 I hear this pretty often, “I try to think positive and be optimistic, but things still don’t go right!” I understand the frustration. Things aren’t always sweet. They’re not always red roses and champagne dreams. Life can seem so unfair sometimes. Or is it? For many of us, when we compare our lives to others we feel as though we’re lacking in a few areas; or maybe even a lot of areas. You may feel like they’re swimming in cash, or better educated, have gotten further, and even seem to have “the golden touch” – everything just seems to fall in their lap. From the outside looking in, things may appear great and you wonder why you’re just not getting the results you long for. Here’s the truth: No one has all the cards stacked in their favor. We ALL have problems that must be overcome; whether they’re financial, emotional or physical. Don’t be shaken up by outside appearances. If you want to be more successful in any endeavor, then you have to understand what exactly fuels success. Sounds simple, but many people skip this step entirely. They learn WHAT to do – but don’t prepare themselves with the proper mindset to actually being able to do it. If you truly want something, you have to BECOME the person that’s worthy to have it. You can play the “victim” and wonder why things are falling apart around you, or you can take the time to figure out what’s actually creating those heavy moments of dissatisfaction. When I was younger, I was into martial arts; karate in particular. I got inspired by the many martial arts movies I watched growing up and I though knowing how to do some of those moves would be the coolest thing.  My Shihan (karate teacher) was always very adamant about learning not just how to kick, throw and punch someone in their chest; he also wanted us to understand why it’s important NOT to fight. Just because you have the power, you also have to possess the wisdom to discern when it’s necessary to use. This was strange to my young mind. Here I am learning to kick ass but, I was being told that these things are best used only for defense. It was called, “The Warrior’s Ethical Code”. You’re learning to “destroy” but you also had to learn to “build” and “heal”. When you look at your life (or anyone else’s life for that matter) we ALL have something to offer. Some people know what that is. Others don’t. Some people can “destroy”, but they never learn how to “build”. The wise man or woman knows how to do BOTH. They accept that they have enough. Enough to share; enough to serve; enough to help; enough to teach; enough to jump over (or crawl under or go around) any hurdle that comes into their path. It all comes down to your Perspective. Are you only the destroyer or the builder? Or can you become what’s necessary to complete what the task requires? Can you leap gracefully over that hurdle? Or find another way around it? Do you think you’re enough? If you do, then you’ll try to see opportunity within every problem. Why? Because you’ll change your Perspective and try to look for it. Focused effort always pays off – lack of effort never does. “Thinking positive” is more than just being optimistic. It’s changing the way you look at problems. And everyone has problems. This is life after all. We’re all human and no one is immune. It’s the way we look at them that gives these scary shadows their form. Do you see a monster or helper? Consider this. You have the power to think whatever you want to think. We can all look up at the sky and say it’s blue. But what if someone says it’s not? Our natural reaction is to look at this person as if they’re “crazy”. The sky is blue obviously by its appearance. But what did we learn in science class? The sky isn’t actually blue. And someone made an EFFORT to go past the outer appearance and figure out what was really going on. They thought differently instead of going along with the status quo. They saw the hurdle and though to themselves, “Just because everyone else is jumping over them, do I have to?”  So here’s a Perspective that some people don’t like to hear, but hopefully it will help some of you release those gnawing feelings of frustration and disappointment. Failure IS the road to success. As long as you LEARN from your failures! There is not 1 successful person on this planet that did not fail repeatedly until they arrived at the mountain top of victory. Every set-back is an opportunity to learn how NOT to do something. This means that eventually you’ll learn exactly how to do it right; or better. Failure is actually [drum-roll] a GOOD thing! Are you enough? Yes you are. You always have been. You just have been taught to not look at yourself that way. We have all been taught to look at what we lack, instead of what we already have. And what we already have was acquired by doing something right. In order to do something right, you usually had to do it wrong at some point. As you go through this process, you learn how to both “destroy” and “build”. You go from knowledge, to wisdom and eventually reach an understanding. When you see that next hurdle coming, don’t slow down, figure out a way to move past it. If that doesn’t quite work, that’s alright, because if you pick yourself up, you can keep trying again until you get it right. Consider yourself laced. Until next time… NOW AVAILABLE!
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W. James Dennis
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