DIG Into Life's Second Chances

From the time he was eight years old Dave Thomas wanted to own a restaurant. Orphaned since birth he didn't have a stable home life neither did he excel at studies.But he clung to his goal. When he was 12 he got a job at a diner. He worked his way up to eventually become a restaurant manager. He turned around four failing restaurants and became an executive with that chain.Years later after putting together the necessary capital he opened his own eatery and named it Wendy after his own daughter.Today he has in excess of 3000 restaurants."I didn't set my sights on owning 1000 restaurants or even ten," he says."I just concentrated on making one profitable,then another,one step at a time."

Too often people set a difficult task,then give up.Goals should be focused on what is achievable."At some point in our life nearly all of us yearn for a second chance to do that one thing we always dreamed about,but never got around to trying. Most of us won't take the leap of faith that separates dreaming from doing.There's no school like "just doing it"!Life is full of second chances to move from failure to success,from humdrum to the fast lanes by moving on to a new endeavour or changing attitudes. Struck down by illness or catastrophe, assailed by grief or failure,dealt a raw deal or betrayed-in the words of Martha Graham:"You cannot give up what you are". The longing to beat the odds,to triumph and come through has what carried men and women into history.Strap yourself with a life jacket of books,doers,faith,purpose and a dream. Stop spending life waiting for things to happen or sell your tomorrows' soul to the 'someday' devil. Write down your goals. Outline what you want out of life and you can find ways and means to rally resources and enthusiasms.Keep your goal in focus.

Take individual steps. Never fear failure. Persist, persist, press on! Along the way to any goal you will be confronted with obstacles and dead ends and you would want to quit.Push that thought away and get back to work.Conquer the mountain in stages.At the end of the day it's what you DO,not when,how or whether you did it.George Bernard Shaw was 94 when one of his plays was first produced.Benjamin Franklin was a newspaper columnist at 16 and a framer of the constitution at 81.

Cling to your goal.

A Second Chance

Cally Rao