Life is a Postage Stamp

Choose to be a forever stamp or a holiday stamp. Before you wrinkle your nose, squint your eyes or furrow your brow deciding that I’ve lost my mind, consider the function of a postage stamp. Unless you are a philatelist, the only function of a postage stamp is to stick to the envelope or package. This requires endurance.

This tiny piece of adhesive backed paper must remain so solidly affixed that it survives the shuffling and friction against other pieces of mail in the postman’s bag or truck, close encounters in various mail rooms as it gets sorted and rerouted and back out for delivery. Consider the obstacles and near brushes with death encountered by this tiny little rectangle of paper.

Forever stamps retain their usefulness even after postage rates increase. Holiday stamps have a fixed value and are most frequently used only for Christmas cards and other holiday mail.

Relate your decisions and resolutions to the sticking power of a postage stamp. How determined are you to stick to your goals and resolutions until you reach your destination? The persistence of a holiday stamp means that you give up before the holiday ends. A holiday stamp looks festive, appealing and appropriate for a few weeks before it starts resembling stale cut out sugar cookies.

Whether your new goal was to lose weight, launch a physical fitness program or establish a new business, it absolutely requires more than a casual effort for a few weeks. What are you willing to do to achieve your goal?

Michael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball players to grace a court, was cut from his high school team. Practice, hours of practice, transformed him from that temporary defeat to an ace of the courts.

Bart Starr, most valuable player in the first two super bowls, sat the bench until his senior year in college. Bart was drafted into the NFL in the very last round of the draft. Not only that but he was given jersey 44, not even a quarterback number because he was not expected to make the team.

Norman Vincent Peale’s book, The Power of Positive Thinking, received rejections from publishers, his peers, and the public.

Andy Andrews published a book of 52 letters of now famous people who persisted through multiple failures to achieve their fame. “Storms of Perfection” became Andy’s own battle of persistence. He received 600 rejections before he received the 52 letters in the first book. Publishers refused to publish it. "Storms of Perfection" is the only book I know about which sold 100,000 copies before it ever graced the shelves of a book store.

Common denominator among all of these examples and hundreds of others was persistence. Each one of them possessed a dream which was more powerful than the obstacles and rejections received.

Persistence, consistent forward motion and sticking to the goal until it became a reality. Success does not always go to the swiftest, the strongest, the richest or someone from the lucky gene pool. Success is awarded to the last man standing. Hang in there long enough with forward motion and determination; success will yield to you.

The next time you hit a speed bump on your success path just remember the postage stamp. Choose to be a holiday stamp or a forever stamp. Success is rarely if ever an accident or a lucky break. Success is a decision followed by consistent and persistent action.

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