Like the cookies your mother kept shifting from cupboard to cupboard thinking that the next time she surely would out maneuver your sneaky tactics, you again proved her deceptively wrong. As you transformed into a spider monkey with super powers you managed to climb – jump – tippy-toe – balance – hold your breath, and under cover of your invisible (and invincible) powers despite all odds stacked against you, you were victorious.
Oh the ecstasy with every well deserved bite you took! No one ever realized at the time just how all this talent came naturally to you, and you knew how important it was that it remained a secret weapon amongst your arsenal of magnificence. How could anyone understand how amazingly unique your strategy execution was when not even your very own mother could outsmart you?
Fast forward to reading this (gosh I’m so sorry to take you out of that day dream), well, undoubtedly that cookie jar means a whole different set of things to us today doesn’t it? It means job security, high valuations for our companies, vacation time with our loved ones, a house we could call home, and a profession and position to be proud of.
And so I say this to you my fellow readers, brothers & sisters in the hustle, colleagues, and friends:
Just because we have not attained our ideal sweet spot in life, it should never mean we should take our eyes off the cookie jar.
Recalibrate and reassess, but don’t ever resign in your quest to get to the cookie jar.
Like so many new products and companies that enter the mainstream disguised as dinosaurs that give the impression they have been around for decades, many of us have followed the wrong path in thinking about where we have landed in our own lives long after we lost our last chance at the cookie jar.
But nothing could be further from the truth. Just because you don’t have the cookie jar in hand doesn’t mean your dreams need to get in tune with reality. That would be a real shame wouldn’t it? And yet so many of us deal with this notion that there are those of us who have attained and achieved and there are those of us who had to realize quickly the limits of our aspirations.
Naively, and typically humanistic, we made it as though it’s an “us versus them” or in this case, “those who have achieved and those who have not.”
Bullshit.
Yeah so I brought in Rocky for backup. I couldn’t resist doing so to bring home my point.
I know some of you are saying, “Ramy the problem is those cookies are now the equivalent of mouths to feed” or “Ramy I work late to make my kids a hot plate.” No one ever said this was going to take away from your responsibilities in doing that–it’s only telling you not to think just because you can’t have something right now doesn’t mean you take it out of your aspirational equation.
Make sense?
You wanted that position but were passed up. You wanted that deal but it fell through. You wanted that house, but were overbid.
You wish you could turn back time to do it all over again, but do it differently this time. You find yourself wondering what on Earth got you here when you wanted to be, well, all the way over there!
You wanted that feeling of control, yet the odds for whatever reason, continue to seem stacked against you.
…SO WHAT!?
“So what the heck is your point Ramy?”
I don’t care how old you are, how advanced you are in your career, or how much money you have in your bank account, we are all vulnerable in telling ourselves, “I just can’t think that far ahead right now, I’ve got to think of the reality at hand.”
Heck yeah you need to think of the reality at hand.
And that reality is what my friend Tony Robbins once told me, that “We all get what we tolerate…” That couldn’t be said any clearer. Thanks Tony.
So rather than let it all ride on chance at the whims of fortune, say to yourself:
I’ve got to do better next time. I’ll be more prepared going forward. That opportunity is not lost, I’ll get it back if I want it.
Despite feeling it could be light years away, remind yourself of the goals you set for yourself when you were at that place of certainty and confidence. Tell yourself that it is still achievable even if not at this very moment but closer the moment you decide you’re still in the game.
Fair enough?
Don’t ever sell yourself short long-term because in the short-term the Cookie Monster seems to have eaten all the cookies!
Instead remember…
Out of reach should not mean out of sight.
Cookies and milk anyone?
Ramy Ballout
Business Coach & Founder at AirLinked™ (www.airlinked.com)