“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” Robert F. Kennedy
One of the great deterrents to success and achievement is the fear of failure. It is normal for us to look back at the great achievers throughout history and really only pay attention to one aspect of their lives, the successes they have had. The important thing to remember is that they had the ability to view their track record in the same way we do! They lived their lives concentrating on those winning moments. Moving past all of the failing moments they had and really keeping the thoughts positive and focused on winning is what made them great achievers.
So the question is: why do the rest of us concentrate so much on the failures we have had? When we think about the great achievers we pay attention to their successes and we also know that the great achievers concentrate on those same successes. They don’t dwell on the failures they had along the way at all. The successful view failure as an opportunity for personal growth and they use those failures to gain knowledge and experience.
Successful people understand that failure is absolutely essential to achievement and without it there would be no growth or experience gained. The great achievers became great achievers because they did not fear the idea of failing, they did not put one drop of thought into what other people may think of them if they did fail. They stick to their ideals and they stick to the plan, they truly live purpose driven lives.
Next time an opportunity comes around try to think about it the way an achiever would. Understand that opportunity is everywhere and the more your mind is open to it, the more it will present itself. So many people have opportunity knocking all the time and they never act on those opportunities. Interestingly you will often hear those same people talking about how lucky so and so was to get involved with “abc business” when he did.
No, that wasn’t luck! That was the ability to overcome fear and allow achievement to enter when it knocked.
To A Great 2011,
Phil Cicio