Discouragement - Your Key to Success

Discouragement.  We all experience it.  We all have to face it at on time or another.  However, I am here to tell you that it is not all bad.  Actually discouragement is GOOD!

I have learned over the years that in this universe there is a law that few know little about.  It’s called the Law of Duality.  This law basically says that there are always two sides:  Front and back, left and right, hot and cold, good and evil, happiness and sadness, up and down, light and darkness, and so forth.  Well, discouragement is no different.

Discouragement often leads to depression, however, it can also do something else.  Discouragement(s) can open doors!  Discouragement can make you OPEN and COACHABLE.  When things are going well and you are flying high you often do not learn.  You “think” you know it all and hold all the secrets to success.  You “think” that you are unstoppable and often criticize and condemn others for the lack of success in the area(s) that you are so “good” at.

Then it happens!  You hit the wall.  You come to a place where NOTHING seems to work.  When this happens there can be two different results.  Either you give up or you start SEEKING.  Believe it or not, MOST people give up!  It’s easier to give up than to OPEN up.  To open up you must begin to ask, seek, and knock on every door until you find the answers that you are seeking. 

The “bright side” of discouragements is that they make you coachable.  I know when I am discouraged I go to God and seek His wisdom.  I often talk to my wife or companions and seek their advice.  I have more of a tendency to read, study, and find the answers to my dilemma.   I become humble.  Humility is a huge factor for your success.   The Bible tells us that when we are humbled we will be exalted in “due time.”  It also says when we are proud we will be MADE humble.

When you “hit the wall,” ask yourself, “Am I proud?”  “Have I lost my ability to learn?”  “Am I couchable?”  Chances are your discouragement will prove to be your biggest ASSET.  It will bring you back to the reason most succeed:  Being COACHABLE and willing to LEARN.

So if you are discouraged at times, it is GOOD.  For through your discouragement you will ask, seek, knock, and eventually be lead to a bigger and brighter future.  Or of course, you can do what most do:  GIVE UP.  The choice is ALWAYS yours!

The Value of Mistakes

Most people HATE making mistakes.  They think they are the “unforgivable sin” when they make them.  People “feel” like idiots or just plain terrible when they goof-up.  However, I would like to give you the other side of mistakes: They are for our LEARNING!  As I have mentioned in past posts, there are ALWAYS two sides to EVERYTHING.  This is the “dark” side and the “bright” side.

I recently read an article about a lady who turned bankruptcy into a cottage industry.  She was a legal assistant and worked as a paralegal for area attorneys.  One day she came up with a way to input debtor’s data into a bankruptcy petition from anywhere in the United States, freeing her from the constant interruptions she endured when she worked in law offices.  Here idea birthed a “virtual bankruptcy assistance” that earns her about $250,000 annually.  No school or course ever provided the training and thus the service she offered.  In the article it said, “Ring credits her business success to her willingness to learn from her mistakes and never shying away from challenges.”  She said that, “It takes a person to enjoy making mistakes and figuring out new solutions to run a company.”

The point is this:  Most people look at mistakes as something awful and to be avoided at all costs.  Ms. Ring saw them as opportunities to learn new lessons and challenged her to think of new solutions.  All I can say is WOW!  It takes a person with a vision to see this.  It takes a person who understands the Law of Duality to see the bright side of a seemingly dark situation.

The next time you make a mistake just ask yourself, “What can I LEARN from this.” or “What GOOD is there is this?”  It is so exciting to know that every mistake contains a challenge to learn new lessons.  Don’t waste a perfectly good mistake on self-abasement.  Cease the opportunity to learn, for that is what mistakes are for!  Therefore do not be afraid to make mistakes, rather embrace them!  Learn the value of mistakes.

The Law of Duality

Understanding the Law of Duality will greatly help you in your business and life.  The Law of Duality says that there are two sides to everything.  Another way to say it is that there are opposites of everything:

Good and Evil
Light and Darkness
Right and Left
North and South
Front and Back
Past and Future
Up and Down

This list represents only a very few of the examples of the Law of Duality.  With each side, the other would not exist.   The combination of the two is what we call reality.

Take for example a $5 bill.  If I held one up, you might see Abraham Lincoln and I would argue that I see the Lincoln Memorial, but the reality is that what we are both looking at is a $5 bill.  We are looking the SAME THING from different perspectives. 

Right now you may be suffering some failure with you business, but there is another side that exists called a success.  In other words, if failure exists, so does success.  You just have to look at your apparent failure differently.  In other words, when you change the way that you see your world, your world will change.  Thomas Edison is a perfect example of this.  He suffered over 10,000 “apparent” failures when trying to create a working incandescent light blub.  However, in his view they were not failures, but over 10,000 ways that did not work.  He felt that each “failure” led him closer to the success that he was seeking.  He understood the Law of Duality.  Failure if PROOF that success exists and it’s just a matter of time before that success is discovered.  The reality is that his apparent failures led him to discover the secret of getting the filament to say lit for a long period of time.   He succeeded because he understood that if failure is present, so must success be present.  He just had to look at things differently until he discovered it.

There is a reality, that in order to succeed, failure must exist and you must experience your share of it.  The greater the apparent failure is, the greater the success.  The determining factor is; will you quit?  You will never quit if you KNOW the Law of Duality.  Because the reality is that failure means success exists and in time, if you don’t quit, you will experience this reality.  With this law in view, apparent failure should encourage you to press on, because your success is inevitable. 

If there is good, there must be evil.  If there is light, there must be darkness.  If there is a left, there must be a right.  If there is a north, there must be a south.  If there is a front, there must be a back.  If there is a past, there must be a future.  If there is an up, there must be a down.  IF THERE IS FAILURE, THERE MUST BE SUCCESS.  Your success might be as simple as changing the perspective of your view of life.  Get excited when failure comes; that just means success in just around the corner.  Just be sure not to give up.  You may have to make adjustments along the way, but NEVER give up because there is a law and this law is as real as the Law of Gravity.  This amazing law, I call, the Law of Duality is awesome!