Bryan Golden
Who Says You Can’t Do It?
You have dreams, goals, and aspirations. Enthusiastically, you share your plans with your significant other, family, or friends. Instead of sharing in your joy, they give you a lecture on why you won’t succeed. They list all of the things that can and will go wrong.
They know someone who has already tried and failed at the exact thing you are now contemplating. They provide you with a large dose of discouragement. After speaking with them, you question the feasibility of your plans. After all, everyone has advised you to stop dreaming and be realistic.
Yet despite all of the negative advice, you have a desire that keeps gnawing at you. It may subside for a time, but it keeps resurfacing. You start to believe everyone else is right and you are wrong. You wonder if you are viewing your plans with a biased outlook. The people you have spoken with are surely more objective.
In spite of all the dissuasion, you see examples of people who are living their dreams. How do they pull it off while you don’t feel as if you have a chance?
This is what you need to fulfill your dreams: a burning desire along with the willingness to do what it takes. It doesn’t matter how much money you have. Your educational level is irrelevant. Who you know is immaterial.
Don’t listen to people who don’t encourage you. Constructive criticism is one thing. It is designed to help you find a successful path to your destination. A negative onslaught serves no purpose other than to dishearten you. People offering negative advice may not be aware of the damage it will cause you. They are just acting in a manner they have been taught, which is negative.
The staunchest naysayers are invariable those who have not realized their goals. They are experts in uncovering justifications for failure. Their opinions may even be unsolicited. Subconsciously, they are jealous of any possibility you will succeed. They would rather keep you at their level rather than giving you a mental boost.
There are people who you should listen to. They are the ones who have already accomplished what you want to do. They are the ones who can show you, by example, all that is possible. They have overcome obstacles and learned from their mistakes. Your learning from their experience is much less costly and more efficient than reinventing the wheel.
That said, there is always room for innovation. Just because something has been done doesn’t mean there is no opportunity. It’s always possible to improve on what already exists. That is why new products and services hit the market on a daily basis.
You don’t have to personally know people who have succeeded. You can read books they write or books that are written about them. Although most of the stories in newspapers and magazines are negative, there are always articles about people’s accomplishments.
The internet is a great resource for locating biographical information about successful people. The more you fill your mind with examples of what others have done, and how they have done it, the more enthusiastic you will become.
So when someone tells you something is impossible, go find someone else who has already done it. For every critic, there is a trailblazer who is breaking new ground, accomplishing what was thought to be impossible.
And when you have achieved what others said you couldn’t do, you will be told you were lucky or just in the right place at the right time. But you will know it was your tenacity that made the difference.
