Sketch Artist Shop by Ken Barton

Measure Success by the Risk you take

Back in the early 80’s, a certain karate class existed at a college a friend of mine attended in Northeastern Georgia.  In their classes students learned how to focus and overcome seemingly impossible tasks, both physical and mental.  Breaking boards, then patio stones, and finally bricks or tiles, requires both physical and mental training, the ability to focus, to block out all the thoughts that say you can’t do it.

During one demonstration they were performing at a Church, I remember watching a breaking technique they were doing on regular patio stones you would find in your garden.  It was their first time breaking patio stones so it was a new experience for them.  The first student did an elbow break on his two patio stones only to find there were reinforcement rods inside!  He was not hurt, just surprised more than anything. Then it was the next students turn. . . he was using what they call a hammer fist technique.  He could have let the knowledge of those patio stones being reinforced keep him from focusing properly; but he was able to concentrate, focus, and put aside any fear he may have had.  He busted through those patio stones like they were not even there leaving just a couple reinforcement rods hanging between the support blocks.

Doubt and fear can stop a person’s dream right in its tracks if they cannot overcome what it is holding them back.  Following are some suggestions that may help you tap into that inner strength we all have buried inside and allow you to push through any road block getting in your way.

1.   Hold onto your Dreams – there are always people in our circle of acquaintances who will listen to your dreams and when you are done sharing with them, will give you ten reasons why that dream could never come true.

“Dream Killers”, shoot down every adventurous idea they can.  A friend recalled how his Father would always give him several reasons why he would be a failure at whatever he might try.  Still, he chose to push ahead with his dreams and today he not only achieved his dream of becoming a teacher he teaches others how to achieve their dreams too. 

The plain truth of is that we never know what a person might be capable of accomplishing if they have the desire and passion to push ahead of fears and doubts and aspire to overcome whatever may come their way.

The main thing everyone needs to remember is to believe in yourself, your abilities, and keep moving forward until you achieve your dreams.  Someone once said, “Quitters never win, and Winners never quit.”

2.   Move forward in small steps – a math teacher learned how to use this idea when teaching his students their required math skills.  When students begin the school year and are given their books they tend to get overwhelmed with the thought of having to learn so much information in such a short length of time.  It seems such a daunting task to their young minds and with so much else on their plates like, after school activities, family duties, getting together with their friends.

What this teacher did was to break down the topics in the text book into small skill sets they must learn and we focus on just that skill.  Once proficiency in that set is mastered the class moved onto the next skill and worked on that.  They never, ever, tried to bring tackle more than they could handle because they might get overwhelmed and begin to doubt themselves.

As they moved through the steps they not only developed self-confidence, they learn the importance of taking small steps in learning new skills.  This change in focus allowed them to look at what they knew, rather than on what they didn’t know, and develop self-confidence in their abilities which gave them confidence in other areas of their lives.

Approaching any new skill this way can be of immense value when starting anything new.  Never focus on the whole task before you.  It’s best to take small steps you are sure you can accomplish.  Step by step until you achieve the successful completion of whatever task you venture to tackle.

3.   Never say “I Can’t” – this is something you hear from children all the time when they are just learning something new like math.  They always expect to fail their exams; so, they go into class expecting to fail and they do!

Their teacher understands this problem and teaches them to compare class to a sport they enjoy like baseball.  Home work is like the practice they do every day before the big game.  The exam is like the big game.  When you practice, you build confidence in your abilities, and hopefully perfect your skills.  So, when you go into the big game, you step up to bat, look the pitcher in the eye, and you know you are going to strike out!  Right!  No, you stare that pitcher down, knowing you are going to hit that ball right out of the park!  Yay!  The same thing should be true with your math exam.  You have practiced and perfected your skills before the day of the test: so, when you go into the test.  Be confident!  Look your teacher in the eye and know inside you are going to get a 100%!

You have to focus on what you want to have happen, picture it, and then see it through until you achieve your goal.  You make your own reality by the attitude you carry into any situation and if you want to succeed, then you have to be confident and trust yourself enough to see yourself through until your dream is reached.  Can’t, cannot enter into the equation if you want to see your goals come true.  As someone has said, “Can’t never did anything, but you can!”

4.   You set your own rules – successful folks know they need to think outside the box if they are going to achieve their goals.  They refuse to listen to the nay-sayers and tradition choosing to think outside the box and make their own way.

Be the one who makes the path others will follow rather than the other way around.  A machinist I knew years back learned the value of this at work when he began to question the way things had always been done.  The traditional way of grinding a particular steel called CPM-4, was to feed down on the part literally chewing the steel away often burning the steel which isn’t wise.

One day, rather than feeding down on the steel, he simply fed the part into the side of the grinding wheel.  This smoothly removed the steel without over heating it and cut the time to produce a finished part in half.  The others had been using the other technique for over 25 years and had never considered doing anything different.  After they saw the ease of the new technique they too quickly changed their methods.

From this point on many other techniques that had been used for years were ultimately questioned and challenged.  Many remained the same; but, several were updated in favor of better ideas.  New innovations require creative individuals who are willing to question the norm and try something new.

5.   Mistakes can be your greatest teacher – when learning anything new, a skill set, you are always going to make mistakes, which is simply part of the process.  You can prepare yourself as best as humanly possible; but, in the end you will likely fail several times before ever mastering that which you are attempting to learn.  No successful person ever achieved their goals without facing great challenges and failing several times; but, they continued to move forward challenging themselves to go beyond their abilities.

As with the karate students mentioned earlier they learned that no matter how good they became at whatever skill they were doing, they may still fail to overcome a competitor during a competition they may be in.  Failure is part of life and those who learn to accept this and learn from it are the ones who become great successes in their field o expertise.

Baseball legend, Babe Ruth, hit 714 of Home runs during his career and everyone in baseball remembers how great a player he was.  But, the Babe, also struck out 1330 times!  He was not the kind of player who cared to hold back.  Swinging for the bleachers was normal for the Babe.  The Babe instinctively knew that by embracing risk, he could accomplish more than anyone would have thought he could.  As a result, he became one of the greatest baseball players of all time and transformed the game of baseball along the way.

If people cannot overcome what fears are holding them back, doubt and fear can steal a person’s dreams.  My hope is that these suggestions help you tap into your inner strength buried inside and allow you to push through any road block that might get in your way.  May Success and Prosperity become your Reality.