Wednesday, February 2, 2011

There's someone you should meet

Friends, I'd like you to meet Obstacles (pronounced like a Greek word/name so something close to this: Ob/stock/a/lees).

You might recognize him, since we all face him everyday. He comes in many forms - too much homework, illness, fear, a loss of direction/purpose, the absence of time, lack of money, self-doubt (or someone else doubting you), basically anything and everything can be turned into Obstacles (even those donuts your friend brought into the office when you're trying to lose weight!).

He looms, giant and scary, casting our dreams in shadows. Sometimes, the shadow distorts our dreams so harshly, that we hardly recognize them anymore. Sometimes, we can no longer even see them. We stand there, paralyzed with fear.

But the important thing to remember is this: Obstacles is ugly - he has horrible, matted hair; the harshest unibrow ever; a nose five times bigger then it should be; a potbelly - he has horrible fashion sense and (most importantly) his hands are stuck to his butt.

In case this isn't obvious, it's kind of hard for a troll-man to do anything to you without hands. So you know what you do? You just get rid of him.

When Obstacles presents himself, first thing you do? Take a lesson from cats everywhere and turn your head away. Then think about what you are going to do to him.

When Obstacles comes with way too much homework or so many editing plans you feel paralyzed.......kick him with your foot!

When Obstacles comes with self-doubt......punch him in the face!

When Obstacles comes with illness.....set him on fire!

When Obstacles comes and tries to steal all your time away from you.....drown him in a lake!

When Obstacles comes, however he's disguising himself this time.....do what you need to to get him the hell out of your way!

Obstacles can only stop us from following our dreams if we let him. It's our choice.

What will you choose? (Feel free to discuss some of your obstacles in the comments and tell me just what you are going to do with them!)

(Credit for the invention of Obstacles (pronounced ob/stock/a/les) comes from Chris Brady one of the world's top 30 leadership gurus. Mom saw him at a convention this past weekend and I thought you guys needed to hear this message because it sure as heck spoke to me!)

(Also, Thank you Abby Minard, Colene Murphy and Jennie Bailey for encouraging me to write this post! I probably wouldn't have without their encouragement....Obstacles was in the way, but I set him straight!)

38 comments:

  1. Kids' fevers are obstacles. Housework is too, but I don't think I could set fire to it. LOL

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  2. I love, love, love, your description of obstacles, especially the part about the uni-brow. Awesome!

    My biggest obstacle lately, feeling like I'm a sucky writer. Sad huh?

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  3. Haha this post is awesome! Thanks for the reminder! I'm partial to setting Obstacles on fire :)

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  4. Love this post Melissa! I too love the idea of setting Obstacles on fire.

    I needed this today! Thanks!

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  5. Oooh, I could give him a big punch right now! Very nice post. Organization is the first name of Obstacles at my house. :)

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  6. I love this post! So great that you shared pictures with it... now we can all close our eyes and envision him as we kick his butt to the curb! (Is it wrong I find him just a wee bit cute? lol)

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  7. Haha, I love this! Obstacles and procrastination: my two biggest enemies. Thanks for sharing this!

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  8. What a great post! YES, time and procrastination (which kind of go hand in hand, don't you think?) are my Obstacles. But self doubt is a big one too, and I'm getting my boxing gloves out :)

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  9. I am very good friends with Obstacles. I just didn't realize it before. But I think it is time to nip that friendship in the bud!

    Thanks for the motivational speech!

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  10. Kick him in the teeth! Love your pep talk Melissa! I may just print this out and put it on my bulletin board at my desk at home. I really need to pull the stocking cap over his eyes sometimes (yes, that was an inside joke for you ;p) We all need to be reminded of it sometimes- thank you!

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  11. Nice. We all need this kind of encouragement every day. I used to have a doll that looked like this and you could rip his arms and legs off anytime you wanted and throw them across the room. Used to freak out the dog but it sure made me feel better.

