Life Is Precious: The Mindset Of Appreciating Life, Overcoming Failure, And Facing Fears With Alton Pete

Life is so precious, but it’s easy for us to forget just how blessed we are to be living the way we do. Even little things that we take for granted are privileges that not everyone can enjoy. Alton Pete is here to remind us not only to be grateful but also to face life’s challenges head-on. Alton is a retired military man who faced the adversity and struggle of protecting the country in a foreign land in fear of the worst every day. After his retirement, he has dedicated his life to helping the homeless and less fortunate and living every day with a grateful heart. In this episode, Alton joins Rodney Flowers to share words of inspiration on how to shift your mindset and start achieving your full potential by overcoming fear and uncertainty. He also shares the insights and inspiration behind his book, Life Is So Precious. Tune in and gain a new perspective on life and living.

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Life Is Precious: The Mindset Of Appreciating Life, Overcoming Failure, And Facing Fears With Alton Pete

As always, I am excited about this episode. I need somebody to ask me why I am excited. The reason why I’m excited is because I believe that life is precious. I know that all of you out there reading know that life is precious but what does that mean? We’re going to talk about the preciousness of life. What does that mean to us in terms of our behavior? Do we act like life is precious? Are we conscious of the fact that life is precious every day? What would that look like if you were conscious of the fact that life is precious?

I believe that sometimes we take a lot for granted. As a matter of fact, I know that. I remember when I took life for granted and life taught me a lesson. Not to take even the smallest things like feeding yourself or going for a walk, not taking those things for granted. Being able to feel the breeze against your skin. We take things like that for granted sometimes. We don’t understand how precious those things are until we can’t do it, feel or see it. We can’t experience it.

Life Is So Precious

Instead of having to go through some type of traumatic or catastrophic event to bring that consciousness back to our senses, I have someone that’s going to talk to us about why life is precious. Alton Pete is with me. He is a retired member of the United States Army. He’s a people person. He has a heart for people. He loves life and believes that life is so precious. As a matter of fact, he’s written a book called Life Is So Precious. He’s here with us to talk to us about this wonderful book and his thoughts about life and the preciousness of life. Alton Pete, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much for having me.

Thank you for here. Thank you for your service. How many years were you in the military?

I did 26 years of sacrificing my life for our country and the entire world. As you can see and tell, the United States is the savior for the entire world, today, tomorrow and into the future.

I can see that. I appreciate people like you who put their lives on the line for people like myself and other people around the world. It takes a lot of bravery, courage and sacrifice. It’s people like you who step up to the plate that makes the experiences that we experienced in life possible, especially in the United States. I appreciate that. I appreciate you and your service. Tell us a little bit about some of your experiences that you don’t mind sharing. I know you’ve served in Iraq. You’ve done some tours over there. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

I got a tour in Iraq. First of all, I want to let you know that it was such an honor to want to even go to war for our country because that sets us apart from everyone else. It puts you in a group that’s elite because you’re going away and doing something that’s going to be so beneficial for our country. I was in Iraq for sixteen months. It was an eye-opener. For one, the heat went to 147 degrees. Your full battle rattle, your Kevlar, which is the cover on our head, that weighs about 10 pounds. The protective vest that we had to wear was 50 pounds. We were carrying nearly 100 pounds every single day.

Plus, your heat index would rise up to 199 degrees. You got that during the day. At night, the heat would go down to maybe 103, 104, 105. At times, it was unbearable but you learned how to adjust, move forward, and perform the mission because that’s what it’s all about. It’s to sacrifice. In life, everything we do is going to be a sacrifice and a process. It isn’t going to be easy. Sometimes you got to get your hands dirty. Other times, you’d be happy to come out of your pocket because it’s called sacrifice. I don’t know anyone who’s done a sacrifice who can say, “It feels good.” You thank God that it’s over,” and then you say, “It was all good.”

