Do you recall what it was like having to struggle in order to get something you wanted? Time and time again throughout your life, you have encountered an endless number of obstacles, roadblocks and brick walls.
How well did you deal with them? How well did you understand them? Did you have any measure of appreciation for them?
In many instances you may have become frustrated or irritated. After all, you were in a hurry to get where you wanted to go and to accomplish what you had intended to accomplish. Right? Take a moment to recall the time that you were in a hurry to get to a morning meeting, but failed to purchase gas for your car the night before. Perhaps you caught all of the red lights that morning. Maybe you walked out your front door to discover that you had a flat tire or a dead battery.
While these everyday life events seemed like anything but fun at the time, the may actually have been life savers. I would imagine like most people, you have learned later on about a tragic accident that occurred at an intersection that you normally frequent or along the road that you usually take. The fact that you had to switch roles with your spouse that morning and take your child to school, caused you to take a different rout to work and ultimately kept you from being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
The acute awareness that there was a fatal car wreck at the time and place where you normally are and the fact that you were some how spared from being involved is a sobering experience that can give your life new perspective. So, let’s take a few moments to put some of these events into a proper perspective:
Obstacles. First off, obstacles are not a setback at all. An obstacle is simply not going to keep you from achieving what it is that you have set out to do. Regardless of your undertaking, it’s a given that you want to get from Point A to Point B in the shortest amount of time. In track and field they are the runners who run the 100 yard dash. For the rest of us along the road of life, it’s more like running the 100 yard hurdles. No matter what you set out to do, you’re going to inevitably encounter a few hurdles along the way. While they’re not ideally wanted, they are readily overcome and are not going to keep you from achieving your goals.
The other thing about obstacles that you need to comprehend is that most of the obstacles in any endeavor are actually “predictable”. The act of becoming a good goal planner includes identifying potential obstacles during the planning stage. By identifying them upfront, you can have ready made solutions in place for dealing with them should they actually arise.
Roadblocks. Contrary to your probable reaction to one, a roadblock isn’t a setback either. Imagine that you are driving to a conference in a nearby city and about halfway there the highway crosses over a river. However when you get there, you find that the road is blocked off, there are flashing lights and a sign that says Bridge Out.
In one regard you have come to the end of your road. But just because a flash flood from the previous night’s storm may have washed the bridge out, it’s not really the end of the road for you. It’s just a “detour”. There are other roads and different routes that will still get you to the conference. Even if you happen to get there a bit later than planned, it’s not a big deal. While you might miss the welcoming cocktail party -- that’s not the real purpose of the conference is it?
Roadblocks are a clear signal that there is a flaw in your plan and that you are going to have to make a course correction. In the end, you will still achieve your goals and objectives.
Brick Walls. In the words of Professor and Disney Imag-ineer Randy Pausch “The brick walls are there for a reason.” When you encounter a brick wall in your life, its purpose is not to block your path to success or to prevent you from achieving what you set out to do.
Rather, it is there to present you with the important question… How bad do you really want what it is that you are after? Are you absolutely certain that you are ready to handle it when you get it? Brick walls are there to separate those individuals who don’t want it bad enough, from those who will not let anything get in the way of achieving their goals -- Not even a seemingly insurmountable brick wall. Those that possess the all out determination and the ingenuity to find a way to get over, under or around their brick wall, will ultimately have learned to respect their achievement and manage their new found success appropriately.
Your ability to scale your brick walls, will keep taking you to new heights of achievement.
Copyright © 2013 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC | All Rights Reserved.
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