Purchasing the Lotus

Outside intelligence and aptitude, what sets us apart from those who accomplish great things? I like to think it's persistence; doing something over and over and over to learn from the process. I also think persistence can be used to overcome what I consider the third highest-ranking thing which sets us apart from those who accomplish great things: personality disorders - the kind where the individual has zero understanding of what is taking place or why, so assumes zero culpability rather than endeavoring to figure it out because it might conflict with their unyielding worldview. Or is that too specific? Either way, ever since considering a career in motivational speaking because of an otherwise benign productivity question at work, I've wondered what was stopping me from doing so.

Fear, mostly. Fear that I would not succeed. But that's too easy. Why fear, is the real question. Of the few motivational speakers I am aware of, one has been Vice-President of a Fortune 500 corporation and carries impressive degrees. I've none of that. She's also out there posting and writing and tweeeting every single day. And that's the part I'm talking about. Walking the walk. I knew a girl who wanted to become a successful niche author, so she moved from Ohio to California, met people, and wrote every single day. She became the success she was looking to become.

I recently purchased the novel, The Monk who Sold his Ferrari from a motivational speaker I'd never heard of, and that made me giggle since I was planning on purchasing a Lotus. Dozens of pages later I began to yearn for my answer behind desiring such an extravagant purchase, and after conferring with someone who has always been able to distill down my non-liner thinking into digestible chunks, settled upon, "representational."

While we may consider successful authors somehow smarter or more talented than us, the only thing which really sets them apart is the actual doing. They don't know anything we don't, they simply set out to pursue their dream until it is realized. The same can be said for motivational speakers. They just go out there and do it - they're not waiting for everything to first fall into place, or waiting for the right equipment. While many of them are no doubt above average in the charisma department, many of them simply have a message they wish to convey, and work at doing so. Flipping through Susan Cain's book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking at the bookstore last year revealed Gandhi was prohibitively shy around other people and mortified by public speaking. That didn't stop him from spreading his ideas.

No matter what the excuse, no one else can motivate us to put forth the effort to realize our dreams. But as far as letting excuses dictate our day to life, see personality disorders above. We can always "prove" our ineffectiveness at life through dichotomous justifications. And in a way, that is its own reward. As for me, by living frugally, attempting to not make excuses, and taking responsibility for my attitude and behavior no matter what forces endeavor to encroach upon them, my Lotus will represent proof that always doing the right thing, wins.