Episode 111: "3 Feet From Gold"

“3 feet from gold” In the book Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill states: “One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by ‘temporary defeat”. I like how he emphasizes “temporary”. Because it is the “temporary” that we give in to that becomes the “permanent”. He then shares a story of a family that was ready to take advantage of a gold vein they found during the gold-rush. After discovering there wasn’t as much gold as they originally thought, they decided to quit and sold their machinery to a man who would later discover that the family quit drilling just 3 feet from the “motherload”. We are all given multiple chances per day to quit. Whether it’s a diet, workout plan, relationship or even learning a new skill. The opportunity to quit is always there. I know I face this daily and have really started to be aware of MY opportunities to quit. When I decided to learn how to become a storyteller, basically starting from scratch, I made a commitment to do so. This commitment has required more discipline than I would have ever expected. I have made it a point to schedule my day around honoring this commitment, carving out time to write them. And over the last couple of months, I’ve completed my stories within a minute of my deadline, while changing my subject multiple times and in one case while I was in line for a ride at Knott’s Berry Farm. It doesn’t stop there though and today is a perfect example. I woke up a little earlier this morning to get a jump start on today’s story and ended up with some company. My son decided to get up early too and… he’s kind of a talker. So I put it off a bit, thinking I’d fit it in during the day. I was wrong. Then… I got the kids to school, headed out with clients (which ran later than expected), picked the kids up from school, stopped to help a guy with a dead car battery, came home and right back out to my son’s school for his open house. These were all “temporary defeats” that I could have easily chosen to accept and quit and no one would have noticed. But that would have meant I would have quit on my overall commitment, not just the one for today. One thing that I know about myself is that when I stop, it’s hard to get going again. And I don’t want to stop… 3 feet from gold.