So many of us have dreams we would like to turn into reality, but struggle to make that happen. Before you give up, ask yourself: what is the greatest challenge in life? 

I have wrestled with this question for more years than I care to admit.  There is no easy answer and for as many times as I have asked others this question – you got it – everyone has a different answer.

Interestingly, every time I have pondered this, my mood de jour always greatly influenced my answer.   I was close to giving up when the answer – the one I have grown to truly believe to be the best – suddenly popped into my head while I was engrossed in a conversation completely unrelated to this question.

The greatest challenge in life is finding out who and what you’re capable of becoming. Further, you can only find out who and what you are capable of becoming, by becoming it.

To become that person is seldom an easy task and rarely, if ever, is the pathway to getting there a straight line.

I believe many of us have tried to answer this question for ourselves by setting lofty goals and starting out to reach them.

Often we experience early success, which spurs us on to even greater effort, only to find our efforts thwarted by barriers, challenges and setbacks.

Then after several rounds of early success followed by intense disappointment, we quit.

Before You Give Up

It doesn’t have to be this way. At the moment of quitting, before you give up, you need to ask yourself an equally important question: How do you know?

This question was taught to me by a mentor many years ago and rarely does a day pass when there is not some context in which asking this question has not guided me to a better place than I would have reached had I not asked the question.

How do you know that the person riding in an elevator with you cannot become the biggest customer you will ever have? You will never know if you don’t engage that person in conversation.

How do you know that you have no chance of getting that job, if you don’t apply for it? You will never know unless you do.

How do you know you will never break 80 on the golf course? You’ll never know if you give up and sell your clubs on Kijiji.

And how do you know that if you had stayed with that big goal a little bit longer, everything would’ve turned your way and the dream would have become a reality? You will never know, because you quit.

Ask Yourself This

We are all far more resilient than we believe, we are tougher than we imagine, we can withstand far more adversity than we have ever experienced.

Yet many of us will never honour ourselves by learning who and what we can become, because we allow the pain, stress and challenge of the journey to turn us around.

My belief is we were born to achieve everything we are capable of, and to enjoy the rewards that follow. Too many of us, when faced with challenge, suddenly develop the ability to be able to see into the future, and we don’t like what we see.

And then do ourselves an enormous disservice – we surrender.

So again, I ask, how do you know?

 Till we read again.