It was a very dangerous tour. We got attacked 6 or 7 times a month. We were under attack by the Iraqi mortar rounds, firefights, and IEDs blowing up outside the FOB. The FOB was The Forces Operating Base. The whole FOB would shake because of the explosive devices they were using on us. It was an eye-opener. I had the courage. I never was fearful, plus I’m a leader. I made sure we got over there safe. You better believe we were coming home safe.

Talk to us about the mentality that’s required to go through something like that. The heat by itself is one thing but you have other things that are going on. That’s minor compared to being attacked but yet it’s challenging. Talk to us about the mindset required to be over there, all things included.

Life Is So Precious: As soon as you take control of your situation and not let it control you, you start to go through it and understand that there are going to be bumps in the road.

For one, you got to be in a zone and know what the mission requires. When we get the order to get the mission and what it entails, we’re over there to do a mission. You got to stay focused. As much as it may seem like it’s impossible to do, you have to stay alert because it’s dangerous over there. The way they live is not the way we live here in America. They don’t mind blowing up different things downtown, blowing up something on a bus, or somebody is carrying a device that’s going to blow up themselves and everyone around. You have to start thinking about safety at all times.

Every single day, you got to be alert and vigilant. You can’t take your eyes off of what’s going on. You got to stay focused at all times. It’s tedious. It can be exhausting, but it’s so well worth it when you go through the process. I use it in my life and what I’m doing now. Get through the process no matter how hard and ugly it looks because war is ugly. I’m not going to tell you it’s pretty. It’s filthy and dirty. I remember one time when we had a sandstorm and the sky turned completely orange. The visibility was so limited, you can’t even see your hands in front of you.

You’re dealing with all kinds of obstacles. In the military, we’re trained to defend, protect and kill. That’s how we train. We train in different vegetational areas and terrain features because those are very important when you’re doing your grid coordinates because you got to know your location and everything. Everything that we train in America and wherever we’re training for is to prepare for battle. That’s what our life is.

Life is not to whip you up. It’s preparing you for life so you can deal with it. That’s all it is in life. Everyone seems like, “Life is beating me up.” If you let it, it’ll whip you. As soon as you take control of your situation and don’t let it control you, you start to go through it and understand there are going to be bumps in the road. It gives you a better outcome. That’s where I use my experience now. I don’t look at it as it’s whipping me, beating me up or I’m losing the day. Sometimes you will lose so you can learn what it’s like to win. That’s what losing is all about.

What about adaptability and having an agile mindset? How does that come into play whenever you are in those situations?

Once we’ve completed training, mobilization and everything, the moment we boarded that big old flight over to Kuwait, that’s when I knew I had to adapt. It was real. I’m a soldier. You can’t be calling dad and mom because you’re an adult and a soldier. You have to support your country and do what was given to you at hand. The moment I boarded the plane, I don’t know about everyone else, but that’s when I knew I had to adapt because it was real.

It’s funny because you’re going through all these thoughts. Everything is going through your head and racing. You got to maintain your composure because as leaders, we don’t fold up the tent. We got to keep that tent going so everybody could stay safe. As a leader, I had to keep that in my mind that I had people looking up to me. That’s why I had to make sure I was very careful in what I said, what I did and where I went.

When you’re in that type of environment, everything changes. Your body changes. You’d be surprised, a lot of people lose weight or some people gain weight because of stress. That’s a different level type of stress. You have to deal with all those emotions. Some people are scared. How do you keep them from being so scared and shaken up because we came under an attack? You got to deal with all of that.

As a leader, whatever you call to do and your purpose, when that time comes, you’re going to answer that call. That was my thing. I love people. I love the soldiers. I didn’t care where they were from or who they were. I wanted to make sure that whatever you do last and say last, they’re going to remember that forever, whether it’s good or bad. I wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing at all times. That adapting, you got to adapt every day. Every day is something different over there. It’s something you’ve never experienced before in your life. It’s different.

From my experience coaching and talking to individuals, adapting sometimes is challenging. We don’t like to be in places of uncertainty. Talk to us about how you handle the uncertainty. You didn’t know when you were going to be attacked. You wouldn’t know anything other than what the mission entails unless I’m missing some information. You can fill me in if I am. Talk to us about uncertainty and what you said or how you manage your soldiers in their difficulty dealing with uncertainty.

