Excellence With G.O.P.T.A.© Series: Part 14

By: Dr. Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Sr. Associate Editor-ICN Group

KOLKATA: You might be wondering, why I am taking so many articles in talking about belief system, poor self-image and overcoming self-limiting beliefs. The answer is because it is essential; as poor self-image and self-limiting beliefs will hamper even your goals setting process, what to talk about goals achievement. In the previous article, we saw what happens when you see that the task which you consider almost impossible is done successfully by anybody else. Today, we will see how to handle temporary setbacks in life.

As Zig Ziglar rightly puts it, hope is born when we see or hear about someone who overcame difficult odds to become successful, and we say, ‘May be I can do that, too’.

One thing which I want to highlight here is that the same belief system, which happened to work against you so far, can be used to work for you with conscious awareness that ‘you can do it’. You have to inculcate a belief that if somebody else has done it before, I can also do it because now, recipe of success is available; and by now, we have also seen that by following the route and systematic process followed by earlier climbers, even Mount Everest can be peaked, age & sex don’t matter. There is no limit to human will, determination and resolve. You have to just believe it to do it.

Now let us see a real-life application of this principle. I take an example of a student preparing for entrance examination like CAT/ CLAT/ IIM etc. or for competitive examination like Civil Services or for professional courses like Chartered Accountancy etc. In every examination, the aspirants are afraid of failure. They think that every year, there are lots of failure candidates in this particular examination. They start lacking confidence and their sub-conscious mind also starts playing its role in shaking their confidence. On the contrary, if you start seeing that every year, there are students who become Chartered Accountant, who clear their entrance level examination or become IAS, etc., your confidence level will boost up. Only requirement is that you should follow the path of success, the recipe of success. You have to improve your studies and some skills required for success. Observe what successful people have done and follow the same path and become a limitless person. You have to follow GOPTA i.e. take the persistent disciplined actions with positive frame of mind in the direction of your goals. You have to work upon yourself to inculcate goals-oriented habits, acquiring goals-oriented skills and building goals-oriented relationships.

Temporary setbacks are not dead ends

Often people see the temporary setbacks as dead ends and start believing that they are failure in life, but it is not correct. There is no business which does not face temporary setbacks. In each area of your life, you have to face temporary setbacks; but life does not stop. Treat these temporary setbacks as part of life. One has to take these setbacks in his stride and should not construe that he is a failure. Great motivational speaker Zig Ziglar says, Failure is an event, not a person. If you are not successful in an examination, it doesn’t mean that you have failed in life or it is the end of life. Life keeps going on. Life brings different opportunities to you, sometimes even better than earlier one. You should wait for the next opportunity with an open mind and be ready to grab the next opportunity with open hands.

Venus Williams is one of the all-time greats of Tennis, having won several grand slam titles and 4 Olympic gold medals. She started playing Grand Slam Tournaments in 1997 and in the very first year, she reached final of US Open. In her long career, she suffered various injuries as well as defeats, but she always took it as temporary setbacks. When she was being treated as veteran of the game and people started saying that her era is over, she was working on her game and her positive attitude. That is the reason why she is still playing tennis at top level due to her winning attitude, despite repeated injuries and defeats. We all know that tennis is a power game, especially for women. Still we find her playing for more than 20 years in her grand slam career. Once asked about this, she remarked, Some people say I have attitude – maybe I do… but I think you have to. You have to believe in yourself when no one else does – that makes you a winner right there.

As Nopolean Hill puts it, If you have the real seed of success within you, a little adversity and temporary defeat will only serve to nurture that seed and cause it to burst forth into maturity. When Divine Intelligence wants a great man or woman to render some needed service in the world, the fortunate one is tested out through some form of failure. If you are undergoing what you believe to be failure, have patience; you may be passing through your testing time.”

(I leave you here to ponder upon these very important points which will remove the limiting blockades in your belief system and you will be on the path of inculcating empowering beliefs, which may take you towards your goals. In the next article of this series, we will know how to become a no-limit person. So, stay tuned every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday & Sunday. Happy G.O.P.T.A.)

Dr. Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Creator & copyright holder of the concept G.O.P.T.A.©  is an Author, Certified NLP Lifestyle Practitioner, Corporate Trainer & Motivational Speaker and recipient of Honorary Doctorate of Excellence (Management) by prestigious Young Scientist University, California, USA. He is Founder of ‘Read, Learn & Earn Movement’ and is popularly known among his fans & followers across the globe as ‘Time and Goal Guru’.

His book ‘How to Add 50000 Productive Hours to Your Life’ is available at Amazon & Flipkart in English at http://bit.ly/HowToAdd50000ProductiveHoursToYourLife

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