Seven (7) Great Lessons You Can Learn from Helen Keller

Helen Keller was an amazing woman. She was blind, deaf, and dumb, yet that didn’t stop her from achieving her dreams. Helen was not a person who made excuses, she made things happen. She is a constant reminder that anything is possible.

Despite her circumstances, Helen Keller became a world famous author, activist, and speaker. One of her many accomplishments includes being the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. I believe we can learn a lot from Helen.

1. Go After Your Dreams

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.”

I often tell people to go after their dreams and turn them into a reality. My skeptics would say, “That’s unrealistic,” …but what’s the point of being “realistic.” Nothing great has ever been achieved by a “realist.”

Albert Einstein was not a realist, the Wright Brothers were not realists, Thomas Edison was not a realist, and Alexander Graham Bell was certainly not a realist.

What is “realistic,” but the self-imposed limitations adopted from society? Take the limits off; go after your dreams. In the infamous words of Paris Hilton, “life is too short to blend in.” Chase after your dream like it’s the last bus of the night.

2. You Must Have a Vision

“It’s a terrible thing to see, and have no vision!”

Do you have a vision, a goal, a plan, a mission for your life? Isaiah wrote, without a vision the people perish. Great leaders are always great visionaries, they have an internal picture of where their going; their fixated on their vision. What’s your vision?

3. Nothing’s Impossible

“We can do anything we want to do, if we stick to it long enough”

The beauty of “time” is that you can accomplish just about anything if you keep at it long enough. Set your mind on what you want to accomplish, and don’t stop until you get there. They say the usefulness of the postage stamp consists in its ability to stick to something until it gets there. Learn from the postage stamp; stay committed to your dream until you get there.

4. Experience is Priceless

"Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.”

Knowledge is nice, but experience is priceless. Learn from all of life’s lessons! Never be afraid to get your hands dirty by getting some first-hand experience. Only experience can bring full understanding.

5. Focus on the Positive

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.”

Although we could focus on the negative things around us, it doesn’t do us much good. Helen Keller said, “Keep your face to the sunshine and you will never see the shadow.” I think this is good advice. Decide to see glass as “half-full,” things are not getting worse, they’re getting better!

6. Hang-out with Winners

“While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.”

Winners hang-out with winners. Don’t be caught hanging-out with negative people. Negative people are like “vampires,” they suck the life from everything around them. They’re always saying “how you can’t, why you can’t, and how you’re going to fail when you try.” If you hang with these “chickens” for too long, you’ll forget that you have the ability to soar like an eagle. Decide to spend your time with those who believe the impossible is possible.

7. Your Destiny is in Your Hands

“What I am looking for is not "out there," it is in me”

Everything you need to succeed, you already have on the inside of you. Shakespeare wrote, the fault dear Brutus, lies not in our stars that we are underlings, but in ourselves. Success is yours for the taking, but you have to believe it, and you have to be convinced that you deserve it.

"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar." – Helen Keller

Thank you for reading, and the next time you think something can’t be done, remember Helen Keller.

Written on 12/17/2009 by Mr. Self Development who is a motivational author that offers a practical guide to success and wealth; support him by visiting his blog at mrselfdevelopment.com.

All content herein is reproduced with full permission of Jay White from Dumb Little Man - Tips For Life.