Erasmo Rivera
“Desire is the vehicle of life, you are the driver.”
Hola! I want my story to inspire you to believe in yourself.
Let me ask you, are you going through a tough time? Know that you are not alone. First things first, I want to thank you for your time and congratulate you for investing in your personal growth.
By growing your mindset and embracing personal development you will be shown a whole new world. I struggle to believe in my human potential for a long time. If you are struggling to find your life purpose and feel stuck, this only means that the life you have right now is not the life you’re meant to be living.
There’s more to it; more for the taking. There’s hope. Have courage and keep moving forward. I hope my story will help you overcome your limited beliefs and change how you see your world.
I carry the name of a man I never met; a man who changed the course of my childhood and my life. The Passing of my Abuelo(grandfather), Erasmo, would set into motion a chain of events that shaped who I am and who I was meant to become. It just took a very long time before I understood the impact of it all. The Windy City is the place where I was born.
Chicago, Illinois: home of the Clubs, The Bears, and of course the Chicago Bulls. My parents lived in Chicago for 13 years. In that thirteenth year, my father made a decision that put our life on a very interesting path. I remember my father telling my mom, “Oye mujer nos vamps a Mexico!” meaning “Listen, woman, we are moving to Mexico!” My mother was shocked. She couldn’t believe what my father had just said. At first, she took it as if he was playing around, but very soon she realized that he was serious, more serious than an unexpected heart attack. “Why do you want to leave? We have built an amazing life right here. This is where your children were born, their friends are here, their school is here and financially speaking we are doing great. “Why Leave?” My mother asked concerned with his decision. My father did not reply. Instead, he came to us, his children. he asked, “Guys, do you want to go to Mexico?” My older brother, just 11, and my sister who was 12 at the time said, “No we don’t want to leave, Dad.” But my curiosity and my hunger to learn made me say yes; “Yes, Dad! I want to go to Mexico.” At 6 years old, all I could visualize was me playing in sunny Mexico. I imagined the hills, the horses, my toys all laid out in the dirt; having fun (of course, I didn’t picture the huge mosquitoes; those caught me by surprise.)
I don’t know if my father was interested in our opinion about moving to Mexico or if he was just trying to justify his bold decision. My abuelo, who lived in Mexico, had passed recently, and my dad knew that it wouldn’t take long for my grandmother to follow. When my abuelo died, my father was devastated because he never got to say goodbye to him due to us living in Chicago. He told us it would be different with his mother and shared, “We are moving to Mexico.”
Five days after my father’s announcement, we arrived at a small village in the deep south of Guerrero, Mexico, a small village with a population of no more than 80 people. Modern life was very limited. There was no live TV, no buildings, no theaters, poverty was your constant companion, and wealth was nowhere to be found. The change was exciting, but I was also scared. To go from one of the biggest cities in the United States to one of the smallest villages in all of Mexico was about as big as transition come.
I got to learn a lot about Mexican culture and I adapted very well. I learned to live with limited resources and work however I could. To earn money. I collected sand from a river to sell to a construction company. I learned how to ride horses to get around, as there were no paved streets and purchasing a car was almost impossible due to poverty. Working the land was a big part of life there, so i helped grow corn and harvest corn. Being creative to survive was so important, and no resource could go to waste. Once we found a dead armadillo and decided to use its shell to hold the corn as we sowed it in the fields. It taught me to work hard and use everything around me, and within me, to live the best life I could.
A few years later, when I was 11, it was time to come back home to the United States, but not Chicago. This time it was Texas. before moving to Texas, my parents gave me a choice. I remember my mom standing in front of me with a serious face telling me “If you promise to be good, you can stay here in Mexico with your grandparents, and finish your last year of elementary school. I will come pick you up next year during the summer.” That was a melody to my ears: no more parents’ rules, no more “do this, do that.” All I could think of was playing with my friends all the time, staying up late…I’d be free. I immediately answered. “Sure Mom, I will behave, I promise that you won’t have any trouble out of me.”
Ther following year my mom came back as she said she would. My mom returned for two reasons: the first was to pick me up and take me back to texas with her, and the second was to bury my father. He had gotten very ill during the yeasr that I was in Mexico, and on June 7, 1992 my father died. History was repeating itself. This time it was me who never got to say goodbye. “What have I done, feeling sadness and confusion: the same thing my father must have felt years before losing his own father.
When my father died, my confidence died with him, and not just because he was the provider. The hero. My hero! My confidence died because of the decision I made. When I decided to stay in Mexico, I saw the easy way out, I saw small obstacles to jump through and a life with no restrictions. I denied myself enjoying the last year of my father’s life because I wanted comfort.
Making that decision burdened me with guilt and crushed my confidence. I believed that every decision I was going to make was the wrong one. I became a quiet kid and antisocial. In school, I used to sit all the way in the back. I hated reading and whenever the teacher called on me, I struggled through it. I felt incompetent.
Being in Mexico for most of my elementary years meant that I developed a strong Spanish accent, and when I returned to the USA, it stayed with me. I felt like a stranger and didn’t belong. I went through middle school and high school without a voice; I became a follower instead of a leader.
