Opportunity is the Optimist's Word for Choice

I believe in the concept that failure is a part of success.  You will never truly appreciate success and happiness unless you know the feeling of failure.  Some failures are hiccups and part of the learning curve while others are the product of grossly negligent decisions or malfeasance.  Nonetheless, neither of these results are permanent although some failures are more difficult to rebound from.

"It's not how far you fall, but how high you bounce back that counts." ~ Zig Ziglar 

Failure is the easy part in the equation.  Finding the resilience to rebound is the tough part.  What drives someone to get back up?  Sometimes it seems easier to just lay there, breathing in the dirt, with your eyes closed hoping no one was looking.  But, inevitably, they were.  Why do we get back up?  It's hard and it's embarrassing.

I'm inspired by the idea that I have the potential to do something great in my life.  I'm not sure what that it yet, but it is imminent.  Perhaps I will see through my goal of becoming a personal trainer and helping others change their lives.  Perhaps I will create and run a business that will set the bar for corporate philanthropy.  Perhaps I will be a great father and model the right balance of love, acceptance and encouragement for my kids to change the world.  Greatness is personal and a superb motivator.

"My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure." ~ Abraham Lincoln

That begs the question, are there great people or great just opportunities?  It seems to me that we all begin life the same way.  We all face somewhat similar choices throughout our early lives.  Where we differ is how well we reason through these choices, which is the primary factor in how far we fall.  But at the root of it all we are all human beings with the same opportunities.  Opportunity is the optimist's word for choice.

When you feel driven by greatness, in whatever form that may be, you begin to see every choice as an opportunity.  The people who become known as great have learned to make better choices and seize opportunities.  And, that is where life is truly lived, in the moments of personal greatness.  That's why we keep getting up.  That's why we brush ourselves off, spit the dirt out of our mouths and refocus our sights ahead.  Opportunities are much easier to see when you stand with your head held high, rather than laying in the dirt and defeated.

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.  Because almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important." ~ Steve Jobs