Uncertainty is normal because you’re not going to know everything about life. You’re not going to be able to grow if you know every single thing about life. Uncertainty to me is healthy because what we trained for in America was totally different when we got over there in theater or combat. It was challenging. At the same time, I embraced it. Once you make up in your mind that this is going to make you better, you’re going to come out different.

You’re doing something you’ve never done before. You want to be an overall stronger person. You’re going to embrace that uncertainty because uncertainty is a change. It is not normal from what you go through every day in life. It’s something different from what you’re used to in life. It’s called change. Changes are uncomfortable. Once you embrace it and make up in your mind, “We know we’re not going to be here forever,” that’s what motivated me. “I’m not going to be here forever. One day, I’m going to have to come home.”

I kept looking and when the days kept getting closer to us to come home, you started feeling more and more elevated, motivated and dedicated. You’re proud to serve America and proud to be a soldier. That kept me going and electrified everyone else around me because people are going to gravitate according to your personality, spirit and motivation.

I maintain that consistency because I didn’t want to be different at different times and days because you’ll throw people off. It was foreign to everyone. It was different but it’s how we handled it. We’re trained for difficulties and different scenarios. That helped me out as far as the training and being adaptable in dealing with uncertainties.

It’s transcending to everyday life. I personally believe that it’s a good thing to challenge yourself every day, either with a workout routine or doing something that you particularly don’t like to do, but making yourself do it anyway, practicing that discipline in your life. I have my thing. My thing is at 4:00 AM, the alarm goes off and it’s time to get up and go to the gym. No questions asked.

That keeps me in a state of discipline and my mindset, in a state of being able to handle the challenge. That’s the adversity that I have to face every day. I can’t say that I want to get up every single day and my workouts are tough. They’re always changing things up. They make it challenging and difficult. I love it because of what it does to my mind. I feel, as leaders and individuals, we don’t do that enough in my mind.

I totally understand. Sometimes we going to do things we don’t want to do. There were times in Iraq, I was like, “I don’t know. I don’t feel like getting up. I’m tired. It’s too hot outside. I don’t feel like going out there in that heat.” You get all those things going through your mind but you got to look at, “If I don’t do it, what is it going to do to everybody else?” People react to how you react to things. If you don’t do it, you don’t step up, show the leadership and the qualities of it, what that’s going to do to everybody else?

It’s going to make the morale go down. They’re going to lose their sense of motivation and direction. You got to be disciplined. If you’re disciplined, you know this is for the cause and you’re going to get something out of it because what’s ahead is much greater than what you’re leaving behind. I always think of that. I’m not worried about what’s behind. I’m worried about the prize ahead of me because I’m trying to get to that finish line and get my prize with my name on it.

Life Is So Precious: Changes are uncomfortable. Once you embrace it and just make up your mind, we know we’re not going to be here forever.

When you start thinking about that, which for us was freedom, liberation and coming out of Iraq. What a beautiful story and piece to be a part of history where you served. Now, you’re doing something for our country that’s always going to be remembered. I run into a lot of people who served in Vietnam and these other wars, World War I and II. They spark up when you tell them you’ve been in a war. It seems like they just spring up. They’re excited to know, “You did it.” I was like, “Yes, I did it.” The guy said, “You look like you’re a little bit too young to be in Vietnam.” I said, “Yes, I’m too young for that but I did go to Iraq.”

How does that make you feel? There’s some camaraderie between you and that person. There are some commonalities. There’s some mental commonality. There’s some pride in knowing, “We’ve been in this game before. We’ve been in this war before.“ Tell us about how that feels, that connection with another person that’s been in that experience? What is that all about?

That is an incredible feeling because to know that somebody was in a foxhole, and when you say foxhole, they know what that means. That means you’re getting dirty and getting it done. It’s an honor. I’m very humbled about it. I don’t take it lightly. It’s good to share those stories of different one’s experiences. Iraq is one of the most dangerous ones by far we’ve ever had to encounter. People love to hear the stories. They love to hear what it was like. Even in my book, I speak about being in Iraq so people can understand fully what it is like to go to war, being at war, and transition from war.

