A thought by John C. Maxwell in his book, Talent Is Never Enough (p. 26). HarperCollins Leadership. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)
Does that make sense?
John says, "That may seem obvious in the physical realm. Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. However, in the human realm, many people don’t make the connection. They simply hope for good results. Hope is not a strategy. If you want good results, you need to perform good actions. If you want to perform good actions, you must have positive expectations. To have positive expectations, you have to first believe. It all goes back to that. Radio personality Paul Harvey observed, 'If you don’t live it, you don’t believe it.' It all starts with belief."
John continues, "A popular activity for tourists in Switzerland is mountain climbing—not the type of climbing that the world-class mountaineers do to scale the world’s highest peaks. Maybe it would be more accurate to call it high-altitude hiking. Groups depart from a 'base camp' early in the morning with the intention of making it to the top of the mountain by mid-afternoon.
"I talked to a guide about his experiences with these groups, and he described an interesting phenomenon. He said that for most of these expeditions, the group stops at a halfway house where the climbers have lunch, catch their breath, and prepare themselves for the last leg of the rigorous climb. Invariably some members of the group opt for the warmth and comfort of the halfway house and decide not to climb to the top. As the rest of the group leaves, the ones who stay are happy and talkative. It’s a party. But when the shadows begin to lengthen, many make their way over to the window that looks up the mountain. And the room gets quiet as they wait for the climbers to return. Why is that? They realize they’ve missed a special opportunity. Most of them will never be in that part of the world again. They won’t ever have a chance to climb that mountain again. They missed it."
He goes on, "That’s what it’s like when people don’t make the most of their talent, when they don’t believe in themselves and their potential, when they don’t act on their belief and try to make the most of every opportunity."
He then says, "Don’t allow that to happen to you! Live the life you were meant to. Try to see yourself as you could be, and then do everything in your power to believe that you can become that person. That is the first important step in becoming a talent-plus person."
Let's not waste our opportunities. Let's make the most of them. Yes, yes! #continuethought
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