Overcome Obstacles – Ten Habits Day 12

Many writers will use a marathon analogy here. I hate running. I am humbled by many of you of who hit the pavement and run the track or whatever the proper lingo is for running. I choose to think of overcoming obstacles with a FOOTBALL analogy! Because that’s just how I roll.

For those of you who don’t know – the wide receiver is the guy who usually catches the football. His goal is a touch down. He has to cross a certain line, before getting tackled to the ground, in order to score a touchdown. He knows what he wants to reach but he doesn’t give up the first time it gets tough. After all – there are a lot of people out there who’s sole purpose seems to be preventing him from reaching his goal.

Does he just lay down with the ball and wait for the end? Give up and go quietly into the night? No!

He does whatever it takes to reach this certain destination –

• Juke – You’d probably recognize this move if you saw it, whether you recognize the term or not. It’s a quick side-step around an opponent. You continue along the same path, towards the same ultimate destination, but just do a little jig to the left or to the right to move around what would have otherwise been a problem area.
• Spin Move – A quick change of direction to break free from another’s grasp and move the receiver to an open lane. This happened to me last year. Suddenly I found myself pro-blogging big time, just as I let go of another very time-consuming obligation! A spin move? Well, my head was spinning. How did I end up here? But there was the open path right in there, it only made sense to occupy what was open and go full-force!
• Speed/Running – Outrunning those trying to hold him down. Or just plain continuing on! Sometimes pure and simple grit is what it takes. If you’ve hit a plateu sometimes you just keep plugging along. When the world catches up to your efforts, you’ll be far ahead. Growth is so rarely linear – it tends to show itself in spits and spurts. The efforts during the lulls are just as important as efforts during the peak times. Maybe more so.
• Continued Effort – Not as fancy as the other moves, sometimes the answer is to just. keep. going. You’ve seen those kick-off returns where the guy is running 80 or 90 yards? When he gets about halfway he’s wide open – nothing in his way except the distance that he must travel. Are you willing to endure and go the distance?
• Digging it out – Stretching out for the last ground to get the score. You’ve all seen this – the player being tackled who has the presence of mind to stretch out and make that game-winning score. Have you ever felt like you’re going down or falling behind? What can you do to stretch your efforts to the maximum?

So I’m sure you can see how these moves apply themselves to blogging, writing, business and life in general. And hopefully you can see how the work we’ve done previously with inspired goals, specific plans, etc are so important. When you know your ultimate goal, and you have a plan to get there, obstacles are less important because you know where you are heading.

Food For Thought – What is a recent obstacle that has presented itself to you? How can you overcome (or bypass or move-around or spin away from) that obstacle?

Read Ten Habits Day 13 to learn how tiny steps toward success add up quickly!