Road to Success

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

Holy Bible

“Some day I shall be the president.”

Abraham Lincoln

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As a first step to develop your personality, think what you think about yourself. Do you think you have the right kind of attitude and abilities that will enable you to be successful? Note that a “yes” from you would carry credibility only if you are putting forth a significant amount of efforts to move closer to your goal, because successful personalities prove beyond doubt that nothing is achieved without terrific efforts. If you are not executing efforts and answering “Yes,” then being polite I would like to tell you that you are dishonest with yourself.

Lincoln thought deep in his heart “Some day I shall be the president.” He proved that his thinking is honest because he worked diligently to achieve his aim. Bible: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

When will you start giving the required efforts from? From next month? From next week? From tomorrow?

No! From self experience I know that such resolutions are self-deceiving. The best time to employ yourself at a good work is the present moment. Feel shame for your inactivity, and if you are really apologetic, you must take the road to success at this very moment. Your movement ought to have such force that it also compensate for the time you have wasted.

You might frown at my unsympathetic words. True, I am not even a tiny drop of liquid in the vast ocean. But even if I had been like Lincoln, I would have not sympathised with you. You and I need motivation, much better if it is self motivation, not sympathy.

We have hidden powers like Lincoln or Newton had – they discovered and used those powers to improve their own, as well as the lives of numerous others. We are so big, motivated, powerful etc. that we don’t need sympathy. Sympathy of another human, let him be however elevated, makes a man dependent and resultantly he remains far from achieving the true success. Only God can sympathise with his creations. Dependence on God is the only dependence that makes us independent.

At this moment you don’t have a teacher or boss who could discipline yourself. In order to swing yourself into action, like successful personalities you need to exercise self-discipline, and self-discipline bears sweeter fruits than the discipline which is imposed upon you because it requires a greater effort of the will and significantly solidifies it. (The greater the plough, the better the yield.) This absence of a higher authority has provided you the opportunity to really test your will and sincerity. Will you be able to prove to yourself that you have the devotion and single-mindedness you need to succeed?

Then write out the answers to the following questions:

• What is my goal?
  
• How important it is for me to achieve it?
  
• What actions until now I have taken to get closer to it?
  
• Were there any faults or weaknesses in my approach?
  
• What I must do to eliminate them?
  
• What I need doing to accelerate my progress?
  

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Will be writing the next post for those who think themselves to be weak or untalented as many successful personalities did before achieving success. Till then, you must also answer the aforementioned questions, motivate and change your thinking on your own because you can certainly do it.