Finding Your Moment

By Brian Farmer

Virtually everyone experiences a moment when the clouds part, rays of sunlight stream down and a chorus of angels sing on high. This moment I call the "AAHH" moment. Shortly, a line of castle kickers assault this glorious moment, and make you believe you must settle for less. Discover how to get back to your “AAHH” moment, beat the castle kickers, and live the reality of your own choosing!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brian Farmer
• Release date: Dec 4, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452496061

Brian Farmer

As a 23 year veteran of law enforcement, I spend my off time as a public speaker, corporate trainer, and keynote speaker. Finding Your Moment is an extension of the lessons and messages I bring to groups across the nation.

Book preview

Finding Your Moment

Brian D. Farmer

Published by Brian Farmer at Smashwords

Copyright © 2010 by Brian D. Farmer

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author

Edited by Cherie Gaines

I’d like to steal this one page from you to thank a few people that have made this possible:

My wife, Sherry:You are my anchor, proof reader, and best friend. Thank you for supporting me. without you, I’d be lost literally and figuratively.

My daughters, You both mean more to me than words could express. Thanks for allowing me to monopolize the computer and deprive you of valuable social networking time!

Introduction

Everyone has a moment in his or her life that is a pinnacle. It is a changing point that takes you from one place to another, a transforming moment in time that is profound. For some it is high school graduation, for some it’s college graduation, for some it’s that big promotion you have worked tirelessly for. In the big picture, it doesn’t really matter what it is.

This point in time is what I like to call our AAHH moment." No, not ADHD, that’s something different entirely! It is that moment we are standing in the spotlight, the clouds are parting above us, rays of golden sunlight are streaming down, and a chorus of angels is singing AAHHH! We have arrived; we’ve made it!

Virtually everyone has an AAHH moment at one point or another. Doctors have it when they write that MD after their name for the first time. Lawyers have it when they realize they have passed the BAR exam. Single moms have it when they see a child graduate college. Ministers have it when they see their first lost person walk the aisle and begin to pray.

The problem with AAHH moments is they just don’t last long enough; they’re not durable. While they are spirit-lifting and inspiring, they are all too fleeting at the same time. If only we could find a way to harness all the energy that is infused in all of the AAHH moments around the world, we’d never need to drill another oil well or build another wind farm! That energy isn’t renewable though is it? For all of you that have ever experienced one, you know the AAHH moment is short-lived at best.

You see, a relatively short time after our AAHH moment occurs, a line forms. This is no ordinary line; this is a line of castle kickers. Have you ever been to the beach and expended any amount of energy on building a sand castle? You work and toil on all the little details that make your sand castle wonderful. You build turrets, high walls, and even a moat. You know eventually the tide will reduce your mighty creation to the flat beach that surrounds it, but for that moment in time, your sand castle is remarkable.

As you stand back to admire your creation or maybe go to get your camera to capture this moment in time, some snot-nosed little kid who couldn’t get his sand castle to stay up comes by and kicks the crap out of your sand castle. At first you stare in disbelief. In an instant, all your work and effort is gone. You’re left with nothing but hurt feelings, a big pile of sand, and a lifeguard telling you to smooth out the sand so the turtles don’t get disoriented. Oh the pain, the anguish!

Life is full of castle kickers. We all face them in our lives, but their modus operandi is to strike when we are really feeling on top. These are the people who feel the need to take us down a notch or two. Castle kickers can find no better joy in the world than to deflate, collapse, and reduce our hopes and dreams to a pile of sand on the beach. They find special joy in criticizing until they feel superior to us.

How do we overcome this menace, the castle kicker? How can we take back the power we so unwittingly relinquished to them? In the following pages, it is my profound hope that we can begin to unravel the ropes that keep you bound and allow you to reclaim your AAHH moment. For it is in that moment that your true potential is found.

There is no magic wand or incantation that will suddenly fix all the problems of life. In these pages are the bits and pieces of information that are intended to reveal the potential you already have. If you get nothing from this but a good laugh, then I have achieved much. If you, however, find the courage and strength to challenge the castle kickers in your own life, then I have succeeded far beyond my own dreams!

You the reader should realize something else as well. The book you hold in your hand represents some of the very principals covered in its text. You see, it is the representation of my attempt to overcome the fear that anyone would care what a guy raised in government housing, with no special claim to fame, would have to say. If for no other reason, the fact that you are reading it is cause for me to be extremely grateful to you. I only hope that you find it interesting and helpful in overcoming the things that are holding you back.

On a final note, this book is not written as a textbook or a traditional guide to learning. When you put it down, it is my hope you will feel as if we just finished a personal conversation. That is because my service to you is just that, personal. It is you, the individual reader; I have in mind as I write.

-Brian

Chapter One

Reality Check

Creating Your Own Reality

In every walk of life there is that moment. It is the moment that we have achieved greatness, if only in our own minds. It really doesn’t matter if others see this greatness, because it’s an internal realization. It’s different for everyone, and we are not limited to only one in our lives. I have had several that include: marrying my wonderful wife, the birth of my children and watching them grow to become extraordinary in their own right.

The first AAHH moment that I am aware of wasn’t high school graduation, as it is for so many. I was a lousy student, and instead of graduation being a self-reflective mark of distinction, it was a collective sigh of relief shared by myself, my parents, and the teachers who were only too glad to be shed of me. I was unmotivated, uninterested, and completely underwhelmed by the whole educational process. That was fine with me. You see I had a plan.

I grew up in a small town in rural East Tennessee. As I was growing up, we had about five traffic lights, the last was put it I think for the sole purpose saying we had more than four. Number five only blinked caution all of the time. If there is one dream that every kid from a small town shares, it is to not be from a small town. Over the course of my years of living and attaining a keen understanding of the workings of the world (all 15 of them), I slowly and meticulously formulated a plan so simple in its design, so cunning in its purpose, it had no choice but to succeed. I was going to join the Navy.

My uncle Bob had joined the Navy right out of high school, traveled all over the world on the government’s dime, and married a woman from Okinawa, Japan. By his own admission, had a great life! I figured if I joined at eighteen, I could serve my twenty years and be retired by the age of thirty eight. Then I would have the work part of my life out of the way and live a life of play and excess. The logic of a fifteen-year-old is so undeniable.

The best part of the Navy plan was that they train you in exactly what they want you to do! So why was I wasting my time in high school learning the useless things educators try to teach a Navy man? When would I ever need such frivolous skills as Literature Appreciation and Economics? What good was Tennessee History to a guy destined to never again step foot in such a backward and boring place?

Funny thing about the Navy though; unless you have a high school diploma, they won’t give you a second look. So undaunted, I scraped by until I finally walked the line and wore the