Traffic lights for vehicles usually contain three lamps: red, orange or yellow, and green. In some systems, a flashing yellow means that a motorist may go ahead with care if the road is clear, giving way to pedestrians and to other road vehicles that may have priority. A flashing red is treated as a regular stop sign. This is exactly the same way our mental dashboard operates. We either move towards [tag]opportunity[/tag] or we stop ourselves from doing so. We seldom do this unconsiously.

Red lights on our street are necessary for safety. So, whenever you feel the urge to stop, you need to ask yourself if you are stopping yourself from realistic reasons. Are you stopping because you sense you are moving towards danger or because you feel you may never achieve your goal? The truth is that if you feel you would not be able to achieve your [tag]goal[/tag], there is no point going ahead. People normally put themselves in this kind of situation when they focus too much on the failures of the past.

Failure is normal. Ask all [tag]successful persons[/tag] and they will tell you that they had failed before but they did not allow the failure to keep them down. They chose to learn the lessons and try again. Stop wasting your fuel worrying about yesterday. The past is gone, the future may be unknown but the present is real. And so your opportunities are real. Wait…if your mind is buried in the past failures, if you keep reliving old mistakes, your opportunities can not be real to you.

Just as you would take good care of your car, take care of your emotional car and ensure that it moves you towards your objectives. Stop when the red light on your mental dashboard signals a necessary slowdown but change it to green as soon as you notice any feeling that wants to keep you from moving towards achieving your objectives. Nobody is going to do this for. You just have to give yourself no other option and you would be surprised at the kind of resuls you would get.

Stop now and start again. Engage this process always. This is definitely one way of moving towards your goals. As you formulate your goals and move towards then, always remember your past successes. See them in your mind as they were happening  now. Your success will not only live now but also give you enough motivation to face what lies ahead. Use your success of the past to launch yourself towards creating the success of today. Stop when the red light signals but start immediately the light changes to green. Keep an eye on the red light.