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Avoid The Denial of Personal Fate Trap

Motivational speakers tell you they don’t believe in personal fate, yet such a conviction is a dangerous trap that can cause you a lot of anguish.

Inspirational speakers claim the invisible forces that shape us and make us do what we do have nothing to do with personal fate or predetermination.

Some of their usual claims include the following:

  1. All you have to do is activate your internal drive to achieve all your goals.

This is one of the more disingenuous statements made by motivational speakers, particularly those whose success is exclusively from motivational speaking and coaching. Passion is important for success, but other personality traits are equally important, and will increase your chances for success.

  1. You can do anything if you tap into the right emotions; if you’re creative enough, fun enough, and persuasive enough, you can get through to anyone.

This advice reminds me of the Dale Carnegie sales training I had many years ago. Sure, persuasiveness is important (as is not being a manipulative huckster), but tremendous emotional power and persuasiveness won’t change the things in life that you can’t control.

  1. Decision is the ultimate power.

According to this line of thought, all you have to do is make the right decisions, like with casino gambling, and the world is yours. Simply make sure lady luck is on your side. Unfortunately, motivational speakers ignore the fact that you can’t just conjure up lady luck when you want.

  1. Resources like time and money don’t determine your success, resourcefulness does.

It’s clear that resourcefulness is important for success, but tremendous resourcefulness isn’t something you can teach, and “when there’s a will there’s a way” is only true if your goals are realistic—within the boundaries of your personal fate.

  1. The other determining factor of success is mastering personal fulfillment. Feeling good about what you’re doing is vital, and the way to do that is to give back.

Helping others can be a tremendous motivator, but you need a lot more than a humanitarian spirit to achieve your goals.

The denial of personal fate trap, the belief that anything is possible as long as you make the right decisions, can set you up for sorrow and suffering.

You failed to achieve your dreams, even though you did exactly what the motivational coach told you to do.

Imagine believing for twenty years that you caused harm to a friend, not knowing that it was the fault of someone else and that you’re actually innocent.

It’s similar to personal fate. Stop beating yourself up because you didn’t manifest those ambitious goals. As long as you do your best, that’s what matters. Failure is sometimes part of personal fate, as are the experiences along the way.

Adopting an unconventional, spiritual outlook, you escape the denial of personal fate trap and your life becomes much more meaningful and fulfilling.

Copyright © 2015 Scott Petullo

One Response

  1. I think you are very correct because even when you put a lot of work into a particular goal, sometimes it just slips through your fingers and something else comes along totally unexpected.

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