every human being matters

Have you ever been so excited to join a community or start a project, only to have someone discourage you by even just a single comment? Did it dash your hopes and dreams? Did you feel like they really didn’t understand your intentions – or even YOU ­– at all?

It not only can hurt, but it can cause you to questions your decision. That doubt can gnaw away at you and add a bit of fear of trying to move forward with your dream or idea.

And unless it is something that would cause you harm, what would their comment actually mean to you?

“I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.” – G.K. Chesterton

But maybe that is a golden opportunity to motive you instead…

Try turning the negative opinions of others into encouragement to actually make the leap of faith and try anyway. You’ll never know if it was a good move or not unless you try.

So when someone discourages you and tells you, “You can’t”, change that mess to “How can I do it?”.

“You shouldn’t” becomes “I am able” or “But I’ll never know unless I try”.

Retrain the mind to focus on the positive and accept that negative input as a challenge. Let it be your force to move forward sustainable and see if it really is possible.

Try those new things. Expand your wings and see where that opportunity takes you. Don’t be discouraged, but encourage yourself to overcome that newly planted seed of doubt and fear and fly anyway.

And if “they” were right about the outcome, accept it as a time of learning unexplored skills and strengths. Like riding a bike, you have to fall off a few times before you finally find the right way to accomplish your goal. So, move on.

Don’t take it personally…

And this is a hard one. Especially if the words come from someone close to you, or someone you thought you could trust.

Most people, even your closest friends, don’t really know you inside, who you really are fully, or understand you completely. You don’t even know…that’s why we like to explore and stretch ourselves into other areas of life to find out.

“I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.” – Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder

Sometimes you need the variety of opportunities to see where you fit in this world. To find your community where you belong even if for only that one thing.

So take the chance. Try turning those negative discouragements into a challenge to reach your goal anyway.

But there is one caveat…

Be prudent. Don’t spend what you don’t have to get there. Don’t take a physical risk if you aren’t really capable of doing it. And don’t take on any challenge that would cause you harm instead of lessons.

Because, in the end, the real challenge is to find out who you are and what you really are capable of. And until you step across that threshold of the unknown, you’ll never find out.

“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

It is only when we take chances that our lives improve. – Walter Anderson