Lethargy.Circumstances. Poverty. Responsibilities. Time. Lack of Talent. Luck.

The things people blame for not doing what they always wanted. I am not talking about routine things like going to office and earning a decent paycheck. One way or another we all manage to get motivated to do those. Because our very survival depends on it. And God knows there are enough self-help authors all claiming to convince you that you can self-help yourself by reading more of their books!What I am talking about is the stuff which people dream of yet never do anything to achieve them.

I must confess, I have probably read more self-help books than an average Joe out there. But the motive wasn’t just self-help. I have always been curious to find out what enables some humans to be great while others seem to want greatness equally badly but never achieve it! Is it that they were not born as gifted? Or is it that they don’t put in the required hard work?

It is tragic that the average person seems to put in more hours at work, gets more stressed and is always dissatisfied despite the back-breaking work he does. Yet, he knows he is nothing more than a survivor living from paycheck to paycheck trying to make sure he has enough saved for a rainy day and hoping he catches a lucky break and makes it big. All this while the successful person seems to waft through life going from high-powered meetings, deals, golf, family and vacations. So what is it that’s really going on??

I believe that the ones who succeed are the people who have the guts to begin what they want and have the courage to fail. The world seems to have conditioned all of us into being so afraid of failure that without knowing we begin to accept mediocrity. We begin to tell ourselves this is the end of the line. That next role, that next title, that next promotion is all we have to compete mindlessly for. Never bothering to stop and ask “Wait. Why the hell am I killing myself trying to achieve something which I didn’t want in the first place!”

Are you also one among those who have forgotten why you started your day job? Do you go to work to do what you love? Or was this job supposed to enable you to achieve what you really wanted? Is your fear of failure so overwhelming that you have forgotten how it is to try something new, fail, dust yourself up with a grin and try the next thing you wanted to? When in doubt always remember the greatest successes started out with bumbling failures. Like the Japanese saying which makes me shake off any fear and helps break my mental barriers – “Even monkeys fall from trees!” So go and try something new today! May the monkey in you rise!