You Can’t Win Without This: RESPONSIBILITY
By Gerry Robert

 Put Yourself Totally On the Line Every Time

 The first element in putting yourself totally on the line every time you do something is to be wholly committed to yourself and to your activity.  Until you are committed, there is room for hesitancy---that chance to draw back from progress; the result is always one of ineffectiveness. Steadfast resolution to put behind your effort everything you have emotionally, mentally, and physically without hesitation, is of critical importance.  You must not let any fear of losing even enter your mind. 

 Failure does not exist!  You may have some difficulty in rationalizing this concept, but all that is necessary is to view it from a different perspective than that with which you have been conditioned all your life.   

 There are NO failures, only lessons! 

 Therefore, regardless of the outcome of your efforts, you still gain experience.  You may not attain exactly what you had previously expected, in precisely the manner you intended, but you do gain knowledge.  You still come out a winner with success to build upon even further in the future.

 Henry Ford said “Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”  Babe Ruth is the Hall of Fame baseball player with the record for the most home runs, 714.  He also has the world record for the greatest number of strike-outs, 1330.  Do you think there might be a correlation?  Of course.  If you fail twice as much, you will generally succeed twice as much, as long as you don’t quit.  Incidentally, which of Babe Ruth’s records do you think he is known best for, his home runs or his strike-outs?

  Never Surrender

 Never throw in the towel, even against impossible odds or bad luck.  There are a host of words in our language that you should concentrate on eliminating from your daily thought: words like can’t, impossible, hopeless, futile, carry a negative connotation that work ardently against your success unless you eradicate them from your conscious thought. 

   More often than not, our desire to give up emanates from a lack of self-confidence or self-esteem.  Self-confidence grows with successful accomplishments, even if only small ones, building one on top of another.

 The word try is really an invalid word.  Let me give you an example.  Try to pick up a chair.  Grab hold of the chair and try to lift it.  I said, just try.   Now, you are probably thinking, “how do I carry out the act of trying without actually lifting the chair?”  You see, you can’t.  In reality, you either lift the chair or you don’t.  There is no such thing as trying to lift the chair.  It’s one or the other.  Catch yourself the next time you hear that word come from your mouth.  Either commit or don’t.  There is no in-between.

 What You Fear, You Will Attract, and What You Experience Is What You Expect

 We can put fear of failure behind us by doing the things we fear.  Do the things you fear and you will control fear.  By refusing to back down, refusing to quit, and persisting in achieving your results, you will succeed.

 When you are feeling down and ready to quit, step back and take another look at your situation for a moment; view it from the point of a challenge.  What you are attempting may not be that conventional, but you must challenge the conventional in order to succeed.  You need the perseverance to do as you dream because you are betting on yourself.  You must have an unreasonable passion---virtually an obsession---for being your best.  After all, an obsession is the persistent, disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea.  Break away from convention and you will be amazed at how you will always attract all the help you need. 

 Never Turn Against Yourself during Tough Times

 The reality of life is that things don’t always go perfectly for all of us, all the time; accomplishing our goals can entail a lot of hard work and difficulties.  That’s what being human is all about, and it’s perfectly normal.

 The important thing is to never put yourself down in such situations and to maintain---even reinforce---a strong, positive attitude.  Perseverance is one of the most important principles until you eventually get yourself back on the right track.  If you use up your energy fighting yourself, you won’t have any left to battle your opponent.  That opponent may be anything from a particular person, as in a sport, to overcoming something you find particularly difficult.

  Be Prepared Mentally

  No athlete expects to enter a competition without first having spent considerable time and energy in practice.  The same applies to whatever you want to do in attaining your goal.  Contrary to common belief, practice should encompass about ten percent physical effort and ninety percent mental preparation.  Do whatever is necessary to get your mind focused.  Practice with the same intensity and emotional commitment that you’ll generate in the real situation.  

  Being mentally prepared helps accomplish numerous things simultaneously.  It not only contributes to the building of positive accomplishment but also helps overcome the obstacles you will no doubt encounter along the road to success.  To develop a never ending list of affirmations which you can implement immediately, whenever necessary, it helps to be aware of some typical limiting statements in advance of your being faced with them. 

 Keep Your Perspective

  When getting the most from yourself starts producing incredible, positive results, it is all too easy to be so immersed in all the detailed activity that you lose sight of the overall picture.  Participating with that sort of intensity is an absolute necessity for success. 

 However, you must occasionally take on the role of a spectator for a moment, step outside this fervor of activity, and take a look at yourself.  This process will give you a brief break in the intensity, permit you to recharge your batteries with ever-expanding energy and enable you to re-enter the process more intensely.  The process of retaining perspective on your activities is a very powerful tool for managing stress and maintaining emotional balance.  

“CAN’T means WON’T”   --  Gerry Robert

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