Say "Yes!" to Opportunities in Life to Overcome Your Challenges

Jim Carrey's Latest movie "Yes Man" is now on general release and while I haven't seen the movie or read the book on which it is based I find the concept behind it intriguing. "Yes Man" is based on the book by the British comedian and TV personality Danny Wallace who spent a year of his life saying "yes" to every opportunity presented to him.

It certainly is risky saying "yes" to everything yet many people, like the character Jim Carrey plays in the movie, Carl Allen, practice saying "no" to life. This happens in particular when we aim to set goals for ourselves and when we find ourselves confronted with challenges. I'm sure that you've experienced this. You want to achieve something significant in your life but you find yourself coming up with all kinds of excuses as to why you can't succeed at what you want to achieve.

One of my mentors, Bob Proctor, found himself in such a position when he was maturing as a young man. At age 26 he was working at a Fire Department in Toronto. He was unhappy, unhealthy and broke. You see, at the time he earned $4,000 per annum but he owed $6,000 so, as he put it, he would have to work for 18 months and commit 100% of his salary to clear his debt but that of course was unrealistic.

Yet this job was the best he'd ever had. He had just two months High School and no business experience. He was brought up to believe that if you don't have experience you can't win and if you don't have an education you can't win. Fortunately, he had a mentor who said to him:

"There're the reasons why you can't. Have you ever stopped to think of the reasons why you can?"

There may be something that you'd like to achieve that you lack experience in. Will you let this stop you or will you find a way to overcome this hurdle. Even if you decide to pursue your goal there will be many more hurdles that you will have to overcome. Will you let them keep you from achieving your goal or will you raise your game and find a way to clear each and every hurdle that you encounter?

The more you practice facing up to your fears the more easily you will be able to brush your fears aside the next time they show up. And fear will stare you in the face. Everyone experiences fear but it your attitude to fear that will determine how successful you are in life.

"Many of our fears are tissue-paper-thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them."
Brendan Francis

Many people are experiencing a tough time as a result of the economic crisis. However, within every challenge that an individual is currently facing is an opportunity. Do you have the courage and the clarity of mind to look past the challenge to see the opportunity? Do you know that the bigger the problem the bigger the opportunity? Hugh Miller said,

"Problems are only opportunities with thorns on them."

If you were given a glorious rose that had thorns on it you would no doubt still be captivated by the beauty of the rose, the velvety smoothness of its petals and its delightful scent. You would carefully clip away the thorns or wear protective gloves to handle it.

So will you allow yourself to be weighed down by your challenges or will you seize the opportunities that present themselves with a resounding "Yes!"?