She told me she wanted to QUIT!
Today I received an email from a student at UCLA that asked, “How do you do it? How do you stay motivated? I’ve spoken to a friend of yours that told me all of your obstacles you’ve overcame but you still find ways to keep moving. . . how?”
She went onto describe her efforts to finish college and apply to medical school. Her family has nothing but limiting beliefs in her success — and she wants to quit. She asked at the end, “How can I keep going?”
This is what I said in my response:
“Medical school? Seriously. That is FREAKING AWESOME! Take a piece of paper, write your name on it. Then put a “DR.” in front and tell me that doesn’t look damn cool! . . . because it does!
Bottom line, it’s always too soon to quit on a goal that is important to you!
Quitting on your goals is quitting on yourself! Deciding to quit is often the easy road to travel in life and that’s okay. . . as long as you can live with the fact that you have not just quit on your goals, but yourself!
You see — when you establish a goal you are pre-determining the future “you”. When you first considered medical school, you thought of yourself with a white coat on and saving lives. . . changing the world!
Quiting on a goal is in effect the equivalent of erasing the future “you” from your mind. Quitting on your goals is quitting on yourself!
You will most likely feel like quitting at times when you feel stuck or disempowered. And oddly enough, when you feel this way and consider quitting, people line up to tell you how “okay” it is.
Why is this? Because they never believed you in the first place. They expect for you to settle for “normality”. To settle for not going out on a limb. . .
But be careful! The meaning you decide to attach to the way your are feeling RIGHT NOW plays a significant role in your ability to move forward. If you start labeling yourself as a quitter then you will shut down any possibility of winning and begin entertaining thoughts of quitting. . . don’t do it!
It’s always to soon to quit.
Before you quit consider the alternatives!In almost any situation where you feel stuck, there are alternatives to help you move forward. It’s not that you lack resources or opportunities; it’s more likely that you are simply in an un-resourceful state that is preventing you from taping into the right resources and opportunities. . . basically, someone is knocking on the front door with your golden answer. . . but for some reason you are hanging out with the “go ahead and quit” crowd in the backyard eating some stale hotdogs.
Ditch the crowd, drop the hotdog and go open the front door. . . open your neighbors front door. Open any door that you think may help you move in a positive direction.
Okay. . . as you can tell, I have a major “soap” box with quitting. So to stop my rant, I want you to do this. . ., I want you to identify what you could do to take a positive step forward, mentally, physically, and financially. Keep asking yourself the question ‘What is one thing I could do right now to move me from where I am to where I want to be?’
And just in case you didn’t know. . .
** Albert Einstein could not talk before the age of four
** Isaac Newton was a bad student
** Beethoven’s music teacher told him he would never be a composer
** Thomas Edison’s teacher told him that he was too stupid to learn anything
** Walt Disney was fired as a reporter, because he wasn’t creative enough** Winston Churchill had to repeat a school year
** Michael Jordon wasn’t good enough for his high school basketball team
** Abe Lincoln lost his wife and 8 elections before being elected president
Don’t quit, because I am not going to quit on you. And from know on, I am going to call you Dr. Alison. . . just so you get used to hearing it. MED SCHOOL HERE YOU COME. . .
With Kindness,
Brian Williams
