1301, 2014

Thank God for closed doors

By |January 13th, 2014|Perseverence, Uncategorized|0 Comments

I THANK GOD FOR CLOSED DOORS.

This past few years has been a really difficult journey for me. I gave up a job I loved to pursue my olympic dream again and after all the sacrifice, hard work and effort to get there again, and after being in the best shape of my life (physically and mentally) – that Olympic journey ended up with a bizarre, unexpected and devastating crash in front of the world’s media at the Vancouver Olympic Games. I couldn’t have scripted that Olympics worse if I had tried. But that’s another story. And then on the job front I made a slight change with my career and ended up working for a firm which was the antithesis of everything that I am, that I embrace and how I operate. And the parting gift from this work stress was glandular fever. But that’s another story. I’m better now but things on the work front have still not taken shape the way I want them to. I feel like I’m walking through mud and treading water. Of course there have been some good times and some good things along the way – it isn’t all bad. But, there is no doubt – it has been a tough time.

And yet, despite not having found the next open door yet, I actively thank God for closed doors.

Enter Tyler. It was a post of his that inspired this blog and what he writes below I completely agree with. Thankyou Tyler for the encouragement and wisdom. I hope this inspired all of you too.

“When I wake up in the morning and see the sunrise as I’m running, I thank God for new mercies every day. As I was running this morning I started thinking about this and you know how much I like to share my morning thoughts… LOL

I was out just thinking about my life and all the times that I wished that a door had opened. All the times I had promoters and people lie to me saying that they would help me… I remember wishing the bank would approve my loan request for a house or a car (usually one I couldn’t afford at the time). I wished that this person would help me or that person would do something to help my business, or this person would help my dreams come true.

As I look back now I’m so glad that none of those situations worked out. I’m so glad God closed those doors because they forced me to find the right path for me. If you’re in this situation and you feel like doors are closing all around you and you are frustrated, here’s something I’d like you to think about: Life can be like a living maze. You know what a maze is. In a maze, you start out at one end and your objective is to find your way to the finish line.

Many times you may make a turn and hit a dead end and you have to go another way. Just like life, that door closing on you sends you another way. It doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen, it just means you need to go another way. If you keep moving, eventually you will get to where you’re going.

Another thing that is important when you’re in a maze, as in life, is to remember where you have been. If you get turned around and confused in a maze, in order to get out, you have to remember the dead-ends that you have already hit. Just like in life you have to remember all the doors that were closed so you don’t waste time going that way again. If you want to get to your dreams you can’t expect to get there by doing the same thing and going to the same spots. You must try something different. I’m not saying give up on your dream, I’m saying try another path to the same dream. Same maze, same dream, but take a different direction to get there.

I feel sorry for people who have a dream and give up because it gets hard. Let me tell you something, “IT’S GOING TO GET HARD!” And my answer to that is, “SO WHAT? MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!” Don’t stop because a door closed. I have learned to thank God for closed doors. You have to know that if God wanted you to go that way, no man could close that door. But for some reason he allowed that door to be closed, but if that one was closed I assure you that there is one that is open somewhere. And it’s the right one. Don’t stop until you are living your dream.”

Challenge
Closed doors happen. Thank God for them. But don’t stop there. Keep going until you find the open one and until you  are living your dreams. We’ve only got one life – so let’s make it count !

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3008, 2011

The Innocent Project – it’s not where you start but where you finish ! (II)

By |August 30th, 2011|Overcoming Adversity, Perseverence|0 Comments

You watched the first part of Dewey Bozella’s story last week. Now see the second part – him accepting his 2011 Arthur Ashe award for courage. What an amazing man !

“… never let fear determine who you are
never let where you come from determine where you’re going”

Remember what I wrote last week – CHOICES & IT’S NOT WHERE YOU START BUT HOW YOU FINISH.

Now add the quote above and see and hear Dewey is his acceptance speech. Carry him and his attitude with you when life doesn’t make sense and when things aren’t going your way !

