Obstacles or Pffffffft?
A week ago today, here in Australia, we commemorated Anzac Day. We honoured courage; unbelievable tenacity, endurance and persistence; creativity and flexabilty; mateship and unity; the tremendous sacrifices we make when standing up for our ideals.
Australia found itself united in its common spirit, the HUMAN common spirit, and we started to get a sense of ourselves; of who we all are, of what we all value, of what we are all prepared to stand up for, and perhaps most importantly – of our awareness that when against extraordinary odds, we can get through.
The stories we love hearing about are the ones with that vital ‘pffffffft’ factor.
Here in Australia, our national ABC TV runs “Playschool”, a childrens’ tv program that has been running for over 40 years. One of the evergreen songs of that show sings about obstacles.
- (I’m paraphrasing here )
- Look – here’s a big wall…
- Can’t go this way?… Have to go around it.
- Cant go around it?… Have to go under it.
- Cant get under it?… Have to go over it.
- Can’t go over it?… Have to go through it!
- Yes! … And now we are moving forward.
Obstacles or Pffffffft?
Whilst browsing the ‘net a couple of nights ago, I happened upon a story of a young Iranian woman, whose name is Ladan. She said Pffffffft.
Her story is an inspiration.She had a dream and persisted in amongst challenges that may well be seen as insurmountable to many of us, she is a thriving internet marketer.
Her challenges were/are including (and I’m quoting from the post):
“Do you have a credit card?
Do you have a PayPal account?
Can you open a US bank account?
Can you receive US checks?
Do you have the freedom to travel?
Could you go to an internet marketing seminar?
Maybe you didn’t answer “Yes” to ALL of those questions, but for EACH question you answered “yes” to, you are starting one step ahead of Ladan.
Let me ask you a couple more questions…
Are you fluent in English?
If you said “Yes”, take two more steps ahead.
Do people view you as a terrorist?
No? Take three more steps ahead.”
Obstacles or Pffffffft?
So who’s had/got the pffffffft factor?
Mother Teresa ?
Nelson Mandela ?
Gandhi ?
Columbus ?
Stephen Hawkings?
Helen Keller?
Eric the Red?
Alex the Great?
Donald Trump?
The Wright Bothers?
Oprah?
The Anzacs?
Everyone in the Autobiography section of your library?
You?
So…. Obstacles?????
If you want to make an excuse about why your obstacle is ‘too hard’, ‘too big’, ‘too much’, ‘too dirty’, ‘can’t be done’, ‘is impossible’ – well then, that’s ok.
You’ve already got your life just as it is now, and if that really IS your comfort zone then you just keep on believing/be-living the excuses.
JUST STOP blaming everyone else for not believing you,
and JUST STOP expecting others to want to live like you do.
Or Pffffffft?
Or you COULD change your world..
You COULD just say Pfffffft and do it anyway.
© 2010 Jo Carey-Bradshaw. All rights reserved.
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One forgets that the greatest tool we have is English. I am fluent in English which means I can communicate with the majority of the world. I take it for granted sometimes.
When so many people who have achieve so much in their life to affect change have said pffffft and did it anyway – sometimes one thinks, “but they are so much better than me.”
Yeah, it’s an excuse but maybe it could a blog you could in the future to talk about all the excuses people use and blast them out the water. I can see YouTube videos of people using excuses…. just a thought.
Thankyou for your wonderful words of encouragement.
Hi Samantha,
You are so right, we can get extremely creative when we devise our excuses. I guess the first step is to recognize that the excuses are just that – ‘excuses’.
Thanks for your suggestion, most creative!
Hi Jo,
I enjoyed reading this article, thank you.
Yes, if the ANZACS only saw obstacles we would be speaking Japanese now and not English.
I think your message is clear and one that Sean Rasmussen teaches in his mindset blogs on the power of persistence. Also teachings from Napoleon Hills as well. Is a powerful message. Thanks again!
Hi Jill,
I’m glad you liked this. Sean certainly does teach this and very well too.
Hi Jo,
Excuses are so easy to make – as we’re really only trying to convince ourselves not to make an effort. Rather than say ‘no’ (either because we can’t be bothered or everyone else we know has said no), sometimes it’s good to step up to the mark and say ‘yes’. The more times you do this, the more you get use to being a trail blazer.
David Moloney´s last blog ..What is the Difference Between a JPG, GIF, TIFF, PNG and EPS?
Hi David,
I love your ‘trail blazer’. And I know there are many times we can let ourselves listen to nay-sayers.
It is easier to be walking our paths when we know we can walk, but when we agree with limitations we are creating our own walls. Stepping up to the mark, even if it is just to prove that we can’t do something, is taking an action we weren’t doing 5 minutes ago and so we are already doing more than we thought.
Hi Jo,
I really like your article. We need to say “Pfft” much more often. If you know and feel that what you want to do is right, go for it. Everybody else is not you and doesn’t know what you know. So how could they make a better decision than you???
Renee´s last blog ..Self Improvement Books – What Are Your Favourites
Hi Renee,
You are most certainly correct!
Hi Jo
Wow! What a post! You brought up so many cool points and food for thought. Thanks so much for sharing Ladan’s story. Gotta love Playschool, hey… That show, and others like it (like Sesame Street) helped me to learn English.
Atta girl…
Lina Nguyen´s last blog ..Why you should get slapped on the head for logic thinking
Hi Lina,
You are so right – gotta love Playschool! And Ladan is certainly inspires me – I’m finding her story is a most useful example for ‘bullying’ discussions. Humanity is pretty amazing!