Three Feet of Frustration: Harnessing the Power of Emotion to Cross the Finish Line
Originally published in my Lucra(tive)™ newsletter
A famous story as told in Think and Grow Rich and other books goes like this:
A man named R.U. Darby joins the gold rush during the late 1800s. Darby and his uncle invest in mining equipment and start digging for gold. They find a promising vein of gold, but after a while, the vein disappears. Discouraged, Darby sells his equipment to a junk dealer and goes home.
The junk dealer consults a mining engineer who recognizes that Darby was only three feet away from a significant gold vein before giving up. The junk dealer buys the equipment and hires experienced miners to continue digging. Soon after, they strike one of the richest gold mines in Colorado history. 💰
The key takeaway from the story is to persevere through challenges and setbacks, as success may be closer than you think. Darby’s failure came from giving up too soon, just as he was about to reach his goal.
You’ve likely heard this story or a similar one before, but let’s talk about what it feels like in that 3-feet-away area and more importantly, how to get through it.
If you look at an emotional scale, such as one by Abraham-Hicks, you can map how you’re feeling to where you are on the scale.
Click the image to download as a PDF
When we’re just about to hit a breakthrough on our goals, it’s often the most frustrating time. We can sense that it’s right around the corner, but our patience or willpower is waning.
The mid-range of the scale (boredom, doubt, etc.) doesn’t have a lot of motivational power. Even though our culture teaches that it isn’t good to get angry, there’s much more energy in anger than in disappointment.
If you’re stuck in the middle, I say go ahead and get angry.
Get pissed that you have tolerated not achieving your dream for so long!
This is righteous anger, soul-fueled from your destiny. 🔥 The key is to use that anger as fuel to propel you past pessimism and into hopefulness.
There’s more energy in enthusiasm than contentment, say, so the higher you go up the scale, the more power you’ll have to conquer that final three feet.
Have an awesome week! ✨
Mindie