Roots: Success and Greatness Starts Within You

By James Evangelista

Roots is now on its Second Edition!

Success and greatness always have their roots. They begin within you!

"We all have one goal in life that's to become successful and achieve greatness. It's easy to dream, but the problem is when it comes to turning that dream into reality we start to falter and get lost in life. Why are we like that? We search for success and greatness outward not inward. What we fail to realize is success and greatness has roots." - from the introduction.

In his first book, self-help blogger James Evangelista shares his personal experience and wisdom to show us that success and greatness starts with a foundation of good health and habits, or "roots" as he calls it.

Roots brings an extensive collection of stories and examples, from philosophy to sports to history to spirituality and science.

In an era of self-help guide, Roots will lay-out the foundation you need to achieve what you want in life. So what are you waiting for? Pick-up your copy today by clicking the buy now button!
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Evangelista
• Release date: Oct 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386890188

Book preview

For those who are brave enough to live a life they love with direction, vision, and purpose.

Introduction

A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the why for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any how.

Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

WE ALL HAVE ONE GOAL in life that’s becoming successful and achieve greatness. It’s easy to dream, but the problem is, in turning that dream into reality we falter and get lost in life. Why are we like that? We search for success and greatness outward not inward. What we do not realize is that success and greatness have roots. Those roots are within us.

Turning our dreams into reality starts with how we use our wisdom, how we take responsibility for our actions and how we take care of our bodies. Once we set the foundation, we will be ready to manifest our dreams into reality.

Who the hell am I to write a book about it? I’m not a millionaire or some kind of internet celebrity. I’m just a guy who wants to improve your life and help you avoid the mistakes I made. You’ll read about my story throughout this book, but I want to share a little bit here to provide some context.

Throughout my life, I’ve been searching for my purpose, or, as they like to say, What is your calling? and Why are you here? I used to believe that achieving greatness and success could be found by winning countless awards and by gaining fame, but as I get older, I realized that growing those things just fed my ego and pride. Many people have awards and fame and call themselves successful, but they don’t have a purpose, and they aren’t happy. They have this hole inside they don’t know how to fix. Most people continue to earn money, buy their materialistic desires, and improve their status, but it is just an endless cycle of searching for happiness.

When I was 21, I was a few steps away from graduating college, and I was working on my internship. As crazy as this sounds, I didn’t last two months on my internship because I didn’t like what I was doing and the person I was turning into. I asked myself every time I pack my things up to go home, Is this who I want to become? I’m just working on things that don’t make an impact on other people’s lives. Is this what society calls success? To have a diploma and work on a 9-5 job that doesn’t change people’s lives, but every month I get paid for my hours and buy some brand-new stuff?  Those were hard times for me, and I just felt like a robot because there was no source of happiness, creativity, and purpose. 

That incident led me to leave college, and I did what I’ve loved ever since I was a kid, which is writing. However, that passion died because of society’s standards and labels. Everybody is afraid to get off that box, and of the labels that society caged us with because there is a fear factor someone will call them a failure. I’ve always given little thought to people’s opinions of my choice to write this. They don’t know me or why I do the things I do.

After leaving college, I began a journey of self-discovery, which wasn’t easy as my anxiety and depression worsened because of family and relationship problems. My mind couldn’t stay quiet and got the best of me. Those were hard days, but I’ve suppressed my depression and anxiety through constant meditation, practicing mindfulness, changing my diet and being more active.

I read books and research different philosophers, entrepreneurs, and professionals, which you’ll understand throughout this book. All that research was an eye-opening moment as I learned valuable life lessons they never taught me in school. This led me to an A-ha moment, just like when a light bulb turned on in a cartoon character. I told myself that this is what I’ve been searching for my whole life: the actual knowledge that will help me become the finest version of myself and to help other people find their purpose while being the best version of themselves.

Knowing who I am and what my calling is in this world is the best gift I could have given myself.

So why is the title of this book named Roots?

As old-fashioned as this sounds, a dying plant here in our home inspired the title. This plant’s leaves are dry, and they fall when you touch them. We have exposed the soil to too much heat. It’s just dying while waiting for a human being to feed it some water, or just plain kill it by cutting off the roots and replacing it with another plant. But even though it’s dying, there’s a sign it could still turn into a healthy, blooming plant again: little leaves on the soil. So, what I did was I kept watering it, two times a day in the mornings and the evening. My mom scolded me for watering it because it’s just dying, and in a few more days it will be dead. She just wanted to replace it. But I didn’t listen to her and kept watering it for weeks.

Week by week, the plant improved and is now producing leaves and living again. After a month, it seems like new. When you look at it, you wouldn’t think the plant had been dying. Now I’m taking care of it. I wish strong rains or even a typhoon won’t destroy it.

That plant that was dying is just like us human beings when we are not learning the right knowledge, when we don’t take responsibility for our actions, or take care of our health. We are just lost and waiting for an event that kills our dreams and goals. 

