Quotes like…

The road to success is always under construction…

Are words that were on my mind recently as I celebrated another birthday this month. Birthday’s tend to make most of us more reflective, gives us reason’s to pause and take a look at our lives. For me, I have spent a lot of time thinking about my quest for success and how there are many twists and turns on the road to success. But I am reminded of my mission to “empower” and change families, parents and kids one dream at a time.

OR

No one said it would be easy…

I find myself reminding many of my clients, the parent and the student, that sometimes things are tough or I ask them whoever said it was going to be easy.  As a business owner I remind myself the same thing.  When things get difficult we have two choices, we can quit and walk away, which unfortunately some parents have done.  Business owners, especially those who have experienced success know firsthand that to get where they are it required some blood sweat and tears.  If you are in the thick of it, just know that after the storm comes the sunshine.

And

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure…

Man, I know this first hand. As I thought back to my high school and college football days, I thought about the “Big Push” which only a few people out there know about because it was the single hardest physical challenge that I had to push through, and that was high school. I think about overcoming leaving the University of Colorado, going back to my local junior college and having to start over. I reflected on the challenge of going back to law school as a working adult and somehow graduating, here the secret is I am still not sure how I did it. It may have been my single greatest challenge but because I wanted it so bad, I don’t think I acknowledged the challenges. I prepared, worked hard got up when I stumbled and was able to experience success.

Plus

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all…

This is so true, especially when you look at history and some of the great discoveries and individuals. From Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington Carver or Henry Ford to great black women inventors like Patricia Bath. These men and women kept on trying, kept getting up when they were knocked down. They had a vision and based on their vision they had “hope” which kept them motivated to keep trying. We are no different than these men and women, especially if we do not give up. When I looked back, I thought about my own accomplishments, those of my family and can attribute all of our accomplishments to our faith which keeps us hopeful, and because of this hope we refused to stop trying.

Also

There are two great days in a person’s life – the day we are born and the day we discover why…

I talk a lot about living and working our purpose or gift versus our passion. When we do this we discover our WHY.  I do believe that we can be passionate about our gift or purpose, but what we are passionate about does not by itself mean we have discovered our purpose or WHY. The other thing is our WHY, never leaves us, it is our reason for being born and it stays with us until we die. For example, I grew up passionate about sports, specifically football. I had the heart, and some of the skills and man was I passionate. See “Big Push”. However, my passion did not make up for my lack of size. Our why is a combination of our dreams and goals with a clear understanding of the rewards and consequences that happen if we fail or succeed at reaching our dreams and goals. It is that thing we like and do really well with the least amount of effort. The only thing we can say when asked is, that it doesn’t even feel like work. Our gift will make room for us!