Own Your Life Now: HELPING YOU TURN EVERY BARRICADE INTO A BRIDGE: HELPING YOU TURN EVERY BARRICADE INTO A BRIDGE

By Corey Williams

In this insightful blueprint, Corey Williams brings his personal life experiences and 20 years of coaching leaders and organizations to help you Own Your Life Now. Grounded in biblical, business, and practical examples, as well as questions, to spark thought, discussion, and application. Owning Your Life will help individuals and teams deve

• Language: English
• Publisher: Corey Williams
• Release date: Jan 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9798985495812

Corey Williams

International Speaker, Pastor and a Certified Coach, Teacher, Trainer and Speaker with The John Maxwell Team, and Founder & CEO of the xl leadership Network, Corey delivers high-energy keynote presentations and workshops that encourage leaders to "lead" by using his "3D to the Fourth Power" Development approach.Having had to overcome two significant obstacles that threaten any chances of his ability to achieve a life of purpose - raised in a very toxic environment of drugs and abuse, on the verge of becoming a high school dropout, and having a very severe speech impediment up until the age of 21, Corey considers these obstacles the foundation of his passion for helping others overcome personal and organizational barriers.Corey is passionate about equipping and encouraging leaders to "lead with authenticity, courage, determination & truth. He lives in Savannah, GA with his wife Tomekia where they serve as the Senior Pastors of Hope City Church. Visit Corey at: www.coreywilliams.live

Book preview

OWN YOUR LIFE NOW

Helping You Turn Every

Barricade Into A Bridge

Corey Williams

2021 by Corey Williams

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is brief quotations in print reviews.

The author has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet website referred to in this book, it does not guarantee that any contact with such website is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version, New International Version, New King James Version, New Living Translation, and the English Standard Version.

Printed in the USA

ISBN 9798985495812

For more information, please contact:

www.coreywilliams.live

[e-mail]

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Introduction

Own Your Life Now

The Five Laws Of Owning Your Life

A Three-Dimensional Breakthrough

Striking Oil Within

Legacy: Value, Volume & Velocity

Clear To Close

Don’t Sell Yourself Short

The Future Is Now

The Dangers Of Comparison

You Are Your Greatest Opportunity

Multiple Streams Of Me

You Will Win If You Don’t Quit

The 10 Commandments Of An Owner

Acknowledgements

Thank you to my wife Tomekia, for always pushing me, believing in me, and dreaming big for me.  It has been the fuel that helped me see this book become a reality.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to every person who is ready to take the odds and oppositions from their life and use it as fuel to manifest the very thing you were born to do.

Introduction

If you think life can be hard, I will not disagree with you. Yes, life can be hard.  Forty-four years ago, I was born in Jacksonville, Florida.  Growing up there, during the ’80s, at the height of the crack cocaine era, a great part of my life was surrounded by drugs, abuse, the welfare system, and a lot of gun violence.  At various points, I stayed with my mother and siblings and then at one point, we all were living with my maternal grandmother. My mother, at some point, became addicted to crack cocaine after being introduced to it by a friend.  I recall one Christmas season very vividly; there was a Christmas tree with many gifts’ underneath.  After returning from school one afternoon, the house was emptied of everything.  The furniture, the Christmas tree and all that was under it were gone.  That day my mother became so high that she sold everything.

Now, fast forward, there was a season where my siblings and I were living at our grandmothers’ house. In this same house, at one point, it was about 15 of us living there.  And no, this was no mansion. When I say it was an unsafe place at times, you can let your imagination run free! I was on the verge of dropping out of high school when I scored straight F’s for three semesters in the 9th grade. I was headed in the wrong direction.  To make matters worse, I also had a severe speech impediment, barely able to get a word out.  My speech was so bad that I had to attend a special needs school while in elementary school.  To this day, I can still see some of the kids in their wheelchairs and those with other types of disabilities needing to be guided.  I don’t need to tell anyone how hard it can be with all those things combined.

Fear eventually gripped me.  I saw myself becoming another statistic if there was no drastic change in my environment.  And so, I, had to do something a 12-year-old kid should have never had to do; I called my dad, who was living in Miami, Florida and asked if I could move there with him. I made this drastic move because I knew I would have become another statistic.  And so, just a few weeks later, I was living in Miami. He and my paternal grandmother got me back on track, I got my grades up, and I graduated from high school successfully.  A few years after high school, my stutter went away miraculously.  Maybe one day I can tell you all about it. 

And so, based on my unfavorable circumstances, my chances of achieving anything worthwhile or significant in life would have been very difficult. I wouldn’t be a professional speaker.  Any hopes I had were crushed by two factors - being raised in a very toxic environment of drugs, abuse, and violence and having a very severe speech impediment.

