Reaching For Success

"Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.” - Benjamin Franklin

When I travel to various places around the world there is always an opportunity to speak with people who want to stretch their limits. They are working in a particular position or industry but they want something more. They will tell me of their desire to move up, move out or move on from what currently consumes their life.

They tell me of their problems in pursuing their dreams and goals.

I always ask them not what the problem is but what are they doing about the problem. I ask my question because I am sure they have a well defined idea of what the problem is. They have spent countless hours thinking about the problem in most cases. What they do not have is a well defined idea of how to solve the problem.

The reality is we spend a huge amount of energy concentrating on the problem.

And the problem still exists because we have not devoted our energy to solving the problem. The answer many give is that they are afraid to do anything because of past failures. It is true that the act of movement might result in many failure. Those failures can be hurtful; so much you give up on even trying.

What we never seem to give up on is complaint.

We devote time and energy to complaint while if we devoted as much time on solving the problem, we might just push through the failures and complaints. With each successive step we take, we walk further away from the complaint. We keep moving forward. We keep reaching out to solve the problem.

Reach out towards a time when you will be far removed from the problem.

Problems may appear to be a mountain that is insurmountable, but with movement you reach out and get to the top. The failures may seem to pile up making the top seem even further away, but they will seem insignificant once you are past them.

Keep reaching and success will be yours.

Stay inspired my friends.

To Reach the Stars

"This journey has always been about reaching your own other shore no matter what it is, and that dream continues." -Diana Nyad

I have been asked why dream or plan for the future? The world could end tomorrow and if I am not living in the present, what will it have all been for? These people cite events such as the most recent meteorite strike in Russia as an example. While the scientists say these meteroites are not connected with the near earth asteroid fly-by of DA14, four hundred people did die according to news sources.

A small asteroid such as the one today only happen once every 1200 years. Yes, if it hit the New York city, it would wipe out all of it including a good share of the suburbs. But your chances of getting hit are very low. According to an article in The Guardian, the odds are;

- Earth has a surface area of 500,000,000 sq km (196,939,900 sq mi).
- Assuming meteorites can hit anywhere, one in 20,000,000,000,000 chance exists.

Assuming a random landing place is around a one in 20,000,000,000,000 chance of being hit, whic is the same chance as flipping a coin 44 times in a row and it coming up heads every time. Or slightly better than the chance of winning the lottery twice in a row.

- Assume that an individual person takes up the space of 1 sq metre (1.2 sq yd).
- There are roughly 6,700,000,000 people on Earth
- Chance of being hit is 6,700,000,000 / 20,000,000,000,000, or one in 3,000.

That back of the envelope calculation is close to NASA's quoted figure of one in 3,200. So again, why dream or develop a vision for your life? The reason we plan for the future is that the future will come about whether or not you want it to. Where you are today is not where you will be tomorrow, next week, next month, year or ten years from now. You can not keep life from changing around you.

That leisure suit may have been the thing for the moment way back when, but life has moved on. People change, people dream, people move forward to better things in life. You can certainly sit around in that old suit, waiting for a meteorite to hit that spot on planet earth. Or you can develop a dream, a vision that will pull you forward to greater things in life.

While a shooting star creates a brilliant light, it only lasts a few seconds. The real brilliance is in reaching for the stars. Stay inspired my friends.