Do you have what it takes?

Do you have what it takes?

Tim Connor

One of the critical skills for ongoing success is the ability to bounce back from adversity or failure. Sooner or later in life, everyone experiences failure, disappointment, setbacks, or loses the desire to keep on keeping on. 

Over the years, I have had more than my share of failures as well as successes.  Just because you have failed, doesn’t mean you are a failure. Just because you have achieved success doesn’t make you a success. Many people have hit bottom, only to climb out of the pit and achieve greatness, and many people have done great things only to end up broke, alone and without any lasting feeling of accomplishment.

Think about it.  Nothing would exist today; not your car, house, computer, cell phone, lawn mower etc. without someone’s willingness to fail again and again and keep on trying.  Everything that is, exists because someone failed and didn’t quit or let failure keep them from achieving their mission, purpose, passion or goals.  The stuff that hasn’t been invented yet could just be because someone tried, failed and quit.

Success and failure are neutral concepts. What makes either of them positive or negative in your life is not the event, circumstance or situation, but what you do with them along the path of life. No one that I have ever met has had a life filled with nothing but failure or only one success after another. Resilience is your ability to keep coming back, again and again and again. No matter how many times life throws you a curve or brings you to your knees, you try again – you try something, new something different, or something old in a new way. You refuse to give in or up. Here are a few ideas to consider when you feel like quitting.

1.   It is temporary.

2.   You need it so you could learn a valuable lesson.

3.   You need to be softened by life.

4.   You need it to give your life more integrity or character.

5.   You need it so you can be an example for others.

6.   You need to rid yourself of some arrogance or ignorance.

7.   You need it to grow in some area of your life.

8.   You need it so you can learn to laugh at yourself.

9.   You need it so you can learn to live in the present.

10.       You need it so you can learn to take life less seriously.

If I can accomplish what I have during my career – having been brought to my knees again and again, with failure and disappointment, then you too, regardless of your current station in life or circumstances, can rise again.  I won’t bore you with all of the gory details but suffice it to say that if my parents hadn’t taught me that failure was an important step toward success I guarantee I wouldn’t have written over 80 books and have the number one best selling sales book in the world, Soft Sell.  (Now in 23 languages and with sales over one million copies.)

All you have to do is reach inside and find the courage, strength, stamina, attitudes, self-belief and self-confidence to rekindle your desire for what you believe you can do and will do.

Hang on to your dream, no matter how big it might seem to you. And, don’t let others convince you that you can’t do it, won’t do it, or shouldn’t do it. Be true to yourself and your destiny. You have everything you need, right now, inside of you to carry on. All you have to do is do it even if you have to do it alone and without any support from anyone.

“Success is going from failure to failure without loss of your quest.” Winston Churchill