Dale Carnegie once said that any fool can complain and criticize, and most fools do. Whenever you announce that you have set an ambitious goal all the nay-sayers will come out of the woodwork. This can be very discouraging to many people but there are ways to overcome it.

When you are working toward a meaningful, challenging goal you are bound to come up against obstacles from time to time. If, when you are working your way through these difficult moments, you also have to put up with people telling you that you will never make it or that it can't be done, then you might find yourself being influenced by them and you may even consider giving up.

I have found two good ways to help you in such a situation.

The first method is to minimize the chance of actually getting into that situation in the first place. The way you do this is by not mixing with negative people and by only discussing your goals with those who you are absolutely sure will be encouraging and supportive of your quest.

It is no coincidence that the friends of great people are usually themselves great people. This is a principle that holds true throughout the ranks. The friends of mediocre people are usually mediocre people and the friends of losers are usually losers.

People tend to gravitate toward people who have similar ideas about life and similar ambitions for the future to the ones they hold themselves. Then you have the additional effect that the individual's ideas and ambitions are heavily influenced by those of their inner group of friends and colleagues.

If you are finding that many of your friends and colleagues are negative toward your goals and ambitions then it is a good sign that you are in the wrong group. Some people outgrow their group and in that case the faster you move on the better for all concerned.

However, even if your group is totally supportive and encouraging you are still going to come up against people who tell you that you will never be able to achieve the goal that you have set. This is where the second method comes into play.

When I am in that negative situation I simply remind myself of the old Chinese proverb, probably from Confucius, that the person who says it can't be done should never interrupt the person who is doing it.

Henry Ford was told by expert after expert that he would never be able to develop a functional eight cylinder engine but he ignored them and went ahead and did it. Thomas Edison was told by almost everyone that he was wasting his time trying to develop a commercially viable electric light but, after 10,000 failures, he succeeded and became one of the wealthiest men in America as a result.

History is full of people who achieved the so-called impossible. Everything is impossible until it is done for the first time. Everything is impossible for you until you have succeeded at it for the first time.

Impossible is just a way of saying that something hasn't been done yet. Of course you haven't already achieved your goal at the time that you set it, that's the nature of goals.

So the next time someone tells you that you can't do something then just say to yourself, or to them, that the person who says that it can't be done should never interrupt the person who is doing it.

James Delrojo
www.YourSuccessMind.com