Have you ever failed? If not, I would guess that you have never taken a chance on trying anything new - or else you are lying.

There is nothing wrong with failing – as long as you learn from your mistakes, modify your approach and try again. In fact the more often you fail, the sooner it will be that you finally succeed – provided that you do learn and keep trying.

You can only grow from experience and you only get experience from having a go at something. It may be more pleasant to succeed, but you can actually learn more from failing. But this is only if you are observant and take note of what you are doing and which things have worked and which haven’t. You then need to analyze what has happened, alter your direction and move on.

So go for it! Try, try again and if you don’t at first succeed . . . then try yet again. You will eventually get there – unless you stop trying.

“If you fail, learn, and move on, you’re growing.” ~ Robert Kiyosaki

If you had a ship – even a large, modern, beautiful, powerful ship – but always left it anchored in a safe harbor to protect it, then you may well succeed in avoiding getting it damaged. However, is that what ships are really for? Aren’t they really designed for travelling between ports across the open seas? Granted, they may run across storms and rough seas. The sailors on board may become seasick or even shipwrecked – but they at least had the opportunity of reaching their goal of the next port or discovering new things about the world around them.

Your life is much like that. If you protect yourself from the possibility of failure by simply not taking opportunities when they turn up, or not trying out any new ideas that you have, then you may be “safe” but you are condemning yourself to living in the same old rut that you are already in. You may be reducing the chances of a “failure” somewhat – but you are completely eliminating any chance of success. That is not a good trade.

Take a chance! You may well succeed. If you do happen to fail then note what you did wrong, learn from your mistakes and try again . . . and again . . . (and again if necessary – until you succeed.)

Take your ship out past the sanctuary of the harbor, feel the wind in your hair as you steer towards your goal – and you will have a good chance of reaching it.

John Cusworth

Jim Rohn

Have you decided what you want out of life? Have you set goals and planned out how you are going to achieve them?

If you have no purpose or direction, then it is impossible to make any progress.

Don’t fall into the trap of just fitting in with what other people around you are doing. Some will be focused on their own goals and be striving to achieve them. They may influence you to do what they are doing. This may assist them, but is unlikely to help you.

Even worse, many of your friends and acquaintances will  have no life plan or clear goals either. If you follow them in their aimless activities, you will just be going around in circles, never achieving anything.

It is your life. Decide what YOU would like to do with it.

Set goals. Work out a way to achieve those goals. Then go for it!

Design your own life plan and determine your own future.

John Cusworth

Many people think that those who attend Personal Development Seminars regularly or read Inspiring Books or listen to Motivational Tapes are mad – or at least wasting their time. They say, “Those Seminars obviously don’t work – otherwise you would already be inspired and motivated, and wouldn’t need to keep going back again and again.”

Those same people probably shower regularly, not expecting the one wash to last indefinitely. They probably eat and drink on a pretty regular basis too. The nutrition only lasts so long and then runs out – it needs to be supplied continually.

It is the same with motivation. Most people are living in a rut – doing much the same thing every day – even though they are not really happy about where they are in life. If they read an inspirational book, see an uplifting movie or attend a Motivational Seminar – then they may get a glimpse of what life could be like if they stepped out of their comfort zone. They become inspired themselves and resolve to change their behaviors, set new goals and proceed to pursue them.

Unfortunately, the world they live in doesn’t cease to offer up challenges. Problems arise and setbacks occur. When the person goes back to being surrounded by their old friends – they often get pulled back down, and doubts can re-emerge. . . . Just as after taking a shower, you can get dirty again.

By being regularly exposed to inspiring situations and surrounded by like-minded, motivated people, it is easier to maintain your new, positive outlook and to press on to achieving your goals.

Once you set your mind on achieving something, don’t be put off by the negative influences around you – or those who would prefer if you stayed at their level.

Don’t look back. Keep getting your regular dose of motivation.

John Cusworth

You can always wait until conditions are perfect before starting to take action towards achieving your goals. But unfortunately conditions will never be perfect – some factor will always be sub-optimal or missing. So what will happen is that you keep putting off any action on your part. Procrastination will set in and your chances of progress will at best be delayed, and possibly eliminated altogether. Meanwhile your competition may not have the same hesitation and get in ahead of you.

Instead “learn to dance in the rain”. Do what you can at the time, in the particular circumstances. Conditions may not be perfect, but at least you will be taking action and making some progress towards your goal. Remember that you can never achieve anything unless you take action – no matter how good your ideas may be.

John Cusworth

Do you sometimes wonder why life has dealt you such a bad hand? You see other people around you with better jobs, bigger homes, faster cars and happier relationships. Why do they get all the luck? What about me?

On the other hand, have you ever noticed that a very large proportion of the most successful people out there have had a tough start to life. They have often been very poor or from broken homes or with some other difficulties which have made life very hard for them.

