Vetnews | Desember 2025 40 « BACK TO CONTENTS Influential Life Coaching MISPERCEPTIONS PART 2 Dr Mats Abatzidis B.Sc. B.V.Sc. New Insights Certified VIP Life Coach mats.abatzidis@yahoo.co.za Founder of Influential Life Coaching http://www.matsaba.wix.com/drmatscoach Author of the published book “Life outside your comfort zone. Better and beyond all expectations”. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=searchalias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Abatzidis http://www.life-coach-directory.co.za/mats-abatzidis Vet's Health I Life Coaching I hope this article finds you and your families well and safe!!! Last month, we looked at certain misperceptions that we sometimes subscribe to, mostly because it is convenient. Now we look at some more! I have heard so many people in my time say, “It’s just not worth the risk!” and then they give up. I have done it too. I think we all have! However, “There is always risk, so learn to manage risk instead of avoiding it.” – Robert T Kiyosaki. This is further reiterated by Nelson Mandela’s words – “There is no passion to be found playing small and settling for a life that is less than the one you’re capable of living.” I believe most of us are underperforming and avoiding risks as much as possible. I have taken my fair share of risks in my life so far. In life, we must take calculated risks, which is when even the worst outcome is manageable. I remember growing up and sitting in on my dad’s conversations with his adult friends and visitors at home. On a few occasions, I was told “to make sure you have something to fall back on.” Always have a safety net. The counterargument to that is learning to fail forward. A very worthy investment in this regard is John C Maxwell’s book – “Failing Forward,” where he reveals how several noteworthy individuals developed the ability to take risks, learn from their mistakes, and profit from their failures. Famous sports stars have failed more than they have succeeded, but we do not hear about their missed shots and failures, just their scoring and their wins. Thomas Edison conducted more than a thousand failed experiments until he managed to get a light bulb to work. Subsequently, everybody is now using the light bulb. Every “No” brings you closer to a “yes.” Every failure brings you closer to success. If you are not failing, you are not even trying to succeed. One of the many things people do to protect themselves against failure is to always perform without absolute clarity about what they are trying to achieve. “One day I will have a nice car” or “One day I will have a nice house.” There is no clarity about when that “One day” will be, and there is no detail provided for what the car or the house will look like. Then they try a couple of things halfheartedly, and they fail. Then they rationalise that failure by saying that it was not what they really wanted or needed, or they held back on the effort to preserve themselves, and maybe if they had gone all in, they would have achieved their goal. That way, they cannot be too hard on themselves for failing. What is wrong with attempting things half-heartedly and thinking this way? If we sit on the fence by setting up vague “goals” and lack commitment, we then move from risking the possibility of failure and engage in a life where we ensure the absolute certainty of failure. That means, we owe it to ourselves to try our absolute best and go all in when we are working towards each of our goals, to ensure that we do not ensure failure. Do regrets come from failures? Imagine a person on their deathbed bed and standing all around that bed are ghosts that represent the patient’s unfulfilled potential, ideas the person never acted on, and the talents that were not used. Those ghosts would be angry and disappointed. The patient could have brought them to life. How many ghosts would be standing around our beds when our time comes? The pain of not having done something often lasts far longer than the pain of having taken the wrong action or made the wrong decision. We waste so much time looking at the door that has closed on us that we miss the doors that have opened for us. We should have no regrets in our lives; we should just take the lessons out of failed attempts and take the chances that are being offered to us. Setting the right benchmark to measure yourself against is fundamentally important. There are so many celebrities out there today, and influencers, mentors, etc. Are they the ones we should be comparing ourselves to and striving to be like? You have a certain set of talents, possibilities, limitations, and tragedies that are truly unique to your life, your time on this earth, which makes you an absolute individual human being. So, comparing yourself to someone else on some dimension because you have identified a few similarities, but ultimately their talents, opportunities, limitations, and tragedies or equally unique in their life, which then means our comparison is a completely unreasonable one. So, what is the most appropriate comparison to make? The proper comparison to make is you yesterday, as the background to you yesterday is the same and thus makes the comparison appropriate. All the best for the festive season! Enjoy and be safe! Next month, we will continue looking at more ideas for improving our quality of life and overall performance, both at work and at home. v
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