Do you possess that ‘certain something’ that predetermines your success? What is that thing that means you have what it takes?
First of all, what does it take? How do you know if you have it or not if you don’t know exactly what it is?
My Dad often uses that kind of questioning when trying to explain something to me. He loves to incite thought, and isn’t above a little ribbing to get you to consider a notion.
Progressing isn’t a matter of whether or not a certain ‘thing’ exists, rather, that choices were made.
“It’s not our abilities, Harry, that show what we truly are, it’s our choices.” ~Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Chamber Of Secrets
If that ‘thing’ is anything, it’s the ability to make choices. Two steps forward and one step back is a slow way to get to the top, although for a season, everyone experiences that. You can’t get past anything that you don’t go through, however. It’s what’s on the other side that motivates us and propels our ambition.
My youngest daughter played soccer on a city league when she was in kindergarten up through the second grade. She was the smallest on the team, some would say the runt of the litter, but she knew that ball needed to get inside the goal. There wasn’t one girl she wouldn’t take out to get it in there, either. Sitting in the penalty box was often the result of making the wrong choice with determination. She has always been a very determined young lady. She’s eighteen now, but I can still see her, running with her curly head down as fast as she could straight into another girl to knock her down like a ram! So tiny, so strong.
I’d like to remind her and everyone else that we can be determined to do the right thing or the wrong thing, and it’s not only the determination that brings us success, but the choices we’re determined to make.
Take 30 minutes today to make preliminary decisions about your trajectory. Start with where you want to be five years from now, and break it down to what that means you’ll have to do this year to make that happen. What then, will you need to do in the next six months, one month, and week to stay on course? Just a notepad and paper, your brain and you. Have a little meeting with yourself to see if you really want what you’ve chosen, and then determine to break through the inevitable obstacles until you arrive at your goals.
Oh, you’ve got what it takes alright. It takes you, determined effort, and hard choices. The question in the long run won’t be “Did you have what it took?” but “Did you do what needed to be done?”
