How to Achieve – A Personal Development Plan
Barack Obama’s & Michael Jordan’s Speeches Tell Secrets of Success
Sep 14, 2009
It was as if several cosmic forces came together in the universe. President Barack Obama gave a speech to school children on September 8, 2009. In explaining to them how to succeed, he invoked the story of NBA great Michael Jordan, who was about to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Obama talked about the fact that Michael Jordan didn't make his high school varsity basketball team in his sophomore year. Then, a few days later, Michael Jordan gave his acceptance speech at the Basketball Hall of Fame. In it, he thanked the coach who cut him from the varsity basketball team. In fact, he thanked everyone who ever told him he wasn’t good enough, because instead of collapsing under the idea that he might not be good enough, he simply worked harder to prove how good he could be.
The Secret is Out – How to Achieve
Here is the truth: the way people think about the obstacles they face will make or break them. That is the secret of success from the mouths of Obama and Jordan. And coming from the nation's first African American President, then echoed by an athlete like Jordan, the message carries a lot of weight.
President Obama and Michael Jordan are promoting something so freeing and so appealing, one wonders why the whole world isn't doing it! What they are saying has been known as truth for a long time.
- Obama and Jordan are living proof of what positive psychologists have been saying for decades: believe and you will achieve.
- Their words reflect religious truth that has been preached for centuries: everyone has at least one gift; train the gift, have faith and use it wisely.
- And they are the incarnation of what Mom and Dad have been telling Junior since he was old enough to screw up: learn from your mistakes, don’t make excuses, try harder.
But Obama and Jordan are not pedaling drudgery, even though they talk about hard work and the fact that it’s not always fun. On the contrary.
Success is About Doing What You Love
President Obama and Michael Jordan are telling people to set a goal to do what they love – what they love. Not what someone else would love for them, but what they love. Isn’t this the ultimate freedom? Isn’t this why the U.S. was founded in the first place - the pursuit of happiness? Even Christianity teaches that using one's gifts doesn't sap the person's life force, it fills him up with it and brings him joy.
But people lose faith in self, and this usually happens when they care more about what others think than what they think of their own abilities or passions. When they collapse in shame over a slight or a setback rather than remembering that even if the insult is right or the failure is real, that it is separate from the individual human being who can do anything he sets his mind to; who in this moment is not bound by the failure that happened in the last moment, because it is a new moment where anything is possible.
Michael Jordan's Success Quote
“Limits, like fears, are often just an illusion,” is how Michael Jordan said it, while President Obama said it this way: “Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.”
President Obama and Michael Jordan used the same philosophy to travel two different paths of greatness. But there was nothing special about these two men, no inherent potential or talent that caused their success. Studies about greatness have proven it’s effort, not talent, that is the deciding factor, and that means it can work for anyone. This is a good time for people to ask themselves, "What life affirming thing have I always wanted to do? What am I waiting for?"
President Barack Obama's speech to school children and Michael Jordan's Basketball Hall of Fame acceptance speech carry the truth about how to achieve, backed up by the stellar achievements of the two of them. A personal development plan that includes doing what one loves, using one's talents, believing in oneself, and most importantly, seeing failures as opportunities to improve rather than quit are the formula for success that has been proven time and time again.
BNC101
 |
