{"id":174,"date":"2008-11-01T13:31:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-01T13:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/11\/do-you-want-to-win-at-the-game-of-life.html"},"modified":"2008-11-01T13:31:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-01T13:31:00","slug":"do-you-want-to-win-at-the-game-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/11\/do-you-want-to-win-at-the-game-of-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Do You Want to Win at the Game of Life?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Have you ever watched someone who seemed to possess second-rate skills or talent have a first-rate success? Did it make you wonder why, since so many people who are more gifted or smarter go nowhere? The latter ones may have a key component to success in common\u2014a determination to rise to the top of their game and their careers and they go the distance to achieve it.<\/p>\n

Actress Sophia Loren said, \u201cGetting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talent but with great inner drive go much further than people with vastly superior talent.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

All the talent in the world won\u2019t help if you don\u2019t use it. Being the most delicious cookie in the box won\u2019t get you eaten if no one picks you. Being the smartest person in your office won\u2019t help if you don\u2019t open your mouth and show your smarts. Many people waste their natural abilities by not putting them to the test and proving what they\u2019re capable of.<\/p>\n

This Recovering DoorMat has learned she can do anything she chooses too. YOU can too!<\/span><\/p>\n

Think about what you could accomplish if you develop the ability and the inner drive to advance in whatever you want to do. How can you prepare yourself to take the steps to pursue what you say you want? The keys to making progress are:<\/span><\/p>\n

* Learn<\/span> what you don\u2019t know. Take a class, get a tutor or mentor, read books, or whatever it takes to teach you what you need before going forward.<\/p>\n

* Practice<\/span> your skills until you improve them and then keep practicing to be as good as possible. Practice may not make you perfect but it will make you better. And the better you get, the stronger your confidence becomes.<\/p>\n

* Ask<\/span> yourself, \u201cHow badly do I want [whatever it is you\u2019re pursuing]?\u201d If it\u2019s just a whim, let it go. But if it\u2019s something you want from your soul, acknowledge that. Focus on it. Write it down. Keep in on your mind so you can build a mental momentum.<\/p>\n

* Stop<\/span> making excuses about why you\u2019re not ready or can\u2019t do it. Excuses are self-inflicted road blocks. They say you\u2019ve made a a conscious decision not to go after what you say you want. \u201cI can\u2019t learn to ski since I\u2019m not fit enough.\u201d Give it up or eat healthier, hit the gym and improve your fitness. \u201cI don\u2019t know enough to run the office.\u201d Give it up or educate yourself. Ask lots of questions. Write down what you think you don\u2019t know and find out how to learn it. It’s your choice, not your sentence, to let excuses stop you.<\/p>\n

* Decide<\/span> if achieving your goal is worth the effort. Literally make yourself choose if you prefer to complain or make excuses or do what you\u2019ve gotta do to make it happen. Consciously make the choice. And if the choice is to go for it, start doing the work.<\/p>\n

* Affirm<\/span> your intentions. \u201cI trust myself to do____.\u201d \u201cI want___ enough to do what it takes.\u201d \u201cI can do it!\u201d \u201cI\u2019m good enough!\u201d Make up your own affirmations to fit your situation.<\/p>\n

* Focus<\/span> on doing what you have to. Start with one baby step at a time. Do something to move forward, even if it seems trivial. One step closer is one step closer!<\/span> Then take another. Even if reaching your goal takes time, keep moving forward.<\/p>\n

* Push <\/span>through the doubts or fears or pain if you want to get to the other side. It will be worth it when you get what you want.<\/p>\n

This morning I saw gymnast Kerri Strug<\/span> on a TV morning show. I remembered watching the gymnastics finals in the 1996 Olympics. The US team was in contention for a gold medal and Kerri was last to do her vault. It was all up to her. Everyone thought it was over when Kerri fell and injured her ankle on her first try. She was in pain but needed to stick her landing on the second vault. Most athletes would have mourned their bad luck and allowed themselves to be carried off. Not Kerri!<\/p>\n

I held my breath as she focused on her second vault with determination<\/span>. She did it perfectly, landed on both feet and held it long enough to secure gold for the American team. Then she collapsed from the pain. Some have it, some don\u2019t. It\u2019s hard to stay in the game and not get discouraged or give up because of difficulties. Advancing in any career takes work. Some goals add extra elements of difficulty. You need a strong soul, and strong faith, in both you and in knowing you have spiritual support. Kerri Strug wanted to win badly enough to endure the pain and focus on what she needed to do. Do you?<\/span><\/p>\n

Kerri is now working with ING to encourage young people to get out and run through a program called Orange Laces.<\/span><\/a> Check it out and donate if you can! She’s now determined to help kids become more fit.<\/p>\n

If you enjoyed my post, please leave a comment and\/or click on the bookmark and write a short review at some of the sites, especially Stumbleupon and Digg. Thanks!

