“Are the chips down?”

26 September 2016, 09:39 am
Speciality Bites by Paul Hargreaves

I have been thinking this week about chips; not those to have with chips, nor those that used to be called crisps, but those resident on some people’s shoulders!

A surprisingly high number of people let incidents from their past affect their presents and their futures. The key to success in business is to be an optimist, an encourager and even if life has dealt you a raw deal to leave it behind and look forward. A friend of mine, Paul McGee, has built a whole teaching programme around SUMO, which stand for “Shut Up, Move On!” That is, shut up from moaning, whingeing, thinking that others have had it better than you and move on with your life.

It is very difficult to see the future if the past still clings to you. I have met people that have had marital failures, business failures and challenging parenting experiences, who have never quite moved on with the positive outlook they are going to need to achieve success. Hopefully I talk to you with compassion, as I can personally tick all of those boxes, yet consider that I have moved on and having a positive influence on others. The key is not to look at others with envy or regret, but concentrate on being yourself.

A great quote by Steven Furtick sums much of this up: “The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our ‘behind the scenes’ with everyone else’s highlight reel”. In other words, we see all of ourselves, including the failures, and often see only the positive highlights in everyone else.  They too have their challenges and difficulties. Yes, there are people who seem to fall in the mud and come up smelling of roses, and don’t to us seem particularly worthy of tremendous success in business, but how are we to know what is going on behind the scenes for them? Don’t feel hard done by, get on with your life.

Sorry for quoting others throughout this week’s blog, but they say it better than me. Here’s another one, whose origin is unknown: “There is no such thing as luck in business. Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.” If you are letting the past affect your present, or have chips on your shoulder, you won’t be preparing, and won’t be ready for the opportunities that will surely come.

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