I Refused To Settle For Failure

I remember the day where I found myself sitting in my conservatory, on the last remaining stool, surrounded by boxes crammed with many of my personal possessions as the rain cascaded all over the glass roof, and huge puddles were forming outside on my drive way. Five years of owning the house of my dreams was all about to come to an end. The culmination of a difficult year was now seeing its worst outcome, the repossession of my beautiful home. I recall as we were leaving for the last time just walking around my swimming pool, just trying to take in a picture to my memory that I could hold on to so never to forget what I had been able to achieve. But now it was gone, time to walk away.

I had fallen, all those years climbing the ladder of success, working hard to progress rung by rung, and in less than a year it had all been brought crashing down.

Would I allow this to end my ambition, would I now settle for being ‘a failure’ and a life of mediocrity?

I can say with great happiness and pride, no I refused to settle for failure. I knew my future could still be ‘brilliant’ and over the last 6 years I’ve gone on to not only rebuild my life, but make myself into a far nicer, and happier person.

My life is now guided by me being driven by the legacy I want to lead. I refused to allow my failures or losses experienced on my life’s journey to be the most significant events of my life.

I came to understand that our problems are merely challenges that we can turn into stepping stones to ultimate success and victory. There can be no growth without challenges, no joy without first experiencing sorrow. Victory can be yours if you refused to settle for failure.

The good news is that the more you persist in the face of disappointment, disillusionment, setbacks, obstacles and temporary failure, the stronger you become as a person. The more you persist, the more you come to believe in yourself. And the more you believe in yourself, the more you will persist, no matter what happens. Together they can bring you success and happiness.

Most people are so preoccupied with the problem, difficulty or obstacle that they neglect to look inside of it for the gift that it might contain. One of the most important habits you can ever develop is an unshakable belief that every problem in your experience has been sent to you at exactly the right moment in your life to teach you something that you need to know to be more successful and happier in the future. Only if you refused to settle for failure or disappointment will you be able to find the golden nugget hidden in the debris of your life, that’s a huge lesson I learnt.

Napoleon Hill once wrote, “Within every difficulty or obstacle is contained the seed of an equal or greater benefit or advantage.”

The more you search for the benefit or advantage, for the valuable lesson or insight, the more likely it is that you will find it. Sometimes, your whole life will be changed as the result of a lesson you learn from an unexpected reversal of fortune or temporary failure.

I am driven by the knowledge that everything that we see in the physically, was first created as thought in someone’s mind. We can change our mindset, and reinvent ourselves anytime we want. By choosing to see things in a different way, and stretching our limits. We will never achieve what we can’t conceive in our mind first. We have to first believe that something is a possibility, before we can have access to it.

I came out of that nightmare period and totally went on to change my life. Instead of carrying on doing a 9 to 5 job, playing it safe, I followed my passions, and became a blogger and life coach, where every day I get to inspire, motivate and coach others, life could be no better.

Life coaching was the catalyst to my climb back up the ladder of success. Not only has my entire business been built around the world of personal development, I as a person, the never give up guy, who refused to be stopped by events out of his control, was provided the knowledge, understanding and tools to use in my reinvention by life coaching. It has taught me so much, and never again would I be someone that would say, ‘why me’ instead it became ‘what do I get to choose now.’

Life Coaching showed me the way forward, to get my life started again, demonstrating to me the power of questions such as ‘What can I now do, be, have … ‘who can I become.’ I became aware of my possibilities, and it instilled within me the feeling that I could still create a magnificent life.

I truly believe everyone would benefit by learning to be their very own life coach. As Winston Churchill said, ‘Never, never, never give up’. Being able to life coach yourself will provide you with the skills, knowledge and understanding to transform your life. I know I did.

I refused to settle for failure and with life coaching by my side I had the vehicle and the journey that I needed.