Facing setbacks

Something you should note and expect is that on the way to fulfilling your dreams you will face setbacks. Your comfort zone soon will come back calling because things will get tough. In doing anything that is truly worthwhile things are going to get tough whether you like it or not. And the fact that you have the passion for it or even if it is something that you want really bad doesn’t mean that you are going to have it easy. First you will feel some rejection from your own body. It is either you are going to face your first set back in mastering whatever skill there is to be mastered or you may face setbacks from your environment.
Let me use the example of a wannabe pro basketball player.
You might be someone who watches NBA on television and see what the stars do. You like it, you are really interested in basketball you want to be able to make the kind of play you see Kobe Bryant do. You have basketball wall papers on your wall at home and on your pc. You visit the website of your favorite basketball team almost everyday. When you daydream you think of making that slum dunk, that three pointer which wins the NBA playoffs for your team and lifting the NBA trophies for your team and the MVP of the season. You think about the attention you will get if you were a basketball star. So now your mind is set, you want to try a career in basketball. Anytime you daydream of playing basket ball you feel like getting to the court to try out your skill so you do go out to play ball with a couple of friends. within a few minutes of play you realize that your game on the court is so pathetic and you are no where near playing with the guys in your hood. Your body is not fit enough and you just don’t have any skill but you really want this life of a basketball player.







So you sit up and decide that you have to set some goals concerning this love of yours because you do not just want to play ball but you want to be able to play professional basketball in the NBA. You ignore the guys a little and practice with a friend of yours who wouldn’t ridicule you so you can concentrate on developing some skill. So you start shooting hoops and after 5 minutes of shooting you are so tired you can’t jump or run and you are really exhausted. You realize that you need to work on your personal fitness goals. And so you go ahead and do something about it. You decide to work out every morning doing some jogging and a few pushups to get your body in shape and gain some stamina. In the evening you go out and practice basketball. It looks all good at this point on the first day then the next day you suddenly feel lazy and do not want to get up, but you finally get up and do some jogging you don’t fell like running too far and you feel really lazy but you get around it. Now you are tired and you have to do some pushups getting to the target number of pushups you give up saying to yourself you are too tired today. In the evening you do just a little time of practice. By the fourth day you realize that you just can’t get out of bed so you sleep some more. You wake up and you realize that you couldn’t make it to your morning work out. well you console yourself saying that you are going to make it up with practice at night time comes for practice you go out, do sometime of practice you soon feel tired and unmotivated to do more practice for yourself. It all gets to a point where you feel too lazy to pursue something that at the beginning you wanted so bad. So you realize that accomplishing anything and I mean anything that is worth while is not easy. By worth while I mean where what you want to do will put you on top of your game or industry. It requires a lot of hard work and a willingness to do the things that will get you there because trust me, the journey itself and the things you will have to do to get there is not as easy at it may seem. You will also realize that you will have to put yourself in a mental state that will allow you to do all of these things that will take you to your dreams.
So now you look back, take a reality check and realize that those basketball players you see playing for your team are not just talented they work hard to get to where they are. Now you decide that to do this and reach your dreams you need a change of mind and you resolve to be disciplined in doing the things you have to do to get to where you want to get to. You quickly resume your training session and go on with practice whether rain or shine you do what you have to do.
Note: here is something you can do that will help you along the way. Sometimes when trying to apply discipline decide this and this is much more effective after you have tried severally to do something to adopt a new habit without success. See what you want to do as something that will give you a new experience that you have not yet experienced and tell yourself that today you want to see what it is like to do it. For example you want to stop yourself from watching TV because you are addicted to TV and this is affecting your productivity. So decide someday that today I want to know what it really feels like not to watch television for a day and rather spend time doing something else. Move into full swing. During the day you will soon feel the temptation to turn that TV on, but when you feel the urge, tell yourself that this experiment has to succeed and you just want to find out what it feels like to do so you go on and by the end of the day you will have built some resistance and hopefully you will get used to living without TV. Soon you wouldn’t feel dependent on television.