You’d be hard-pressed to find a successful person who has never been told they can’t do it, they aren’t good enough or they should quit their dream before.
Michael Jordon got cut from his school basketball team.
Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.
The Beatles were turned down by a record company, who said “We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”
Can you imagine if each of these superstars listened to the naysayers and didn’t continue to reach for the stars, despite what other people thought of them?
Opinions are like colds – they can be very contagious! Someone sneezes on you and, before you know it you’ve caught their cold, sneezed on someone else and passed it on. That is their opinion – don’t make it yours!
People often make the mistake of asking their friends and family for their opinion on something they have never done before. While your friends and family mean well, they are not your best source of information (unless they have successfully done what you want to do!).
Do you have someone in your life who constantly wants to bring you down? I mean, whatever new ideas you have, they will tell you why it’s a bad idea. Whatever you set out to achieve, you can be sure they will tell you why you can’t or shouldn’t do it. But it is probably based on one of 3 reasons:
- They are jealous of you and secretly wish they had the courage to do what you are doing.
- They don’t understand why you would want to do what you want to do.
- They want to keep you at their level of thinking (consciously or subconsciously).
My advice is to only listen to the opinions of people who have successfully done what you want to do. Seek out people who support you and encourage you.
You can’t control other people’s opinions, however, you can control your own. When someone gives you an unsupportive, negative opinion, what you do with it is completely up to you. You can catch it like a cold, or you can shake it off like water off a duck’s back. It’s up to you!
