The FIRM Principle Part 4
“Every child should be taught to expect success.”
– Orison Swett Marden
The third part of the FIRM Principle is Recognition. This is not the recognition of telling people they did a good job or that we give to those who achieve good things. The recognition we are talking of here is the ability to identify things that you know. All of us have had experiences, seen examples and learned principles that we recognize each time we see them. We may not always be able to describe it in words, but we know it when we see it.
BE AN EXAMPLE
Let me ask you a question: How do we teach our children good morals and good behavior? Is it by telling them one thing and doing another? No. It is always by example. If you say one thing and do another the people who you lead, whether child or adult, will do as you do not as you say. Always! Success-Minded People understand that their actions are their greatest teaching tools. Author Andy Andrews said “There are generations yet unborn, whose very lives will be shifted and shaped by the moves you make today.”
DO AS I DO
We do a great disservice to our children when we think they just know how to behave in an upright and godly manner. It is in all our natures to sin, not to do right. This is hard for some to take but it is true. If you need proof just watch children who are not taught to tell the truth, not take things that do not belong to them or to be kind. No one has to teach us to lie, steal or be unkind.
RAISE THE STANDARD
Success-Minded People need to design their lives to be an example at all times. To be the best they can be, not only for their sake but for the sake of all who are watching them. None of us are perfect, we know that. But not being perfect is neither an excuse nor reason for lowering our standards. Author Ralph Marston put it this way: “Don’t lower your expectations to meet your performance. Raise your level of performance to meet your expectations. Expect the best of yourself, and then do what is necessary to make it a reality.”
IT ALL BECOMES BETTER
The life of Success-Minded People should be such that when people (especially our families) are asked what it means to be honorable and godly their response is to point to us. We, Success-Minded People, take on the responsibility to be the example of integrity, honor, morality and kindness. It is a big job and not at all one to be taken lightly, but it is the only way others will know how to recognize what the qualities of an honorable person are. It is as the novelist Paulo Coelho said, “When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”
© 2011 John Patrick Hickey
