Today’s post is from Kris Rowlands at Words Within:

It’s tough. It’s hard to be able to keep focused on your goals, Getting Things Done, and feel a sense of accomplishment. If anyone tells you otherwise, they have not walked in your shoes.

Goals are good things to have: they keep us focused, give us something to work towards, and give us great rewards in the end. There is nothing like working on a goal and have it come to fruition: whether it take one day or one year. The feeling is of joyous exuberance over conquering that which you put before you.

Roadblocks will come: they will arise and it will be your job to brush them away, knowing that you can dissipate them as quickly as a cobweb, and move on. Roadblocks can come in the forms of family members, demanding your time when you need to focus: your job, working so much that you have no time to work on your goals: financial strain: there simply isn’t the money to reach your goal: and self doubt. Which do you think is the biggest hindrance of them all? You guessed it….self doubt.

Self doubt can be very, very strong. It can paralyze you with fear so that you can’t even think of moving towards your goal. When times like this occur, stop, take a breath, and look at why this is occurring.

• Is there some underlying issue that you need to process to move forward?
• Do you need to have a talk with your family, boss, co-worker in order to clear the air?

I know it’s hard to approach people when you have an issue to process. It can be very hard: but know that once you walk through it and clear the air, you will be able to learn from the experience and grow stronger in order to overcome the roadblocks that are set ahead of you.

Self doubt is a tool for learning: and once you find that you can identify it, work through it and move forward, nothing can stop you. You will have the power to succeed at anything you wish. The key is to get to the root of the doubt, confront it (even if it’s something that will take therapy to address), process it and move on. You will feel such a sense of exhilaration once you do.

Will this be easy? Heck no…….it’s hard to find your issues and deal with them. Sometimes you can do it on your own, or there are times when you may need a friend to help you. There may even be times when therapy is in order. Peoples’ issues vary based on what type of life they have lived and what life has thrown at them. I can tell you this: there is nothing that a human can not accomplish. If you set your mind to it, you can do anything. Absolutely anything.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you differently: the human body and mind is resilient, can heal from physical, emotional, spiritual and mental damage, and move forward. I know that you can do anything, and I don’t personally know you. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t.

I keep running into this story in my research lately, so I thought it must be important enough to share with you. I do not know the original source, it’s all over the place.

A life half-full, or half-empty?

The businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large fish. The businessman complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied only a little while.

The businessman then asked why he didn’t stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs. The businessman then asked, but what do you do with the rest of your time? The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos; I have a full and busy life, señor.”

How much is enough?

The businessman scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and I could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats; eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the processor and eventually open your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City where you would run your expanding enterprise.”

When will you be “Done”?

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But señor, how long will this all take?” To which the businessman replied, “15-20 years.” “But what then, señor?” The businessman laughed and said, “That’s the best part! When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions.” “Millions, señor? Then what?” The businessman said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”

The fisherman tried to get his head around that and said, “Isn’t that what I’m doing right now?”

Where will you be in 15 years?

Are you like the fisherman right now? With a full and busy life? Or are you looking at your life like the businessman, always seeing greener pastures further along the path?

Ask yourself a couple of questions:

• If you were not worried about money, would you keep doing the things that you are doing today?
• What would you stop doing? And why?
• If you are worried about money, are you at least taking some time to “play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings“? Because your kids won’t be kids in 15-20 years when it’s time to sell your empire.

What is one thing that you are not doing today, that would make your life better right now? Why aren’t you doing it?

Here is another fantastic TED talk:

Gever Tulley writes the best Twitters: Just landed my paraglider in an empty field behind Santa 8arbara. … Making amazing tshirts with a laser cutter at the maker faire in austin. … Washing fruit, putting sheets on bunkbeds, and grinding up aluminum foil in a cheap blender … Updating the school blog, trying to figure out how many cubic feet of air are in a 5 gallon cylinder at 200 PSI. … Trying to figure out if the tinker kids are going to be able to get molten iron from magnetite sand …

A software engineer, Gever Tulley is the co-founder of the Tinkering School, a weeklong camp where lucky kids get to play with their very own power tools. He’s interested in helping kids learn how to build, solve problems, use new materials and hack old ones for new purposes. He’s also a certified paragliding instructor.

I can’t believe I just found this:

Why don’t we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it’s because we’ve been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies — far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity — are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences.

“We are educating people out of their creativity,” Robinson says. It’s a message with deep resonance. Robinson’s TEDTalk has been distributed widely around the Web since its release in June 2006. The most popular words framing blog posts on his talk? “Everyone should watch this.”

My own creativity was stomped out of me as a grade-schooler. I know exactly when it happened, too.

5^th Grade. Mr. Phillips’ class, “Stephen, you will stop drawing and pay attention! Do you want to stay after school again?”

Well, the joke is on you Mr. Phillips, because today, the things that I create get seen by people all over the world.