Are you magnetic?
There’s a strange magnetism connected to success and failure.
On one hand there’s the feeling that if you don’t make a go of something, you cannot fail.
Many people use this as an excuse to avoid failure, to, in effect, protect themselves from disappointment and rejection.
While to certain people there may be some sense in this thinking, it’s also counterproductive: it connects and anchors the spirit to be better to the feeling of being, and of wanting to remain, stuck.
This is scarcity thinking; it’s also “that’s not for me, that’s an idea that’s above my station” thinking. Know what this kind of thinking really is? It’s outdated, soul crushing Victorian crap. It’s the British disease of “Shame about the weather, but mustn’t grumble. Eh?”
I’ve experienced this mindset, both as an observer, and as someone that’s had this mindset (or someone that’s had this mindset imposed upon them). But that was then, before I knew better—this is now.
For many people, it’s easier to remain stuck and to have something to complain about than it is to get off their backside and take a chance on something newer, more vibrant, and possibly just that little bit more exciting, constructive, and fulfilling.
Then there are the visionaries. The renegades, mavericks, and rebels. The people that do something, that challenge the system or who question the established normality of doing something (or of not doing something).
Visionaries see something that no one else sees and ask “How can we do this? How can we make it work, change it, make it better, faster, stronger, or more profitable?” They ask how things can be improved, how they can be done rather than just left alone.
There’s an old saying that if something isn’t broken, don’t fix it. Visionaries say: “If it isn’t broken, let’s smash it. Let’s see how we can built it better!” This is abundance thinking.
The thinking behind the scarcity view here is this: if you don’t make an attempt to change—to risk, and do something constructive—you won’t fail. And if you don’t fail, you can’t be blamed.
The thinking behind the abundance view is: if you don’t make an attempt to change— to risk, and to do something constructive, you won’t get anywhere. So here’s the big question for you: which policy is yours? To risk and make a change? Or to do little if anything to change?
The best way to predict the future is to create it. So said Abraham Lincoln (and, it seems, Peter Drucker).
Sometimes, I try too hard and I suspect the same might be true for you. But surely, making any attempt to create a better future is better for one’s self and one’s family than just giving up and doing nothing?
Many people give up on their dreams and goals because it’s just too much like hard work. They adopt the attitude that it’s OK for the people who are well known and successful because they’ve had it easy, because they’ve had success handed to them on a silver platter.
But you and I know that’s bullshit. You and I know that in whatever endeavor we set out on, be it in business, in love, in self discovery and in creativity, when we aim well and are sincere, and if we are aware and sensitive of the needs of other people and when we’re polite and use a certain amount of diplomacy and tact, one thing pays off in the end and that thing is persistence.
Think of persistence as a campfire that smolders on and on, no matter what the weather throws at it: sleet, rain, snow and howling gales, the fire smokes on. It’s flames may not be high and bright, but when we poke under the crust of gray ash, we see a core of red embers.
When we add the kindling of creativity and the gasoline of commitment to those embers of persistence, things begin to heat up.
The trick, if there’s a trick at all, is in being both willing to tend that campfire with our adaptability, and in being willing to deter negative thinking from entering our minds as sit and wait, or as we hunt for the kindling of inspiration.
True success then comes to us not out of the blue, or as a gift from one high or by birth, but because we go out looking for it.
