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Why is it when one person hits an obstacle it's like hitting a brick wall while another it's no more than a speed bump in life. One has a plan and the other doesn't.
If we are going to be successful in achieving our Life Lists, we have to be ready to overcome any obstacle life throws at us. It's important to begin by redefining the word failure:
Failure is not achieving a goal, failure is not having a goal.
If you look at people who have been successful at achieving their Life Goals, they often used failure to propel themselves forward toward their next success. Look at some of the world's most famous failures:
   
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school team while Walt
Disney was fired for not having "any good ideas." Oprah was taken off the air in Baltimore when she was told she was no longer "fit for TV"
while Winston Churchill failed the 6th grade.
May we all be as successful at failing as they have been. These celebrities understood they could not fail...they could only grow and learn. The next time you feel like a failure remember this:
Failure is not failing to reach a goal. Failure is not setting a goal.
Failure is not fufilling a dream. Failure is not having a dream.
Failure is not falling down. Failure is refusing to get back up when
you fall.
Why do some people succeed where others fail? Successful people are armed with passion and a plan. And they understand that...
There are no extraordinary people, just extraordinary commitments.
What would you attempt to do if I could guarantee you would not fail? Imagine the fun you could have. The sky is the limit! Most failure is self-assigned. Napoleon thought he was a failure. Virtually
all great people experience some kind of failure in their life. The difference is they get up, dust themselves off and treat the failure as information.
Thomas Edison saw mistakes simply as something he needed to work on. Edison had about 1,000 unsuccessful attempts before he finally created the light bulb. When he was asked how it felt to fail 1,000 times, he said, "I didn't fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention of 1,001 steps."
When you make a mistake, admit it freely, not by asking, "Who's to
blame?" Instead, ask yourself, "How can I do this better?"
As Oprah says, "When you know better, you do better."
Next time you hit an obstacle that tries to knock you off your path to achieving your dream, follow this simple plan:
1. Name It - It is important that you name the obstacle that is standing in your way. You might think this is obvious, but it usually isn't as obvious as you think. I had a dear friend who's Life List including going out-of-state to attend college. After being accepted to a college 3,000 miles away, she moved all her things across country into her new apartment. By the end of her first semester, she was ready to abandon her life long dream. She tried to convince me living out of state wasn't all it was cracked up to be. I knew better. After several long distance calls, she finally admitted to being home sick.
2. Begin with the end in mind - When I teach motivational workshops for teens, the very first thing I have them do is write their obituary. Sound morbid? How do you know how to get where you are going if you don't begin with your destination in mind? With my friend, the destination was finding a way to keep her on the east coast so she could realize her dream.
3. Decide on action - Now it is time to decide how to get past that obstacle. You can ignore it, go around it or go through it. The action required to keep my friend in school was to find a way to help her feel connected to the people back home so she wouldn't feel so home sick.
4. M.A.P. - Now that you know the action you need to take, it is time to Make an Action Plan. To keep my friend connected, all her friends and family in California signed up for Verizon's family plan so we could all talk to each other for free.
5. Move forward and don't look back - The Bible is full of stories of people who looked back when they were instructed not to. The result? They turned to pillars of salt. Looking back has a tendency to immobilize us...freezing us in our tracks. There is nothing you can do about yesterday....but today holds great promise if we can just find a way to move forward. Picture your obstacle with a propeller on it. When you successfully overcome your obstacle, you will propel yourself forward toward something greater than where you started. Just look at Oprah....Michael...and Disney. Oh yes, and my friend. She graduated from College and is now living in another state fulfilling another one of her Life List goals.
Repeat after me:
No one comes between me and my dreams, not even me.
Repeat this over and over again until you believe it!
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