Those are very important steps that we all have to be mindful of because I experienced them myself. Experiences are the best teacher. It’s a very humbling moment to be in when you’re engaging with someone who’s served in the war or served in the military because we all can relate. We know the sacrifice. We know what that means. We know when Veterans Day, Memorial Day, and 4th of July coming up. We know all these important holidays come from the sacrifice of our lives.

Some of those experiences that you’ve experienced have led you to talk about how Life Is so Precious. Tell us a little bit about what led you to write that book.

Overall, the years I’ve served in the military and being here in America, I will say by far hands down that America is the best country in the world. I liked Germany too because Germany reminds me of the United States a little bit. Over in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and those areas in the Middle East, they don’t have the freedom as we do. They don’t have the getup and go like we do. We take things to our advantage. We don’t appreciate the value of the freedom to be able to walk around downtown or go to a store or drive around and enjoy that freedom that we had.

Freedom is so important and I value that. To be in Iraq, we were in a compound and restricted area for sixteen months because it was too dangerous to go outside the wire. We have to stay in a compound. You think the pandemic, covering up and wearing a mask is something, try to be in that heat over there for sixteen months. I look at people now and I’m like, “Are you all crying because you got to wear a mask? Are you complaining because this is going on? Come on now.”

We got it so good here in America. What we have is so good. If people can realize it, but it takes people like you and me to let them know, “It’s okay. It’s going to be all right.” They aren’t as bad as it seems. They’re not that bad. You’re going to have days like that. You got four seasons in a year. You can’t have summer all year long. It can’t snow every day of the year and look good. We’re going to have these uncertainties because that’s what they are. We got to know how to, as we say in the Army, “Adjust your shot group,” so you can fire and zero in on that target. We just have to adjust the shot group. There are no ways around it.

Life is so precious. It’s beautiful and phenomenal. It’s promising. Every day is a new day. Every day is a new day of strength and hope. Every single day we wake up. You feel better the next day than you did yesterday because yesterday wore you out. Now you feel better. Now I’m getting ready to go to the gym when I finish. I feel good all over to go to the gym. Over there in Iraq, I had to make sure I didn’t get hit by mortar rounds. I have to beat the heat.

Life here is so precious if everyone would realize that. It’s so precious to be able to go to a grocery store and anywhere you want to go on the weekends. Over there in Iraq, the weekends are a regular day. Sometimes you got to try to remember what day it is if you don’t look at the calendar because there’s trouble every day over there. Can you imagine waking up and we just got hit, a bomb or an explosive went off, the convoy just got blown up?

If you were standing in a room with a group of people, thousands of people in a room, what are some of the little key points that you would want to say to them, especially those that are having a hard time dealing with the pandemic? What are some of the things that you would like them to know to help them to get through this?

I will let them know, for one, to re-evaluate themselves. Find out what it is that they enjoy doing, and pursue their ambitions and goals. There are things that you didn’t know you had until something’s got to happen or otherwise, you’re good to stay hidden. Something’s got to happen to bring the good out of us. Re-establish yourself and redevelop those skills. Those skills have been hiding for a very long time. Pick them up and dust them off to start reusing them. Make them work for you.

Most importantly is to think positive and pursue yourself. Pursue your dreams, goals, ambitions and plans. Pick up all those areas where you left off, but you got to be positive. You got to think of yourself as being greater than who you think you are because you are somebody. Your life is worth saving. Your life is worth fighting for. You got to understand that. You got to stick with that and hold on to that because that’s all you got. It’s that self-confidence and believing in yourself. If nobody else doesn’t believe in you, you make sure you believe in yourself. If you stop believing in yourself, then you’re in trouble. Everybody can come and go. Let them come and go. As long as you don’t stop believing in yourself, you’ll be all right.

