Motivation - Going Through the Barriers

MOTIVATION – GOING THROUGH THE BARRIER

By Nikki Viljoen of Viljoen Consulting CC

Today’s quote comes from Vincent Van Gogh who says:

“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”

Now we all know that Vincent Van Gogh was slightly mad!  Anyone who cuts their own ear off has got to have lost the plot at some point.  That said look at the beauty of his paintings, so somewhere along the line he had to have gotten it right.

Pause for a moment and think about what his words mean.  I know that people who play sport often ‘go through the pain’ and from what I understand it means that when whatever it is that you are doing is painful, you just keep on going and at some point it is no longer painful.

What makes business any different?  Why do those particular words just have to pertain to someone’s talent, be that of the artistic kind or the sports kind?  Surely that would also apply to ‘talent’ in the business sense of the word too?

There is not a single person who I know, who is in business today who has not at some point in time – just wanted to give up and throw the towel in.  There is not a single person who I know, who is in business today who has not thought ‘why does it have to be so hard’?

Well the truth of the matter is that it does not have to be hard, it’s just that as mere humans we tend to loose our way and then we make decisions that have consequences and it’s living up to and with those consequences that is what is hard sometimes.

So the next time you hear the little voice inside of you, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is time to book your spot in the nearest mental institution, it could just be your intuition giving you a nudge to make a decision.

What decision will you make?

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za.