A life without obstacles is as good as dead. Even a child is faced with obstacle in his first day on earth. The baby has to overcome this obstacle if he needs to get anything. Obstacles are everywhere in life. Whether they are everyday problems or crisis situations, how we handle them will determine what we make of our lives. The weak crumbles when the odds stack up and surrenders even before any attempt to overcome the obstacles. The great and successful people on the other hand see adversity as a challenge.

Against all odds, they rise above the difficulties and land up scaling greater heights than before. They do not merely survive the adversity, they thrive. If you are really serious about living your dreams, you have to continually conquer adversity and, amidst the chaos, look out for new opportunities to undertake and excel in. Most people miss out on opportunities, thereby remaining POOR (Passing Out Opportunities Repeatedly), because they cave in at the sight of slight challenges. Many give up without even trying. Some even have enough reasons why they feel they could not overcome the challenges.

Are you giving up before trying? Or even tried and concluded that the obstacle is too high for you? You need to reconsider your position and you will be surprised at what you can achieve. Like the old mule in a fable that I read some years back, once we have set our minds to clear all the obstacles, we will succeed in any endeavor.

A farmer once owned an old mule. One day, the mule fell into the farmer’s well and brayed loudly so as to catch the farmer’s attention. The farmer, upon assessing the situation, ruled out any possibility of a rescue as it would simply be too much trouble for him to lift the mule out of the well. However, out of sympathy for the animal, he enlisted his neighbors’ help to haul dirt into the well to put the mule out of his misery.

The old mule was hysterical upon learning that his life would thus end. As the farmer and the neighbors shoveled the dirt into the well, a thought struck the old mule. He realized that if he could shake off every dirt that landed on his back, the dirt would hit the floor and he could step on the dirt. Shovel after shovel, he continued relentlessly to shake off the dirt and step on top of it. He fought the sense of panic and distress and just went on shaking off the dirt and climbing higher up the well.

With much determination and perseverance, the old mule eventually stepped out the well, battered and exhausted, but otherwise triumphant that he had survived the ordeal. Through the way he handled the situation of adversity, the act of burying him in fact saved his life. I am sure many of us have found ourselves in this kind of situation but decided not to do anything about it. The morale of this story is that there is always a solution to every problem if only we can think enough.

What is it that you are going through? What dream do you have that you have lost hope of achieving? Start a business? Get the job of your dream? Going for further studies? You may even be in debt right now… Whatsoever situation you may find yourself now, there is a way out but the ball lies in your court. You have to rise up to the challenge and give yourself no other alternative. One failure should not discourage you from trying again. It should be the catalyst that will spur you to more actions.

Walt Disney had a marvelous business idea and needed funds to start up his business. He approached the banks for a loan and every one turned him down. He did not give up and after several visits to hundreds of banks, he got the loan he wanted approved and brought the World of Disney characters into our lives. Sir Winston Churchill had speech impediment when young and took three years to get through eighth grade. He overcame all that to become the British prime minister and a recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1953. These are just examples of people who have overcome obstacles to live their dreams. Look around you and you will see countless number of people who have gone through this phase before. Does anyone comes to mind? Why not share it and let’s all learn from the lives. Never give up and remember always that “Adversity creates Opportunity“.

a

What do you see: Adversity or Opportunity?

Technorati Tags: opportunities, succeed, Walt Disney, Winston Churchill

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What are the things that are important to you in life? How do you manage them? Do you give them all your attention or you just watch them go by each day? I saw this piece again today and it hit me deep. You may have seen this before but I want you to read it carefully. A professor stood before his class with some items on the desk in front of him. When the final student was seated, he picked up a large and empty glass bottle and proceeded to fill it with rocks…about 2″ in diameter.

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They all agreed that it was full. He then picked up a box of pebbles and added them to the jar shaking it lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open area between the rocks.  “Is the jar filled now?” The professor asked. “Yes”, the students said. But then he picked up a bag of sand and poured it into the bottle. The sand filled in everything else. Once more he asked if it was full and after some thinking they said that it was.

