”Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.” Nido Qubein
“In my country, we go to prison first and then become president.”
Nelson Mandela
Everyone loves a success story, a story of someone who has come from difficult circumstances, persisted toward their goals and succeeded in living a life they chose. It is a common plot line in books and movies that we enjoy and leaves us feeling good and encouraged.
What we don’t think about, is that in order for that victory to happen, the person had to be living in an unpleasant or worse circumstances. They may have “had the deck stacked against them” or had no options seemingly to achieve their goals.
They may have had others around them telling them they could never be anything. Often, the person has been homeless, in debt, penniless and sometimes friendless.
Have you ever said those things about yourself? Some days you really feel like the “before” picture in the story. Do your circumstances remind you of the early part of someone’s success story that you have read? Then you have the makings of a great success story!
Oh, yippee! I can hear you saying (not!). Probably followed by, “but my circumstances are different” or “happy endings like that don’t happen to people like me.”
That’s what the “before” people thought too. The difference is, they decided to start acting like the happy endings COULD happen to them.
It doesn’t matter what’s there at the starting line, it just makes the drama and victory greater as you move toward the goals. You ARE writing YOUR “feel good, success story”!
And you get to choose what that success is; what you are moving toward. Maybe you need to rent a few movies or books to encourage yourself and keep moving toward your goals.
Do whatever it takes to encourage yourself – celebrate the little victories. That’s what keeps you energized to make it till the goal.
And make sure that one of your goals is to “be” the kind of person you intend, the kind of person you would cheer on to the finish line.
Choose one of these goals today and do it. Start now! Because it’s never too late to start becoming who you were meant to be.
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