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2308, 2011

The Innocent Project – it's not where you start, but where you finish !

By |August 23rd, 2011|Overcoming Adversity, Perseverence|0 Comments

This is the remarkable story of Dewey Bozella. For over 26 years he fought to prove his innocence for a crime he never committed. His story has come to light as the 2011 Arthur Ashe Award for courage.

His story is testimony that it isn’t where you start, it’s where you finish !

His story speaks so much of CHOICE.

How everyday we have the opportunity to CHOOSE how we feel and think. To CHOOSE how we respond. To CHOOSE how we interpret what happens to us. To CHOOSE how we go forward.

He chose to forgive. He chose to not let where he was (free or in gaol) define his happiness. He chose to make himself happy. He chose character and integrity and not admitting to something he didn’t do. He chose to take a bad position and make it better. He chose to never give up and write a letter every week to the Innocence Project in the hope of finding justice. He chose to move on and look forward after his case was dismissed after almost 30 years, despite the obvious injustice and arguably corruption by the original prosecution.

And there lies the challenge for us all. To CHOOSE and create our world by the decisions we make, to CHOOSE the self-talk we have, to CHOOSE the mindsets we accept and harbour, and TO CHOOSE the actions we take.

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507, 2011

Failing towards Success II

By |July 5th, 2011|Perseverence|0 Comments

Do you remember the first video I put up of Michael Jordan speaking about failing to success. The greatest basketballer of all time who not only trained hard but was cut from his high school basketball team.

Well here’s another video that speaks of ‘Failing towards success’ and at the same time of ‘Saying ‘no’ to no !’.

That is don’t let others determine your future. Don’t let others determine what you can or can’t do. Consciously make a decision to not be limited by other people’s opinions or let others somehow try and define your future.

Remember those dreams you had as a kid and watching those heroes that inspired you and dreaming you could be them. Remember planning what you would do when you grew up. Remember holding that secret dream i your hear and stepping out and then someone telling you ‘you’ll never make it’, or ‘you can’t do it’, or ‘why try’ or ‘better to spend your time and energy on something else’ or ‘you can’t earn a living from that’ or ‘get your head out of the clouds’ .. and the list goes on. There’s plenty of people to tell you that you can’t do something.

Well let this video inspire you. And let the following quote that I had on the inside of my bobsleigh during the Olympics inspire you.

“Impossible is a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world that they were given than to explore the world that could be.

Impossible is not a fact, it is an opinion.

Impossible is not a declaration, it is a dare.

impossible is nothing”

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3011, 2010

Myth of the Leprechaun

By |November 30th, 2010|Action, Luck, Perseverence|0 Comments

When I look back over my own life and reflect upon my successes along the way, I also pay  homage to the failures, difficulties, sacrifices etc that it took to accomplish each of them.  In very few cases did so-called “luck” have anything to do with it. But yet I find it funny when people say “… you’re so lucky”.

I think of the journey to get to my first Olympics in 2006. It was a childhood dream of mine to become an Olympian and I certainly wasn’t the guy at school with all the talent so it was never an inevitability. I’d already had two dreams shatter around me – my dream to represent Australia in rugby and play for the Wallabies. This dream crumbled before my eyes when I snapped my PCL ligament two weeks out from the Hong Kong Sevens World Cup whilst playing for Australia A in the Fiji Sevens. Then four years later, after having taken up bobsleigh and after much blood, sweat and tears, I was ready to have my dream of becoming an Olympian come true. We had satisfied the international qualification criteria to compete in the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City 2002 and were just waiting for the final but all important telephone call telling us we had been selected in the Australian Olympic team. The phonecall came, but unfortunately it is one I will never forget. They had decided not to select us and impose a higher Australian qualification criteria. We would not be going, despite being the only team who qualified who would not be going to compete ! It was a devastating time. So before I even came around to the 2005-06 season I had to find the strength to put my heart on the line again, knowing it could be crushed as it had two-times in recent years. And that was before I even started to compete on the ice and the hard work began.

