Overcome Your Obstacles for Career Advancement

At the Olympic Games, which are held every four years, atheletes from all over the world gather to compete in various sporting events. They compete not just to win, but also to beat previous records. These athletes have been preparing for years for this event with the aim of overtaking the competition — to throw further, run faster, jump higher and to win glory for their countries.

Commitment
What is the single most important ingredient that helps these athletes achieve success? The answer is commitment to their sport. When the Olympic winner stands on the rostrum to receive the gold medal and his country's national anthem is played, that moment of glory is the culmination of years of hard work — training when they do not feel like it, overcoming fatigue and disappointments and making huge personal sacrifices.

If you are merely interested in doing something, you will not be a success because the moment you encounter a difficulty, you will give up. Commitment is a heartfelt promise you make to yourself — that you will achieve to the best of your ability and giving up is not an option!

When you read stories about successful people or organisations, you observe that they succeeded because they were committed to their business, their people and their products or services.

Perseverance
Someone once said; "If you think you are beaten, you are. If you think you dare not, you don't. If you'd like to win, but think you can't, it's almost certain you won't."

In the television series, Against All Odds, you find that those who overcome life's battles and thrive in adversity are those who think they can! A large part of success is mental, in your attitude!

What hinders people from achieving their life goals and purposes? It could be their limiting beliefs, wrong perspectives, low self-esteem or negative influences.

Booker T. Washington said: "I have learnt that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which one has to overcome while trying to succeed." In other words, you have to be an "overcomer" to succeed. Let me share my personal story.

Early in life, I learnt to overcome my obstacles. I learnt not to let what I could not do to affect what I could do. For example, I could not change my family circumstances. I was born the eldest of 12 children. My father was often jobless, and as a result, I had to go to school without breakfast or pocket money. I had to move primary schools four times because we were evicted when my father could not pay the rent.

Each time my family relocated, I went to a new school. I went through my entire primary and secondary school life with the minimum of resources, yet I refused to blame my father. I certainly was not looking for excuses to fail.

I knew that I could not do much about my father's financial situation, so I focused on what I could do. I was committed to my studies and to do well in my examinations. I managed to get a place in Raffles Institution, which has a reputation for academic excellence.

Purpose
Success should be measured by your significance, which is driven by your purpose in life. You can have all the successes in life, but if your life has no purpose, it is a tragedy. Someone once said: "The tragedy of life is not that people die, but they die without living their life's purposes".

When your life has a purpose, you live with passion. You should not sell, teach, manage, lead or do anything without finding out the reason behind what you do. If you teach physics to a future Albert Einstein, then you will teach with passion! If you sell a service or product that you believe is the best in the market and you want your client to have the best, you will sell with passion!

So, if you are not satisfied with what you have achieved so far, revisit your goals, reflect on what has stopped you from achieving them, and make a commitment to overtake the competition and overcome the obstacles in your way.