Have you ever thought that if you had no options, if you were 100% committed to a dream, a direction, a path, a decision, then…you could not fail?
I once had a professor in college, probably one of the most compelling teachers ever, who taught philosophy, and he would stand on his desk when doing his lecture on Zen Buddhism. One of his favorite quotes was just this: “Choice is the sickness of the mind.”
What does that mean? Do we not all want many options, many avenues to go down and many fun choices in our lives? Yes, but….
Yes, but if you are so filled with too many options and ideas, if you are an entrepreneur and you get into— “the shiny object syndrome,” where every new idea, every interesting opportunity catches your eye, makes you go in too many directions, chasing many rabbits, then you will catch none.
Be focused and committed to an “obsessive passion,” “a definiteness of purpose,” stated Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the world in the early 1900’s. He did not say, chase a million dreams, or run around like a chicken with its head cut off, helter-skelter, all over the place, confused, disjoined and unfocused.
I just listened to an autobiography on the 3rd richest man in Britain, Richard Branson, and he would always put himself in a position where he had to succeed or fail, or even die. He risked his very life many times. Failure was never an option, and he would put himself, over and over, in positions where he had to succeed or lose it all, had to triumph or go out of business.
He did this so many times and created massive debt and, yet, magically, somehow, he always found a way to make it through, to sell a company, to do whatever it took to massively succeed. He is, at this time, now worth 4.7 billion dollars.
What can you do to put yourself in the same positions, where your back is against the wall, where there are no other options but to succeed, to rise above, to live or to die, to make it happen, or else the consequences are too great to even think about?
“When your back is against the wall you can really haul.” Then you can create miracles. You can seem superhuman. You can create massive success.
Never settle: Settle for being average, for being ordinary, for being the middle-of-the-road, for giving up, for letting your mind accept defeat.
Get 100% in. Commit. Give yourself no options. Do or die. Make it happen, with no options for failure.
Long ago, I was in a very trying position in my youth, seemed as if the world was crashing down on me and my young family. I was walking my dog in the dark night, wondering what in the world I could do, when a star went shooting across the night sky, and immediately a message shot through my mind, as if a sign or a truth, a gift from God. The message was simply this: “If you are not afraid to lose it all, you can have it all.”
How many people are willing to risk it all, even their very lives to succeed, to create a dream, to change the course of their stated destiny? Are you?
Choice is the sickness of the mind. Put yourself in situations, where you have to succeed, where this is no choice, where your back is against the wall and you will fight your way out. You will never give up. You will do whatever it takes, give up whatever it takes to realize your goal, your worth ideal or dream that you know in your heart must be accomplished.
Success is but a decision.
Decide to succeed.
Decide…and you cannot fail.