What do you Want?

I am convinced that we get what we want out of life; therefore it’s important to be real clear about what you really want. If you we are not clear and just take life as it come, then we will be tossed around by life’s events and end up wherever they takes us. When I was a kid I had a grade school teacher that would say, you can do, and or be anything that you want, at that time I had no idea what she was talking about. It wasn’t until I was in my early thirties that I realized that I was becoming and achieving exactly what I wanted. We have been taught by the great teachers, that as we think, it is what we will become, and I know this to be true, therefore be careful what you think. I believe the reason some don’t always believe this concept is because they are not clear what they want, they may think I wish I could make that sale, but will not put in the concerted effort to make it happen. Or, they think, I want to be a millionaire, but they don’t really believe they can, so again little effort is put toward it. The real successful people that we watch and admire are so driven that they will prepare themselves, work through discouragement, and ignore those that tell them, they can’t, until they have achieved what they want. Jerry Rice said, “Today I will do what others won’t, so I can accomplish what others can’t.” What do you think the great ones think? I’ll give it a go, and if it doesn’t work out, oh well, I’ll try something different. Not a chance!

Sure, we all have different talents and as much as I would love to have the talents of Phil Mickelson, Jerry Rice or Magic Johnson, I don’t. But, I have been blessed with my own set of talents and unless we put forth the consistent efforts at those talents, we will never how good we can be. We can never become Extra ordinary with ordinary efforts and neither have the great ones. Spectators never know how good they can be unless they participate. You can never win without playing the game. All of the great ones desired to be great, worked to be great and believed that they could be great. No one succeeded on talent alone. There will always be discomfort, get used to it. If we go through life avoiding discomfort we will never play the game the way it is meant to be played. Can you imagine playing football trying to avoid discomfort? Simply stated, we would get killed out there. What is it that you want to be great at?

Understanding this concept has become a process for me. At one point in my life I had a family member who was homeless and I thought, surely being homeless was not what he wanted. However, for period of time my wife and I attempted to offer help, including offering a room in our home for him to live. All of this, he turned down, saying that he didn’t want to live by our rules, in our home. Truly, he was in life right where he wanted to be, having no responsibility was worth the cost of homelessness.

So again, what do you want? Do you want it bad enough to go get it? Or will you just give it a try and when it gets difficult, give up? When you really want it, you will get it; we all get what we want.