Whether it happens to be fame, money, glory, or joy; we all live for
one thing – moments. Everybody has goals in life, whether it happens to
be losing more weight, building better relationships with other people,
finding an amazing girlfriend of boyfriend, or making enough money to
buy a house and support family.
What happens, though, is that most people find themselves stuck in
the same, daily pace or routine that feels something like a plateau.
Everyday looks the same and feels the same. Even when we dream of
something that we want, we get frustrated because we see no advances or
improvement towards what we are aiming for in life, and the only option
that makes us feel good is just an escape from it all – also known as
giving up.
Well, I’m here to tell you that whatever you want to have in life,
you need to fight for it. You need to find a way to breakthrough
somewhere in the process!
Do you remember that movie Cast Away with Tom Hanks? He gets stuck on
an island for four years. During that time, he is scared that he may
die from sickness or hunger, but I remember him saying that he just
needed to do everything he could to survive, and he did. He tried
everything he could in his power with the scanty resources that came
from washed up boxes and found a way to create something to help him get
back into the ocean. Days drifting out into the ocean, he finally hears
the sound of a ship. That was his breakthrough moment. His
reward was his life. Though this is just the plot from a Hollywood movie
(I sincerely hope you are never trapped on a desert island!), the
lessons can be applied to everyday life.
Breakthrough moments usually require stubborn persistence and undying faith
towards making thoughts turn into reality. Inventors such Henry Ford
and Thomas Edison were examples of people who had these characteristics.
Many people doubted what Ford wanted, which was eight cylinders cast in
one block for a car engine. But Ford demanded his workers to
keep working at it anyway even thought it seemed impossible. After a
years’ worth of work, it was finally invented. The design was a
breakthrough to help mass production of cars. Edison had to fail 1000
times before making the first light bulb to work. His breakthrough for
us was the electricity that we use today.
When you breakthrough, life becomes a lot easier. You’ll have leverage for a long time.
You’ve probably heard of Leo Babauta from Zen Habits or Steve Pavlina.
Both of them are two of the most popular bloggers on self-improvement.
Before the blogs became big, both wrote many articles until one day, an
article got linked from bigger websites and other social media sites
such as Digg and Delicious. They put their best effort into making that
one blog post stand out above the rest and the result was that it
brought floods of traffic to their website. That was their breakthrough
moment, which eventually made them into who they are today.
Sometimes a breakthrough can be life threatening, other times they
can be something that you just want to get off your chest. Here’s a
personal breakthrough example of mine, although it may sound a little
silly.
After breaking up with my first girlfriend, I had no idea how to date
after that. When she and I became a couple, everything just kind of
came together really quickly and I took the “pre-relationship” stuff
(holding hands, kiss, etc.) for granted.
The biggest trouble I had was how to kiss a girl! Every time I went
on a date with somebody after we broke up, it ended up in a really
boring afternoon in which all we did was talk (even though in the back
of my mind I was always wondering when me and my date would kiss). I
tried many techniques such as more touching, and more eye-contact, but
it usually came out awkward and weird.
Even though I failed many times and was close to giving up, I kept
persisting. I got about 17 emails from different women. Half of them
turned into duds, meaning they had a boyfriend, the e-mail conversation
just died, or dates never happened. The other half just turned out to be
friendly, casual conversations, in which no kissing occurred but more
of a ‘nice meeting you’ sort of thing.
Finally, I was just fed up with everything. During a private ride on a
Ferris wheel where it was just me and this other girl, I just told here
simply that I liked her and was wondering if she liked me and wanted to
kiss. This might not be the manliest thing to do, but surprisingly, she
said yes! We kissed and have been going out since. She is my current
girlfriend.
The point I want to get across is don’t be discouraged when things
don’t go your way. Even if it may seem like you’ve tried everything and
still nothing happened, find another way. If you keep on persisting you will eventually breakthrough.
When you do get that breakthrough moment, I can guarantee you that it
is one of the best feelings in the world. Sports athletes practice all
their life for that one moment, as do movie stars, singers, and other
performers. Just because they are famous, it doesn’t mean that we can’t
too achieve what they have done. They were once regular people like you
and me! But what sets them apart from other people is that they did
everything they could to finally breakthrough. You can do it too. Don’t
give up!
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