Being shy became comfortable for me, and I settled into the mindset, “This is just how life is. Life is hard.” I became a people pleaser because I feared judgment from others if I made the wrong decision. Because of the experience with my father, I was under the impression that making bold decisions for yourself will bring devastating consequences. I was wrong! Especially because this wasn’t the person I wanted to be. I always try to improve myself and enjoy personal development, but I needed certainty before following through. Dr. Phil McGraw said, “Sometimes you make the right decision, sometimes you make the decision right.” I wanted to make the decision right. I wanted to be a leader, not a follower.
For the next decade, I was just living an average life, stuck in a bubble of settling for whatever came up. I didn’t try to get better. I didn’t know what I could accomplish. I was simply accepting the crumbs that were offered in my ‘so -called’ great life.
One day, while working in the same job I’d been doing for about 19 years, I was scrolling through my phone looking for music to play, and I came across a thumbnail.
In the thumbnail was a man wearing a suit. I have always been attracted to suits, so it caught my interest.
I clicked on the video to see what it was all about. His name was Jim Rohn, and he was giving a motivational speech. I laugh, thinking, “This is nonsense, this guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” But then he said something that kept me listening: “If you don’t like how things are, change it!” He said, “Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better” Wow! Those were some powerful words, but I still wasn’t convinced I had that kind of control over my life.
When Jim’s video ended, another one started automatically. This time, it was the motivational speaker Les Brown. I was intrigued already, so I let the video play while I listened. His words made an impact on me: “Other people’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality.” Wow! That quote gave me a green light to change my life.
I started watching more videos, learned how to read better, and began to enjoy reading books. I learned about goal setting. I poured myself into personal development, and I changed! I discovered that I loved to speak, teach, and share my ideas; I discovered that I loved helping others believe in themselves and build their confidence.
Thinking differently and expanding my mindset was a new challenge. Once again, I was excited but scared of the unknown, relieving the feeling I had as a preteen of making a life-changing choice. I had a new adventure of going to the next level in personal growth, and I was willing to crush it. But I couldn’t do it without the secret ingredient: Confidence.
Change is good, but for every action, there is a reaction. When I decided to change and become ‘the better self,’ the best version of me, I started meeting new people, learning new habits, and discovering mentorship. Believe me when I say this: a mentor is the express route to success. A mentor will save you a lot of headaches, a lot of money, and a lot of time.
One day, one of my mentors said, “Everything has a price, If you are ready to change, be ready because you will sacrifice your personal time, time with your friends, time with your family, and time with your GOD! Are you ready?” I laughed and disagreed, convinced that it was nonsense and that this man was exaggerating. I naively believed I would make it work, moving forward and growing without sacrificing that much.
I was wrong! I slowly started trading Netflix for books, went from watching the news to watching a personal growth webinar. I started spending a lot of time feeding my brain with knowledge. My circle of friends change. I was hanging around very successful growth mindset individuals, and my old friends started to slowly fade away. At first, they would call me every day, then that reduced to three days a week until they stopped calling as we had less and less in common. I missed special occasions and important dates because I wanted and needed to go to self-development seminars out of town. And guess what, most of the seminars were on? Weekends, including Sundays. So I had to miss church. My mentor was right: success comes with sacrifice.
One day, watching Les Brown delivering a speech called “It’s Not Over Until I Win,” I decided that I wanted to do what Les was doing, over time, that has developed into different things, but at the time, I wanted to be a full-time motivational speaker. I started looking for ways to learn and develop my public speaking skills.
To my surprise, I discovered that speaking and sharing knowledge was my passion. I found out that I was worthy and I was willing to invest in myself.
Today, I am mentored by John C. Maxwell and his team, and I am experiencing something that had never crossed my mind, and I never saw as possible: To have had the opportunity to be mentored by Les Brown himself.
Ladies and Gentlemen, it has been a difficult journey. But it’s ok, it’s called life. One of the major mistakes I made was to allow my life events to shut me down. I was nowhere near discovering my true potential as a human being. I didn’t trust my reason for being here. But as Wayne Dyer said, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
Now, I know that each one of us has unlimited potential. Life allows us to never stop rowing, and when we grow in ourselves, in turn, we help others grow themselves. As long as it is logical and reasonable, you can have whatever life you want; you just have to constantly keep growing, moving forward, and going after your goals. Self-belief is crucial to your personal growth. Let go of limited beliefs and trust yourself. You can overcome anything that stops you from having the life you want.
Ask yourself, what things would you like to change in your life? Take the first step, read a book, take a course, learn a new skill, get some coaching, and find a mentor. Investing in your personal growth will bring amazing returns to you, your family, and the world. Discover the better version of yourself.
WARNING: There will be times when you will want to throw in the towe, but stand your ground. be willing to grow constantly and never forget that success comes with sacrifice, but that sacrifice will bring amazing return value. See you at the top. You got this!
Action Steps
Here are some action steps to get you started on your growth journey.
- Read books. (More Self-Help than Fiction).
- You can take inventory of your time. [Don’t waste it ].
- Find a coach, take a course, or buy a ticket to a Self-Help seminar this month.
4. Take a DISC Report to grow your communication skills.
Click the button below to get your report.
5. Answer these 7 questions:
a) Who am I?
b) Why am I here?
c) Where am I going in life?
d) What do I want from life?
e) Why do I want what I say I want?
f) What am I willing to sacrifice to achieve the life that I want?
g) Who is coming with me?
