In order to recognize success, it is first necessary to define failure.
Failure is the refusal to establish a plan and work towards its accomplishment regardless of the obstacles.
Most of us were never taught that failure is a matter of choice, just as success is a matter of choice. Failure is not, as many people believe, the result of lack of talent, money, time or other resources. Failure is simply the refusal to establish goals or objectives in your life and to work toward their achievement. Talk to people who have neither goals nor the motivation to succeed and you'll find that their lives have no excitement, no purpose. They feel and act like failures, no matter what they say about how hard they've tried.
To succeed, you will constantly find yourself sailing uncharted waters, doing things you have never done before, but if you want any more from life than mediocrity, that's where you'll have to go. any time you break new ground, you are taking a risk. you neither know exactly what's ahead, nor how you're going to handle it. The only alternative is not to go anywhere, or get anything important done.
Lack of immediate success, however is not failure. It is nothing more that feedback you may need to modify your target date and even plan for reaching your goal. "I tried" is a quitters statement. It says you have either given up or decided that not reaching your goals is an okay way to continue to live your life. Both attitudes, and they are only attitudes, are devastating to your personal effectiveness. Drop them. Drop the "I tried". When you run head-on into a brick wall, simply get yourself back in the race with a new plan for winning.
It's not how many times you fall down that determines whether you will eventually reach the top of the mountain. it's how many times you get up and get moving again. |
