By Leesville Mayor Rick Allen

Reggie Jackson struck out 2600 times but no one talks about that, Thomas Edison had a thousand failed experiments but his 1001st experiment was the light bulb but no one talks about the others. One of my personal heroes; Michael Jordan, shot 969 at the buzzer shots, he only made 69 but no one talks about that. So, what was it that made them all keep going? The dream isn’t enough, it takes more than that it takes goals or benchmarks in the dream to keep you moving forward. Denzel Washington once said “if you are going to fall make sure you fall forward not backwards.” The first reason is so you can see what you are going to hit on the way down but the main reason is that even when you fall you are moving towards your goal. I’m six feet tall and if I fall forward, I still gain six feet towards my goal but if I fall backwards my eyes are twelve feet from where they would have been and I will take that six-foot gain rather than a loss any day of the week.

In the Bible the disciples had been fishing all night and had not caught a single fish. Then Jesus shows up on the scene and says, “cast your nets on the other side of the boat.” When you think about that you imagine that the boat was big and wide and where He told them to cast the nets was a long way from where they were, but reality is where the pole is located that holds the net it was located almost at the end of the boat and this boat was only six feet wide. So, imagine three feet to either side of the boat from the pole that held the net. You all know the story they ending up catching more fish than the nets could hold only six feet from where they had been fishing.

When you fall make sure you fall forward towards the goal. The additional gain even if it’s a small one might make all the difference at the end of the day and if your eyes are closer the view will be different as well.

And if you fall seven times just make sure you get up eight times and your good.

I know you can