One of my favourite soul singers called Beverly Knight recorded a great song a couple of years back. It was called “Would’a, Could’a, Should’a” and was played a lot on the radio at the time.

The last line of the chorus goes something like…

“Would’a, could’a, should’a are the last words of a fool!”

That’s a sentiment I agree with entirely! I promised myself a long time ago that when I get to the point of having one foot in the grave with the other following swiftly, I wouldn’t regret not having tried or achieved anything specific in my life.

Would I have succeeded at ……?

Could I have been good at ……?

Should I have tried my hand at ……?

Trust me, these are three questions I won’t be asking myself in my dying breath.

Why? Because if I ever get an inkling or a desire to try something new, I get up and go for it! The more radical it is the more motivated I become.

If I were to sit down and write down everything I’ve done this far in my life that Mr. Average most probably hasn’t, it would be a very long list. I’m telling you this not to try and impress you, but to make the point that you don’t know what you can achieve until you try.

Some of the things I’ve tried have provoked incredulous responses from others. Some people think I’m just plain crazy. But hey, I wouldn’t swap my life experiences with theirs in a million years. When I look back upon my life I know I’ll have lived every second of it. “Life ain’t no rehearsal” as they say.

I recently caught the end of an interview with Anthony Robbins on TV. The interviewer was asking Tony how he made decisions on what path to take in his own life. He referred to a test he uses, which he called “The Rocking Chair Test”. He apparently applies this test whenever he needs to make a “Yes” or “No” decision about a new opportunity that presents itself to him.

To apply the test, he imagines himself in his eighties sitting in a rocking-chair and looking back over his life. He then considers whether he’d regret saying “No” rather than “Yes” to a particular opportunity.

At the end of the interview Tony emphasised an important point – You don’t receive or achieve much in your life whenever you say “No!”

So stop saying “No” and start saying “Yes!”

Do you have a burning desire to try something new? If you do, then go right out and do it!

Won’t it be great? Trust me, it will be better than you can imagine!

If you follow this approach you’ll truly surprise yourself every day. You’ll learn so much more about yourself. Why? Because you’ll be provoking reactions, thoughts and feelings that you never would have had otherwise.

There are some amazing things waiting to be discovered only by you, but only if you go looking for them. Remember, “life ain’t no rehearsal!” So make the most of the precious time you have on this earth. You owe it to yourself!

Don’t be the fool whose last words are “would’a, could’a, should’a!”

Be successful!

Technorati Tags: achievement, adventure, fear, living life, procrastination, say yes

You may have wandered off the safe path through the Internet business forest, or you may be wary about setting off in the first place. What’s stopping you from continuing? Is there really a Big Bad Wolf waiting to jump out and finish you off?

If you’re experiencing this sort of hesitancy, then a little regression therapy may be necessary. Think back to when you were a child. When you had little experience of success or failure. When you approached each new challenge with vigour and a sense of adventure.

I remember when my Dad taught me to ride a bike. If I fell off, I just got straight back on and tried again. The fact that I may fall again and again never entered my head. This was new, it was fun and I was spurred on by the prize for my endeavours; joining in with my elder brother and our mates who were already racing around on two wheels.

As children we charged forward with gay abandon into every new adventure. But as adults we hesitate and check our step. Why is that?

The answer’s simple!

The one thing that’s changed our perceptions of new and uncharted territories, like starting our own business, is fear. It may be fear of failure or fear of rejection. As Edmund Burke once said “No passion so effectively robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.”

But is there anything wrong with failing once in a while?

Certainly not!

You never learn anything from doing things right all the time. Making mistakes is an essential part of the learning process. That being said, you must remember that you never learn much from a mistake the second time you make it.

Fear is an important emotion. Like the Big Bad Wolf, it provides a safety check to ensure we’ve thought through our actions and planned for likely outcomes. But you should never allow it to stop you from setting off on your next great adventure.

In his inaugural address of 1933, Franklin D Roosevelt famously said “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Are the things we fear always realistic and tangible? I think not! We often tend to create our own ‘monsters under the bed’.

Take our arch nemesis the Big Bad Wolf for example. I mean, how could any hairy transvestite quadruped fool anyone into believing it was Grandma. And if it had despatched Grandma, wouldn’t there have been blood stains on the eiderdown?

But I digress!

These ‘monsters’ are barriers we create for ourselves that reside in our imagination rather than in reality. So, let’s get back on that path through the Internet business forest then, and stride bravely forward. If you’re fearful about starting out, or you’re fearful of taking the next step, don’t let that fear ruin your journey. Let it simply act as a reminder to check what’s round the next bend once in a while.

What! You’re still scared?

OK, take along the woodcutters axe for protection if you must.

By the way, he’s behind you!

Be successful.

Technorati Tags: fear, perseverence, self-belief