If you want it, you have to want it ALL!!
As a Life Coach, I’m often asked to coach my clients towards their goal(s). I ask a series of questions to help them find the right path. And, sometimes, on their journey to their desires, they faulter… That’s when I gently remind them of looking at their goal from all sides.
Being a child of the 70s meant that most of my entertainment at the movie theater was provided by Disney. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella to be exact. And by the end of each of these movies, the princess has found her prince (or vice versa) and off they go to live happily ever after…. Great!
What was sort of glossed over is the fact that Cinderella had to put up with her Step-Mom & siblings who treated her very badly. Snow White cleaned and cooked for seven guys. Sleeping Beauty was cursed and sent to live apart from her family before falling into a deep sleep and had to wait for true love to find her. Yikes!
Disney Princesses seemed picture perfect…
Of course, in the beginning of each movie, each princess was basically just trying to survive. They only dreamed that one day their life would be different and then - POOF!! - it magically just was exactly what they wished for!!
Enter the saying, “If it was easy, everyone would do it!”
I had loads of dreams as a kid (still do!!) but I often became discouraged and would quit when they didn’t POOF into reality. It took me getting to high school before I learned that the magic on the movie screen didn’t exist in real life.
Then, in the 90s, the “everyone gets a trophy” phase was renewed in kids sports… NO!!! This is not how life goes!! It certainly isn’t fair and, if you’re in a game, there will be a winner and a loser.
This is not to say that there isn’t magic/miracles in the world. There is!! I’ve seen the proof!! And this is also not to say that you shouldn’t appreciate even the smallest of details - they often times can be the difference. But let’s think for a moment on exactly how that magic/miracle came to be.
Magic IS everywhere - you’ve just got to look for it!
Actor Harrison Ford spent 2 years working at small jobs and odd bits before getting his first role. After which he was told he’d never make it as an actor. Fast forward nine years - NINE!! - when he got his break-through role on American Graffiti.
Elvis Presley grew up in a shotgun shack and was told he couldn’t sing. He kept at it though, eventually getting the lead in a professional band before being discovered.
If you’re a fan of coffee, then you’ve probably heard of Starbucks. And, if you’re a fan of Starbucks, you probably know its owner- Howard Schultz. What you may not know is that Howard comes from the projects in NYC and worked for Xerox before joining Starbucks in 1982 as Director of Marketing. After a trip to Italy and seeing the culture around coffee there, he knew he wanted to bring that back to America. However, the owners wanted to stick with just selling the coffee beans, not the drinks. After the success of his first coffee shop, he eventually rounded up enough investors through relentless perseverance and the rest is history.
Flip a light switch and you have Thomas Edison to thank as the inventor of the light bulb that was both long-lasting and energy efficient- but that was a long process with over 10,000 attempts. When a reporter asked how did it feel to fail so many times, Edison famously replied, “I have not failed 10,000 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
You gotta get up at least one more time than you fall.
There are easily more examples of many people defying the odds, putting in the work, and making their goals become a reality! Their focus and drive kept them going… And, if you want that dream, you can get it too - but you have to want ALL of it.
Harrison worked his butt off for 11 years, honing his acting skills. He wanted that.
Elvis kept going after “defeat” when that had to hurt, but he wanted it.
Mr. Schultz believed in his dream that he found enough investors - even after being turned down 217 times - to eventually buy Starbucks and make it into the success it is today. He definitely wanted it.
Edison practically lived in his laboratory for over 10 years, foregoing almost everything else. Above his desk was a quote by Sir Joshua Reynolds: "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking." He certainly wanted it ALL.
And this manner of thinking applies to ALL of the of wants. Let me explain:
Let there be LIGHT!
I like feeding the birds - in my backyard I’ve got several different bird feeders. What do birds also do? They poop! Yes, if I’m going to be successful in the one, I have to at least acknowledge the other and come to accept it in order to get to my goal.
Of course feeding birds in my backyard brings me many joys in lots of ways! Connecting with Nature helps me to stress-less, birds help to pollinate the flowers, and they eat the insects.
Look at ALL the pros and cons of doing a thing!
For me, the fact that birds poop, the bird feeders can be messy, that bird feed is getting expensive (during the summer I go through one 40-pound bag a week!), and that I sometimes end up attracting other critters - like chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits and deer - are all things that I have to end up wanting as well.
So, when you’re planning out even the smallest of goals, take a real minute and contemplate everything that going after that goal will bring.
Success at the office means long hours there, away from your family & friends.
Getting that beautiful garden means either getting out there everyday to weed & cultivate what you want or paying someone else to do it for you.
Growing your small business means hiring more employees, training them and then dealing with the success and the failures they are inevitably going to have.
Climbing the mountain so you can see the sunrise means getting up early and walking in the dark.
You Have To Want It ALL!
Bringing some luck into my life!
