“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” – Paul J. Meyer
When people come for coaching or to ask questions about their dreams and purpose, they so often say, “I am looking for things to be right and then I will give myself fully to my dream.” Or “I keep waiting for things to happen but they just don’t.” Here is a news flash: Things will never just happen! The time will never be right! If it is going to happen YOU have to make it happen. And if you don’t it won’t.
IT TAKES HARD WORK
One of my favorite quotes is from race car driver Mario Andretti who said, “Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that enables you to attain the success you seek.” Success-Minded People know that to achieve in any field or any area of life takes hard work. It never just happens. It is not an accident, it is very strategic and deliberate.
PAY THE PRICE
It is easy for people to look at the lives of Success-Minded People who have achieved any kind of success and see them as lucky. As if successful people just stumbled on their good fortune. The great industrialist Andrew Carnegie made the statement, “The harder I work the luckier I get.” If you are not willing to pay the price for your success you will never have it. And there are too many who are not willing to pay that price. This is why people play the lottery. They think they will become rich without working for it. People spend money they do not have on a game they cannot win for a fortune they do not deserve. This is not the way of the Success-Minded Person.
MAKE SUCCESS HAPPEN
God has so much in store for your life. You can achieve your dreams and fulfill your purpose IF you are willing to change and do what is needed to succeed. Attorney Kerry Randall said it clearly. “Contrary to popular opinion, life does not get better by chance, life gets better by change. And this change always takes place inside; it is the change of thought that creates the better life.” The ability to change you is the one power that you only possess.
You are not a victim of life, no matter who you are. God has placed in you the potential to be something great. There will always be room for those Success-Minded People who, when given an opportunity, take it with both hands and do all they can to achieve. Those men and women who make things happen rather than wait for things to happen to them. Are you one of these? Then figure the cost, pay the price and enjoy the rewards.
© 2011 John Patrick Hickey
