Do you need a Career Breakthrough?

Many of you are working hard and hear about how others are moving ahead and having success while you seem to be stuck somewhere between, "I know I can do this", and "What was I thinking?" I encourage you to work for a breakthrough.

I got a call recently from a former student and she was so discouraged. No one wanted to have their rooms redone and no one was using a staging professional. She was ready to throw in the towel. I said, "Oh no you don't, you are too talented to give up this soon!" I gave her some homework and told her I wanted a report in one week. She did her homework and low and behold she got a job. Encouraged she continued, now she is so, so busy and making money. She emails often to tell me how happy she is and how well she is doing.

She had a breakthrough

You can have one too. But you will never have one if you give up. Let me share a little story from Harvey Mackay, an entrepreneur and writer.

Do you remember the four-minute mile? Runners had been trying to break the four-minute mile since the days of the ancient Greeks. Someone found the old records of how the Greeks tried to accomplish this. They had wild animals chase the runners, hoping that would make them run faster. They tried tiger's milk: not the stuff you get down at the supermarket, I'm talking about the real thing.

Nothing worked, so they decided it was physically impossible for a human being to run a mile in four minutes. Our bone structure was all wrong, the wind resistance was too great, our lung power was inadequate. There were a million reasons.

Then one day one human being proved that the doctors, the trainers, and the athletes themselves were all wrong. And, miracle of miracles, the year after Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile, 37 other runners broke the four-minute mile. And the year after that, 300 runners broke the four-minute mile.

Work for that breakthrough.