Your Dream is One Decision Away: Determination

In my last blog post we talked about the first "D" of a Dream: Desire.  Today lets's look at the second "D": Determination.

Determination

Determination is resolve, willpower, strength of character, single-mindedness, purposefulness, and intentness.  Someone who practices determination has integrity.  He says yes when he means yes and no when he means no.[i]  He follows through on his commitments regardless of his feelings or the circumstance.  That’s "strength of character." 

He is focused on and works toward his goals that will move him toward his Dream.  He does not get distracted or drawn away from his Dream.  He doesn’t let his critics sideline him.  He focuses on the race ahead as if to win it[ii] and doesn’t stop to address those in the stands criticizing because he knows who he is, where he is, when he is, and why he is.  That’s single-mindedness, purposefulness, intentness, willpower, and resolve.

Teddy Roosevelt captured Determination best:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.[iii]

Commit.  Employ Determination.  Choose a definite goal, moving you closer to your Dream.  Invest all of you: mind, body, heart, and soul.  When you commit, all heaven breaks loose; it just looks and feels like hell for a while.

Stay committed, and keep moving.  Yes, achieving your Dream will be difficult.  You will encounter Obstacle-Opportunities and struggles, but when you are struggling to live your Dream, your Desire to see your Dream come true can fuel your commitment.

Remember the caterpillar from the blog entry on July 11, 2018: Transformation:  What do You Intend? (https://discoveringyourgreatness.blogspot.com/2018/07/transformation-what-do-you-intend.html)?  It must knit its own cocoon and struggle to emerge.  The struggle is integral to its transformation.  Like the caterpillar, we embrace struggle and learn and grow.  Obstacles do not define us.  They REFINE us.  We keep our Dreams before us, and we know the difficult experiences are moving us closer to our Dreams.

Decide.  The word decide has the same root as the words suicide, homicide, and genocide.  The root cis, as in the word incision, means to cut or cut off.  The form of cis, cide means to kill or to kill by cutting.  When you decide, you are cutting or killing off other choices in your current circumstance.  Determination is a decision, a cutting off of choices, a commitment to go through the struggle because your Dream is number one in your heart.  Determination means you overcome by adjusting to the obstacle, like water that finds its way down the river.  Over time your decision to commit to your Dream will reap rewards.

Never Look Back

My wife Margaret began her new business many years ago.  For the first few years she treated it like a hobby.  Studies show that ninety-eight percent of the people who work the business she’s a part of like a business become top income earners within ten years.

One day one of the consultants on Margaret’s team asked her what the key to her success was.  Margaret, who had reached financial success responded, “If you have experienced an obstacle in your business, I probably have experienced it too.  If you have made mistakes in your business, I have probably made the same mistake as well.  There is only one reason why I am successful:  I decided to never give up!  So Decide!  Decide to never give up!”  That’s determination!

Napoleon Hill writes, “Burn your bridges.”[iv]  When it comes to your Dream, give yourself no way out.  Commit to never quit but to train daily at your pace. When desire is afire, adversity is simply another moment to grow stronger while you pursue your Dream.  As Tim Redmond says, “Weak people look outward and make excuses.  Strong people look inward and make adjustments.”[v]

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[i] Matthew 5:37 and James 5:12

[ii] 1 Corinthians 9:25

[iii] Roosevelt, Teddy.  Speech given April 23, 1910 at The Sorbonne in Paris, France.

[iv] Hill, Napoleon.  Think and Grow Rich. Fortune Publishing Group, 2013. Print.

[v] Tim Redmond helps all kinds of organizations and businesses with “transformational growth.”  To explore Tim’s ideas go to http://redmondleadership.com.