08/04/2020
How High Can You Bounce?
“I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.” –George S. Patton
Crisis crisis crisis… everybody talks about the crisis. If you are over 40 and has achieved smth. in your life, I bet you’ve had your downs before. Let me guess – it’s probably the downfalls that have made you who you are now, right? Does a person achieve anything if they are not motivated by a critical situation, by the desire to swim rather than sink? Here are a few examples.
Albert Einstein: It is a famous fact that the pioneer of the theory of general relativity, Albert Einstein himself, could not speak fluently until the age of nine. His rebellious nature led to expulsion from school, and he was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School.
His earlier setbacks did not stop him from winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. After all, he believed that: “Success is failure in progress.”
Michael Jordan: “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
This quote by retired basketball legend Michael Jordan in a Nike advertisement speaks for itself.
Bill Gates: He was a Harvard dropout. He co-owned a business called Traf-O-Data, which was a true failure.
However, skill and a passion for computer programming turned this failure into the pioneer of famous software company Microsoft, and the then 31-year-old into the world’s youngest self-made billionaire.
In his own words:
“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
What I often do myself and recommend my clients to do: take a sheet of paper and a pen. Put down all the turning points of your life. Ask yourself: What was my biggest fear at that point? Did it come true? What has happened in reality? How has it changed my life?
Most probably, you will discover that none (NONE!) of your fears came true and that the crisis you had has actually contributed to your future success. A short psychological note – fear is the only emotion that is always directed into the future, actually, we fear the unknown. As soon as the unknown becomes known, fear is immediately replaced by another – more appropriate – emotion. In case of a good outcome, you feel relief and joy. In case of a negative outcome, you feel anger (or any variation of it, like irritation, frustration, fury, etc.). OK, is anger good or bad? Well, depends on what you do with it. If you try to suppress it (being a civilized person well potty-trained by the society), it will definitely do you harm. Maybe you’ve heard that suppressed anger is the cause of many health problems? Let’s look at it from a different angle. Anger is pure energy, you just have to use it for your benefit.
Ask yourself, am I angry enough to do smth. about this situation? What do I want to get as a result?
Anger is pure energy, you just have to use it for your benefit.
Ask yourself, am I angry enough to do smth. about this situation? What do I want to get as a result?
It's frustrating when life knocks you down. In this state, it’s easy to drop into self-pity and blame the world for your problems. Well, you basically have two options – to drop into self-pity (“Why me??”) and sink deeper and deeper into despair and apathy letting the situation ruin your life or say to yourself, “OK, s**t happens. Do I want to do smth. about it?”
Oh, I have just remembered a really good one. Check your progress with the question, “How hard have I tried on a scale of 1 to 10 in ….?” (whatever you’ve been trying to achieve)
On this scale 1 is I DID NOTHING and 10 is I TRIED REALLY HARD AND DID ALL I COULD. It will show you the effort rather than the result, the effort being the real measure of your will and motivation, result being secondary. If you do it this way, you will very clearly see how much you are investing in changing your life. Then adjust accordingly.
As Charles Swindoll said - “Life is 10% what happens and 90% of how you react to it.”
It’s up to you to choose how you react to your life.
YOU ARE THE ONE WHO CREATES YOUR OWN FUTURE AND WHO IS FULLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RESULT.
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