If At First You Don't Succeed

Dear Madame L,

I'm a little discouraged. I've been working on a goal for so long, without any noticeable success, that I'm really about ready to give up.

Do you have any words to cheer me up or help me motivate myself to keep going?

Hopefully,

Want to Keep Going But Don't Know How

Dear Hopeful,

Madame L was fortunate to hear an inspirational speaker recently who put it this way: "I figure there are three things that can happen if I don't give up: I can succeed, I can fail but keep trying, or I can die trying. Nothing else is an option." 

This person decided from the beginning not to give up. She told us some of her secrets: She decided early on to treat her goal as she would a goal in a workplace, turning herself into a professional at achieving the goal; she works on that goal at a certain time every day; she practices positive thinking and imagines herself succeeding; she has developed a network of friends who help her in various ways; and  she keeps track of every effort and every sub-goal and sub-step and every bit of progress.

Madame L has also found a great website that may help inspire you: 

 

50 Famously Successful People Who Failed At First --- including Elvis Presley, Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, Sidney Poitier, Emily Dickinson, J.K. Rowling, Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, and Igor Stravinsky ... and, let's see, that means 40 more.

Madame L hopes some of her other Dear Readers will chime in with suggestions to help this Hopeful Reader. We all need this kind of help sometime, and YOU may be the one who can lift the spirits of this person, and the rest of us.

Thanks in advance,

Madame L