First the Echidna in our back yard. For those of you who don't live in Australia, an echidna is a sort of hedgehog with an Australian twist. It is a so called monotreme, or an egg laying mammal, one of only two species left in the world.
Take a look at the video we took and watch total focus and persistence in action as the echidna goes about vacuuming up ants into its very specialised snout.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhSSSu47ONk
What's remarkable is it's a small animal weighing around 7kg that literally lifted and pushed 3 rocks which weigh around 12kg each off our dry stone wall to get to the ants which it then guzzled down.
And the second part is about Liza Minnelli, a performer who's also demonstrated tremendous focus and persistence throughout her career.
From coming out from the shadow of her famous mother, Judy Garland to failed marriages, alcohol and drug abuse, and a physical condition where doctors predicted that she would be bound to a wheel chair for the rest of her life.
Well, at 61 she's still performing, and taking dance classes everyday. Takes a lot of strength and determination and most of all not taking no for an answer.
Asked what the secret of her success was, she replied… "Believe in what you do and do it as if you believe it".
So our question for you is "How focused and determined to succeed are you? Can you weather the inevitable storms that will come you way and carry on? Do you believe in what you do and do it as if you believe it?"
Now I'll be honest. Over the last few years we've had our own fair share of challenges.
Some times really felt like throwing the towel and giving it all up. Wondering if we were and are on the right path are we doing the right thing. I guess you know the feeling too.
But it is all about moving forward, and not expecting the path to be straight and clear ahead of us.
There will be twists and turns.
As someone once said to us, life is like travelling in a car at night, you can only see as far as the headlights illuminate the road, and that's all you need to know anyway.
So keep moving forward, steadily – life will reveal itself in sometimes weird but always wonderful ways.
Okay – so much for the esoteric stuff – let's get down to a more practical level.
It's nearly the end of the year and Christmas is coming and you probably want a holiday.
But imagine if you will, spending some focused time and energy on planning your start for 2010 right now. That way you can have a great break knowing that you can hit the ground running in January while everyone else is sleeping.
Remember, the early bird catches the worm!
Rashid Kotwal is an international speaker and author who specializes in on-line and off-line strategies for direct response marketing and sales optimization. He works with sales organizations want to get more business, faster and with less wasted effort. You can find more information at Sales & Marketing Consulting and Get Clients Online Fast.
Copyright Rashid Kotwal.
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