But you know, that’s the thing! Those same factors that had the potential to decrease my chances of success were the very foundation that allowed me to climb my way out into the life I have been able to build for myself over the past 15 to 20 years. I have spoken to leaders in 4 different countries and audiences in the thousands.  I pastor a thriving church that I started from the ground up.  I have an amazing wife, three intelligent children, a grandson whom I adore, and a beautiful home and I am a certified speaker, coach, and trainer with the John Maxwell Team.  I am on the road to becoming a six-figure speaker.  My speech therapist didn’t see speaking in my future, yet here I am. 

In this book, Own Your Life Now, I hope that each chapter will inspire, influence, and impact your life. I have found my passion through my struggle, and so can you.  Today, I want you to decide if you will allow your past to become a barricade or a bridge. 

My mission is to help others fight and overcome personal and organizational barriers that would otherwise hold them back from reaching their full potential. All you need is an example and a guiding light, and I’m here for that through the words found in each chapter of this book! 

You will see great examples of individuals who have inspired me over the years and have pushed me to be great despite the odds and obstacles I faced.  For instance, I have always been inspired by legendary animator, film producer, and theme park developer Walt Disney, who started his first animation company called Laugh-O-Gram Studio. It went bankrupt. Then he created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and achieved a breakthrough, but he ended up losing the legal rights to the cartoon rabbit. He watched as most of his fellow animators left the studio. He lost twice terribly. Both were huge setbacks. Did he give up? Did he sell himself short? No. Instead, he decided to start all over again by creating another character called Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse became the most recognizable cartoon character in history and became the cornerstone for the Walt Disney entertainment empire. Walt is a picture of what it means to take your barricades and turn them into bridges.

In this book, Own Your Life Now, you will learn that everything worthwhile is uphill. No matter what you do in life and where you go, you must do the hard work to have something noteworthy.  You must pay your dues, invest in yourself, and show commitment if you want success to embrace you. Everything costs something. And owning your life demands your will and commitment to win.

Now is the perfect time to stop procrastinating and get rid of the excuses.  Pull yourself together and start getting things done.  Those things that you are so afraid to face, it is time to do it now. Those things that makes you anxious because you are taken out of your comfort zone will only lend itself to growth. And, of course, that postponed ambition and dream of yours that you are determined to initiate one day there is no better time than the present. If you want to fulfill that dream and turn your imagination into reality, that one day is today. Because the more you delay it, the more you get used to it, and that one day will never come. So, do not wait any longer to get to your one day,'' instead, make today your day." It is time to own your life now.  You can’t wait for the stars to align to step out.  No. You must step out, and then the stars will begin to align with every step you take towards your God-given purpose.  Step, after step, causes star, after star to adjust in your favor.

So, let’s go!  THE FUTURE IS NOW!

ONE

Own Your Life Now

One thing is clear, making an impact in the world around you necessitates taking control of your life. Until you own your life, good intentions will never manifest that idea, that vision, or that product that’s locked up on the inside of you. Good intentions have never done good for anyone. So, I want to push you away from a life filled with good intentions to a life that is filled with good actions.

The most critical thing you can do to build a life that is filled with and marked by action is to first own your life. Owning your life is not just having a schedule that you control. Nor is it being able to decide to take a vacation or travel when you want to. While that is part of it, there is much more. Matter of fact, the key to being able to take vacations, travel as you please, or retire on your own terms is tied to you taking ownership and gaining mastery over your heart, mind, decisions, principles, and the like. Owning your thoughts, attitude, emotions, and feelings can be a monumental task, but should not be viewed as being an impossibility. Most of us don’t own those things because we yield control to the things around us. Our digital devices consume us. The person who cuts us off on the highway owns us. That debt-to-income ratio that haunts and ultimately disqualifies us when applying for financing of a new home, owns us. This, resulting in a display of bad credit, owns us. It is time for us to put in the homework so that we can own our lives and truly control our day. Endeavor to make those critical decisions that will ultimately impact starting that new business, buying that new house, retiring at 50, or taking that dream vacation. Listen, you will never own what you can’t control.

What’s OWN Got to Do with It?

The ebbs and flows of relationships and life in general will sometimes cause one to ponder the part that love plays in the grand scheme of things. Do you love living this life so much that you are intent on purposefully embarking upon it? Again, the question is, What’s OWN got to do with it? Most assuredly, it has everything to do with it.  If you are going to build that dream life, or lay hold of that dream vision, you can’t see it as a fantasy. You can’t have a one-night stand with your dreams. You must fall deeply in love with that thing for it to manifest. Never be motivated by getting your name in the limelight or aspiring to become the next social media star. No, it must be deeper than that. Owning your life should not mirror a physical attraction designed to pump up your ego by those around you who become starstruck by your success. No, that’s just fading, shallow success. You must see your relationship with your dreams and visions as one that is purely purpose-driven, and that owning your life for the betterment of yourself and those around you is very much relevant. Owning your life has everything to do with it, if you will indeed manifest the life you want.

The Meaning