“I was baling hay one day and somehow fell out of the barn and landed on a pitchfork. That’s bad. No, that’s good, they took me to the hospital. That’s bad. No, that’s good, met this nurse. That’s good. No, that’s bad… “(paraphrased excerpt from the barber(Archie Campbell) and Roy Clark conversing on Hee Haw)
As you are well aware, nothing in life ever goes as smoothly as planned. Setbacks and challenges will inevitably happen every single day.
Things will generally blow up.
You’ll forget to put on deodorant, flunk a licensing exam, run out of gas, get hit by a train, strike out in the ninth, forget to make prospecting calls, buy Gold at $1900, pick the wrong horse, open a Mood ring store, lose the sale, your house or even, God forbid, get caught in the rain.
The key isn’t what happens!
The key is your attitude and how you respond to what happens. That, my friends, is what makes all the difference. For instance, If you spill your milk one morning and immediately begin convulsing on the ground kicking, screaming and crying “why can’t anything ever go right for me?”, then you most likely will fail miserably in life.
And I do mean miserably!
However, taking a page out of W. Clement Stone’s philosophy of becoming a “good finder”, will give you a whole new perspective on things. In other words, instead of wallowing in self pity and complete despair when something bad happens, take control of the situation. Maybe ask:
“What’s good about this?”
Even better; “What’s great about it?” You say-Nothin? “Anything remotely positive?” How about: “What can I lern from this?” After taking the time to refocus your thoughts on something productive, you may find yourself coming up with the next great billion dollar idea. You never know. At the very least, your outlook on life will certainly improve dramatically!
“Well, lookie here, I can clean up milk with my socks”.
And there you go. You’re well on your way to Success; one failure at a time!
See how easy this stuff is?
