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The Small Voice of Adversity

Written by: Jeb Blount

Article Overview: Successful people, through regular training, have simply taught themselves to be persistent and to get up when knocked down. They have learned through study that even though they cannot always change their particular circumstances, they can change how they respond. And on their worst days, when they are blinded by frustration, depression, and anger, they have developed a little voice on the inside that delivers the wake up call, “stop whining, get up, keep going, you are a winner and winners never quit.”

The Small Voice of Adversity

Not long ago I had one of those weeks where everything that could go wrong, did. I mean everything - both personal and professional. Try as I might I couldn’t get anything to go my way. This series of failures sapped my strength and killed my normally optimistic attitude. At one point, in a fit of anger, I shouted out loud, “what else could possibly go wrong!” At that moment – as soon as the words came out of my mouth – everything that could go wrong started flashing through my mind. My thoughts turned negative and, admitting defeat, I just sat and stewed over my circumstances.

But deep inside of me a little voice cried out. It pushed through my anger and negative thinking and said, “Jeb, you have got to stop focusing on the negative. Don’t you know that you become what you think about? You’re just making things worse. You are a winner and winners don’t quit. Get your butt out of that chair and start looking for solutions.” That was a wake-up call. I knew that I had to change my thoughts. I had to start focusing on the possibilities and find the opportunities. I had to will myself to get up and fight back. I could not allow my adversity to keep me down.

I remembered a passage from The All-Star Sales Book by Billy Cox. In the passage Cox says, “I’ve always heard that when life knocks you down you need to land on your back, because if you can look up, you can get up.” He goes on to say that the defining difference between average people and all-stars is “when All-Stars get knocked down, they get back up. They refuse to stay down for long. Although bruised and sometimes wounded, they pick themselves up and start over again.” It was the perfect message at the perfect time for me.

The reality is, sooner or later we are all going to experience, setbacks, defeat, adversity, failure, and even tragedy. No one is immune. And when it happens it won’t always be easy to maintain a positive attitude, keep your enthusiasm, or see the opportunity in your adversity. When it happens to you, like me, there is a real possibility that you will become overwhelmed, you will feel self-pity, and you will cry out – “why me.” This happens because you are human. But somehow, we must find a way to shake ourselves out of this because the difference between success and failure is most often how we deal with adversity.

Later, after I had regained my composure, I thought about the voice that had given me the wake-up call. It occurred to me that this voice was one of the keys to dealing with failure. Where had it come from? How did it find its way through my clouded, negative thoughts and get my attention. How did in know that I needed the wake-up call? How do we develop this voice? Is this where successful people find the will to keep going? Is there a secret?

After thinking about this more, the answer became clear. That internal voice that lifted me up when I was ready to quit was a result of all of the work I had done to invest in myself before adversity found me. That voice was the child of the hundreds of hours of motivational and inspirational audio programs I had listened to, of the books I had read, the podcasts I subscribed to, seminars, speakers, prayer and the myriad other sources I had used to train my mind, body, and spirit. It was there because I had paid for it in advance by investing in myself.

You see, just as we invest our money into our 401(k) and retirement accounts so that we will be taken care of in retirement, we must also invest in our mind, body, and spirit so that we will be taken care when we face adversity and failure. Unfortunately, most people wait until it is too late. They don’t read books and articles, exercise, attend seminars, pray or listen to audio programs until after adversity strikes. When everything is going their way, they see no reason for this. And, these are the same folks who think that highly successful people are gifted with special and unique powers that give them incredible persistence in the face of failure.

But in reality, successful people, through regular training, have simply taught themselves to be persistent and to get up when knocked down. They have learned through study that even though they cannot always change their particular circumstances, they can change how they respond. And on their worst days, when they are blinded by frustration, depression, and anger, they have developed a little voice on the inside that delivers the wake up call, “stop whining, get up, keep going, you are a winner and winners never quit.”

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Article Tags: adversity, all star, all stars, anger, billy cox, butt, circumstances, failure, jeb, little voice, negative thinking, optimistic attitude, perfect time, positive attitude, possibilities, setbacks, star sales, tragedy, wake up call



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