The desire to succeed is common.

The dream of success is everywhere.

The goal to succeed is universal.

The difference between desiring success, dreaming of success and setting goals to achieve success is in your ability to rise to the challenge.

A challenge is one thing above all – an opportunity. It is an opportunity to learn faster and to gain an advantage. It is an opportunity to grow, improve and enhance the performance of you, your team, your organisation and if you get it right, your industry.

Winners change the world.

The people who win change the world because their innovation, their creativity, their actions, their vision, their passion and their success takes their industry in different directions and in doing so, they force their competition to follow, copy, duplicate and replicate. And following never succeeds, copying never wins, duplication always fails and replication is doomed, because doing it second means you are always a step or two behind the competition.

Winners get there by learning faster, by creating sooner and by innovating smarter than their competition and the fundamental driving force of winning is challenge.

Challenges bring out the best in great people – because Challenges are the Catalyst of Conflict, Creativity and Change.

Conflict is essential in rising to a challenge because it is through conflict that our existing beliefs, habits, rituals and routines are questioned, tested and evaluated.  Conflict is necessary to stimulate passion: and passionate people drive success in every organisation.

Creativity is a core requirement in any challenge: the best ideas win – (providing they are supported by actions). Challenges inspire creativity. Challenges fuel imagination. Challenges motivate people to think differently. Challenges break people out of TTWWDIH (That’s the way we do it here) thinking into TINWCDH (There is nothing we can’t do here) thinking. Challenges break boundaries, destroy limitations and demolish restrictions – they are the fuel that fires greatness.

Change is the aspect of rising to any challenge. In these times where access to information is fast and free, it is your ability to accelerate your learning faster than your opposition and your commitment to implement your learning more effectively that makes the difference.

So how can you deal with a challenge?

You can go around it but it takes too long: success comes from accelerating your rate of learning and improvement faster than your competition – so going around a challenge is not an option.

You can avoid it but you will miss out on the greatest learning opportunity of all: the learning that comes from facing and overcoming a challenge – so avoiding a challenge is a big mistake.

You can smash it but you may also smash the opportunity that comes from rising to the challenge and demanding more of yourself than you ever have before – so simply smashing it is a wasted opportunity.

You can think about it but success comes when imagination is supported by action to create new solutions – so thinking about it is only the first step.

You can rise to it – you can rise to the challenge and through the process of Conflict, Creativity and Change become the world leader in your industry.

So embrace the challenge, seek the challenge, chase the challenge, hunt the challenge – the more frequent you find a challenge to rise to, the better you will become at thriving in the catalytic environment that only challenges can provide.

Some people avoid the challenge.

Others struggle to face the demands of the challenge.

Others thrive in the glorious environment of the challenge – they rise to it –  they choose to accept the challenge as the catalyst to enhancing their performance and in doing so become one of those rare people who change not only their world – but the world.

What will you choose?

Wayne Goldsmith