I have been thinking on an interesting observation lately. The idea is that much of success lies in the acceptance and being comfortable with opposites of where you want to be. Let me explain.

Let’s take a look at something I know well such as practicing your instrument. In order to become great at a guitar you have to have a final goal. It is something you strive for. The end goal for you might be the ability to play fluid, effortless licks in front of lots of people. But, that end goal needs an opposite which is the daily task of practicing and building up your abilities. The opposite is where you want to be versus what needs to be done now.

You can not obtain the final goal without breaking it down to daily steps. But, your daily steps very possibly won’t lead you in a desired direction unless you know what the direction of the final destination is.

So, the success lies in the ability of operating while seeing the distant possibility and what needs to be done now. You accept the two points and are conscious of the stretch in-between.

Let’s take a look at another example where the opposites work, perhaps with a slightly different twist.

If you want to ask a person out successfully, I really think you have to be ok with getting rejected. You can see a clear “want” and the “fail” scenario here. You have to be ok with it. The more you accept the possible opposites outcome of where you want to be, the higher your chances are of success.

In my own life, the greatest gains were obtained when I went after something not caring if I loose. One of the materialistic examples of this is when I wrote a check in the amount of my yearly salary to buy a car that I always wanted. On top of that I did not even care if something was wrong with it. You can call it stupidity of being young (there might be some truth to it) but that is the point, you see? I was ok with either outcome. Most people would not take that chance. The vehicle turned out great and has quadrupled in value since the day I bought it.

Here is another case from my own life. I made a decision growing up that I was going to give my all to practicing the guitar in order to ultimately become a full time metal musician. I said to myself that I am ok with failing as long as I know what I gave it my all. So although I can not say that I never thought about it; I was completely ok with sitting in my basement playing while missing out on Summer days at the beach or making very little money for a long period where some of the people I knew were getting real paying jobs and setting up their life on much more socially accepted terms. I went for my goal and accepted the opposite result.

Once again, this approach has not let me down. I’m going to cap it here and leave the above with you.

I hope this will give you some ideas to think about. Horns Up.