Oftentimes in business and life, we hit a brick wall and it’s easy to point to others to solve this. Ken reminds us, through an inspirational gentleman he watched, that every obstacle you’re dealing with is for you. Nobody is going to tackle it to the ground other than you. You’re the only one who can overcome your own obstacles. Learn how you can face that block in business and beat it or it’ll always follow you around.
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It’s Your Obstacle
This is the podcast where I live life. As I see things around me that I can tell are hitting people right between the eyes, right between the ears, warm in their heart, I write them down and make sure I podcast about it. I was out of town. I witnessed an incredible gentleman named Cedric get introduced on stage by Michelle Obama and he reminded me of a lesson that needs to be taught a lot more often. I’m not going to say it his way, it’s a core lesson in life, in business, in sports. I’m going to say it my way a little bit and I’m sure he won’t mind that I take the license a little bit. I used one of his metaphors. It’s just a lesson I often forget myself. My brother, Bill, even reminded me of this. It’s just awesome.
We're either in a storm or we just came out of a storm or about to go into a storm. Click To TweetThis lesson is going to be called It’s Your Obstacle. I hinted to this in the last podcast, but here’s how this goes. Everybody listening to this podcast is dealing with an obstacle right now. Everybody, at all times. You’ve heard me, I don’t know how many times I say we live life in three categories. We’re in an emotional storm of some kind, we just came out of a storm or about to go into a storm, that’s it. Welcome to life on planet Earth. Here’s the deal. As Cedric poignantly reminded me, every obstacle you’re dealing with is for you. It’s your obstacle. You’ve got to deal with it. You can’t run away from it. Most people hit a brick wall. They hit a massive obstacle and they say, “Screw this,” and they go sideways and start running on a different track.
Little do they know that when they start running on that second track and they come to an obstacle, and say, “Screw this,” then they go on a third track. I would say 80% to 90% of the time, they’re going to bump into the exact same obstacle. As Cedric perfectly explained, that obstacle is for you. Cedric was in the military. He stepped on 30 pounds of explosives, blew his legs off, part of his arms, a little tip of his finger. He explained specifically why that obstacle was for him. He had to deal with that obstacle. He had to deal with certain things that he was not dealing with. It took losing his legs to finally deal with the obstacle. He said something like, “My prayers went from, why did this happen to me and when is it going to get better? Why is this happening to me? Why am I dealing with this episode? Why am I dealing with this obstacle? Why am I dealing with this challenge? When is this going to get easier? When is it going to get better?”
The bottom line is he switched his thinking to, “How hard do you want me to hang on?” He used an absolutely phenomenal analogy of a pendulum swinging. He said, “Imagine that you are on this massive pendulum and it’s swinging backward and backward. It’s even getting heavier and picking up more steam because the obstacle is getting harder and harder.” He said, “When you switch your thinking to, how hard do you want me to hang onto this? How hard, Lord?” is what he said and I’m using his words. How hard, God, do you want me to hang onto this?
Here’s the key. Let’s go in a completely different vein. Let’s say you started a business and all of a sudden you’re coming to the realization, “We have a great product. We even have some pretty decent marketing, but nobody’s buying anything. Nobody’s buying this thing.” Maybe your obstacle is a complete lack of understanding of sales. How do you sell stuff? There are hundreds of books on how to sell things, read them. Maybe you’re in business and you live in fear and you’re afraid to hire an employee. There are hundreds of books on how to hire employees and why. Maybe you’re in business and you’re going forward, and you’ve got this great product. It’s even selling, but you’re running out of cash because you don’t know how to manage money. There are hundreds of books and hundreds of mentors out there that would coach you on how to raise capital.
Whatever your obstacle is, if you don’t wrestle this obstacle to the ground, if you don’t grab this fulcrum, this pendulum as it’s going backward and you jump out of this business because you can’t sell or you can’t raise capital, or maybe you’re having a challenge counting the beans and you have a crappy accounting department. If you don’t wrestle the accounting department to the ground and bring in experts at accounting and you quit and you become a Caspar Milquetoast and you quit this business and jump into another business because you can’t wrestle accounting to the ground, what your obstacle is going to be in your next business is accounting. If you can’t sell your stuff in this current business and you quit it and then you eventually three years later started another business, what your obstacle is going to be is sales.
Providence moves upon commitment. Click To TweetForget business. Let’s say you can’t get along with your spouse. Do you think you’re going to get a new spouse and things are going to be better? No, it’s going to suck there too, the grass isn’t greener. There are hundreds of books. You might want to read The 5 Love Languages. If you haven’t read The 5 Love Languages, come on, read the book. If you haven’t read, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, you’ve got to read the books. It’s your obstacle. Deal with it. Wrestle the bear to the ground and graduate from that obstacle. As Cedric describes, when you grab that sucker and you wrap your arms around it and you understand, I’m not letting go. I’m going to beat this obstacle.
I’m here to tell you, this is not Cedric words, it’s mine, providence moves upon commitment. When you make the decision, “I’m not leaving this business. I’m not stopping this challenge. I’m wrestling this to the ground. I’m not leaving this.” All of a sudden, the right person is going to enter your life. The right money is going to come in. The sales are going to start to happen. I promise you, I’m 25 years in business. Do you imagine how many obstacles I’ve wrestled to the ground? The reality is providence doesn’t move upon hard work and effort, although you need that. Providence moves upon commitment. Here’s the question for you. What is the obstacle you’re dealing with right now? As the famous David Corbin says in his book, Illuminate, you better illuminate it, shine a light on it, and then wrestle that sucker to the ground and kick its ass. I hope this helps. See you.
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