After my injury, dealing with the experience, one of the things I said I would do differently if I had the opportunity to do it all over again was join the military. The reason why is because of the training. I feel that from a mental perspective, you guys have an edge. I’m a sports guy. I know what that’s like to be in sports, the discipline, and the mental toughness that’s required to play sports, especially a sport like football.

I look at the Army and the Navy, especially the Navy SEALs, and the training that’s required for you to be a member of that organization. When you’re performing missions, the discipline, the teamwork, the mental toughness that’s required. I hear some guys say, “You don’t want to be civilized.” I get it. You don’t want to be civilized because civilize is a certain way of thinking. It’s a mindset without all of that training and mental toughness that is given in the military.

Life Is So Precious: There are things that you didn’t know you had until something happens. Otherwise, you’re going to stay hidden.

In terms of what we’re dealing with within the world now, all of us could use a little bit of that mental toughness. When I look around the landscape, I feel like it’s not so much how big the pandemic or the social unrest is. Those things are no different from any other challenge or obstacle. It’s just resistance. Resistance comes in different flavors but what’s missing is the mental fortitude and agility, the mental toughness and discipline, and believing in oneself as it relates to the challenges in front of them.

What are your thoughts about that? I’m not trying to bash civilization or anything like that. I’m trying to help and raise consciousness about the need for resilience in individuals, organizations, teams and in yourself. It is something that I feel you should practice before you need it. When you need it, you need it and you want to be full of it.

It’s good that you talk about fortitude but it’s important to know the call to purpose and your dreams. Once you know what your dream is, you got to put in the work to get it done and make it happen because it’s your dream. Nobody can’t dream for you. When your dream is given to you for a valid reason, that means it’s something that you need to be doing. It’s like with me, I go out and feed the homeless people a lot because that’s one of my purposes and passions.

I get more joy out of feeding homeless people and doing things for them more than anything else in the world. For one, it’s exciting. It makes me feel good that I’ve done something to touch somebody’s life. It’s rewarding at the same time because you could feel the joy and excitement back from them. The gratitude that I’ve done something like giving them $50 or $100 because I’m doing very well now. Why not do something that you know they’re going to need. $1 or $2 will get you nowhere but $50 will, so why not?

What you put out to people and in life, you get that much more back. You got to understand, what goes around will come around. It’s not always bad but it’s in a good way. What goes around comes around is promising and rewarding because you did something from the bottom of your heart. Your heart is reaching somebody else’s heart. Therefore, it transfers and transforms. It transfigures all the way around because it’s electrifying when you’re doing a good cause.

Whatever you do good, that good got to come back. It’s got to come back to you. If people can understand what we do today, it’s going to help you to sleep better the next day. It’s going to give you more and more. If we can realize that, can you imagine how happy everyone would be? They’re fulfilling their dreams, hopes and endeavors. They make it happen because we can do anything. These two hands I have and which you have, these are powerful hands.

Even your hands are powerful because they can do so much. Use those powerful hands and that mind and heart. Use it. It’s powerful for a reason. It’s to touch and help somebody else to make it. You get joy out of it. You get joy out of doing things that your hands created. You created this. You did this. It’s very powerful and rewarding. If people can understand and realize, we are powerful creatures. We can do a lot.

When I go feed those homeless folks, my heart is filled with so much joy and happiness. It makes me giddy. I go buy groceries for these Mexican families at the carwash. It’s rewarding to do something for a family that needed something that I didn’t even know.

Life Is So Precious: You need to think of yourself as being greater than who you think you are because you are somebody. Your life is worth saving. Your life is worth fighting for.

How long have you been retired now?

I’ve retired in 2014. I’m still going because there’s so much for me to do. There’s so much I want to say and I want to do more and better. I want to give back to the community, touch lives and make a difference in somebody’s life. That’s what I’m working on now. I’m laser-focused and I’m on a mission.

What are some of the feelings that came up for you when you had to separate from the military and transition back to civilian life?