I was lost in life just like you are right now. You’ve been searching just like I was. Don’t worry, this book has you covered. This book aims to serve as a foundation for your success and greatness. I hope this book helps you achieve what you want in life by gaining a purpose and an excellent foundation.

P.S. In this update version of Roots, I added journal activities at the end of the chapters. I want you to honestly answer it before reading on. If you are reading this on the eBook version, I recommend you do it by using your journal or any clean notebooks you have. This journal will help you reduce your stress, improve your writing, and your emotions and connect with your true self.

YOUR PERSONAL CONTRACT:

I, _____________________________________declare that I must be in control and master my life in every area. I will no longer settle for a life without a purpose. From this day forward, I will live my life in the present moment, not dwell upon my past, or doubt my future. I will follow the tasks presented in this book, which will guide me toward my version of success and greatness.

I AM responsible for my actions, for shaping my destiny into my version of success. I have confidence that from this day forward, my life will change from awful to excellent. I understand that the roots of success start with having a unique state of mind, taking action, and having excellent health.

I AM ready to live a life with a purpose and a never-ending cycle of personal growth.

Signed: ______________________

Date:_______________________

Part I

For Me to Become Successful,

I Need to Have Wisdom

You Create What You Believe

Sometimes your belief system is really your fears attached to rules.

Shannon L. Alder

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE in? We all have different perspectives on topics such as politics, religion, education and so on.

What we don’t realize is that our belief systems create our reality. For every generation, we instill these belief systems from the moment we learn how to walk.

Here’s an example: we believe what the education system tells us. We don’t question the How? or Why? of things. We believe what someone say to us because our teacher says it and someone writes it in the textbooks. Another example of this is the media. Every day we wake up, turn on the television or check our social media, and what do we see? A lot of negativity like false news, political agendas, death, crimes and so on.

What does this do to our brain? 

It gives us fear and puts us inside a box we are afraid of destroying. I am not writing this because I am mad about this, but our belief system doesn’t allow us to grow as a human being with our religious beliefs. Look at how our beliefs systems divided each one of us. What we don’t realize is we praise the same God.

What about your belief system?

Are you a person who believes you can achieve your dreams? Because you think about your certain capabilities? Or are you a person afraid to make mistakes and fail? Well, you can achieve whatever your dreams are as long as you put in the work and believe that you can reach success. To be honest with you, I even doubted myself in writing this book. Negative thoughts entered my mind and I asked myself, Who the hell am I to write this book? I am a nobody. But I didn’t listen to those thoughts because I know who I am and I know that I can give my message to you by writing this book.

The funny thing about beliefs is that we learn them from the people we trust the most, such as family and friends. But what if you grew up in an environment that limits beliefs? How can you achieve success? You can’t. To become successful, you need to change or get rid of your belief system. Here’s what people with limited beliefs say:

Every guy/girl is the same

I can’t be successful like other people.

I am full of bad luck.

I am useless.

I can’t do it.

My life is a mess.

I’m too old/young.

And the list goes on. I’m sure you’ve heard people you are close to saying these things a lot. What they don’t realize is that saying those negative sentences creates a pattern in their brain that affects their choices in life.

Sometimes in our lives, we plan out the things we want, in business and relationships, but somehow, we doubt ourselves with our decisions. Our beliefs conflict with each other because of our fear changing our life. We trained our brain doing things that are more relaxed and comfortable, resisting any change that is not.

In businesses, a lot of us feel afraid to make a startup because of the risk. So, what happens is we stay in the 9-5 job we hate? Many startups fail because of people not believing in their abilities as a human being, and they don’t have a lot of patience. There’s no such thing as an overnight success in startups or even in life. Everything takes a great deal of patience and belief in oneself. You can hear people with conflicting beliefs everywhere you go when it involves money.

Not taking a risk and lack of belief in oneself happens to people who want to create a resume, not a life. Here’s an example for you. Let’s say you are working at the top computer company in your country. Your salary is excellent, including benefits. But you receive an email the following day to work for an excellent entrepreneur for free. He noticed the work you are putting in, and he wants to mentor you.

What will you do? Work for the greatest entrepreneur of our generation and earn great experience? Or work on that 9-5 job that gives you a lot of money to buy material things? I choose to _____________________________________ because ______________________________.

This situation is an example of conflicting belief. I want to be mentored by one of the greatest minds of our generation, but I wouldn’t earn enough money. Here are more examples of conflicting beliefs and indecisions we hear all the time:

I want to start a business, but I don’t want to labeled as a failure if it doesn’t end well.

I want to be healthy, but I love the taste of junk foods and alcohol.

I need to be a great athlete, but I hate going to practices.

I want to do the things I love, but everyone will say I’m worthless.

I want to change my life, but I don’t prefer to leave my friends.

I need to stop smoking, but I use it to