Do you ever have one of those days when it felt like a mistake just to open your eyes in the morning?? Well, as much as I am the best person to keep a positive attitude going regardless of what is going on in the world, I had a week of those days just recently.

In a legal matter, my highly paid legal advisor couldn't count to 21 when working out when we had to get some paperwork to the Court and they - the Courts - seem to believe that their system of counting is the correct. So, that miscalculation has cost a few $1,000's of precious scarce resources and forces a emergency trip to Sydney to fight a matter which should have been as simple as putting the papers in on the correct day.

And on Wednesday all our websites were subjected to savage denial of service attacks and ultimately the website that hosts The Maverick Spirit was TURNED OFF!

My first thoughts were - NOT AGAIN! Is it really worth all the hassles to indulge my passion for sharing stories of success and courage with you a couple of times a week? And I got angry - how dare "they" do this to The Maverick Spirit. So that was a day down the drain as we found made other arrangements.

And on Thursday my diary failed to arrive with me when I made it to my office. And you know which meeting my feeble brain forgot don't you... you're right - the IMPORTANT one.

And I could add a few more to this litany of woe... but it seemed that apart from the Government wanting their $5.5 million in fines, the universe was also trying to punish me. Perhaps the most instructional things about these events is that none of them were life threatening in their own right BUT the cumulative effect was overwhelming and difficult to shake off the feeling: Why keep doing this??

So, like many times in the past when I need to reigite my passion for life, it became a time to seek guidance from my books. At that delightful bookshop in Subiaco called "The Inspiration Factory" I came across a Robert Schuller book I hadn't read before called Success is Never Ending, Failure is Never Final. And after an hour with Schuller and his magnificent Possibility Thinking regime, I am ready to get on with achieving my dream and goals.

In some great examples that really rang true Schuller talks of the alcoholic who confronts his condition and joins A.A. and becomes sober. That is success. But he starts drinking again and the cynic says he is a failure. However, Schuller says "No! Those weeks, months, years when he was sober - weren't they wonderful. Positive memories were generated and collected that will help him in the future. And when he was sober he inspired others to also get sober. His success lives on. And one day those memories will inspire him to become sober again.

Schuller also recalls the story of a woman who finally admitted she was fat and gained the personal determination to join a responsible weight loss program and she became thin. However, two years later, without any particular reason, she gained 7 kilos. This started that vicious circle of gaining and losing weight.

She became depressed and was ready to give. Schuller says that he counselled her this way: "Count all the kilos you lost in all those diets put together. Add the number to your present weight and tell me how heavy you would be today." She thought a while and said "Gosh, I'd be over 180 kilos! I have had some success after all!"

What a different way to think about the challenges that have confronted me in the last 18 months or so. They were really just chances to reassess what is necessary to achieve my desired outcomes. Rather than start to believe what my detractors are saying and writing about me, which is that I am a hopeless failure, I can look back to see the incredible number of people our business has helped in the last 20 years. And plan with confidence the next 20 years when we will take our Business seminars to the rest of the world.

So on Monday when I jump out of bed, I will know for sure that  Success is never ending... and failure is never final.

ACTION STEP: Tap into the power of 5 magic words" I CAN DO IT TOO!