1

Sitting at a traffic light the other day, I happened to turn my head
And I saw the most extraordinary advertisement posted on
The side of a bus stop. It was a big picture of the
Legendary statesman, Sir Winston Churchill, and alongside
The picture, in great big bold print, was the wonderful
Line of his: "Never, never, never, never, never give up!"

Hello, this is Bob Proctor with another edition of the Freedom Series

Now, I don't know what that poster was advertising, but I'd like

To put my name down for a whole case of it, because I just love

The fact that someone is injecting that magnificent advice out into

The world, into people's ordinary, everyday lives. "Never, never

Never give up." Imagine standing in the bus shelter, waiting for

The number twenty-two to arrive and carrying you off to a job you're

Miserable at, or carrying you home to a house full of challenges

You're down, you're out, you're feeling beaten by life. Then you

See old Winston's marvelous face and read those words—so absolutely

Simple, so incredible. Now, at first glance they upset you, because

You'd already given in to a host of challenges, and then that
Rallying cry is presented to your consciousness. That rallying cry
Is presented to your consciousness, and suddenly it dawns on you
That you have a choice. Where you saw none before, you can choose
Not to surrender to whatever forces are conspiring to push you down
And in not surrendering, you can beat them. You can win. It didn't
Occur to you that you could actually win until now, and now that's
All you can think of. Seeing that poster could change a person's
Whole day, their whole attitude
Maybe even their whole life. Fantastic!

I bring up Sir Winston Churchill and his famous words of wisdom

Because I want to talk to you about a subject he knew a thing or

Two about. That is, what to do when it isn't working. Yes, you heard
Me right. I said, "When it isn't working," not "if." As a matter of
Fact, there are few more important things you can do to ensure your
Success than to accept the fact that at some point—probably many
Points along the path to your goals—it isn't going to work. It may
Be your fledgling business, your exercise regimen, your novel, your
New diet, your savings plan. Whatever vehicle you have chosen to
Carry you to your dreams, just as sure as the sun rises and sets
There's going to come a point at
Which that vehicle is going to stall

On my website, you'll see the tagline, "Where success is expected
" You must expect that your ultimate result will be success. You
Must expect it, because as you know, what you expect, what you
Think about, is exactly what you'll get. Our thoughts are things
Our thoughts create our life. We become what we think about
Think success, see success, expect success, and you'll get just that
But a critical part of expecting success is anticipating failure. It

May sound like a paradox, but it isn't. I have never run a marathon

But I have good friends who have run many over their lives, and

They'll all say the same thing. At a certain point in every race—and

Some of these people have run a dozen or more marathons—they feel

Like they cannot go on. They don't even want to go on. Going on

Getting to the finish line, feels like an absolute, utter
Impossibility. The runners who succeed in their goal of completing
The race are the ones who have done two critical, inseparable
Things: one, they have deeply committed themselves to seeing that
Finish line, and two, they have mentally prepared themselves for
And accepted the fact that at some point in the race they are
Going to be convinced they can't win. To put it more succinctly
They anticipate the temporary failure of their confidence and
Desire, but at the same time they expect the ultimate achievement
Of their goal. They know that they will get there no matter what

Any runner who starts off from the starting line thinking without

That combination of commitment and preparation is highly unlikely

To see the finish line from anywhere but the sidelines. He may have

Done all the physical training and preparation he needed to do
His body might be equal to the task of running 26.2 miles straight
But when that terrible feeling that comes at about the eighteenth
Mile hits him, as it inevitably will, he will be so stunned, so
Discouraged, so totally caught off guard that he really and truly
Can't go on. Instead of thinking, "Ah, yes, I knew this was coming
Here it is," and then marshalling the mental forces he needs to move
Through and beyond it, he will think, "This is wrong. This wasn't
Supposed to happen. This is hard
This isn't working." And he will quit

Now, notice that the goal didn't evaporate. The finish line, which

Constitutes success, is still there, but you know what? He never

Saw himself crossing it. He saw himself running, all right, and he

Had an intellectual understanding of what the goal of that running

Would be, but he didn't vividly imagine himself accomplishing it over

And over until the image was so bright and so clear in his mind that

It moved out into the world and became reality. He didn't commit to

Ending the race at the finish line, so he misinterprets his failure
As an ending instead of accepting it as part of the process, part of
The race. "Never, never, never give up." In other words, absolute
Commitment to your ultimate goal, no matter what stands between it
And you, needs to be your foundation, your starting point. Before
You even get to the point where quote unquote "it" isn't working
You must have that commitment in place. Are you there?
Are you at the level of absolute, total commitment
To your goal? If your dream vehicle is stalled
That's the first part of the engine you need to examine