Are You A Doer Or A Wisher?

“The difference between an unsuccessful person and a successful person is simply this: an unsuccessful person wishes they could and either quits or never try, but a successful person puts action on the wishes and achieves the goal.” -Michael J. Fite

Keep this in mind whenever you find yourself determining who you are going to be when faced with your goals. If you find yourself wishing and either quitting or never trying, you will not accomplish a lot in your life. That will lead you down a road of doubts, regrets, and resentments. When you put action to your goals, you will find yourself making progress and moving towards achieving what you desire in life. This will lead down a road of confidence, faith, and happiness.

My fourth grade teacher would often remind me that I can do anything I want if I try. As cliché as it may sound, it means a lot to me because it has been the story of my life. I may have had my ups and downs, but I knew if I wanted something bad enough, I would need to put action toward achieving it. This was the case when I had to learn how to qualify in order to complete my 3rd class swimming certification in recruit training.

I was not a great swimmer by any means, and I definitely struggled at times with the concepts. Each day, I wished that I could simply pass it and be done, but each day was more of the same: failure. I could have simply gave up and just walk away from it, but inside, I knew that I wanted this bad enough to where I was willing to apply myself to the task.

Then after a month of me constantly walks from the barracks to the swimming pool spending two hours a day learning  the concepts and applying, the concepts were starting to pay off. In a matter of two weeks, I was able to successfully dive into a pool to swim 50 meters, hold my breath under water for a few minutes, and perform a coveralls float. I felt successful after that because even though it took a lot of work, constant trial and error, and patience, I came back each day to put action on it not just because I was ordered to, but because my personal drive to want to succeed was much stronger than my desire to quit. That’s what made me successful then, makes me successful today, and will make me successful tomorrow!

If you put action to your wishes and desires, you can achieve it! It will not be easy at times, but you cannot be deterred from setbacks and negativity. Once you learn to overcome those obstacles and continue to apply your knowledge and actions to your wishes, they will ultimately turn into reality. Let’s remember that wishers and doers both throw out ideas into the world; but it is only the doers who actually do what it takes to make the wishes come true.

-Michael J. Fite