Bouncing Back To Move Forward!
by Garry Zancanaro

Every person who has ever actively worked on self improvement and
bettering themselves and their lives will have suffered setbacks.
The most successful people in the world did not become successful
overnight. They will almost certainly have suffered more
disappointments, setbacks and even unmitigated disasters, than
most people.

Successful people will definitely have made wrong decisions and
expensive mistakes, and taken wrong turns on their journey to
success. Things may have been going extremely well and they then
encountered events beyond their control, or made choices, which
caused them to lose everything they had built up.

Often when we try something new, things can go wrong and
everything may not go according to plan. When this happens, we
may well question our abilities and ambitions, or think we were
misguided in trying to a build a better life for ourselves and
our family. Many people consider themselves failures at this
point and just give up and retreat to their comfort zones.

However, it's worth remembering that the only way we can
guarantee we will never fail is to never try anything. But just
think, if we gave up at the first or second hurdle, or never
tried anything new, we wouldn't be able use our computers, drive
our cars, play sports - or even read, walk or talk!

Successful people are also disappointed and affected by setbacks,
and certainly get knocked down more often than most, if only
because they try more things. This may happen not once or twice,
but dozens or even hundreds of times. But successful people
refuse to stay down - because they are resilient and will not be
denied their dreams and goals.

Many successful people had to go to extreme lengths to achieve
their goals. Walt Disney was turned down for finance to build
Disneyland by more than 300 banks. They all thought he was mad
and that his vision for Disneyland would never take off.

Colonel Sanders had a great chicken recipe and believed he could
teach people how to cook his chicken to increase their
businesses. He spent two years driving across America, sleeping
in his car, and calling on restaurants who weren't interested. He
was often mocked and laughed at, and apparently he was turned
down over 1,000 times before he heard his first yes!

The greatest inventor if the twentieth century, Thomas Edison was
also one of the greatest failure of all time. For every invention
of Edison's that worked, thousands of attempts over many years
didn't work. But Edison didn't consider these failures. He
confidently expected to find the right solutions after he had
learnt from and eliminated all the unsuccessful methods!

How many people would have had these levels of perseverance and
persistence and would have been able to bounce back from so much
rejection and disappointment?

These men had dreams they believed in and were committed to, and
were prepared to do whatever it took to achieve their goals. They
learnt from their setbacks and changed their plans or revised
their approach, and did whatever was necessary until they got
what they were aiming for.

It is, however, important that we recognise that resilience and
determination are not the same as stubbornness. There is no point
doing exactly the same thing again and again and expecting
different results. We must be prepared to be flexible and to
adapt our plans and goals accordingly.

Studies have shown that 95% of goals people set will be
ultimately achieved if they learn from their difficulties and
don't give up. Lack of talent or opportunity has almost nothing
to do with people not reaching their goals and becoming
successful. Instead, the main reason is that people lack the
determination and persistence to overcome setbacks and obstacles.

Resilience is essential, and there are learnable techniques and
strategies that can help develop this characteristic. Successful
people know there are no failures because there are lessons to be
learned from everything that happens to them, both good and bad.

In fact, it is usually our failures and mistakes - what we learn
from them and how we react to them - that build our character and
determine our levels our success. The only real failure is to
give up altogether.

Quote of the Day

"The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of
persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those
which fail." - Napoleon Hill

About The Author: Garry Zancanaro is the founder of
http://www.SelfImprovementDirectory.com a website dedicated to
all aspects of Personal Development, and to helping people live
more successful and fulfilling lives. Visit to claim a FREE copy
of Napoleon Hill's classic 'Think and Grow Rich'.