Life is the toughest sport. And, in this sport, I’ve realized in order for you to survive, become successful, and stay successful you must grow a very thick skin.
Grow a thick skin—a very thick skin. People will question your ability to succeed, and the loudest among them might make you doubt your own talents, so you’ll need a thick skin to drown out the noise. The silence will help you focus on your objective, and you will prevail.
Here are 10 ways that will help you grow that thick skin, and help deal with adversity head-on.
Always speak from your mind and stand up for what you believe in.
Don’t be afraid to take risks. Imagine if you were on your death bed. And standing around your bed – the ghosts of the ideas, the dreams, the abilities, the talents given to you by life. And that you for whatever reason, you never acted on those ideas, you never pursued that dream, you never used those talents, you never showed your leadership, you never used your voice, you never wrote that book. And there they are standing around your bed looking at you with large angry eyes saying we came to you, and only you could have given us life. Now we must die with this forever. The question is – if you die today what ideas, what dreams, what abilities, what talents, what gifts, would die with you?
Don’t shy away from criticism. Embrace it. If you die today what ideas, what dreams, what abilities, what talents, what gifts, would die with you? And if there is some action you can take to act on your ideas, dreams, abilities, talents and gifts – why are you still waiting?
Always give it your all on everything you decide to do.
Never doubt yourself or intuition.
Don’t waste your time and talents. Time is priceless.
Refuse to quit before anything gets done. People never remember the person that quit. Only the ones that succeeded.
Don’t avoid things because you fear rejection or care about being accepted. And what are we afraid of? We’re afraid, we’ll fail. We’re afraid we won’t make enough money. We’re afraid that people will laugh at us. We’re afraid of all those things, and yet we don’t realize that the fear itself is paralyzing us, and causing our dreams to die with us.
Never treat failure as a finish line, because they pick themselves up and keep going.
Most importantly, don’t ever become someone you’re not. You have something special. You have to live your calling. You have to to figure out what you love. Envision that goal. Cherish each moment you have today in this world, and do something with it. Don’t waste your talents.
And if you still have a few minutes after reading this, you can watch a recent interview, I did for Foundr Magazine, it shares my journey on how I grew a thick skin, faced adversity head-on, and continued my march toward that journey of success. You can watch it here.