One big thing that we all go through is, “What am I going to do next?” You’re so used to being in a uniform. Everything is right dressed, structured, and planned accordingly. I decided when I was getting ready to retire to write a book. When I was stationed in Germany, I always had this in the back of my mind. I’ve seen that movie by Eddie Murphy called Boomerang with Martin Lawrence, David Alan Grier and Halle Berry. That was an incredible movie. I’ve always wanted to be a filmmaker. I’ve always wanted to go into film. Music is my major in college. They both fit hand in hand. I started thinking, “What am I going to do next?”

I got so much left to give and so much left to do. That’s why I wrote the book Life Is So Precious because I’m a caring person. I want you to feel what I feel. I want you to see what I can see. I want you to know what I know. Now I’m working on trying to do a film that I want to get to everybody. I want to reach everybody, all cultures, ages and communities. I want to reach you and let you know you can do it. Don’t ever give up. Don’t ever throw in your towel. If you throw your towel down, pick it back up and keep going forward.

That’s what I want to convey to people, don’t ever give up. I don’t care how hard it looks. I don’t care if it doesn’t even look like it’s going to look, don’t ever give up because life is so precious. That’s what I like to convey. I like to get that word out there and help people to smile. Smile for a while. It doesn’t cost much. It doesn’t take much out of you. It doesn’t even cost a dime out of your pocket. It’s free. That’s what I like to let people know.

Why are you so passionate about this message, life is so precious?

It’s the way I was born and made. My mom was like that. She’s no longer here but my mom cared about a lot of people. I saw that growing up. She was very good in the communities and different other areas and churches. She was a very good person by nature. I saw that. I took on those characteristics when she died many years ago. It became more and more prevalent that this is what I am destined to do. I’m carrying on her legend.

She and my sister, I lost her as well, but that motivates and elevates me. I can feel them believing in me. That’s why I’m doing what I do now. I’m trying to reach all I can reach. I’m trying to go as high as I can go. Even if I have to walk on the water, let me walk on the water and I’ll go get you. Even on the top of the mountain, let me go get you. What I want to let people know is we got to start thinking like an eagle.

An eagle is strong for a reason. The wings are strong. They spread out wide but they’re strong for a reason because they can reach those altitudes that the rest of the birds can’t reach. We got to think like an eagle, keep reaching and going and going. There is much more ahead than what we’re leaving behind. If we stop or give up, we won’t get the things that are waiting in our head because it’s waiting on us.

What would you say to someone who hasn’t figured out what their purpose is?

Take the time away in a quiet moment. Stay away from the news and all the negativity and just think. Our minds, hearts, and hands are powerful. What is it that I love to do? What is it that I don’t mind doing that gives me joy, pleasure, and makes me feel good all over? It doesn’t cost much. Eventually, it’s going to cost much if you start putting it into a business aspect like you and me. What is it that I want to give? What can I offer? What can I give to somebody else?

When you start re-evaluating yourself and thinking on those terms, you’ll begin to realize all of these thoughts that you never knew you had that have been hiding. It will start manifesting and coming to you. It’ll start letting you know, “I can do that good.” It can be anything. You can send packages. You can go out and start a foundation. You can go and start feeding elderly people. Whatever it is that you enjoy doing, whatever you want to put your hands on, make it happen because it’s waiting on you. It’s not going to go anywhere until you do it. Whatever is meant for you to do, you got to do it.

The funny thing is if that’s for you, it’s for you. It’s not only your privilege to have but it’s our responsibility to bring that forward. The world needs that as part of your existence. I believe that having a purpose and understanding what that is, produces a lot of drive, motivation and inspiration. You have that. It’s a cause to rise, get up in the morning and do the right thing. It’s like what you were saying, “I’m a leader.” You identify with your calling and purpose. When you identify with that, you take that along. It becomes personal. That dictates your behavior, who you are, where you go, what you do. It becomes part of your character. That’s so important.

It identifies who you are. Part of self-identity is you’ve got to know without a shadow of a doubt who you are. That’s one of the issues we have now. Everyone lost who they are. Our children and the adults don’t know who they are now. You got to do some self-identity in order to do some self-discovery. You’ve got to know who you are again.

