Live Original: How the Duck Commander Teen Keeps It Real and Stays True to Her Values - Hardcover

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Sadie Robertson catapulted into stardom as a young teenager, starring in the hit reality series A&E’s Duck Dynasty, as well as landing first runner up on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars Season 19 at just 17 years of age. The now 20-year-old has expanded her platform as a motivational speaker and advocate for her generation. On a mission to empower her peers in the name of positivity, self-confidence, and a call to “live original,” Sadie designed and launched a 16-city motivational tour called the Live Original Tour in 2016. She recently announced her plans for Live Original Tour 2017 set for this fall. Sadie has also ventured into acting, appearing in God’s Not Dead 2, the 2016 film about Columbine shooting victim Rachel Joy Scott I’m Not Ashamed, as well as taking on a starring role in the Hallmark movie, Sun, Sand, & Romance.

Sadie embodies the creative and entrepreneurial spirit of the Robertson family and has carried her philosophy into multiple business ventures including her own phone app, SADIE, a prom dress line with Sherri Hill, school supplies for DaySpring, jewelry and home goods with Glory Haus, and a fashion line with Wild Blue Denim. She has also partnered with Roma Boots and worked alongside them in their mission to “give poverty the boot” and spends time every year traveling the world serving those in need with One Squad, a group of young people that Sadie created with Help One Now, that seeks to engage her generation in social justice by caring for children and orphans around the world.

A bestselling author, Sadie is currently working on the follow up to her New York Times bestselling book, Live Original: How the Duck Commander Teen Keeps It Real and Stays True to Her Values, which, along with her newest books, Life Just Got Real and Live Original Devotional are available at retailers nationwide. For more information, please visit LiveOriginal.com.

Beth Clark is a writer and publishing consultant and runs a business called Thinkspot Communications in Franklin, Tennessee.

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Live Original

CHAPTER ONE

Think Happy, Be Happy

If there is one thing my family hears a lot, it’s this: “Happy, happy, happy.” My grandfather Phil Robertson, whom I call “Papaw Phil,” is famous for these words, and I am glad he is. I like being part of a family that’s happy! I know that not everyone has a happy family, but we can still choose to live a happy life, because happiness starts with what’s inside of us, not with what we have or do not have. If we can think happy, we can be happy.

When I was in junior high school, I learned a song called “Garbage in, Garbage Out.” I liked it because of the words, and so I played the song for my eighth-grade Bible class and gave a speech about it.

I learned an important lesson from that song: what you think about will come out in your life. If you put garbage into your mind, garbage will come out. It’s just like what happens if you put junk food into your body. If you eat nothing but chips and desserts, you will not end up being lean and fit and strong. To put it politely, you’ll be the opposite. In the same way, if you fill your mind with negative thoughts, bad words, or ideas that are not nice or respectful toward others, you will eventually think bad thoughts, use bad language, and act on bad ideas. The good thing about the “garbage in, garbage out” principle is that it also means that if you fill your mind with positive thoughts, encouraging words, and ideas about how to be kind or how to be a good friend, then all those things will show up in the way you act and eventually become the way you live.

HAPPY TODAY, HAPPY TOMORROW

There’s a connection between the way you think and the way you are. Not only that, there’s also a direct link between the way you think today and the person you will become tomorrow. Your thoughts, words, and actions will determine your life more than anything else—more than where you go to college, more than what you major in, and more than the first job you get.

Years ago, someone came up with a great quotation that makes this point really well. I say “years ago” because a version of this saying goes back at least to 1910, and I say “someone” because it has been credited to all kinds of people, from Mahatma Gandhi to Margaret Thatcher’s father to the founder of a supermarket chain in Texas.1 I’m not sure anyone knows who should really get the credit for it, but I like the words, and I know they are true:

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.

Watch your words, for they become actions.

Watch your actions, for they become habits.

Watch your habits, for they become your character.

Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.2

The short “Sadie version” of this quotation is: your thoughts determine your destiny. If you want to get a glimpse of where you are headed in the future, start by looking at what you’re thinking about today.

Before you go any farther in this book, I want to encourage you to make up your mind to be happy, because your mind is where happiness begins. Thinking happy will not mess up your schedule, and it will not cost any money, but it will be the best investment you can make. It won’t even make you tired; in fact, it will probably give you more energy than ever, because happiness just has that effect on people. If you are down or discouraged, decide today to shake that off and become a happier person by thinking happier thoughts. You can make your life and your future better just by thinking happier thoughts.

HAPPINESS STARTS WITH YOU

Too many people believe that other people will make them happy. This is especially true for teenagers. So many of us think we will be happy if we can just hang out with the “right” group of people or if we can get the boyfriend or girlfriend we want. We also tend to think things will make us happy. We say we will be happy if we can get a certain outfit, pair of boots, new type of phone, or kind of car. We sometimes think we’ll be happy if we make the best grades in the class, have the lead in a play, or are starters or high scorers on a sports team.

I have to say to my fellow teenagers: this kind of thinking is just not right. True happiness doesn’t depend on a certain group of friends, a boyfriend or girlfriend, a new phone, an outfit, or a car. These things might make us excited for a little while, but they cannot make us truly happy for a long while.

Ultimately, happiness can only come from inside you. If you allow any of these other things to determine your happiness, you will always be let down. The world is not perfect: people disappoint us, friends change or move, parents lose jobs, and bad things happen. Paul said in Philippians 4:12–13:

I know what it is to be in need,

and I know what it is to have plenty.

I have learned the secret of being content

in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry,

whether living in plenty or in want.

I can do everything through him who gives me strength.3

For several years, my family and I have traveled to the Dominican Republic on mission trips. I’ll write more about that later, but for now I just want to say that when we go, we meet people who have nothing the world says is important, yet they are happy.

Then I think about the TV show where a couple who won millions of dollars in a lottery was interviewed. This couple said it was the worst thing that had ever happened to them—the money just created a lot of stress. They said their whole family ended up fighting over the money and then lost it because they did not know how to manage it. I’m guessing that these people were not happy with what they had before they won the lottery, so it’s not surprising that they weren’t happy with more. Happiness is a choice—a choice to be joyful, no matter what the circumstance. This is something adults try to tell us, and I’ll admit it: they’re right.

The only thing that can really make us happy is a relationship with God. If we know Him and do our best to do what His Word tells us to do, we will enjoy lifelong happiness. He knows exactly what we need in order to be truly happy, and He will lead us to those experiences if we seek Him, trust Him, and obey Him. We have to make a choice to have a relationship with Him. That’s the best and most important choice we will ever make. It will not guarantee that we won’t have hard times, but it will take us a long way toward a happy life.

As teenagers, there are a lot of things you and I do not have control over. But we are 100 percent in control of the way we think, the way we feel, and the choices we make. We have the power to choose what we think, and what we think will determine the way we feel.

Bible teacher Joyce Meyer says: “Positive thinking doesn’t just happen. It’s something you have to do on purpose.”4 I always try to put positive things into my mind so that positive things will come out in my words and actions. Like other people, I do not always feel like being positive or happy. Sometimes it would be a lot easier to complain, but what good would that do me? Sure, sometimes it takes more effort to be happy than to be sad, but the result is worth the effort.

We are naturally drawn to people who are positive and happy. When I see a positive person, I think they have their life figured out. They seem to have everything going on. I want to get to know those people because they have something I think is valuable: confidence and a happy, positive...