So off I went. Travelling from Australia to Norway – Germany – Austria – Canada – Germany – Switzerland – Australia – Italy – Germany – England – Australia – Austria – germany – Australia – Italy. Doing almost 200 runs in the season. Competing in minus 15. Crashing and seeing people almost die in front of me. Training and training. Investing time and money and energy and emotion into making my dream become a reality.

This certainly wasn’t luck. LUCK ? What did luck have to do with this ? This was hardwork and resilience.

Perhaps there is some truth in the expression “The harder I work, the luckier I get” as that speaks of positioning yourself so that you can best take advantage of the opportunities that come your way. But luck … no … If you want success then you need to be out there doing the hardwork that comes with making your dreams come to pass. Lance Armstrong says it well ….

“Everybody wants to know what I’m on. What am I on? I’m on my bike busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?”

Challenge – what do you need to work harder in ? What opportunities have you missed because they are dressed in overalls and look like work


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1611, 2010

Andy Irons – I lost to a girl in my first contest !

By |November 16th, 2010|Perseverence|0 Comments

It was a sad week last week as we’ve saw the tragic death of Andy Irons and we mourn his loss and think of his wife and unborn baby left behind. Here is a video tribute to him.

But in everything that has been written and said and shown … one thing stood out like a beacon to me.

Andy Irons: “….I lost so many heats to get to where I was. I lost to a girl in my first contest ever.  And I quit for a year and never touched a jersey.  And I had to pick up the  jersey after that and get back in there.  And that’s the only reason I got to where I’m at, or I was at, five years ago when I won those titles.  And, you know, I haven’t won the title in a long time, but you know I’m getting back in the jersey and I’m not winning heats yet, but I gotta start somewhere.”

That there is what makes a champion. That is another testament to the age old value of resilience.  The people that win in life are not always the smartest, biggest, strongest, or most talented. The people who win have all these things in some measure but the traits that are the stepping stones to their success are also

  • Learning from their mistakes
  • Overcoming disappointment
  • Perseverence and resilience
  • Believing in themselves
  • Hard work and commitment

Never ever forget that. Be inspired by Andy Irons. Lest we forget

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2109, 2010

Running the long road

By |September 21st, 2010|Perseverence|1 Comment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQCY1zPbIZs

This ad speaks of perseverence. Of keeping going when it just feels like hard work. Of picking yourself up again. Of keeping focussed on where you want to go and who you want to be and on what you want to achieve. And I am personally walking that journey at the moment too !

Perseverance is stubbornness with a purpose. It means more than trying. It means more than working hard. It is a willingness to bind yourself emotionally, intellectually, physically, and spiritually to an idea or task until it has been completed. Perseverance demands a lot. It means succeeding because you are determined to, not because you’re destined to. This is important because if you want your dreams to come to pass they wont just happen. To achieve them will inevitably require perseverance.

And if you think about it, perseverance doesn’t really come into play until you are tired and close to giving up. When you’re fresh, excited and energetic, you approach your goals with vigour. But when you’re tired, when you’re over it, when you can’t see how things are going to work, when the obstacles seem insurmountable, when you’re disappointed, when you feel like quitting and when your dream still seems a long way off … that is when you need perseverance !

What highly successful person do you know who gave up ? How many people do you know who have been richly rewarded for quitting ? The greatest achievers don’t sit back and wait for success because they think they deserve it. They keep moving forward and persevere because they are determined to do so. I could give lots of examples here, but let me give you just one – Walt Disney

