down, then that's naturally going to come back into your life and then it multiplies.

Your life is like a canvas and you paint a picture every day of yourself and for the people around you. So we have an opportunity to paint this beautiful picture. It's a blank slate every day. You paint your painting by your words and your actions for yourself and towards others. You paint into other people's lives by how you treat them and what you say to them. Negative words are like black paint, and we've all done this right. You say something negative to somebody and it cuts deep into their soul and now you've painted black paint into their life, into their painting, and so it's hard for people to get out of that right? So are you painting with black paint? Most artists don't use black paint because it's hard to deal with. When you put black paint on your canvas, it's hard to make a beautiful painting out of it, and that's what happens when you put it into other people's lives and other people put black paint into your canvas, then it takes a little time for you to work through that black paint and sometimes it carries on for years, forever, until you can get it to fade out of your life and to fade out of your painting.

The things you say to people. If you paint positive things into their painting, then their painting is going to be beautiful. You're going to add to their painting. If you're saying negative things, then you're going to make their painting not look so nice and could ruin somebody's day by one statement, and we've all done it. We've all said something to someone that's negative and ruined their day. Or you could be positive and you've done something nice for someone, or you smiled and it makes their life better. It makes their day better Just one small gesture.

Think about your life as a painting and you as an artist. And so you're painting your life based on the things that you do, the things you say, the things you think. Life based on the things that you do, the things you say, the things you think, and you're, in essence, creating your painting and you're making it either beautiful, or you're making it okay, or you're making it not so nice, depending on the type of paint you use, depending on the talk you use, the words you use, the actions that you do every day towards others and towards yourself. So try and experiment. Say something true and nice about someone and see how they respond. Make a habit of keeping positive in how you speak to yourself and others and watch how everything will change in your life. This is one area that will make an immediate change for you. So that's all I have for today. If this was valuable, like and subscribe to the podcast Until next time. Who says selling toilet paper isn't glamorous? Selling toilet paper, it's what we do. Thanks a lot and have a great day.