\"AddThis<\/a> var addthis_pub = ‘wryter’;
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever watched someone who seemed to possess second-rate skills or talent have a first-rate success? Did it make you wonder why, since so many people who are more gifted or smarter go nowhere? The latter ones may have a key component to success in common\u2014a determination to rise to the top of their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nice-people-can-finish-first"],"yoast_head":"\nDo You Want to Win at the Game of Life? - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/11\/do-you-want-to-win-at-the-game-of-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Do You Want to Win at the Game of Life? - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have you ever watched someone who seemed to possess second-rate skills or talent have a first-rate success? Did it make you wonder why, since so many people who are more gifted or smarter go nowhere? The latter ones may have a key component to success in common\u2014a determination to rise to the top of their…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/11\/do-you-want-to-win-at-the-game-of-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lessons from a Recovering Doormat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-11-01T13:31:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_W3h59OgJIAA\/SQyTQ8QuGNI\/AAAAAAAAAdk\/prXES9SYWJI\/s200\/image22.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Daylle Deanna Schwartz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Do You Want to Win at the Game of Life? - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/11\/do-you-want-to-win-at-the-game-of-life.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Do You Want to Win at the Game of Life? - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","og_description":"Have you ever watched someone who seemed to possess second-rate skills or talent have a first-rate success? Did it make you wonder why, since so many people who are more gifted or smarter go nowhere? The latter ones may have a key component to success in common\u2014a determination to rise to the top of their…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/11\/do-you-want-to-win-at-the-game-of-life.html","og_site_name":"Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","article_published_time":"2008-11-01T13:31:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_W3h59OgJIAA\/SQyTQ8QuGNI\/AAAAAAAAAdk\/prXES9SYWJI\/s200\/image22.jpg"}],"author":"Daylle Deanna Schwartz","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/11\/do-you-want-to-win-at-the-game-of-life.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/11\/do-you-want-to-win-at-the-game-of-life.html","name":"Do You Want to Win at the Game of Life? - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/11\/do-you-want-to-win-at-the-game-of-life.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/11\/do-you-want-to-win-at-the-game-of-life.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_W3h59OgJIAA\/SQyTQ8QuGNI\/AAAAAAAAAdk\/prXES9SYWJI\/s200\/image22.jpg","datePublished":"2008-11-01T13:31:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-11-01T13:31:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#\/schema\/person\/4250884f68a588907744baa491f9df35"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/11\/do-you-want-to-win-at-the-game-of-life.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/11\/do-you-want-to-win-at-the-game-of-life.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/11\/do-you-want-to-win-at-the-game-of-life.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_W3h59OgJIAA\/SQyTQ8QuGNI\/AAAAAAAAAdk\/prXES9SYWJI\/s200\/image22.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_W3h59OgJIAA\/SQyTQ8QuGNI\/AAAAAAAAAdk\/prXES9SYWJI\/s200\/image22.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/11\/do-you-want-to-win-at-the-game-of-life.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Do You Want to Win at the Game of Life?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/","name":"Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Daylle Deanna Schwartz","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#\/schema\/person\/4250884f68a588907744baa491f9df35","name":"Daylle Deanna Schwartz","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/83b\/83ba6e1423377712fe408a5fab971bfax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/83b\/83ba6e1423377712fe408a5fab971bfax96.jpg","caption":"Daylle Deanna Schwartz"},"description":"Daylle Deanna Schwartz is a speaker, self-empowerment counselor, best-selling author of 15 books, including Nice Girls Can Finish First (McGraw-Hill), All Men Are Jerks Until Proven Otherwise and founder of The Self-Love Movement\u2122 where she's giving away her 13th book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways, a She's appeared on hundreds of TV and radio shows, including Oprah, Howard Stern, and Good Morning America and has been quoted in dozens of publications, including the New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Marie Claire, and Men\u00b9s Health. After being a consummate People Pleaser who felt unworthy of getting her own needs met for many years, Daylle found a path of self-love that enabled her to build her self-esteem and reinvent herself into a dual career. She learned to get taken seriously without being overtly assertive when she became one of the first women to start an independent record label (on a dare!) and learned to play ball nicely and successfully in an industry dominated by men. To help independent musicians empower themselves, Daylle writes music business books for Billboard\/Random House, including the very popular Start & Run Your Own Record Labe and I Don't Need a Record Deal! Daylle's books have been translated into over 10 languages and are popular around the world. She speaks for colleges, organizations and corporations. Through her company, Project Self-Empowerment, Daylle creates programs and materials to help people empower themselves. One goal is to raise the money to self-publish her book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways and give it away for free in colleges and through organizations, to give thanks for all her blessings. Daylle uses her writing and speaking to help others find the kind of contentment and empowerment that she has.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/author\/dschwartz"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}