Success Is The ONLY Option

Posted by ~ Sheldon Redditt on 09/06/2015

"Success is the ONLY option. That has to be your own mindset in order to be successful."  This is the advice that I have given countless young boys and girls when they have asked me what  it takes to be successful. To this day, I continue to teach them that God gave us all a gift but it is up to us to find out what that gift is and to pursue it with passion. "How do you discover your gift?", they ask.  Well, it took me about 40 years to discover that your gift is the one thing you do the absolute best, but with the least amount of effort.  How I wish I would have discovered this 25 years ago.  I have been asked what the first step to being successful looks like and my immediate response was that you have to IMAGINE IT.  I think Einstein said it best, "Imagination is everything.  It is the preview to life's coming attractions.".  Man, I love that quote.  Do you realize how amazing it is that EVERYTHING starts with a thought?  A thought!  That's it.  You imagine it and you can make it come to fruition.  There is no such thing as a thoughtless thought. Everything in this universe began with a thought. I often use the Wright Brothers as an example.  They IMAGINED one day, that they would invent a vessel that would take people all around the world in the air.  NOW YOU IMAGINE how crazy people must have thought they were, watching them try to get a plane in the air.  This was something that had never been done before.  But those brothers were determined, they believed that they would perfect what they imagined; they believed that success was the only option.  Did they fail several times?  Of course they did!  BUT, they realized something that most of us never realize or if we are lucky, learn it much later in life like I did, learn that FAILURE IS NOT THE OPPOSITE OF SUCCESS, BUT PART OF IT.  I just started to count how many times that I have failed at something because I gave up.  The Wright Brothers never gave up.  They didn't listen to the naysayers, the haters, as we call them today; they blocked them all out.  How many times have we all failed or quit at something, simply because someone else told us that that won't work or that you can't do that or that has never been done before?  What have you given up on?  What have you imagined that you could do?  Would you try again?  Could you?  Imagine if the Wright Brothers would have listened to the naysayers.  We wouldn't have airplanes today.  I have learned not to listen to the naysayers and honestly the naysayers are often time your friends and family.  I really don't think they mean any harm most of the time but often times, they can't imagine you being anything other than that silly person that they've known since childhood.  They can't imagine anything outside of what they have been exposed.  I have learned that success is the only option for me and success isn't defined by how much money you have or what kind of car you drive or the size of your house. Success is discovering what your purpose is and why you were created.  Success is finding that gift and pursuing it everyday.  There is nothing wrong with having nice things.  When you find true success, all of that will come.  I can't imagine leaving this earth without living out my full potential.  I thank the creator that I am finally on the path of success, but I also realize that that path is always under construction.  That path is always full of obstacles and detours but I have NO DOUBT that I will arrive there.  In the words of Steve Harvey, "The only difference between successful people and non-successful people is Successful People don't give up."  They don't quit, they persevere, even when it gets hard.  And I can guarantee that it will get hard because success isn't supposed to be easy.  If success were easy, we all would be successful.  You must understand that SUCCESS IS THE ONLY OPTION. This is my truth.  What's yours?