The Road Less Traveled

“The road to success is dotted with many attractive parking lots.”

Unknown

Now more than ever in the history of man is the road to success littered with many attractive parking spots that wish to pull us off the road and limit our ability to succeed.  The challenge of our day is to stay focused on our goals and long-term hopes and dreams in order to avoid the short term gains or temporary satisfactions that constantly surround us. 

Many seemingly talented, capable, and success-bound individuals are lured away to things that add little value in life.  Instead of pressing on they decide to take a detour and before long, they miss out on opportunities that could have and should have been theirs.  Too many tempting parking lots rob us of our will and desire to continue down the road.      

Having a clear vision of what we want in life, what we hope to become, and what we ultimately want to achieve can help keep us on the road to success.  Becoming the person we ought to be by staying disciplined will help us experience the joy, satisfaction, and success this life has to offer. 

I would encourage all to not follow the masses and get caught up in the temporary joys in life but instead to steadily move down the road of success.  This is not easy and will require great conscious effort on our part.  Attractive as they may be, we must have the discipline to avoid the thrills in life that never last and keep us from our ultimate goals.  Happy driving!    

Our Biggest Obstacle Each of Us Face this Year

“People are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves.  They therefore remain bound.”  James Allen

There are very few people I know who wouldn’t like to improve their circumstance this year and the best way to do that is by focusing on ourselves.   Unfortunately, most of us look at this backwards.  We tell ourselves that if we fix our circumstance first, then we will be able to improve ourselves.  We blame our poor performance in life on our circumstance rather than blaming our circumstance on our poor performance.  This is sad because the truth is we can improve ourselves regardless of circumstance and when we do, we naturally improve our circumstance. 

Recently I had to meet with someone to let them know the feedback from their peers at work on their performance wasn’t great and that we would need to make some adjustments to their duties and responsibilities.  I worried about the conversation and the reaction the individual would have.  I knew she was talented and capable and could contribute a lot to the team but I also knew about her struggles in working with the team.  As probably most of us would, her immediate reaction was anger and blame.  As I tried to help her take ownership and control of the situation, and essentially her future, she refused to put blame aside and made the determination that others’ perceptions were the problem and not her.  She gave up her control and ultimately her destiny by not seeing herself as at least part of the problem and someone who should share the bulk of the blame.  Though I’m hopeful, I’m also still afraid that things won’t end well for this individual.    

We are our own worse enemies.  No matter what others say or do, or the circumstances we find ourselves in, our biggest obstacle will always be ourselves. 

With this in mind, I hope in this new year each of has made commitments to improve ourselves.  As we focus on ourselves we take control of our fate and the circumstances we find ourselves in.  Here is to overcoming our biggest obstacle this year!