The battle rages. Each exchange of fists and kicks more vicious than the last. They attack and defend and defend and attack. Relentlessly searching for an opening or weakness. Suddenly, one pauses and screams, “Stop trying to hit me and HIT ME!” He is not so much the Master as he is the Motivator. He wants his pupil to give all that he has and hold nothing back. To realize that he can accomplish much more than he thinks he can.
Most of you will recognize this as a scene from The Matrix. Morpheus and Neo fight in a training simulator and Morpheus tries to push Neo to another level, believing that Neo is “The One.” This is not simply a scene from a movie, though. It is a battle that we all fight within ourselves. Read these questions carefully:
- Do you find yourself getting in your own way?
- Do you allow your fear to stop you before you start?
- Do you doubt your abilities?
Well? Do you? The easiest way to fail is to never try. It’s even acceptable in our society to some extent. But, we all have the power to become “The One.” We all have the ability to take control of our thoughts, turn them to the positive side, and ignore fear and doubt. It’s a simple mental exercise of will. You simply have to realize truth…there is no spoon.
Nike probably has one of the most successful ad slogans: “Just Do It.”
One of the reasons it works so well is because it tugs at something
deep inside of all of us. That action-driven, fearless and confident
part of us that yearns to come out and push us inevitably to success. Just do it! Take action!
You haven’t fallen short of your goals because you are a failure. You have fallen short because you quit before you were ahead. You have the talent and the skills. You have all the knowledge you need. Stop stalling and making excuses. There is nothing stopping you but you.
From this day forward, you have to seize opportunity and run with it until you feel like your lungs are filled with molten lava and the back of your throat tastes like you’ve been sucking on pennies. Learn to take action and never let another opportunity pass you by.
I can recall several occasions where I could have taken a relatively simple action and changed the course of my life ever-so-slightly. Maybe it was someone I should have called back, or some project I chose not to be a part of. All because I was afraid of what might happen. I stood bathed in the glow of the oncoming headlights of FAIL and I froze.
The worst thing you can ever do is not try. If you try and you fail, it’s a learning experience. You can look back fondly on failures once they have taken you to your success. If you fail and you never tried, it will haunt you forever.