Motivational stories have the power to change lives. Here is why. One of the greatest ways to illustrate a lesson or a point is by telling a story. If you have ever sat through a long lecture before, you know how boring it can be if all the speaker is doing is through facts and figures at you. However, a speech can last a few hours but you can still enjoy every second of it if the speaker presents his/her main points in form of a story. We remember best when things are told in story form.

I'm sure you've heard a lot of stories growing up and most likely, you remember a lot of them. You may not remember the details, but you can probably tell the story without leaving out the main points. The reason why telling a story is so effective in having the audience remember what you are saying is because they are able to visualize or imagine the story that is being told. When you are just thrown random pieces of knowledge, it's often hard to remember it because you don't naturally pictures those things. We think in images. Because of this, when we visualize something, a situation, or a story that is being told us, we will be able to remember it better.

If you have ever studied the power of visualization, then you know how powerful your imagination can be and how important of a role it can be in achieving your goals. So to tie these things together, when you hear motivational stories, what happens is you will naturally visualize the story in your mind as you follow along. If the story is about a person who had to overcome great challenges and obstacles in order to reach their goal, and that is what you are seeing in your mind, those images you are creating will help you strengthen your beliefs about your own abilities and capabilities in obtaining your own goals.

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When you visual images of success in your mind, what you are doing is rehearsing in a way. You see, your mind cannot tell the difference between something that is real and something that is vividly imagined. This is why when you keep thinking of negative thoughts, negative things will tend to happen in your life. Let's say you have a speech to give and that public speaking isn't your most favorite thing to do. Most likely, you will be imagining images of you messing up or perhaps of the audience being bored with your speech. What does this do? It can cause you to lack confidence and become nervous about giving your speech even though nothing has actually happened in reality. On the other hand, if you imagine giving an awesome speech and seeing the audience giving you a standing ovation, you will feel a lot more confident in yourself even though you haven't done the speech yet.

The best part about motivational stories in particular is that they help you to see images of success. When you constantly see these stories in your mind of people overcoming extreme obstacles in order to live their dreams, you will start to believe that all of that is possible for you as well. Countless people have had their entire life changed just because they were inspired by hearing about someone elses accomplishments. Too often we will fall into the trap of believing that our challenges are unique and that no one in our situation can possibly become successful. You must realize that no matter how badly you have it, there are many others that have gone through things worse than you and still came out on top. Realize that you have the power to do it as well. Thinking otherwise is really just an excuse that you are giving yourself to give up. When you give up, that's when your negative thinking will become a reality.

Here is a great motivational story about overcoming challenges and using obstacles to your advantage.

- Author unknown

A parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule. The mule fell into the farmer's well. The farmer heard the mule 'braying' -- or whatever mules do when they fall into wells. After carefully assessing the situation, the farmer felt sorry for the mule, but decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth saving. Instead, he called his neighbors together and told them what had happened and asked them to help haul dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery.

Initially, the old mule was hysterical! But as the farmer and his neighbors continued shoveling and the dirt hit his back, a thought struck him. It suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back: he should shake it off and step up! This is what the old mule did, blow after blow. "Shake it off and step up... shake it off and step up... shake it off and step up!" he repeated to encourage himself.

No matter how painful the blows, or distressing the situation seemed, the old mule fought "panic" and just kept right on shaking it off and stepping up! You guessed it! It wasn't long before the old mule, battered and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall of that well! What seemed like it would bury him, actually end up blessing him. All because of the manner in which he handled his adversity.

The whole point in this hub is to show you that motivationa stories have the power to move you into action and literally change your life if you allow it to. Whenever you set a goal, there will always be obstacles that will suddenly show up and stand in your way. This is just how life is. It's almost weird how this happens but if you think about it, it's really a blessing in disguise. If you set a goal to do something and very easily get it, it wouldn't be much of a goal. If my goal was to get up and get the mail, do you think I would be jumping for joy once I got the mail? Of course not.

Goals are suppose to be challenging. This is why people will cry in joy when they finally achieve their dreams. This past Sunday, Roger Federer finally won the French Open to claim his 14th Grand Slam title tying the record with Pete Sampras. When he got the final point to win the game, he dropped to his knees in tears. Do you think he would've done this if it was just some practice match? Of course not. He had to go through many disappointments and obstacles to get to where he is. Many times he had the chance to finally win that 14th title but was denied.

The greater the challege, the sweeter the victory. The video below is the emotional speech that Roger Federer gave when he lost to Nadal at the Austrailian Open, which would have given him his 14th Grand Slam title. As you can see, this goal means a lot to him. Many people actually said that he was done for that this is the closest he'll ever get to obtaining that record tying title. He lost his #1 ranking that day as well. People were saying it was the beginning of his downfall.

The final point where Federer finally wins that 14th title to tie up with Pete Sampras. He proved everyone wrong.

Motivational stories of people overcoming setbacks to finally achieve their goals are all around us. It's up to us to let them inspire us to take action and achieve our own dreams. Perhaps your accomplishments will one day be told and will inspire someone else to achieve their own goals.

I like motivational videos, so here is another one.

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