Whether you are looking for a new job, a new house or a new mate, the key to staying on course is the interpretation you bring to the process. Your interpretation of the experience will either make you feel discouraged or energized. Remember, the choice is yours because you always get to choose your interpretations. So, let’s focus on two POWER Optimism strategies that will enable you to create conditions for success by generating motivating and energizing perspectives to keep you going.

The first strategy, Setting and Achieving Goals, is from the Proactive Practice. One major obstacle to achieving your vision lies in the way you interpret the inevitable setbacks along the course. First and foremost, you need to expect setbacks to occur. Do you have some number in your head that says you should achieve success by then? In others words, how many job interviews are really too many? Yes, you may get tired or discouraged, and you may even want to take a break, but the truth is that the job you want may be the next interview you go on. Check in with yourself to see if you have some faulty belief system that is causing you to want to give up. Remember, successful people all experience setbacks before they get what they want. Here are a few examples to help you keep things in perspective (from, The Joy of Working: The 30-Day System to Success, Wealth and Happiness on the Job, by Denis Waitley and Reni Witt):

•Even the greatest quarterbacks only complete six out of ten passes. •Top oil companies, even with the consultation of expert geologists, find oil in only one well in ten. •A successful television actor is turned down 29 out of 30 times after auditioning for roles in commercials. •Winners in the stock market make money on only two out of five investments.

The next time you come back from a disappointing job interview (or date or house search), don’t let it become a personal failure. Instead, tell yourself that this is just part of the process, and keep working towards achieving your goal.

The second strategy, Searching Out Possibilities, is from the The fundamental question to ask yourself is, “Am I operating from a scarcity mentality or from an abundance attitude?” If you are basing your experience on the former, you believe that there are only a limited number of jobs to go around. However, if you have an abundance attitude, your interpretation is that there are plenty of jobs and that you can find what you want. In other words, to keep going, you need to be able to trust that what you want is actually there. Here’s a story that illustrates my point.

“In 1950, Florence Chadwick set a world record when she swam across the English Channel from France in 13 hours and 20 minutes. The following year, she swam from England to France, making history as the first woman to swim the channel from both shores. In 1952, she accepted the challenge of swimming the 26 miles from Catalina Island to Palos Verdes, California. Although the waters were frigid and sharks trailed her, Chadwick’s resolve was shattered by something else. After 15 hours of rough swimming, she couldn’t see any sign of the coastline because a heavy fog shrouded the area. With her goal out of sight, Chadwick lost the will to continue and climbed aboard an escort boat not realizing she was less than half a mile from shore. When asked why she stopped, Chadwick explained: ‘It was the fog. If I could have seen land, I could have finished. But when you can’t see your goal, you lose all sense of progress and you begin to give up’"(from The Toastmaster, August, 2005).

How about you? Does the fog of your scarcity mentality or limiting beliefs prevent you from trusting that the end is there, even when it isn’t in sight yet? Or do you know that your vision or your goal is waiting for you at the end of your journey? Check in with yourself. Learn to operate from an abundance attitude and trust that what you want to attain is available. Curious about what happened to Florence Chadwick? A few months later she made another attempt at the same swim. With the sun shining and her goal clearly in sight, this time she succeeded, setting yet another swimming record!

Dr. Dana Lightman is a motivational speaker and creator of POWER Optimism. For more information on her programs, please visit www.danalightman.com.