That’s why I tell women, “You are a queen every single day, on Valentine’s Day, weekends, birthday, all year long.” To all our men, “Every day, you are a king, not just during the week but on the weekends too. It doesn’t take days off.” We got to build each other back up because so many folks lost their identity. They don’t know who they are. That’s why they don’t know what they want to do. It’s in you, you just got to build it back up. That’s what we’re doing.

Even with what you’re doing, you’re building people back up. You’re providing them more with a ray of hope because they lost hope. They’re hopeless. We got to provide it for them again. We have to show them, “If I can do it, you can do it too. Don’t get mad at me. Be proud of me. If I could do it, you can do it too.” That’s what we got to convey to one another. We got to lift each other up. We got to build each other up. Getting mad at each other doesn’t put us anywhere but farther and farther behind.

If we come together and know that we can do it, we will do it no matter what. You got to be positive. You got to be stern. There’s no backing and forth like the water. You got to be one way. That’s the only way and that is, “We will do it. We will make this happen.” That’s where a leader comes in because I’m letting you know now if I’m going to do it, you’re going to do it too. You got to set an example. You’re showing the people that, “I’m not going to have you do something that I can’t do. We all can do it together.

That’s what it’s all about, self-identity, re-establish who you are, and get to know who you are again. Love yourself and care enough for yourself again when you wake up in the morning and when you go to bed at night. Stay away from all that negativity and all those activities that are causing harm, messing up with your mind, your spirit, and your heart, messing up your drive and your motivation and making you all tired when you wake up in the morning. Be excited about the morning.

Life Is So Precious: Your hands are powerful because they can help somebody else make it in life.

Do you know that when the sun is rising in the morning, it’s one of the most beautiful sights? I will be up all night writing. I will look outside and that’s one of the prettiest sights to see when the sun is rising and shining. When it’s going down, it’s beautiful. That’s why life is so precious. It’s beautiful to see those things because it motivates us. It encourages us to, “This is beautiful.” Before you know it, you’ll be doing what you need to be doing because it’s going to make you feel happy. You’re going to love yourself all over again.

We got to put it away with this putting down each other. We are not getting anywhere with that. I’m proud, even with you. This is a golden opportunity. I got to let people know too, shine like a diamond and gold. Get your shine on. I care less about what anybody thinks or says. Male or female, get your shine and smile on. They don’t need to know what you’re smiling about as long as you know internally what you’re smiling, shining and glowing about. You’re doing something you love. Therefore, it’s going to transpire to others to see. You’re doing some incredible things. Can you tell me what you’re doing? They make it to want to ask you so you can share it. That’s what it’s all about. Get your shine on, shine like a diamond and gold.

If people want to connect with you, where can they find you? How do they connect with you?

You can go to my Instagram account, @AltonEPete. If they might want to email me, they can go to AltonPete@Gmail.com. You’ll see me on Facebook and LinkedIn, Alton Pete. Those are the areas. I’ve been trying to get better with my social media because of where I’m heading. I got to let people know more and more about what’s coming up and going down. I’m proud of what’s ahead because I’m letting you know that it’s more ahead than what we’re leaving behind.

That’s so beautiful. It’s powerful and very motivating because a lot of people are very reluctant to move ahead. They’re fearful of moving ahead because of the way things look now.

We need to change the format, how people think and how they feel.

I know and you know that on the other side of this, there’s something better and greater. We’ve already experienced that. As bad as things have been, there’s a lot of good. What you choose to focus on in this, I remember playing sports and it’s tough. We’re maybe losing and down. We may feel like we’re getting our butts kicked, and a good coach would always go back to what are we doing good in this game. Let’s do more of that.

We’re not going to focus on what we’re doing badly. Let’s focus on what’s good and exploit that. I know that’s where we are with this. We need to focus on the goodness of that. If we’re still here, we have already overcome. If you wake up now, you are overcoming. Let’s continue to do so. Eventually, this will be a thing in the past. We’re onto the next challenge. We’re in the next game or battle.

