It's Your LIfe! Create Your Own Success! by Maria Rattray

Life is not a dress rehearsal. The clock is ticking, second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour. In all of this you are painting your life, your story. How will it read?

What if each of us could live our lives, defiant of barriers, determinedly seeking only solutions to our problems? Would that change our word significantly? Would hatred still exist? Would our world be a more peaceful one? Could we be a nation of dreamers, intent on painting our optimal picture?

You see, in life, each of us is dealt a pack of cards. The way we see our pack, and the way in which we deal with the pack, is entirely up to us. Oh I know. It is true that we are not born equal. Some of us are born into extreme wealth whilst others inherit abject poverty. Some rise to higher education. Others may go through life lacking any formal education at all. Many of us are discriminated against for a myriad of reasons, the colour of our skin, our creed, our nationality, a disability, or just the way we look. Even more are discriminated against through lack of money. All of us however, at some stage in our lives have adversity thrust upon us, no matter who we are, or where we have come from. It is in dealing with such adversity that we emerge as the people we are.

I was recently privileged to listen to a speech given by Neal Petersen, a highly-successful motivational speaker. Classified as coloured in his birth place of Cape Town South Africa, Neil grew up in a poor family, in the grip of apartheid where blacks were required to follow laws dictated to them in order to survive. Daring to challenge the laws was done at their peril!

Neal's passion was the sea, to have a boat and one day, to sail that boat around the world. People laughed at the notion, many people, friends included. But Neal was doggedly determined to do so, and kept, as a reminder of his determination, a red sailing jacket, which went everywhere with him. He still has it today!

It's one thing to have a dream of sailing, but that costs money, lots of money! It wasn't long before Neal realised that the money he was earning through diving would hardly be sufficient to support his dream. He realised that by the time he had saved the money, he would be too old to sail, and so, he set out to build his own vessel. His fellow yachtsmen and journalists, referred to it as the floating coffin. But Neal was not going to allow anyone to steal his dream and so, it was in the coffin, that as a young man, he set out to sail the world. Despite his critics, he was successful, and that taught others that with passion and purpose, people can succeed.

He also talked about baggage. How many of us have baggage that we port from one aspect of our living to another? He points out that in his 'bag' there is no baggage, only solutions and he urges all of us to do the same for ourselves, that is, to find solutions to our problems. Even in these toughest of economic times, if we look, if we try hard enough, if we are goal-oriented, we can succeed. His experience is testimony to that!

He went on to explain that, when times are tough, and when you feel that you have reached your nadir, that is when you are metaphorically navigating through uncharted waters. But, he also points out, that this is the precise time, that critical juncture, when we should be putting our dreams into place. Dreams give us hope. They keep us buoyant. Moreover, they open up to us, amazing possibilities for our future.

You see, all too many of us, coast along in the highway of life, staying in our comfort zone, doing what is easiest and least challenging. Scary, isn't it! And it is only when we reach absolute turmoil that our minds are indeed, open to change.

At such times there are probably two clear pathways that we can take. The first option is the easy one. We can cave in and accept the status quo, because the reality is that financial hardship beats away at our pride and leaches our confidence and the will to persevere and fight back. If only we could understand at that time, that the loss of confidence is but a perception! It is not bathed in reality. We haven?t changed. If we look in the mirror we are still the same person as we were the day before, and the day before that! Sure we have lost money, but if we stop and think about it, what exactly is money? It is simply a vehicle for getting by from one day to the next.

Once we understand that, we can try to proceed along the other pathway. But in doing so, we must toss any doubts, any scepticism and pessimism, away, for if we don't, you can guarantee that it will show up in our bank account! Now there's a scarier thought! From now on, our mindset, our determination, our belief in ourselves must be so strong that failure is not an option!

Neil says that we define our future by the wisdom of our setbacks. We must win against all odds. In all of this we must trust, knowing that we are being tempered for something bigger, some new peaks where we will choose our competitors.




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