Archive for Success – Page 2

What Happens When You Fail?

So many things we don’t try for fear of failing. Often getting caught up in the what ifs.

This week Diana Nyad “failed” to accomplish her goal of being the first to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage.

This was no small goal, Diana is 61 years old, it took two years of planning and training and many people involved to make it happen. Her journey is totally inspiring.

 

When we imagine failing to reach our goal we often imagine the absolute worst situation. Her attitude after ending this quest is as inspiring as the journey itself. I was brought to tears at the end of this video, when Diana is not at all caught up in what was her journey or goal, she is busy supporting others around her, she is one amazingly courageous woman!

Did she fail? Her goal was to swim from Cuba to Florida and she didn’t accomplish that, she did however accomplish so many things that would not have happened otherwise; it shows just how much success can come from failing. While she may feel disappointment at not reaching the goal, the biggest disappointment would be in never having tried.  Accomplishing a goal is not always about just reaching the goal even when you do. It is about the person you become in order to reach it and all the impact you make in working toward it.  What will you step out and do?

Get Your Courage On! 7 Things to do When Adversity Strikes

Adversity affects us all at one time or another whether it is financial, business, relationship or health, you can feel stuck and it can be difficult to see beyond. Here are seven things you can do to help you get your courage on and move through the adversity.

Look for your success – you have many success in your life and you have faced adversity before and triumphed. Take a look at your past successes and see your strengths. Find stories of others who have overcome the struggles you are dealing with.

Don’t get caught up in what if – Running over and over in your mind if only you had done something different, if only you could turn back time is only berating yourself and will not lift you up. No matter what you come up with the possibility exists that even if you had done things differently things could be worse.

Do what you can – Do not avoid things that need to be addressed, open mail, answer calls, handle issues. Avoiding things only leads to larger issues and more negative feelings. Even if bill collectors are calling and you have no money to pay, answer the call and be honest, let them know you will take care of it when you can, that’s it. If people want things from you that you do not want to do, learn to say no. The feeling of handling issues allows you to move on much more quickly than avoidance.

Journal – The exercise of getting the feelings and thoughts out of your head and onto paper can start to help you see things more clearly. You can also journal possible solutions, no matter how silly they might seem, it just may lead to one that works that you would not have thought without clearing your mind. Writing out what you desire for the future can get you started in the direction you want to go rather than feeling stuck where you are.

Let go – Once you have handled all the things you can, let go of the need to change or control. Feel confident in having taken care of things and trust in the possibilities of the future.

Be grateful  – When facing adversity or heartache it is easy to overlook all the good that are present in your life. Take a gratitude break and look for all the reasons and things you have to be grateful for in your life despite the current adversity.

Reach out – Do what makes you feel good. When things are bringing you down the tendency is to isolate, which can compound the negative feelings. Get out, go to the places where you feel good, play the music you play when your on top, talk to that person that always inspires you, read the books you like.  You know what makes you feel good, now is the time to do it.

Get Your Courage On…don’t let adversity stop you!

What Obstacle is Stopping You?

Obstacles in your mind are smaller than they seem.

What do you think about that keeps you from doing what you want to do?

Do you remember when you wanted to ride a bike and how hard it seemed like it would be? How about driving a car, big and scary right? Things you do now without even thinking about them.

I bet you can come up with a few things that once seemed beyond your reach that you do with ease now.

When we think about doing things they can seem much bigger and more difficult than when we actually do them.

How about you, do you have something you want to do now that the obstacles in your mind are holding you back from?

 

Embracing Change as an Opportunity

I am headed to an event in Orlando “Be the Change” with Suzanne Evans and last night I picked up and read Seth Godin’s new book “Poke The Box” and learned more about his Domino Project which is all about change in the book publishing industry.

It has me thinking about change.

How do we view and handle change?

Just this week I was involved in a discussion on the Kindle. Not surprising some embrace the opportunity to use the Kindle and some were absolutely adamantly opposed to the opportunity. One comment actually referred to it as nothing more than “a toy.”

Now I am willing to bet that when the phone was first introduced there were people that felt it was just “a toy” that had no significant opportunity too. How about those that used and loved their typewriters when big bulky PC’s first appeared on the scene?

I LOVE reading and read one to two books a week and I use both the Kindle and “real” books. I appreciate the instant gratification of getting a book immediately. I also like the convenience of always having the book with me for those times when I get stuck waiting, at the doctor, in traffic..etc. I still appreciate a trip to the bookstore, the feel of a real book and my book shelves full of books. Although I will admit my growing Kindle library is starting to look pretty cool too. As far as one of the biggest “concerns” people voice about being able to highlight and write notes you can do this in both real books and the Kindle so it really does not hold up. Not only that you can actually search the ones you put in the Kindle making that more convenient. Not to mention the fact that it is not killing trees just to adorn my bookshelf.

Ok, this is NOT a commercial for the Kindle, it is one for embracing the opportunity of change. Using a Kindle is a tremendous change from reading a traditional book. I have embraced the opportunity that it offers me rather than resisting.

Having the courage to embrace change opens up worlds of opportunity…..what does resisting do?

It Is Time To Give Up Hope!

There is a time and a place for hope. The people in Japan need our hope and our prayers.

If you are a speaker or do any type of presentations if you use the word hope, it is time to give it up.

Why give up hope?

If you tell your audience or client, I hope to..…fill in the blank….STOP HOPING and DO IT!

Why? Because you can share, educate, help, guide, whatever you do for your audience or client, you can and will do it.
When you tell them you hope to do it, you leave them with some doubt about your abilities to actually accomplish it. They start to wonder if you are really going to do it. Is that what you want or do you want them to have complete confidence in what you are sharing?

When you say any of these….

I hope to help you
I hope to leave you with
I hope you will understand
I hope you will see

Give your audience confidence with….
I can help you
I will leave you with
I am going to share how you can
I will show you how you can
You will see how you can

So what do you think, are you hoping it will happen, or are you doing it?

Quotes – Could They Be Holding You Back?

I love quotes. I save them, I use them in writing, I tweet them, post them on facebook, and send them to friends. A good quote can touch you deeply and inspire you.

At seminars I often see people voraciously writing them down as the speaker shares them. People devour them. Quotes allow people to live on forever, think of Martin Luther King or Aristotle. A good quote can enlighten, empower and motivate you.

Could a quote have the opposite effect? Could a quote disempower you and hold you back?

Two come to mind for me. One I blogged about before, “don’t get too big for your britches.” A new one recently came up that I heard many times growing up “girls are to be seen and not heard.”

A quote can become a belief which is a part of what makes them so powerful. Can you imagine how this quote, now a deeply held belief affected me?

How about you, do you have any quotes that have disempowered or held you back?