By Rachel Lusby

Students at the Academy of Citizenship and Environment, (A.C.E., part of the Tyee Educational Complex in SeaTac,) welcomed a special visitor on Oct. 8, popular motivational speaker Jim Madrid.

Madrid is a renowned speaker whose clients include Microsoft, Amazon, the Seattle Sounders and more.

Tuesday’s talk in the gym focused on positivity, responsibility and changing one’s mindset. “Anything is possible,” was the motif. The title: “Achieving Unprecedented Record Breaking Success in a Competitive World”

At the beginning of the lecture Madrid immediately engaged students in a uniform activity; a simple clapping exercise. He divided students up into 3 groups. “Group 1, clap once” and so on it went. Then he jumped right to the point.

“You can be doing a whole lot more than you are doing now,” Madrid told students. He said in athletics, with grades, behavior, anything, they could be doing more.

And then came another interactive activity. He called one of the groups down from the bleachers, and divided them into two groups. Group A and Group B. He told them to stick their thumbs out in front of themselves, put their right foot forward, and then turn around as far as they could without moving their feet, staring at their thumb and choosing a mark on the wall. Then he told them to return to their original position; arm down, foot out. He then had them close their eyes and envision doing that same thing two more times, each time going a foot farther than before. Finally he had them reopen their eyes and physically do the movements again.

He asked “Did any of you go farther than you originally did?” and there was a resounding “Yes” from the participating students, thus driving home his point that you could be doing so much more than you are doing now.

After returning to their spots in the bleachers, Madrid went on to ask another thought provoking question. “What thoughts or beliefs do you have that may hold you back from achieving unprecedented record-breaking results?”

He says often confidence, (lack thereof) accountability, lack of vision, attitude, and fear are all often things that hold people back.

“Anything is possible,” Madrid repeatedly said throughout the lecture. His final point overall was to see success in your life, you need to change your beliefs that hold you back. “Change your beliefs,” he said, “and you change your behavior.”

The students listened intently and participated eagerly. After the lecture was over, 4 young ladies who chose to give their input agreed they felt differently about life after, than they had when they walked in to the gym that day.

Denise, 16, says really did feel changed. She said his presentation made her actually believe “anything is possible.” Jillian, 15, agreed. “I feel changed because I was inspired by how he changed,” she said.

Doubt, the fear Jim Madrid says is a belief which holds people back from achieving that “unprecedented record breaking success,” is an issue with many youth. Students Paige, 16 and Lauren, also 16, both spoke about the doubt they feel about themselves.

Lauren said she feels as though her mindset has been changed because “before I listened to his speech I had a lot of doubts. Now I feel like anything is possible and I have more inspiration to achieve my
dreams.”

“I feel changed because before I heard this I doubted myself because my parents would tell me we don’t have money for things, but now I feel that anything is possible only if you let your mind focus on the goal you want,” Paige said.

It would appear Jim Madrid accomplished his own goal on Tuesday at ACE School. He left students feeling inspired, and provoked deep thought and perhaps even changed the course some students thought they would be taking in life.

Jim Madrid does presentations for corporations, athletic teams, and schools around the world. To learn more about his efforts or to contact him, visit his website at http://jimmadrid.com/