1st Goal Deadline

Saturday was my goal to reach 199 lbs.  I missed that goal by about 8 pounds.  

Technically, I failed.  But I’m not upset.  Here’s why;

I’m not afraid to re-set my goal.  This wasn’t my only chance to ever get down to this weight! There’s no 11^th Commandment saying “Thou Shalt Not Try Again.”  I think people get frustrated and give up on their goals and dreams because they think they’ve only got one chance to succeed.  That is simply untrue.  When we observe someone who is successful , we see only the ‘finished product’ of that person - after the struggles, after the rejection, and after they gathered themselves together to keep going.  For example, did you know that;

-          Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper because his boss said "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas." *

-          Thomas Edison made 1000 failed attempts to make a light bulb.*

-          Jerry Seinfeld was booed off stage the first time he ever did stand-up.*

-          Led Zeppelin picked their name because someone told them their band would ‘sink like a lead balloon’.

Are you getting the idea? (* see other stories here)

Somone who has never really attempted anything in life  may tell you that the opposite of success is failure. That is a big, fat, hairy lie.  If all those people I just listed above had quit at their first failure, there would be no Mickey Mouse.  There would be no electricity!!  American culture would have lost one of its most popular sitcoms, and of course, there would have been no ‘Stairway to Heaven’.  Failure is not the opposite of success - quitting is the opposite of success.  I’m closer now to 199 lbs than I have been in several years.  So what if I I missed my first deadline.  I'll just re-set my goal for May 24, 2013.  Which is also Grayson’s birthday.

I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes, which is kind of a big deal since I really don’t like sports:

"I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.  I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." – Michael Jordan