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Lose the Blindfold that Keeps You from Seeing Your Full Potential

By: Donald Mitchell

When I was growing up in California, I liked to go to the fun house at Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica. There was a house of glass, and it was a maze that was hard to get through. People who felt around to find the glass did better than those who simply blundered forward in whatever direction they had been going.

If you did it often enough, you learned to look down at the floor. Near the carpet, you could tell which side of the cubicle you were in had no glass.

Naturally, if you did this often enough, you simply memorized the way out.

I was born optimistic, but that experience confirmed my view. My optimism was based on seeing better ways to proceed.

But there was a problem with my optimism; it was limited to improvements that I could effortlessly see.
There was an irony about my ability to see better ways to accomplish things: I actually couldn't see very well unless something was a few inches from my face. I was legally blind but no one knew it.

In fourth grade a teacher noticed me squinting close to the blackboard between assignments and taking notes like mad. She sent me down to the nurse's office where I failed to be able to identify the big E at the top of the eye chart.

A quick trip to the optometrist soon left me sporting glasses that seemed a mile thick and with distance vision that still wasn't very good. I preferred binoculars. My mother promised me, based on her sunny optimism, that I wouldn't have to wear those awful glasses all of my life. She was sure that something better would come along.

She taught me an important lesson about the value of optimism a year later when she determinedly arranged for me to become one of the first children to wear contact lenses. Each time I put on my contact lenses for the next 50 years, I reexperienced the miracle and joy of being able to see clearly at a distance all the time. That daily recognition that good solutions could transform lives in miraculous ways led me to seek out how to help others who couldn't yet see the opportunities in front of them.

One day after about a year with contact lenses, my mom told me that someday I wouldn't have to wear the lenses any more. I couldn't figure out why she was telling me that. I loved my contact lenses! What could be better?

It all became clearer after I got to be sixty and had cataract surgery. Now, I could see perfectly without glasses or contact lenses. What a nice surprise?

What great breakthroughs await you even if you only feel your way to them?

About the author

Donald Mitchell is an author of seven books including Adventures of an Optimist, The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise, and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage. Read about creating breakthroughs through and receive tips by e-mail through registering for free at www.fastforward400.com .

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