“Manage your ENERGY, not your time. Time is fixed. Energy varies” – Rick Warren

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans” – John Lennon

“If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere” – Frank A. Clark

“Most success springs from an obstacle or failure. I became a cartoonist largely because I failed in my goal of becoming a successful executive.” – Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert)

Now that I am reading lots of kids books again it is interesting to look at what we teach children and what we end up doing with the information as we become older.  When growing up we tend to learn to forget what is possible, we better understand our capabilities, we doubt ourselves, we let others tell us what we can and cannot do.  When you ask a young child if they can do something, chances are they will answer yes.  Once older that same child will likely learn to analyze his or her past experiences, as well as what others have advised in similar situations, and make an “informed decision”.  Don’t let others hold you back from your dreams and don’t let others tell you what you can and can’t do.  If you look at all of the people who have become successful at something in life, chances are they failed when they first started doing it.  I’ll probably mess up a quote I heard but it basically said “can’t never could until it tried”.  As long as you learn from your mistakes and continually remind yourself that “I think I can, I think I can”, chances are you can.