The professor then took two bottles of water from a bag at the side of the desk and opening them both, he poured their entire contents into the jar. The students roared at this demonstration. After the laughter subsided, the professor spoke: “I want you to recognise that this jar represents your life. The rocks are the important things in your life - your family, your spouse, your children, your friends, your spouse etc. These are things that if everything else was lost and only them remained, your life would still be full.

So, how do you treat these set of people in your life? Do you neglect them and let your work get into spending quality time with them? The kind of your investment into these set of people will determine what you would be able to take out when you need them most. Your starting point will be to identify who this set of people are in your life and make a conscious effort to invest in them. If you are married and have children, your spouse and children automatically falls into this. Then, you can identify others and make a commitment to sow into their lives.

The pebbles are the other things that matter - your business, your job, your house, your car etc. The sand is everything else. The small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first, there will be no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Start to pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Cultivate the relationship with your spouse. Believe me, you will always find time to go to work, clean the house, rewire the lamp, fix the car. Focus on taking care of the rocks first - the things that really matter. Set your priorities right. The rest is just sand.

a

Are you focusing on the sand of life?

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Do you feel you are putting in a lot of effort and getting little result? Does it seems that success is the birthright of certain few people? Are people telling you that you can never achieve anything tangible with your life? Do you believe their lies?  It is high time you took charge of your life. Failures will come in life but that should not be the deciding factor of what you make of your life. You owe yourself, and God, the responsibility of shaking of every failure and turn every adversity into testimony. If you are still experiencing failure, it is most likely you are being held by any of these stumbling blocks to success.

Are you blaming others for what happens to you? Do you still live in the realm of pushing responsibility to others? Someone said that the difference between witchcraft and medicine is that when a man falls sick, witchcraft makes him ask, “who did this to me” while medicine makes him ask, “what did this to me“. This practice of blaming others account not only half of people’s failures  but also for failure to cash in on failures. When you keep blaming others for whatsoever happens to you, there is no way you can identify the cause of the failure and learn the lesson. As such, you would not be able to prevent the recurrence of this in your life. As long as you do not recognise failure fow what it is, you can not deal with it.

The second stumbling block is blaming oneself…Do you find yourself saying, “Why do I always say the wrong thing”, “Why is it that it is when it gets to my turn that something else happens”, etc. Then you ar guilty of this stumbling block. This is usually a quick and easy way to brush off a failure that probably runs much deeper and requires more consideration than people are willing to admit.  Instead of wrestling with the problem behind the failure and resolve it to prevent recurrence, many people blame themselves and let it go at that. This does more harm that good. It plants the deep feeling of inferiority and insecurity. Abraham Lincoln failed many times before he became the president but he was far from being a failure. Excessive self-blame opens the door to guilt feelings. You will keep finding fault in whatsoever you do when clearly the actual cause is being left unattended to.

The third stumbling block is having no goal: We all must know where we want to go if we are going to get anywhere. It is easy to drift along when you have no goal. Are you currently going through school as if you are doing your family a favour? Or you are only interested on your salary in your current job? These are signs that you don’t have a goal. You are definitely not aiming for anything. The people who go places and do things make the most of every situation. They are ready for the next thing that comes along on the road to their goal. They know what they want and are willing to go an extra mile. The question now is, “what is your goal?” What are you living for? Think about this and take action today.

Another stumbling block is taking short cut: An electric current will follow the line of least resistance but a bulb glows precisely because there is resistance. Many choose instinctively what seems to be the shortest, easiest, and quickest way to success only to discover that the success was illusory.  Too often, the shortcut is responsible for the choice of unsuitable goals which then lead to unsatisfactory success. Refusal to observe established rules of decency and honesty is definitely one major short cut that we all need to watch.

Do you find yourself being held by any of these stumbling blocks, decide to do something today. Take charge of your life and give yourself no other option. The ball is in your court. You will succeed.

a

Are you being held by these stumbling blocks to success?

Technorati Tags: success, Abraham Lincoln

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