Setting your goals and believing in your dreams are the first steps to success; a wonderful time of being filled with hope and excitement in the possibilities of achieving them.
The key, however, to crossing the finish-line line is in your Commitment and Persistence. Giving up can never be an option. The truth is most successful people have ‘failed forward’ to success. Making mistakes along the way does not mean failure, it’s just part of the process.
You only fail when you fail to continue on:
** The greatest quarterback completes only 6 out of every 10 passes. **Major league players make it to first base only 25% of the time – and that includes walks. ** Top oil companies, even with the help of expert geologists dig an average of 10 wells before finding oil.** Most successful actors are tuned down 20 to 30 times after auditioning for roles in a TV commercials.
Winston Churchill in his famous speech during the bleak years of war, said, “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in…”
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison
The story from the book Think and Grow Rich of R.U. Darby, a gold miner who gave up ‘three feet from striking gold’ in his gold mine is one of the greatest examples of giving up too soon. Darby started out with high hopes and a strong belief in finding gold. He committed his time and invested his money to this endeavor but after a while of seeing no evidence of gold being there, he quit!
He sold his equipment to a junk man and he left. The junk man decided to continue on and hired a geologist to study the mine to see if there was a likelihood of gold being there. The junk man not only continued on but he found the largest gold deposit in history and it was only 3 feet from where R.U Darby had quit digging. How close are you to achieving your dreams? Discouragement is said to be the Devil’s most valued tool.
A young jockey lost his first race, his second race, his third race his first 10, his first 20 but he kept trying! He lost his first 100 races, his first 200 but he kept plugging away – and he lost fifty more. After 250 straight losses, Eddie Arcaro won his first race! He went on to become the most famous jockey of his era, winning the most money in 1948, 1950, 1952 and 1955.
Michael Jordon, “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career, I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.”
I am sure you have heard stories of other people giving up on their dream because of disappointments. The sad thing is that people often quit just before they are about to achieve the biggest breakthrough; right before success shows up. True success is realized by the people who ‘Keep On Keeping On”, those that have learned to Live in their Vision and not being Victims of their Circumstances.
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dream.”– Eleanor Roosevelt
How close are you to striking the gold of your dream?
