To succeed in life you've got to step up to the plate. You cannot move forward in life by sitting on the bench - you have to get into the game. You have to get into the habit of saying 'yes' even when you're not sure how you are going to successfully complete the challenge you've accepted.
This can be quite a scary prospect as you might very well fall flat on your face. On the other hand, you could achieve phenomenal success but how will you know if you don't try? One thing is certain you will grow from your experience and even if it doesn't turn out quite the way you want it to you will have learnt valuable lessons that you can take forward to your next challenge.
There's a television programme called "Dinner Impossible". As you probably guessed it's loosely based on the "Mission Impossible" series.
"All things are possible until they are proved impossible - and even the impossible may only be so, as of now."
Pearl S. Buck
Chef Robert Irvine is given a challenge sometimes when he doesn't even suspect it. Basically, the challenge is to cook for a large number of individuals usually numbering in the hundreds with often fairly rudimentary equipment. He may find himself cooking a full meal for hundreds of construction workers or preparing canapes for celebrity guests. He has to do everything from scratch - setting up his kitchen, designing a menu which has to conform to the given brief, shop for all the ingredients and organise his team of helpers.
It requires:
1. Expert knowledge (in this case of the culinary arts)
2. Excellent leadership skills
3. Excellent time-management skills
4. Great attention to detail
5. The ability to improvise
6. The ability to adapt to new situations
7. Excellent motivational skills
8. Excellent organisational skills
9. Excellent time management skills
10. The ability to perform well under pressure
This skill-set would be advantageous in any setting where you have a tough goal to achieve.
He admits that he worries that he won't succeed in completing the challenge and that he has really taken on the impossible dinner. However, you can see that once he has acknowledged this as a possibility or the worse case scenario he then focuses completely on making the challenge a success. The consequences of his failing are in many cases worse than what you would have to face should you indeed fail in your own quest to achieve your goals.
"One of main weaknesses of mankind is the average man's familiarity with the word impossible. He knows all the rules which will NOT work. He knows all the things which CANNOT be done."
Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich
Can you imagine how different the world of personal development would be if Napoleon Hill had not said "yes" to Andrew Carnegie when he asked him to become the author of a new philosophy that would distil the knowledge of successful men like himself so that the average man could benefit from this accumulated wisdom.
Mr Carnegie's proposition came at a great cost (though not to Carnegie). He estimated that it would take Hill 20 years to complete the research and that the only support he would give him would be to provide letters of introduction. Hill was expected to pay his own way.
At the time Hill was broke and he admitted that he did not even know the meaning of the word "philosophy". What's more here he was being asked to work for the richest man in world for no pay. At first he hesitated, who wouldn't? Then his intuition took over and as he described it an invisible person looking over his shoulder said "go ahead and tell him yes" and before he knew it he replied:
"Mr Carnegie, Sir, not only will I accept the commission but you can depend on it that I will complete it."
As in the case of Napoleon Hill, when you are offered a challenge it isn't because someone wants you to fail, quite the opposite. The person proposing the challenge, no matter how tough, generally and genuinely believes that you can succeed. This is the case even when it is you setting the challenge or goal. The thought would not cross your mind if you didn't believe it possible. So don't waste time in hesitating, say a resounding?
"Yes!"
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