Wednesday, September 2, 2009

The Story of Jessica Cox

Jessica Cox is a happy 25-year old Filipina-American woman.But she was born with a rare birth defect.She was born without arms.Doctors cannot explain why. But her father, an American retired music teacher, and her mother, a nurse from Samar, gave her all the love she needed to overcome her disability.And overcome, she did.

Today, Jessica is a licensed pilot, flying her airplane with her feet.She also has 2 Black Belts from the American Tae Kwon-Do Federation and the International Tae Kwon-Do Association.

With her feet, she also plays the piano, drives a car, texts her friends on her cell phone, and puts on her contact lenses all by herself.I read her story and realized a new the power of our dreams.Almost anything is possible for those who believe.


Focus Not On Your Disability,
Focus On Your Dreams


Jessica could have just moped at home, angry at God that she as born without arms. She could have sat and watched TV the whole day, wasting her life in misery. She could have just cried and cried, “I don’t have arms!”Instead, she shouted with joy, “I have legs!”All of us have disabilities.

Perhaps you don’t like how you look. Perhaps you come from a broken family. Perhaps you were born poor. Perhaps you were molested as a child. Perhaps your boyfriend dumped you. Perhaps you don’t have a job right now.

I’ve got good news for you. You can be happy. You can overcome!
Whatever your disability is, the key to overcome it is by not focusing on it.
Don’t focus on what you don’t have, focus on what you have.Don’t focus on your disabilities, focus on your possibilities!

Don’t Aim For Zero

Dan Baker in his great book, What Happy People Know, gives a mathematical explanation why focusing on our problems don’t work.Imagine that because of your problem, you’re a negative ten.In trying to fix your problem, you’re trying to move back to zero.

From my experience, this is slow. Fixing problems is tiring. Perhaps after a few months, you’d be able to raise yourself from a negative ten to a negative eight.
Here’s a better way: Don’t focus on your problem, focus on your dream.When you do, you leapfrog from a negative ten to a positive ten. You bypass zero! Why? Because dreams excite. Big dreams attract more energy, more attention, and more resources.

We’re Trained To Focus on Problems

I got a tall pile of Bad News, and teensy weensy pile of Good News.Media sells Bad News. We’ve been trained to focus on your Bad News.Stop reading the newspaper (figuratively). Because all they read about is negative: the financial crisis, companies closing down, and people losing their jobs… It’s so depressing.

They’ll be opening their stores with this outlook in life. “Oh boy, no one will come in and buy our clothes…” And when someone does enter their store, they’ll say to themselves, “She’s just going to look. She won’t buy…”

But when you focus on your problems, you begin to have tunnel vision. Like a horse with blinders. You miss out on the fantastic opportunities for expansion and blessing outside your narrow vision.

Here’s a business tip for entrepreneurs: Don’t just solve problems. Focus on your dreams. Solving the problems becomes part of reaching for your dreams—but you did it with passion and excitement.

Why Focusing On Your Dream Is Important
To Your Happiness


The act of choosing is oxygen for your soul.Choosing feels good!I’ve met countless of people who can’t choose. They run their lives on fear. Because they fear others, and what other people say, they let other people run their lives. Their bosses. Their families. Their friends.

That is one miserable way to live.Happy people create their future. It’s not created for them. They deliberately choose what they want to do and where they want to go.

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