I’m just like you and you’re much like me

Reflections of one another, it’s plain to see

We all want to feel the love that we give

Sharing and caring all the days that we live

Though we’ve never met, we have the same needs

To be the one who carries out the most beautiful deeds

It’s funny how I can feel what’s in your heart

Time and space could never tear that apart

One by one we will all come to know

Our history remains long after we go

If we are to achieve greatness, we must risk failure.  Just as mountains peaks rise up from deep valleys, the ascent to great heights is filled with the potential to fall down along the way.  It is this fear of the unknown, and the risks, that erode our confidence.  The confidence we need to succeed will be gobbled up, bit by bit, by fear, and the way it spreads itself, destroying all hope in its path.

Along life’s path there are many many lessons to be learned.  Our growth will come with some discomfort and pain.  It is part of the process, just like a new child being born into the world. 

We must come to embrace change. For it seems to stir up such uncertainty for so many of us.  Fear of the unknown. The fear of failure.  Change is a constant.  It is part of the evolution of everything.  Changes are not permanent, but change is.

Forget about the things your family and friends said about you.  The limits they put in your head.  Forget about the devil’s advocates who told you that you could never do the great things your passionate about in life.  Forget the voices in your head, telling you that you are not good enough, or smart enough.  Broken records that go around and around, never stopping their message, nor their sound.  It is our job to take action by seeking the information we need to forge out our future.  A future that fulfills our great promise. 

Rejection lives everywhere.  It lurks right around the corner just about all the time.  It stands in our way.  Rejection blocks our path by putting lies in front of us to derail us from greatness.  We are not tall enough or rich enough.   Our house is nothing compared to our friend’s house.  We were never a good student, and just can’t do math because we were never good enough at numbers.   We look in the mirror and the lies are even clearer…”not pretty enough”…..”too fat”…..”our hair is all wrong”.  We wish we had blue eyes or brown eyes or green eyes or any color eyes than the color we have.  Lies, all lies, that need to get out of our pictures and images of ourselves.  

Truth is, no one is quite like anyone else.  We stand alone full of possibilities.  One beating heart and one great work of art.

Stand out by following your passions without reservation, and with no hesitation.  It is time to get dressed for success.  Do the things you want to do with your life.  Listen to the voice that is so filled with excitement about the many gifts you have to share.  Follow that passion for connection.  Build the life you dream of by networking with the people who support you.  The passionate people who say “you can”.  The ones who know you will.

The dreamers who dream big dreams.  The people who plant the seeds of greatness with their lives.  The ones who withstand  punishing agony to know the greatness of victory.  The bravehearts who forget about their fears. 
The achievers who make history.

While we are busy planning and going about our lives, unknown factors, seemingly out of nowhere, come into the picture.  There are circumstances, both good and bad, that we cannot foresee nor predict….the x factor.

In business, as in life, people’s lives are influenced by occurrences that were NOT part of the plan. Things we can neither explain or know of in advance.   A sudden health crisis.  Winning the lottery.  An opportunity never seen that suddenly shifts a company into the spotlight.  Even the flavors of food are said to have qualities that encompass more than our sense of taste, called the X Factor, according to “The Flavor Bible.”

It is probably due to our desire to control so much of our lives and businesses,  that the x factor is not always welcome.  Most people fear the unknown.  Why I even had some anxiety as to how I would handle writing an entry about the letter x given it’s  limited word choices. 

There are so many cases where if we take a really close look at the situation, we will find that the x factor, while unknown, has  played an important role.  How did Oprah rise to such fame from her humble beginnings?  What explains the “Miracle on Ice,” experienced by the 1980 Olympic gold medal winning hockey team?  How did the plane, piloted by Captain Sully,  land so perfectly on the Hudson River last year when the engines ceased?  How did Lance Armstrong beat his devastating cancer and still go on to be the most decorated bicyclist ever?

So many unexplainable things happen everyday…

We must learn to adapt to these unplanned occurrences.

Though hard to define…

The X factor is a powerful game changer!