Walt Disney supposedly had his loan request rejected by 301 banks before he finally got a yes. The loan he received allowed him to build Disneyland, the first and most famous theme park in history. That’s perseverence. And as if that wasn’t enough, Disney also struggled to release some of his now-classic films. He was told ‘Mickey Mouse ‘would fail because the mouse would “terrify women.” Distributors rejected ‘The Three Little Pigs’, saying it needed more characters. ‘Pinocchio’ was shut down during production and Walt Disney had to rewrite the entire storyline. In 1944, at the suggestion of his daughter, Disney tried to adapt the Pamela Travers novel Mary Poppins into a film. However, the author Travers had absolutely no interest in selling Mary Poppins to Hollywood. To win her over, Disney visited Travers at her England home repeatedly for the next 16 years. After more than a decade-and-a-half of persuasion, Travers was overcome by Disney’s charm and vision for the film, and finally gave him permission to bring Mary Poppins to the big screen. The result is a timeless classic.

Wow ! Now that’s perseverence.

So my challenge today …

In what area do you need to remind yourself of the end goal and to keep on walking / running one step and one day at a time towards it ?

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3107, 2010

By inches

By |July 31st, 2010|Action, Motivation, Perseverence|0 Comments

This is such a well known speech. Al Pacino in the movie ‘Any Given Sunday’. He is talking about teamwork but when he talks about inches you know what I get from this …

Inches means small steps. Inches means spectacular achievements are often preceeded by unspectacular preparation. Inches means the little things inevitably add up to the big things. Inches means being faithful in the little things and in the space and season of your life where you are at now. Doing that well right now so that it prepares you for what is ahead. Inches means the big dreams come down to small goals being achieved and small accomplishments adding up.

And to me inches also speaks of PERSEVERENCE. Inches speaks of not giving up and not letting life push you backwards. Inches speaks of trying and trying again. Even if you fail and things don’t work out how you want. Fail again. Fail better. Persevere. Because we all know of the many amazing things that people have achieved as they have kept on going when everything around them seemed to pint to giving up. JK Rowling. Walt Disney. Hannibal. Christopher Columbus. Webster. Thomas Edison. Abraham Lincoln. Richard Branson and so on and so on.

So don’t despise small beginnings or small steps. A big journey starts with a small step and is made up of many little journey’s … many inches.

What is your next inch ?

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1707, 2010

Failing towards Success

By |July 17th, 2010|Perseverence|0 Comments

I love Michael Jordan. He is one of my heroes. I love him for all that he achieved and how good he was over a long period. But I love him for two other reasons.

1) He practised hard. Sure he was amazingly gifted but he added to talent a huge amount of practice, sweat, a great work ethic, professionalism and a desire to always improve. This made him even better. I remember seeing a photo of him after a game and he would always put his feet in buckets of ice to take best care of himself, reduce swelling and inflammation on his ankles and feet and prepare as best as he could for the next game. I also remember seeing videos of him just practising alone in the gym, reading stories in his book abut him playing practise games back at his old university etc

2) His attitude was inspiring and his perspective challenging. He didn’t let his fears hold him back. To use his words. “I failed over and over again. And that is why I succeed”. He used his failures to spur him on to be better rather than cause him to shrink back and stop. He didn’t measure his success by the failures along the way. He saw the inevitable failures along the way as just part of the process and journey. It reminds me of other famous examples of perseverance.  There is the saying that “amateurs practice until they get it right – champions train until they can’t get it wrong”. I think this is true but if we think about what Michael Jordan says here, perhaps it is more about the perspective. The aim of practice is as the quote says to be perfect and that is at attitudinal thing. But is all reality there will still be failures along the way. But our attitudes then should be that these will spur us forward, that these are not terminal, that these will be the foundation and the footholds on the way to success.

Failing towards success. Does that help change your perspective on failure. Heck, it did Michael Jordan and he is the best ever !

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307, 2010

Never give up

By |July 3rd, 2010|Perseverence|0 Comments

There is nothing more to say.

Never give up. Keep on going. There is more in you than you know. It doesn’t matter how you you started – it matters how you finish. You never lose until you quit trying. Don’t give up. Keep going. More and more and more and more. Again and again and again. You CAN do it. Despite what it looks like, persevere and never give up.

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