MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Okay my friends, the new year is here. I know some of you are facing some real challenges in your lives. Many are unemployed or have had your income greatly reduced. Some are facing physical Challenges or family crisis. Many things can derail us from reaching our goals.

I just want you to know that you have a choice. You can use these challenges as excuses for not achieving your goals or you can turn them into the motivation for achieving even more. For everyone of the very real challenges I mentioned above, I know of someone who, facing those same challenges, turned them into their "why" for pursuing their goals even harder.

I know of a guy who was living in his car with a busted out window in Canada in the winter, with 2 children and selling pizza door to door to survive. He now owns a very successful business because he used his problems as motivation.

I had two friends a few years back We'll call them Ron & Steve. Both had lost their legs to a land mine in Vietnam. Both the same year. Both had the same injuries, the same surgeries and both ended up in wheel chairs. I met them 20 years later. Steve was defeated. His lack of legs kept him from enjoying many of the things he loved. He could no longer play football, run or r ride his Harley. He had gained weight due to his lack of running and physical exertion. He was unkempt because it was very difficult to dress himself and get in and out of a shower or bathtub. He always complained because there weren't enough handicap parking spaces or someone parked in the handicapped spot or over the line making it hard for him to get his wheel chair out of the car. He was broke because his disability limited the jobs available to him. After an hour of being around him I would feel depressed, sorry for him, even angry that we had allowed such things to happen in such an unnecessary war.

Then there was Ron. Ron was living life. Ron could no longer play football, so he started a wheel chair basketball team. He could no longer go running so he worked out in the gym with his upper body. Ron always looked perfectly groomed and professional. If the handicapped spot was filled or someone parked over the line, he found a spot and dealt with it or waited for a spot to open up.He had a good job. On the side he taught veterans and others how to live life in a wheelchair, coached a wheelchair basketball team and raised a daughter. Being around Ron was renewing. Not because it was inspiring that he overcame his lack of legs,(although it was) but because he was such a force of positive energy. You didn't even notice the wheelchair(unless he was popping wheelies). Being around Ron made you want to be more, help more and live more. He went out of his way to make others feel better. If you wanted something done, just bet Ron a guy in a wheelchair couldn't do it.

Remember, life isn't easy, it isn't fair and there is no such thing as spare time.

In 2011, you can make excuses or you can make it happen. It's up to you.