It's In You
When I say this to people, they inevitably ask, “What’s in me?”
I answer, “The courage, the work ethic, the confidence, the love, the character, the guts, the mindset, the attitude, the persistence, the faith, the knowhow, the gifts, the talent, whatever you need to change your circumstances, reach your goal, or live your best life. Your dream is in Y.O.U!”
The real question is:
“Why aren’t you calling on “it” right now to propel yourself past the current obstacle in your life?”
The answer is in your experiences. Possibly along your journey through life you had a setback or two, experienced failure, doubted yourself, gave your negative thoughts too much power, or underwent a traumatic event, loss of a job, or stressful family situation.
These events either propel you to action or contribute adversely to your self-image.
If it’s the latter, you start hearing the small, negative voices of your mind. You know, the one’s that say, “You can’t do that!” or “You’re not good at that.” Suddenly “you can’t” becomes a predominant statement that buys tickets to the “theatre in your mind,” the Broadway play where you are the star. Regardless of the story, the last scene ends with you on stage delivering your final line, “Woe is me, I failed again!” The curtain closes and there you are, stuck in mediocrity.
The “I failed again” thought gets buried down in your subconscious. According to Webster, subconscious can be defined as, “Of or concerning the part of the mind of which one is not fully aware, but which influences one's actions and feelings.”
Yes, your subconscious can actually “influence” your actions. It can keep you from saying, “Yes!” to opportunities that could lead to your destiny.
But you know what? It is still in you, although sometimes you may need a trigger to launch you from the “I can’t” to the “I can!” The potential is in you, and here’s the thing: failures and setbacks are stops along the pathway to success. They confirm you are trying to get something done!
Here are some insights from people who overcame this:
“I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can not accept not trying.” Michael Jordan
“Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.” Oprah Winfrey
“Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead-end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” Denis Waitley
“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” J. K. Rowling
Sometimes we need a game plan, so here’s what you can do:
1. Take a good long look at your setback(s). What does it tell you, and what do you need to tweak, learn, add, or improve?
2. Reconfirm the goal that you are striving to achieve. Follow the G.A.M.E. process.
3. Revisit the accomplishments in your life, no matter how large or small.
4. Identify the key activities or success themes that led to those accomplishments. Did you have an unshakeable belief in yourself? Did you develop a plan, solicit advice from peers or mentors, gain new knowledge, do the research, or visualize a positive outcome?
5. Now that you have identified your success themes, rewrite the script in the Theatre of Your Mind. Remember, your mind is presenting a play about failure. Re-write your script for success.
6. Rehearse, rehearse, do the work, and you will be ready for opening night.
How you reach for success, how you process so called ‘failures’, how you choose to rise… it’s up to you.
No matter what, remember that It’s In You!