Inspiraelevation

One thing that links us all is the desire to succeed.

Achieving success requires more than a perfunctory desire.

Success is the result of work, or as Sophocles once said, “Success is dependent on effort.” Success requires an investment.

There is no better thing to invest in than in one’s self.

Many struggle with the fact that the achievement of goals is taking a little longer than expected. Thus, Some simply give up. And, when looking at what they have seemingly invested, and what the return has been thus far on efforts given, it all seems hopeless.

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Additionally, one must realize that one’s output is directly proportional to one’s input. When looking at long-term gains,  realize that it takes time for investments to mature.

Principles of investing are an excellent way to look at goal setting and achievement. Just as in financial investment, bigger returns require larger investments.

As individuals who seek success, we must recondition ourselves to give more than the minimum; more than the minimum time, energy, and effort.

As Elbert Hubbard once said  “A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success. “

This year to see the results desired from the goals you set I challenge you, every day, to put in a little more effort.

As so eloquently stated by Les Brown, “Make each day count by setting specific goals to succeed, then putting forth every effort to exceed your own expectations.”

So it is the New Year and the Holidays are rapidly drawing to an end.

It is a time of reflection while also looking forward.

More importantly, it is a time for setting goals or making resolutions.  However, sadly, many have given up on making resolutions, supporting such decision-making with the familiar argument, “why waste time with something that you’re going to break anyway.” If this is you, I want to challenge you to change your thinking.

Develop a growth mindset.

Do not make any determinations about your outcomes prematurely. Take a chance and set a goal or two. What can it hurt?

Write down that goal and make the decision to be resolute.

Be admirably, determined.

Remember that small successes build up to major achievements. But, the first step to any achievement is always setting a goal.

• So, set goals
• Every day do something no matter how small.
• Don’t be afraid to mess up.

Perhaps the goal from the year prior went unfulfilled.

If that is the case, let me let you in on a well-known secret,  no progress is too small.

Even the smallest amount of progress means that you are that much closer to fulfilling the desired goal. Continue to build on that.

Everyone deserves success.

You must believe you are worth it!

Recommended Read:

The 1% Rule: How to Fall in Love with the Process and Achieve Your Wildest Dreams by Tommy Baker

Achievement is the result of effort,  dedication, and focus.

Nothing happens overnight.

What is sowing?

The process begins with planting a seed and then spending the time to nourish that seed.

The same rule is applicable for growing a gift.

Growing a gift

Before one can become successful in any endeavor he or she must dedicate the time and effort to grow that gift. One thing is certain,t it is impossible to reap a harvest without sowing seeds.

“As economists like to say, there’s no free lunch. By this, we mean simply that all things we value come at a cost, explicit or implicit” (Frank).

Every opportunity bears a cost.

Every day, you have an option to do something to move toward progress. That opportunity is a seed, that if sown, produces a harvest.

Choosing to deliberately focus on those things that will contribute to growth is akin to sowing good seeds in fertile ground.

Good Seeds

There are 3 important seeds that one must sow in order to excel.

1.Enthusiasm (sunlight)– you have got to be passionate. passion provides the spark that keeps you going.

2. Self- discipline (good soil) –  You have got to be disciplined. ” You discipline yourself to stay with the task until that task is completed” (Ziglar p. 53).

3. Persistence(water)– You have got to be committed to doing the things necessary, consistently, to make it happen.

Think about what comes of a flower that is only watered on occasion.

Summarily, whatever you determine to do you must do so with enthusiasm,  you must discipline yourself to maintain deliberate and unwavering focus, and you must do so persistently (remain committed to the task at hand).

It is a process, but the end result will always be excellence.

Zig Ziglar relays an excellent example of what can happen when one sows good seeds through the story of the Chinese Bamboo Tree in his book. “Developing The Qualities of Success: How to Stay Motivated Volume I.”

“They plant the seed, they water it and they fertilize it—and nothing happens the first year. The second year they water it and they fertilize it and nothing happens. The third year they water it and they fertilize it and nothing happens. The fourth year they water it and they fertilize it, nothing happens. The fifth-year they water it and they fertilize it and sometime during the course of the fifth year, in a period of approximately six weeks, the Chinese bamboo tree grows ninety feet—or thereabout” (p. 115).

As finely illustrated in that story, achievement is the outgrowth of diligence in sowing good seeds.  

The only thing standing between you and achievement is deciding to put in the work to make it a reality,.

” We have to get serious about doing things with our lives” (Ziglar p. 51).

References

Frank, H. Robert. Success and Luck: Good fortune and the Myth of 

     Meritocracy. Princeton University Press 2016.

Ziglar, Zig. Developing The Qualities of Success: How to Stay Motivated

        Volume I. Made for Success Publishing 2014.

 

There are so many lessons to learn on our journey upon earth. Some lessons we learn the easy way and some come the hard way.  One thing is certain, those lessons we fail to learn from others we learn from life.  As it has oft been quoted and well reasoned, while life is the best teacher, life is also a hard schoolmaster.

“Experience, that is the most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.” -C.S. Lewis

Those lessons that we learn from living, stick with us for a long time.

The bumps and bruises of experience etch those lessons deep into our soul’s rendering them ones that we will not soon forget.

Presence

One of the most important lessons that one will learn from life experience is the importance of time, and being present.

