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If you put a buzzard in a pen six or eight feet square and entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of his ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of ten or twelve feet. Without space to run, as is his habit, he will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top.

The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkable nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.

A Bumblebee if dropped into an open tumbler will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself.

In many ways, there are lots of people like the buzzard, the bat and the bee. They are struggling about with all their problems and frustrations, not realizing that the answer is right there above them.

There is only two words that will always lead you to success. Those words are yes and no. Undoubtedly, you’ve mastered saying yes. So start practicing saying no. Your goals depend on it!

If you are constantly saying yes to other people, then you are constantly saying no to yourself and your goals.

Ask yourself if what is being requested of you is in line with your goals, will it benefit you in some way and bring you closer to your success, or will you simply be spending your time on someone else’s good opportunity?

How much time do you waste with projects and activities that you really don’t want to do simply because you are uncomfortable saying no?

Success depends on getting good at saying no without feeling guilty. You cannot get ahead with your own goals if you are always saying yes to someone else’s projects. You can only get ahead with your desired lifestyle if you are focused on the things that will produce that lifestyle.

But how can you determine what is good and what is great? You put the opportunity in writing! Look at it and decide what questions you need to ask, what kind of information you need to gather, what you would need to do in order to make it happen. Then, compare that information with what you know about achieving your goals.

Give yourself enough time to really think it through, you might say no to an opportunity that sounds good and find out that the really great opportunity was right around the corner! Or you might decide that this opportunity will lead you to an even greater opportunity.

Be brave in saying no to good opportunities, stay focused on your higher goals and let people know that you are committed to those goals. People will respect your clarity and drive.

Remember, just as you are in control of your feelings and attitudes, other people are in control of theirs, so if they do get upset with you for saying no…well that is a choice they make for themselves.

If the five Olympic rings were attitudes of champions in every profession, these five attitudes would be prominent in the mindset of the peak performer:1. Paying the Price — Everyone wants to win, but few are willing to invest the time and effort.

Paying the price means focusing on developing the skills and training regimen of champions — observation, imitation, repetition and the internalization of knowledge into habits; also, learning why and how to go the extra mile and seeing success as a marathon, not a dash. Champions view failures as temporary inconveniences and learning experiences.

2. The Olympian Within — Winners believe in their worth in advance of their performance.

Most people base their worth on their current status or achievement level, which means that until they are judged successful by society’s standards, they have little to be proud of. Champions believe in their dreams when they have only a dream to hang on to, even in the face of criticism and superior achievements by others.

3. Non-situational Integrity — Authentic, lasting winners have an uncompromising attitude about self-honesty.

They function according to an “integrity triangle”, consisting of three basic questions:

(a) Are my beliefs based upon truth?

(b) Do my words and actions correspond with truth and honesty?

(c) Before I speak or act, do I honestly consider the impact of my decision on other people and the environment? 4. The “Coachability” Factor — Champions are always open to alternatives to improve their performance. Consistent winners are not the arrogant egotists who dominate the media spotlight.

The most successful individuals in the game of life are often the most approachable, most gracious, non-judgmental with others and most critical of their own performances, as well as most eager to learn and improve.

5. Being a Team Player — a team in harmony is synergy in motion, where the whole is greater than the sum of the individual talents. When all assignments are understood, when each takes 100 percent responsibility for the outcome, a quantum leap in performance takes place.

Winners learn how to become interdependent, without sacrificing individuality; how to stand out, while fitting in. 

If you realize, the only thing that separated Thomas Edison or Henry Ford from the rest of the people was persistence. But lack of it is one of the major stumbling blocks on our way to success.

Persistence is the will to go forward despite of the limitations of the time, to never give up on our dream and to fight for it to the death. It takes guts to keep on going when it gets really ugly, but persistence always brings us great rewards in life.

What I wish to convey is that we will always experience resistance one way or another, it can come from our own self or from our loved ones, friends and colleagues, but we must persist in the face of opposition, who cares what others think, all that matters is what you think, remember ‘it’s your life’ .

I still have a long way to go, and I like to remind myself, persistence is the way to go.

Ways to strengthen our will to persist

1.- Make sure that what you are going for is something you really want. If it’s not worth persisting when times get tough don’t even bother with it.

2.- Remember that everything is temporary, nothing lasts forever and eventually every problem will either be resolved satisfactory or come to an end one way or another.

3.- Most chances are you are not risking your life, you may be risking money, time, effort, your reputation, etc., but this are minor things well taking the risk on.

4.- Remember this is the FUN part of going after what you want. Problems and finding our way through them is what ultimately bring us an increase of awareness and growth. This is what it is all about; it is the trip, the wonderful journey full of struggle and adventure that make life worth living. Knowing this you will say ‘bring it on’.

5.- Keep holding the image of what you want to be, do or have in your mind and never stop looking at it. Like Napoleon say ‘I see only the objective, the obstacles must give way’.

6.- Really successful people have always started from nothing, persisted through failure after failure and one day BANG! Success was theirs. Everyone says ‘oh they where just lucky’, but you and I know better. 

If you put a frog into a very hot, near boiling water, it will jump out immediately. It may get scalded, but it will still survive and live on. 

However, if you put a frog into a pot of cold water, and very, very slowly heat up the pot, the frog will not jump up. It will instead swim comfortably in the water, enjoying the increasing warm water, without realizing that the end is near. 

When it realizes that the water is getting too hot, it cannot jump out anymore because it is already half-cooked. Ultimately, of course, the frog dies, not knowing why it had to be so in an environment which was so comfortable initially.

In many instances, we humans are like that frog in the pot.With global warming, we do not care until the ‘pot’ (in this case, our planet) we live in gets too hot. It will be too late when we realize the danger.

In our country, our economy, too, is like the frog in the pot. We do not want to adopt competitive policies because all of us are living in a very comfortable environment. When the economy really gets marginalized and we are left at the bottom of the ladder, again it will be a case of us realizing too late.

Many of our political leaders are also like that frog in the pot. They do not object to misdeeds, abuses and corruption so when the country finds itself enveloped in a corrupt culture, it will again be a case of being too late. It will take many generations to correct what could have been corrected fairly easily at the very beginning.

Many of us are also like that frog. We are apathetic to the changes around us. We carry on our life as if nothing will change it. We are not bothered by bad politics, we are not bothered by corruption, and we are not bothered about the threats of globalization.We don’t bother to register to vote, we don’t bother to speak out, and we don’t bother to learn new things.

All this until one day we find that we are so far behind others and it is too late.

Hopefully, this anecdote of the frog can help some of us see the light. We must act before the pot gets too hot.