Motivation.

This post is really just my way of gearing up for the re-do of the bar exam coming up in February. If you can get a lil something from what I write here, then I'm glad that I made this one public.

And in case you didn't know: I failed the exam in July. Since finding out my results, my friends, family and such have done all they could do to console me and encourage me for the next time - but I realize that the encouragement I really need is going to come from within.

It hasn't been easy since I found out I failed. Not too many tears shed but definitely questions flying around in my head about what to do differently this time, how to get it done, and, of course, whether I will fail again. I know I'm capable of passing the exam - and my score demonstrated that (got a 648 - needed a 665 to pass.) I fell short of the passing mark but not that short - and so I need to get myself to a place where I exceed 665. Overdoing it will get it done.

I've started going over my outlines of NY law and while some things are coming back to me - which is cool. But just now, as I was studying I found myself questioning whether I would be able to retain all this information by February 24 and demonstrate to the New York State Board of Law Examiners on that day, and the day after, that I am more than capable of being an attorney. So I stopped to write this post, to remind myself that

1. I know I'm capable of passing the bar exam and it's just a matter of getting it done.
2. While getting it done takes a tremendous amount of work, I survived it the first time around, and the second time around gives me the advantage of learning from past mistakes.
3. I wasn't put on the road to becoming an attorney without the ability to overcome something like having to take the exam again. Whatever is put to me to get done, I can get done.
4. God will provide the way for me to become the person I am to be in His own way and in His perfect timing.
5. No one ever said that changing the world would be easy!

Like I said already - I'm more than capable of getting this done. I just have to make it happen. Let me go see about doing that.

Some of my favorite motivating quotes:

The only thing that separates successful people from the ones who aren't is the willingness to work very, very hard.
-- Helen Gurley Brown

It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him.
-- John Steinbeck

The ways of the Lord are not comfortable, but we were not created for comfort, but for greatness, for good.
-- Pope Benedict XVI

You know what else I find motivating? Knowing that passing this exam really is just the beginning. There's more to come, God willing.