It’s not to let fear sit in our laps because fear caused a lot of people to hold back as well. If you got fear riding with you and following you around like a shadow, you would never achieve anything in your life because you let fear overrule you. Falsely delay that fear to the side, push it to the side, stop it, shake it off, whatever you need to do and keep going forward. Fear is going to make you miss out on a lot of things. We all make mistakes. How are you going to learn to do things better, except you’ve made a few mistakes? Mistakes are part of the journey. That’s all you know what not to do and what to do the next time.

We live in a society where the expectation is you have to be perfect. You look at social media. If it’s not perfect, you don’t get the follow, the likes, or some people may bash or talk negatively about it. That’s why I don’t do a whole lot of social media because the mindset and the social pressure holds a lot of people back. They feel like they got to live up to that social standard. It’s all lies.

If you know who you truly are, you will not worry about anything. I see Hollywood a lot. People got to sleep a certain way. It’s gotten so bad on those reality shows, the women are sleeping with makeup on. If you look a certain way in the morning, you look a certain way. I have bags on my eyes sometimes because I’d be up late all night long. It is how it is sometimes. It’s self-identity. As long as you’re sure within your heart and your mind, you’re okay. Nobody can change that.

This has been a wonderful conversation. I truly have enjoyed this. If there’s one thing you could leave with us as we bring this to a close, how can we continuously win? You’ve already dropped a lot of nuggets on this but if you had to leave one final thing or one takeaway from this, what would that be?

Think like an eagle and rise because that eagle is so strong. It isn’t thinking about what it’s leaving behind. It’s thinking about his wings and that ability and agility to rise. It’s rising. The eagle is so strong until it can be soaring high above the altitude where the mountains are. It’s floating. Do the same thing. Fly like an eagle and think like an eagle, and just rise.

Alton Pete, everyone, on the show. Thank you for stopping by and sharing with us. I appreciate you.

I appreciate you too.

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There you have it, folks, another successful episode. If that didn’t motivate you, if you’re still feeling down after hearing that, go back to it again because that was some good stuff right there. Life is precious. It’s that dream that you have, that goal that you’ve been sitting on, that contribution, that way of service that you can bring forward. We need you to get into the game. We need you to get into the battle. We need you to step up and be a leader. That’s what Game Changer Mentality is all about. I appreciate what Alton said about thinking and acting like an eagle. A lot of times, we defeat ourselves. We give our power away to the challenge. We have to rise above it, not to spread our wings.

We have to look and see what does it look like. Wherever you are now and, whatever you are dealing in there, let’s do this. Let’s think about what it would look like if you were to rise above it. What’s that vision? How does that look? Who do you need to be? What habits do you need to take on? What structures do you need to put in your life? What ways of thinking do you need to adapt?

That’s spreading your wings. That’s you rising. How do you perceive this obstacle or challenge? Be with that and sit with that. When you identify these activities, structures, behaviors, habits, new ways of being and new identity, take that on. That’s your charge and privilege. You get to take that on. We need you to take that on because we need you to rise. This is beautiful. Go out there and change the game. That’s the expectation. We know you can do it. Until next time, peace and love.

Important Links:

• Life Is So Precious
• @AltonEPete – Instagram
• AltonPete@Gmail.com
• Facebook – Alton Pete
• Alton Pete – LinkedIn
• https://Twitter.com/altonepete
• Is Life Knocking You Down? Read Rodney’s inspiring story – Get Up! I Can’t. I Will. I Did… Here’s How! https://rodneyflowers.com/get-up-book/
• Recognize Your Positive Potential – Essential Assertions by Rodney Flowers https://rodneyflowers.com/essential-assertions-book/
• Get Access to Rodney’s Daily Inspiration in your Inbox Today https://rodneyflowers.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=01f76a038256f77a6fbc93590&id=307d726734

About Alton Pete

Alton E. Pete is retired from the United States Army. After a couple of years in college, he later joined the army in 1987. He started his military career at Fort Lewis, Washington; was stationed in Hanau, Germany; and went on various assignments throughout the States and Puerto Rico.