Setema Gali's Official Blog

Turning ‘Discouragement’ into ‘Determination’

Posted on 23. Sep, 2011 by Setema Gali in Adversity

Determination = Always believing "it" is POSSIBLE!

I spent 5 months of this year walking, knocking and talking for Vivint. I was super focused and ready to make things happen in the door to door industry. I finished the year on a high. I hit many of my goals.  I was one of the top reps on my team and one of the top rookies in the company.

After 5 months of not working out in the gym my body became really soft. After 5 months of eating Ruffles Cheddar chips, McAllister’s, Chinese Buffets and drinking gallons of Red Bull my body has become anything but athletic…it’s quite sad.

So yesterday my wife says “let’s go to the gym…I found a bootcamp.”

You gotta understand my good wife. She plays basketball 3 times a week with former college greats and volleyball at least twice a week. While we were in Georgia she sought out professional athletic trainer Ryan Bowers of AthElite and trained there for 5 weeks each morning at 6am. She didn’t miss once.  Four years ago just after she gave birth to our first child she flew to Samoa and played basketball with the American Samoa National Team for Women’s basketball.  During the entire tournament my wife shot 100% from behind the arc. She’s baller status for sure.

During the workout this morning I wanted to cry.  Seriously…I was incredibly discouraged.

Two years ago I was 250 lbs of lean muscle and sitting at 12% body fat. I could dunk a basketball easily and my clothes fit great.  I used to say to myself “I’ll never let myself get out of shape.”  Fast forward 2 years…I look like I should be on the Biggest Loser.  No seriously…I think I could win Biggest Loser.

I felt incredibly discouraged this morning.  Ok, truthfully I’ve been feeling discouraged about my body.

How did my discouragement turn into a burning determination?

After the workout while I was wallowing in my self pity my wife looked at me and said with a smile on her face “You’ll get it back in no time.”  My wife has a way of comforting me especially in my most challenging times.

Our trainer said “You’re great, give yourself a few weeks and you’ll be back in no time.”

That was it…my discouragement turned into determination.  It was the slight shift in my brain that caused a massive overhaul of self pity to possibility.

When we are so focused on how “bad” we have it…how out of shape we are…how little we know…how little finances we have…how bad our marriage is…etc. it’s easy to be discouraged. We also forget to be grateful.  It’s easy to be without hope, or without confidence.  The discouraging feelings come from a lack of hope and faith.

And what is faith? Faith is simply knowing something is true that can’t be seen yet…but it is there and it is true.
My discouragement came from looking at how out of shape and obese I am and not exercising faith that with the right process I could get into shape. That type of thinking displays lack of vision and the good book says “Where there is no vision the people perish.”

My determination came from regaining the vision that “yes, if I workout, eat right, stick to it and not waiver…I’ll gain what I want…a healthy mind and healthy body.”

The key to turning your discouragement into determination is first and foremost to look at things as they really are, then to see things as they are to come.  Once you see the “truth” you then exercise faith on those true and correct principles. Having faith is the ability to see the future from a perspective of possibility rather than impossibility.

When you have the “honest” and “brutal facts” perspective, meaning the perspective of things as “they really are” and things “as they are to come” then anyone of us can be incredibly determined because it becomes a matter of doing the simple things that are required to gain a desired outcome or result.

Exercise, eat right, sleep right…you become healthy.

Live on less than you earn, creating more value for more people and solve more problems for more people, budget properly and you’ll have a surplus of money.

Give, serve, listen, forgive, say sorry, love, invest time, be a great friend, be honest, ask for forgiveness and you’ll build a strong relationship.

I am no longer discouraged about my physical body. Although my discouragement lasted 45 minutes it seemed my whole world was upside down.  Discouragement is deadly.  It can spread like a disease. Recognize when you feel a loss of hope, a loss of courage and a loss of confidence and course correct.

Do you find yourself discouraged about the economy?

Do you find yourself discouraged about your health?

Do you find yourself discouraged about your current relationships?

Be honest and truthful…shift your thinking…see things are they really are, and as they really will be…exercise faith in the natural law of harvest, in sowing and reaping…then have faith in yourself and in that natural process.

I read the story of an alcoholic who was so discouraged about his life he decided he had enough.  Discouragement had him beat.  He turned decided suicide was the answer. He purchased a handgun and at the moment he was about to take his life he just couldn’t do it. He found himself in a library reading the words that would not only change his life but the lives of countless millions.  “You can accomplish anything you wish that is not contradictory to the laws of God or man, providing you are willing to pay a price.”

That phrase inspired the once unemployed, despondent salesman named Augustine into Og Mandino author of the #1 Sales book in the world The Greatest Salesman in the World.   His dream was to be a writer. His dream became a reality. Og Mandino summed it up when he said “How can you be unahppy or depressed (or discouraged) when you know there’s one person in the world who needs your gift, just one?”

Tags: determination, determined, discourage, discouragement, setema, Setema Gali