Time passes so quickly that many fail to stop and take notice. Most people only realize the outcome of millions of decisions made over accumulated time. In fact,  one would be amazed at the number of changes that occur during the seconds, minutes, hours, and days of a year.  In fact, the number is so astronomical that one would be in perpetual awe if they were to sit, meditate, and think on such.

Life altering things are happening in our lives every second.

To think that there are 31,536,000 seconds in the frame of a year.  This is unfathomable, especially when thinking about time relative to the number of decisions that are being made each year. It is truly eye-opening.

When thinking about decision-making many only think of the more complex decisions that are made on a daily basis. The other more minute decisions which also shape the outcome of our lives are less often considered. Such thoughts do not occupy much space in one’s thought life.

These decisions work together to form the miraculous nature of our present and are worthy of purposeful contemplation.

Life satisfaction begins with mindfulness.

It is often the failure to choose mindfulness that leads to some of life’s most poignant lessons

Every now and then we are awakened, and we are forced to become present.   We experience something so significant in our lives that all else ceases to exist, and we are forced to come face to face with time,  fragility, mortality, and the relative scope of our lives, which is a mere microcosm of life in the big scheme of things.

It is in those times of intense and sudden change, that we are given to the contemplation of the importance of being present (aware), Present (aware) of time down to even a fragment of a second.

For it is within seconds that life is created, that the loved one we cherished and may have lost ceases to breathe, that the war that we may be fighting began, and the love and relationships we may be now experiencing begins, ends, or mends.

In a blink of an eye;

Life is shaped, formed, repaired and destroyed

 

A very few seconds can change our lives in meaningful ways, forever. That is why being present is important.

 

Be mindful, live in, use, and fully experience your present.

The more present we are the less worry, anxiety, and fear we have.

A wise person said that anxiety stems from spending too much time thinking about the future and far too much time dwelling in the past.

 

As often as you can, remind yourself of the significance of time, and let that remind you of where you are and the importance of now.

 

 

We all have a vision of how we see the world.

 

That vision is a carefully crafted ideal that we have been taught to develop. It is our image of a perfect life lived by our perfect selves, and it becomes our mission, whether advertently or inadvertently, to reach that standard.  While for some that carefully crafted vision is a stepping stone to achievement for other it is a weighted anchor.

Failure to measure up, obtain, or simply missing our ideal fosters feelings of dejection or unworthiness,  casting constant shadows.  Despite what many tell themselves, living in the shadow of un-fulfillment binds.  The stigma that is associated with not measuring up fetters the spirit.

This piece is especially for those who struggle with feelings of incompleteness or un-fulfillment.

This is for those stuck in an in-between state with feelings of failure or inferiority.

 You don’t have to stay there, you can be free. 

 Lessons on dreaming and achieving are commonplace, as this has been drilled into most from childhood up. I’m sure it easy to recall such questions as;

• What do you want to be when you grow up?
• Where do you see yourself in 5, 10, 15 years?
•  What is your ideal body shape, career, companion,  or life?

I’m sure it is equally easy to recall the pressure that came along with crafting an answer. Perhaps you can recall being driven by the fear of condemnation powered by your uncertainty. Those monumental questions served as the first blueprints for a mastered and successful life and directed your choices and decisions from that point forward.

Essentially, there was nothing wrong with these questions or the premise that these questions were tools that taught us steps to achievement. As Robert Browning once said, “Ah, a man’s reach should exceed his grasp…”, meaning we cannot hope to achieve that beyond which we reach for. However, the instruction was one-sided. One of the most elemental lessons went untaught; living life in the in-between.

Life in the In-between

Life in the in-between is a life filled with dreams and ideals not fully realized, a state where one is always in the process of reaching but not yet achieving. Unfortunately, many of us live life at this stage, but yet have never been taught how to fully live at this stage or how to answer such questions as;

• What if I fail to achieve that which I dreamt?
• What if I never reach my ideal body shape or meet my ideal companion?
• What if I am not the measure of the man or woman I once desired to be?

How does one survive a life of almosts and in-between’s?

The world is full of inconsistencies and inequities. Life is complicated, and we are flawed beings living a flawed existence.   It is quite difficult to measure up to an imperfect standard in an imperfect world.  Quite naturally many will not fulfill ideals set.

I believe such sentiment drove Langston Hughes, famed author of  poem Harlem,  to once pose the question, “What becomes of dreams deferred?”

Assuredly not all dreams, “sugar over like a syrupy sweet,” some, in fact, many, “fester like  sores or stink like rotten meat and a great many sag like heavy loads.”

But that’s okay.

If you are living a life of in-between’s and almost’s, don’t be too hard on yourself.

Let this in no way diminish your life,  value, or ability to live a joyful existence.  Therefore, if you never reach the ideal put forth understand that some things are not meant to be no matter how bad you want or work for them. That does not make you a failure or incompetent. You are not lesser because of this. You must rather learn to live a fulfilled life in spite of this.

Play the cards you are dealt and play them with panache.

 

True masters learn to skillfully play the hand they are dealt and still win. 

This is not a lesson easily accepted. The hardest thing for one to do is to let go of what might have been, should have been, or should be,  and embrace what is. However, true fulfillment comes from recognizing and accepting life as it comes, and failure to do so results in a life of abject unhappiness.

Beauty is and always will be in the possibility. The most joyful moments are crafted in the process of living not in the obtaining. When it gets the toughest say a little prayer for understanding