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Bouncing Back to Move Forward
by Garry Zancanaro
Every person who has ever actively worked on self
improvement and bettering themselves and their
lives will have suffered setbacks.The most
successful people in the world did not become
successful overnight. They will almost certainly
have suffered more disappointments, setbacks
and even unmitigated disasters, than most people.
Successful people will definitely have made wrong
decisions and expensive mistakes, and taken wrong
turns on their journey to success. Things may have
been going extremely well and they then encountered
events beyond their control, or made choices, which
caused them to lose everything they had built up.
Often when we try something new, things can go
wrong and everything may not go according to plan.
When this happens, we may well question our abilities
and ambitions, or think we were misguided in trying
to a build a better life for ourselves and our family.
Many people consider themselves failures at this
point and just give up and retreat to their
comfort zones.
However, it's worth remembering that the only way
we can guarantee we will never fail is to never try
anything. But just think, if we gave up at the first
or second hurdle, or never tried anything new, we
wouldn't be able use our computers, drive our cars,
play sports - or even read, walk or talk!
Successful people are also disappointed and affected
by setbacks,and certainly get knocked down more often
than most, if only because they try more things. This
may happen not once or twice,but dozens or even
hundreds of times. But successful people refuse to
stay down - because they are resilient and will not
be denied their dreams and goals.
Many successful people had to go to extreme lengths
to achieve their goals. Walt Disney was turned down
for finance to build Disneyland by more than 300 banks.
They all thought he was mad and that his vision for
Disneyland would never take off.
Colonel Sanders had a great chicken recipe and
believed he could teach people how to cook his
chicken to increase their businesses. He spent
two years driving across America, sleeping in
his car, and calling on restaurants who weren't
interested. He was often mocked and laughed at,
and apparently he was turned down over 1,000 times
before he heard his first yes!
The greatest inventor if the twentieth century,
Thomas Edison was also one of the greatest failure
of all time. For every invention of Edison's that
worked, thousands of attempts over many years
didn't work. But Edison didn't consider these failures.
He confidently expected to find the right solutions
after he had learnt from and eliminated all the
unsuccessful methods!
How many people would have had these levels of
perseverance and persistence and would have been
able to bounce back from so much rejection and
disappointment?
These men had dreams they believed in and were
committed to, and were prepared to do whatever it
took to achieve their goals. They learnt from their
setbacks and changed their plans or revised
their approach, and did whatever was necessary until
they got what they were aiming for.
It is, however, important that we recognise that
resilience and determination are not the same as
stubbornness. There is no point doing exactly the
same thing again and again and expecting different
results.We must be prepared to be flexible and to
adapt our plans and goals accordingly.
Studies have shown that 95% of goals people set
will be ultimately achieved if they learn from
their difficulties and don't give up. Lack of
talent or opportunity has almost nothing to do
with people not reaching their goals and becoming
successful. Instead, the main reason is that people
lack the determination and persistence to overcome
setbacks and obstacles.
Resilience is essential, and there are learnable
techniques and strategies that can help develop
this characteristic.Successful people know there
are no failures because there are lessons to be
learned from everything that happens to them,
both good and bad.
In fact, it is usually our failures and mistakes-
what we learn from them and how we react to them -
that build our character and determine our levels
our success. The only real failure is to give up
altogether.
Quote of the Day
"The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of
persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those
which fail." - Napoleon Hill
END
About The Author: Garry Zancanaro is the founder of
http://www.SelfImprovementDirectory.com, a website
dedicated to all aspects of Personal Development, and
to helping people live more successful and fulfilling
lives. Visit to claim a FREE copy of Napoleon Hill's
classic 'Think and Grow Rich'.
Written By: Garry Zancanaro
Email: mailto:selfimpdirectory@iol.ie
URL:http://www.SelfImprovementDirectory.com
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