"If you don't accept failure as a
possibility, you don't set high
goals, you don't branch out, you
don't try - you don't take the risk."
Rosalynn Carter


The reason that so many times we
avoid big goals. We know we
might fail, and who wants to be
a failure?"

What Mrs Carter is telling us is
that if there's no real possibility
of failure, then our goal is too
small.

That gives us a good way to
measure our goals. If we look
at them and it looks not only
possible that we'll fail, but likely
that we'll fail, then we've got a
good one!

The chance of failure is a measure
of how much in our goal is new, how
much is difficult, and how much is
revolutionary.

When my friend Larry James, a
speaker, coach and author,
decided to build a successful
business doing weddings, he had
a lot against him.

Weddings were a whole different
market, no one thought of him in
terms of weddings, and he had no
church or denomination to promote
him.

Could he fail? Heck, yes.

But he set a goal to be voted the
"#1 Officiant" for weddings in the
greater Phoenix, AZ, area anyway.
This is the 5th biggest metro area
in the entire United States!

Does that goal sound big enough?

Now with four "Best Officiant" and
two "Brides Choice" awards, he has
done it, and he's booked 6 months
in advance.

Did it come easy? No, he worked
hard at it for several years,
making self promotion a full time
job. Consistent effort and belief in
himself and the goal eventually won.

The lesson for us is that if you
believe in the goal enough, and you
can look the possibility of failure in
the eye and not blink, then you
should go for it.

Everyone who takes risks has
many failures. It's the price of
entry in the game.

We can recover from failures,
but the pain of not trying never
goes away.

What's the biggest and most
impossible goal on your list?

Go for it!