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  12. I'm going to dye his hair blue- see how he likes it!

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  13. Ha! Love that his hands are stuck to his butt. I have so many obstacles. It's nice to be reminded that I CAN overcome them.

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  14. Cute! I need to get one of those little guys so I can pummel him regularly!

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  15. Oh he needs a haircut! And I'd definitely leave him to your cat, think it might have a good way of dispatching the icky little chap! ;)

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  16. I like the fire one. I can just imagine the pretty flames... Ha!

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  17. Hmm... I see pins and knives in his future...

    ;-P

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  18. Hurray!! You wrote it perfectly! I love it!! Punch him in the face is my favorite!

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  19. I'm totally in a punching mood so I have to go with that. I LOVE this blog post. I love Obstacles! But the best part? The picture with Mia. By the gods, that cat is gorgeous! And she's up on our website!!! Go see! pawsandlearn.org!

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  20. How can he do anything with his hands stuck to his butt? Maybe it's symbolic of what happens when the obstacles get in our way: it's like our hands are tied to our butts!

    I have to remember that everyone has obstacles, but it's the people that learn how to overcome them that are successful.

    Great post!

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  21. Yeah! Punch 'im in the face!

    I've got Obstacles hanging around at my house too--slimy little suckers. They include: too much work needed on my ms, might as well give up! Dog hair gets everywhere--might as well not even bother trying to clean up. Oh man ... I could go on and on!

    But I'm gonna get my walkin' boots on and tell Obstacles to get outta my way or I'm gonna kick him to the moon! Rah!

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  22. Hm, I better familiarize my guard penguin with Obstacles face. We've had too many encounters here, it's best to let our security become more aware of the reoccurring infiltrations by the unwanted enemy. We better stock up on ammo and bring in the heavy weaponry.

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  23. I love how you pronounce his name. I work all the time on removing him from my presence. I don't always succeed, but I try!

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  24. Love this post! Next time he comes around here I'll toss him to the puppy. He'll shred him in no time and look cute doing it!

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  25. *snicker* I particularly love the Greek pronunciation... And I recomment putting a gag around his mouth so he can't put nasty ideas in your head... And handcuff him... and maybe hang him from your rear-view mirror so any OTHER obstacles that come along can see what they're IN FOR with you!

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  26. LOVE this post - love, love, love!!! My obstacles right now, stubborn agents. LOL. :-)

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  27. I'm glad you liked the song :) Also added you on facebook. :)

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  28. Everytime I think about obstacles, I think of some Disturbed lyrics. These especially: "Annihilation will be unavoidable. every broken enemy will know, that their opponent had to be invincible."

    It pushes me forward quite a bit. Great post, loved it. :)

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  29. HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH!!!! I LOVE YOU SOO MUCH! This post made me laugh out loud!! I love it so much! The picture with your cat, brilliant!

    My obstacles comes in the form of laziness, or facebook (soo distracting!!) grrrr.

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  30. LOL.. I love this post, Melissa!

    My current obstacle is too many writing plans. I have two short stories to finish this month for a workshop application, but I still want to work on my novel, too. *sigh* I will get to kicking Obstacles pronto!

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  31. ROFL <<<<3333 ((snuggles))
    My obstacle: TIME!

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  32. I love the cat. It's the most expressive feline I've ever seen. So cute! I try to kick obstacles to the curb when they mess with my dreams. Have an awesome weekend, Melissa!

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  33. *LOL* Great post, funny and encouraging! Thanks for sharing! Think I need an Obstacles doll to vent my frustration on too! :)

    P.S.: There is an award waiting for you on my site! :) Get it in the 'Awards' section of my blog!

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  34. Your mom was right. This was great!! :)

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  35. That is so clever and funny. What a great motivational post!

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  36. This is cute.

    I once wrote an essay about "Obstacles, the Greek god of Set Backs". I'm going to have to go dig that out now!

    Cheers!
    Jen

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