Your greatest obstacle to success is not what you have been told that it is! Forget the labels that have been placed on you by your parents, teachers, peers or neighbors. You are about to see in full color the sinister villain that is holding you back! This will be true regardless of physical, emotional or other so-called limitation.

Experiences and observations over a lifetime have taught me that your number one enemy in the fight for success is the dastardly bad guy called history! All too often we define ourselves based on faulty logic. Rather than orienting our minds on our future self, the one we ‘can and should be’ based upon our ongoing accumulation of experience, education and personal growth, we make assumptions based on past performance either entirely or enough to do ourselves great harm.

I think you have likely heard the commercials for the gold investment or stock broker company before. Usually, no matter what they sound like, they end in similar fashion. They tell you to read the prospectus information carefully because… ‘Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.” That is the general gist of their disclaimer.

I have a news flash for you. The same applies to our lives! Just because your past is filled with failure, setback or less than favorable results is or should not be any indicator of what your future should be like.

Learn from your failures and shortcomings. Gather educational resources to intellectually help you overcome areas that need improvement. If it is a physical or other disability that stands in your way, find others with similar situations that have already overcome them and devour every bit of information about how they did it as you can.

As for the ‘voices’ or ‘images’ from your past that haunt you, it is time to do precisely what the title of this article suggests, you must assassinate your history! What do I mean by this? As long as we continue to entertain these voices, thoughts, images, etc., you will keep alive the very things that have kept you from fulfilling your purpose. With the deadly accuracy of a sniper, we need to focus like a laser on the history that haunts us. In practical terms, how do we do this? Action! Stop worrying, over-thinking and deliberating and take some definite action towards your goals. Silence the voices by recognizing them and killing them off with immediate ‘replacement therapy.’ By this I mean, launch a counter-attack of positivity. For example, when the thought of you can’t do this or that enters your mind because you tried it before comes up, have a response ready. Instead say to yourself, “that was then, this is now.” I now know better what not to do. I have armed myself with, or am currently arming myself with information, education and experiences that will give me an advantage this time.

Definite, repeated, positive action will put down the negative history and begin to reveal the more positive, desired future. There is no other way around your history. Feed it, it lives. Kill it, and replace it, it is gone forever and you change your future. And one last news flash, there is a strange peace, satisfaction and sometimes even excitement that comes in the immediate here and now when you take this step. True the full fruition of the changes you make today can take time to unfold. But, rejoice in and savor the present satisfaction that comes from moving in the right direction, no matter how small the start. It is said the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. Go ahead, take it today!

I believe it was Thomas Edison who famously said that he had not failed, he had merely discovered ten thousand ways that don’t work. Is that not a beautiful take on perspective and determination?

There are many more famous examples of people who have literally failed their way to success! It doesn’t seem at first glance that the two are compatible, but indeed they are a close kin. Look at it this way, if all we do is dream about what it would be like to do something big, but never take a step towards the dream we are absolutely guaranteed to fail and never realize the dream. Truth be told, if we take a chance and step out in faith towards our dreams there is no promise of attaining the goal or even being any closer to the goal after we try. So why try at all if this is the way it is? There is something so amazing and surprisingly satisfying in our best attempts that makes the effort worth the while.

Speaking for myself, I know that there are enormous heaps of failure in between each success I have experienced along the way. You can say that when measuring the failures compared to the successes that overall I’m a failure right? If we are simply counting the numbers of failures versus successes, then I suppose, but who does that? The runner who competes and fails to place in race after race could be deemed a failure. However, the training and preparation that goes into each race strengthens the runner and puts them in a place where even though they may have lost this race, they are poised to improve the next them they try. Plus, lessons learned through the course of failure refine their approach next time. For some, simply being able to complete a race is reward enough regardless of winning or losing! But just imagine the exhilaration of the day that runner crosses the finish line first! Do you think at that moment they are looking back over their years of failure and accepting that because they failed more than they won that they are in fact a loser somehow? NO! Absolutely not! In that moment the first success is realized, all the failure is now nothing more than mere preparation that lead to this now sweet moment of supreme accomplishment.

I dare say that this scenario applies to me and you no matter what our ‘race’ of choice. It doesn’t matter how many times I got rejected trying to get a job in broadcasting. When I finally landed my first job, I wasn’t crying about all the missed opportunities, but instead, was celebrating the fact I had one now! When I found my beautiful wife and mother of my two amazing children I didn’t look back at all the failed relationships and label myself a social failure. No! I rejoiced in the fact that I now basked in the glorious success of finding the one for me! As an author, I don’t look at all the failed attempts to write a book and think of me as a failed author. No! I look at my book, “Power In Perseverance” and the lives that have been changed and the blessings that have come through the open door of radio & TV interviews because of it, and I see a resounding success!

We have to choose what we focus on. How do you like that? Another visual pun from a blind man! I can choose to focus on failure, but then my negative outlook will feed upon itself and become a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts and I will continue to live in failure. Or, I can choose to focus on my accomplishments and the joy they have added to my life and allow myself to be defined by them instead of the failed attempts.

If this blind, cancer survivor, heart patient can overcome the obstacles in my life, then why can’t you? What is your excuse? What is holding you back? If it is your attitude and perspective that’s easy to change, just make the decision. If it is a disability or other life challenge, that’s ok, you can still overcome it and get to where you want to go. You just need to find someone like you who has done it before. Solomon said there is nothing new under the sun. I believe that! If someone, anyone like you or me has done something before then so can we!

For more information, or if I can be of any further assistance to you, please do not hesitate to reach out. My email is throttleup@jeffgrillomedia.com

Below are some suggested links to help you grab hold of other ‘Throttle Up!’ outlets that will encourage, empower and inspire you to reach beyond your current circumstances and become all you were created to be!

Podcast on iTunes
Jeff’s YouTube Channel

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