The Champion Within Article

Allowing Setbacks to Spur You On by Denis Waitley

Many times we look at high achievers and assume they had a string of lucky breaks or made it without much effort. Usually the opposite is true, and the so-called superstar had an incredibly rough time before he or she attained any lasting success.

It may motivate you more toward your own goals to know that some of the most famous and well-known people in modern times had to overcome difficult obstacles before they finally reached the top. It takes persistence and total commitment to your goals, but it's possible!

You may not know the background of a certain laundry worker who earned sixty dollars a week at his job but had the burning desire to be a writer. His wife worked nights, and he spent nights and weekends typing manuscripts to send to publishers and agents. Each one was rejected with a form letter that gave him no assurance that his manuscripts had even been read. I've received a few of those special valentines myself through the years, and I can tell you firsthand that they're not the greatest self-esteem builders.

But finally, a warm, more personal rejection letter came in the mail to the laundry worker, stating that although his work was not good enough at this point to warrant publishing, he had promise as a writer and he should keep trying.

He forwarded two more manuscripts to the same friendly-yet-rejecting publisher over the next eighteen months, and as before, he struck out with both of them too. Finances got so tight for the young couple that they had to disconnect their telephone to pay for medicine for their baby.

Feeling totally discouraged, he threw his latest manuscript into the garbage. His wife, totally committed to his life goals and believing in his talent, took the manuscript out of the trash and sent it back to Doubleday, the publisher who had sent the friendly rejections. The book, titled Carrie, sold over 5 million copies, and the movie became one of the top-grossing films in 1976. The laundry worker, of course, was Stephen King.

The main message: Believe in your ability to turn obstacles into opportunities. Too often people try to storm their obstacles as if they're forts that need to be taken. It's better to step back and ask yourself, "Did I cause this obstacle by my own actions or lack of them? Did someone else cause this obstacle? Is this obstacle one that grew out of the natural progression of circumstances?"

This last question may seem complex, but it holds a secret to the way you can set and reach your goals and achieve your destiny!

Tap into your core desires and talents to form your ideal life goals! Check out Denis Waitley’s 6-CD set The New Dynamics of Goal-Setting. Click here for information or to order.

From Denis Waitley’s newsletter on the power of persistence and keeping on going no matter what.

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http://bdrake.successin10steps.com/?mad=52669
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"The success gene lives in every person regardless of the results they are presently getting - we are spiritual beings and spirit is always for expansion and fuller expression."
Bob Proctor
Author, Speaker and Success Coach
From Insight of the Day emails

If you work as hard at the task you desire to do as the task you must do, you will go places. http://ow.ly/a5uLC Napoleon Hill Thought for the day

"We have a choice every day - to act on yesterday's good intentions or get an early start on tomorrow's regret."
Robert Brault
Writer

This Week's Jump-Start

Years ago, a young mother about to go out with her husband prepared to feed their baby before they left. The husband became impatient as she started her daily routine of mashing vegetables through a strainer. Tired of him standing over her with the car keys in one hand and the other hand on the door knob, she turned the task over to him. Within a few minutes, the strainer, peas, carrots, and bowl ended up in his lap. As he changed clothes, he reasoned that there must be a better way to prepare baby food and that there must be a lot of frustrated parents who didn’t enjoy the monotony of straining fruit and vegetables three times a day. Soon, they began discussing the idea of designing machinery to strain the food in a factory and sell it already prepared.

Fortunately, the young father and his dad owned a small canning plant, but it was difficult to sell the older man on the concept. One mistake that harmed a child would destroy everything it had taken them a lifetime to build.

And what about the expense of marketing surveys, developing and financing new machinery, packaging, getting stores to accept the products, and getting parents to buy something totally new at a price that would be both affordable and profitable? You've been through this in your own organization or family when someone comes up with an idea that colors outside the lines! I see you're nodding affirmatively.

The risk was enormous, but in the end, they went forward with their idea because it filled a need they understood firsthand. They had the skills and experience. And the market was so vast that the positive benefits far outweighed the negative factors. One year after Dan Gerber dumped the strainer of cooked vegetables into his lap, the Gerber Products Company introduced its first five baby foods to the market. The point of the story is that, so often, an idea becomes a goal when we realize it meets a need in our own lives and the lives of others. Our motivation to achieve this goal is dependent upon how strong our need is and whether or not we have the determination, optimism and toughness to follow through our ideas to fruition.

—Denis Waitley

From Denis Waitley’s newsletter a powerful message about how we can turn ideas into something great.
Learn how to be successful
http://bdrake.successin10steps.com/?mad=52669
bend1297a@gmail.com