How come they have become such a success then? Usually it is because they have had some dream and decided to pursue it no matter what. They have not always made a go of it from the start. They have often failed in whatever they were doing. But what have they had in common? They didn’t give up. They tried again . . . and again . . . and again . . . until something worked out.

If something happened to thwart their plans they adapted and modified what they were doing to achieve their goal slightly. Then they tried again . . . and . . .

Life will always confront you with a curved ball – or brick wall – but if you take it in your stride and react positively by modifying your behaviour to get around the obstacle – and still aim for your goal – you will eventually get there. All the stronger for the experience.

So don’t worry about what happens to you, concern yourself with how you can best react to it, and press on towards your goal.

“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” – Charles R. Swindoll

John Cusworth

Carl Jung

“I am not what happens to me. I choose who I become.” – Carl Jung

It is not the event that happens that determines what happens to you or what your final outcome is. It is how you react to that event or circumstance.

Don’t just accept the current situation that you find yourself in. Rather than whinging about your latest incidence of bad luck, respond by thinking about what happened to produce that result and modify your behaviour accordingly.

Life is a series of choices. Where you end up depends on how wise your past and current choices are. Remember that not making any choice is actually making the decision to do nothing or to make no change in your current behaviour. If that behaviour has led to poor outcomes in the past then it will most likely lead to poor outcomes in the future as well.

Try something different – any new action is better than none – but why not observe what people who have been successful in your area have done and choose to try that. Let those “mentors” or “role models” make the mistakes for you – just copy what has worked so well for them, and adapt it to your circumstances.

Don’t be a victim of circumstances. Decide where you want to go and make wise choices as to how to best get there.

Confucius

How do you get to achieve your goals?

Well first of all you have to have some. You need to know where you are going so that you can head in the right direction. Give some real thought as to what you want, focus on it and determine what you need to do to achieve it.  The things that you do every day should always be taking you closer to your destination of attaining your goal. Provided you have that end goal in site, and continually work towards it, it doesn’t matter how slowly you progress – you will eventually get there.

Many people however get lost along the way.

Some are too impatient to reach their goal. They work hard at the start, but get discouraged when the progress is slow. They feel that they are getting nowhere – and give up.

Others get started with enthusiasm, but when they don’t achieve quick results, become disillusioned. Because they are keen to succeed they look around for the “right” opportunity which is going to be THE one that is going to turn their lives around. Often they soon get disillusioned with this one too and shift their attention to the latest new, promising system that they hear about. As much time passes, they have worked very hard on their individual projects, but none are ever completed.

Yet others are extremely focused. They have a clear goal, they hatch a plan to get there and head off steadfastly in that direction, determined to keep going until they get there. Sometimes they are so focused on the plan that they don’t consider evaluating there progress and modifying there plan to suit the ever changing environment around them. They may get stopped by a brick wall, but because their plan said that the goal was just the other side of the wall, they keep pushing on that wall to try to get through. If they looked up and around they may see that there is actually a hole in the wall nearby or even a separate track around it. If they modified their plan to reach their original goal they could possibly reach it quickly and easily. Instead they are stopped at the wall – still pushing on it but getting nowhere.

As Confucius wisely said, “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.” Provided you know where you are going, keep moving in the right direction no matter how slowly and evaluate your progress and adjust accordingly so you don’t get stopped by impassable barriers, you must get there in the end.

John Cusworth

Most people wish to achieve things in their life. However unless you take action (in other words you actually do something), there is no way that anything – no matter how small or insignificant – can be achieved. The size of the task you set out to achieve may be large or small – but unless you dream big, it is unlikely to be a significant or challenging goal. The dreaming allows you to imagine places you have never been, things you have never done and outcomes you would never rationally think possible.

If you have dreamed and set a goal to attain that dream, it is unlikely that you will ever achieve it unless you plan out a series of small, do-able steps to make progress towards your goal. Otherwise you will be frittering away your time going around in circles, only making progress by chance.

Finally, in order to follow the plan towards your goal persistently and enthusiastically, you must believe that you are capable of eventually progressing through the steps and accomplishing your goal. Without belief you will be easily discouraged by the first signs of difficulty or failure and quite likely give up.

Therefore “To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” – Anatole France

Albert Einstein

Imagination is a marvellous thing. We can picture in our minds things from our past, things from other people’s past, things happening elsewhere in the world – and even more imprtantly things that have never happened.

Without the ability to imagine, there would be no new inventions, medical discoveries, great novels, artistic masterpieces or . . .

If we had no imagination we would be tied to the things that we could experience first hand. We could be taught how to do something that someone else could already do. But we would not be able to come up with NEW IDEAS – always being stuck in the past.

Imagination is what drives the human race to keep “evolving” technologically, socially and medically.  It also may result in problems for the world such as global warming, extinction of species etc – but solutions to these problems also lie with imagination.

If you want a better future – imagine what it could be – set your sites on it and work towards it.

If you can imagine it – you can achieve it.

Indeed – “Imagination is the most powerful force in the universe.”

John Cusworth