Monday Morning

Motivation    7/4/2011

THE POSITIVE PLACE. SALES MOTIVATION AND PERSONAL GROWTH

Take a chance

The date on this week’s Monday Motivation is July 4. Here in the United States, that’s Independence Day -- the date that the “colonies” declared their independence from England.

Besides its significance to those of us who live in the United States, it also celebrates the chance that those colonists took -- betting it all against what was, at the time, the greatest military power in the world.

No matter which side of the “colonists vs. England” discussion you might come down on, or no matter how you feel about the results, you’ve got to admit that it was a gutsy thing to do.

These colonists took a chance -- and backed it up -- in a time where the crown could not only put dissidents to death, but could draw and quarter them for pleasure. They acted against a country which had a great deal of economic and military power that could be used against them. For a variety of reasons, the Americans won the battle, and the United States of America was born. There would be many changes, many military battles, and many challenges before the USA could stand on its own legs -- but stand it did, and it began when that little group put their signatures on a document of rebellion.

So many times in our lives, we resort to taking the safe route, even when a different route would be better. We make decisions we’ve made before, choose solutions that we’ve chosen before, follow paths that we’ve always trod. Altogether too often, we choose not to take the chance, out of either habit or fear. As a result, personal growth becomes stalled, movement ceases, learning stops, and chances are never taken. We never find the promised land, unless we’re living in it already, because we never try to look.

When we take chances, we will meet the occasional dragon, I guess -- or perhaps the occasional boss that reminds us of a dragon. We’ll likely make a few errors along the way, perhaps worry a bit, maybe even have to spend a little bit of time learning something new. But as we find new opportunities, our future will open up, our self-respect will increase, our life will become more full, our excitement will once again well up inside of us.

Taking the safer way seems like a good idea -- and in many cases, it’s the right thing to do. But altogether too often, we choose the safe way because it’s the way we have taken before. But on a different path there may be worlds to conquer, knowledge to gain, people to meet, fortunes to build. Few of us are meant to spend our lives sitting by the fireplace in a rocker, with a shawl over our shoulders -- leave that for when old age comes; there will be plenty of time for it then.

Too often, we give up too soon, stop moving too early, stop learning before we reach the prize of our education. Too often, we choose not to take a chance, and in doing so, we choose the lesser path.

“I yam what I yam, and that’s all that I yam” was good enough for Popeye -- but it shouldn’t be good enough for you or me.  We need to choose to take the chance that are best for us. Not every chance is right -- but never taking any chance is almost always wrong.

Copyright, 2011, by Daryl R. Gibson. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the non-commercial redistribution of this document as long as it remains intact with this copyright and all other lines. This license does not extend to the use of this material in a compilation, whether for profit or non-profit use. Join us at http://www.Weekdaywisdom.com.