It is already the middle of the year. You are contemplating the hopes, expectations and dreams that you had at the beginning of 2016. If you are in the phase of designing your actions for the next semestre, remember: when failure is not a choice, you will certainly succeed!
If you could speak today with some of the most successful people in the world they would tell you that it took work, persistence and strategic choices to succeed in their goals.
May be some will also mention that, at times, they felt that they got lucky. They usually also recognized that there were times when they wanted to quit, and almost did; still always found the way to return to their chosen path. I am absolutely sure that on those times, they felt doubt about themselves, or without supplies or even terrified; nevertheless, always something supported them to remain focused in the path that they had designed for themselves.
The inspiring story of Thomas Edison and his 10.000 unsuccessful attempts to create the lamp should make us all feel encouraged and motivated never to give up. Yes, you heard it right! Edison attempted more than 10,000 times to make a lamp bulb lighten up! And most probably there were times of disappointment, or times when he wanted to give up. But he did not! The reason for that is that he never stoped believing on his original plan, and remained focused on his dream: to give to every household in the world electricity. Definitely something within him must have made him felt that he could be successful.
Never assume that it is easy – it was not for Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Amelia Earhart, Joanne d’ Arc, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela…and possibly not even for your parents. There are millions of people out there that have had the strength and intention to benefit the world, leveraging on their capabilities and skills and making a life worth living – we just do not know everybody’s names. Independently of whether your ambition is to be successful in something global, national or regional, or just something relevant to your doorstep, your dreams are important… and to be able to fulfill them you will need to take special action. Do not fool yourself that it can happen in any other way.
What do you need to remind yourself when you feel disappointed or scared or ready to quit? That, even though taking action seems hard and too big and effort, it is much easier than waking up in the morning to go to a job that you hate. Think of the tremendous burden that it might mean to live in an obese body, or with a bad partner, or to be dependent on a medicine or drag. It is absolutely dragging to be in an unfulfilling relationship or to be surrounded by people that are negative or condescending. All of these require much more energy and power than it takes to believe in your dreams and take action. Nobody has ever said that to live a great life is easy. It takes a Great person, with Great character and with Great dreams to create a Great Amazing life! And that Great Person might be you! Because we all hold inside the capabilities and the potential that are required to achieve success.
Moreover, what is the alternative you are facing? Are you ready to stop waiting for help from heaven to come and awaken yourself and your talents, your needs and your desires? Are you ready to accept yourself fully, with all its alleged mistakes, weaknesses, addictions, fears, complexes and malfunctions, and to start loving yourself despite them all? If the answer is “Yes!” you are ready to become an empowered person. You are ready to create and live a consistently wonderful life.
You might have allowed yourself too many “escape exits” in the past, too many excuses, but now is the time to realize that they lead you nowhere. You have two options: to continue doing what you have always been doing, and to bring the same results as always, or to do something that you have never done before, and bring a different result.
This might scare you and you might not know yet what you want to do. But you will find out eventually, as you focus your thoughts with consistency towards what you would like to be experiencing in life. You will do your homework, your research and you will discover your next steps. You do not need to know today the complete path to be able to make the first step. What you need is to start moving towards the right direction.
Remind yourself that you are more valuable than what you used to believe, until today. You deserve more than what you have experienced up to now. Do not blame yourself, but neither blame others for your situation. You are who you are, and you have learned so much during your life to be able to get where you are today. Do not expect anyone to give you the permission to be who you are or you want to be. Do not expect someone to come and give you the money that you need to start your new business, someone to arrange the perfect blind date, or to fix your malfunctioning family. Take control yourself! Treat yourself in the way that you want to be treated, and stop resisting your deeper truth and dreams.
From now on, take full responsibility of your life – and watch it blossom! You must decide and commit that you will do whatever you need to create a life that is really yours. A life that has purpose, meaning, joy and value. You will not deprive yourself anymore from self-respect, integrity, dignity. You will stop blaming, waiting, hoping that someone else will show up to give you what you want.
On the other hand, you should never hesitate to ask for help, if you need it. Make sure that you are doing the best you can to support yourself on your new path, including asking for help.
Now you know that to succeed having a Great Life you might start living fully. You must get out of your comfort zone and your need to ask for permission to live a better life. Make a list every night, just before going to bed, with the 3 action steps that you want to take the next day, steps that will bring you closer to your goals. And start your day with the most important one. Soon enough you will realize that you are already on the path of creating a better reality.
You are the master of your destiny, the captain of your ship. Every choice you make or you don’t make is fully your responsibility. Give yourself the gift of a great rest of year 2016!
