DAY
92
“Failure seldom stops you; what stops you is the fear of failure.”
— Jack Lemmon
You touched on fear a little bit yesterday. Have the courage today to take a look at your fears head on. Is it really failure that keeps you from reaching success, or is it fear? Does failure stop your progress, or does fear put on the breaks?
Failure gets a bad rap, but it is actually an integral part of success. It is essential for success. In fact, failure is the foundation of success. What do you think about that? Do you believe it?
When you learned to ride a bike, did you just hop on and take off? If you did, you are a freak of nature. Most kids experience a series of failures when they learn to ride a bike. Each failure teaches them something new about balance and coordination. They also may enlist the help of an adult or an older sibling or friend to run alongside and help them while they learn. Their fear of failure is overridden by the intense desire to ride a bike. Their failures become a foundation for their success, because they use them to learn. They modify their actions with each and every attempt, and pretty soon they’re flying through the neighborhood on their own.
Failure is not something to be feared. It is a very important tool for success. Launch into new adventures today with the abandon that you had when you learned to ride a bike. Let go of the brakes and fly down that hill. Experience the rush of adrenaline you get when you go for it. Let go of your fears. They have no place on the road to success.
DAY
93
“Failure teaches success.”
— Japanese Saying
Do you consider failure and success to be opposites? That is not unusual. They are antonyms in most dictionaries. Today, you have an opportunity to look at the connection between the two. What if failure was an instructor and success the pupil? If you go with that image today, it might alter your current way of thinking.
Failure generally has quite a negative connotation, but it wouldn’t be so horrible if it was thought of as a teacher. Failure provides help and insight and direction. Failure teaches success.
Pull out your journal and write for about thirty minutes on this Japanese saying. Does failure teach success in your life? Do you think this is a ridiculous statement, or are you intrigued by it? Try to come up with examples in your own life of how failure teaches success. Can you think of anything?
Failure and success may have once been opposites in your mind, black and white, good and bad. After reading the statement above, what new pictures do you think of for failure and success? Let your imagination take over and draw a few new images that emerge when you think of the idea that failure teaches success. How are these two concepts linked together?
You don’t have to hold on to your traditional views of anything. Part of achieving success is being willing to change. Are you willing to change your concept of failure?
DAY
94
“Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road.”
— Dag Hammarskjold
Do you find yourself looking down to test the ground before taking your next step? What does that mean in your day-to-day life? It may mean that you seldom make a move unless it is completely safe and you have no chance of failure. Or it may mean that you get stuck in the minutia of life and lose track of your long-term goals.
If you want to pursue success, you must take risks. You don’t have to be reckless, but it’s time to get off the children’s rides and tackle the monster roller coaster. Fix your gaze on the far horizon and pursue those spectacular sights you see before you.
When you look back on your life, you want to be able to say, “Wow, what a ride! That was fun! I had no idea I could fly so high, and the view was incredible.”
It would be pretty sad to reach the end of your life and say, “What view? Well, I never got hurt; I never failed; but I really don’t know what I might have accomplished, because I was too afraid to try. I made sure I was safe on the ground at all times.”
You are not going to get another chance to visit this incredible theme park called life. What do you want to do while you’re here? Do you want to spend your entire time staring at the ground to make sure you don’t step in gum, or do you want to look up and take in the wonders that surround you?
Your assignment today is to go back through your journal and look at some of your dreams and goals for success. Then, fix your eyes on those goals and don’t look down.
DAY
95
“I believe life is a series of near misses. A lot of what we ascribe to luck is not luck at all. It’s seizing the day and accepting responsibility for your future. It’s seeing what other people don’t see and pursuing that vision.”
— Howard Schultz
Does it seem like other people have all the luck? Are you ready for a little of that luck to come your way for a change? Well, you don’t have to wait for that to happen. You’re sitting on a pot of gold right now, and you don’t even realize it. What makes you think other people are lucky and you’re not?
You will find that when you seize control of your life, you will start to get lucky. Imagine your wildly successful future. Create a vision for yourself, and then never lose sight of it. You are responsible for what happens in your life. You deserve to have success. It has nothing to do with luck. No matter what happens today, you have an opportunity to learn and grow from your experience. No matter what your circumstances, you have an opportunity to achieve success.
Pay extreme attention to what goes on around you. You will be presented with hundreds of opportunities to do something for someone, to learn something new, to try something you’ve never tried before, to look at something from someone else’s point of view, and to feel grateful for the life you have been given. These gold nuggets of opportunity rain down around you all day, every day. Grab them.
Seize the day, and you may suddenly start feeling like the luckiest person around.
DAY
96
“Commitment unlocks the doors of imagination, allows vision, and gives us the right stuff to turn our dream into reality.”
— James Womack
For the last couple of days, you have been concentrating on your vision for success. It is so important to have a vision, because without it you are essentially wandering through life without any direction or goal. Today, you have the opportunity to take your vision one step further. Your ultimate goal is to turn your vision into reality, right? How do you do that? Commitment is the answer.
It’s easy to come up with dreams for your life. We all like to dream. But the only way you will see your vision come true is if you back it up with commitment. You must buy in to the idea that you will actually achieve your dreams, or you are just fantasizing.