THE DEFINITION OF SUCCESS: ACCEPTING NOTHING LESS THAN WHAT YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH BY BUILDING UPON WHAT YOU HAVE PREVIOUSLY DONE

Sometimes an individual is able to succeed, grow and prosper because of a unique skill set, a captivating personality, an influential and motivating mindset OR plain good luck in spite of (rather than because of) the things that are consciously done to create the success.  More often, however, much planning, analyzing, forecasting, and “sweat equity” go into bringing individual thoughts and dreams to fruition.  An individual must selflessly invest his or her time, money and effort to realize the returns that inevitably come when one mortgages their short-term leisure time for long-term rewards – but accomplishing anything, one must envision the future, determine how it can be enacted, then steadfastly advance towards its realization. 

One must closely monitor progress and constantly identify obstacles that could hinder the accomplishment of goals, either avoiding their negative impact or minimizing their effect, in order to help guarantee success.  Changes to established plans should be considered carefully before acting, but actions should be intentional rather than reactive or in response to temporary conditions.  A person will never be able to reach his or her full potential when focused intently upon the path rather than the prize at its conclusion – when looking back to where they have been rather than ahead to where they wish to travel – more concerned with stumbling than learning from each fall.

Individual success can be directly linked to the power a person allows him or herself to take (and the responsibility assumed for each intentional action taken) when contributing freely and creatively to growth.  In order to maximize the chances of success, an individual should first envision the future and where he or she may fit.  Questions that should be asked should include what does one WANT to be, WANT to accomplish, or can realistically EXPECT to achieve?  To taste success one must start with a conclusion - a goal or set of expectations – before embarking upon the path towards accomplishment.  Without an end point, one will never know when one chapter has concluded so that another can begin.  Life without purpose can be eventful but is rarely satisfying.  It may be full of new beginnings but is strangely at a loss for “ends.”  We cannot achieve what we do not believe BUT we will never know how much is possible until we truly identify our abilities, gifts and talents before openly and honestly expressing our expectations and desires for a different or improved future.

Once a goal has been established, an individual must determine how it can be accomplished.  What knowledge or ability must be attained to achieve the goal?  Who must be brought into the solution (to maximize the chances of success) and who should be excluded from its execution (to minimize the potential of failure)?  Too often, training is an afterthought to the accomplishment of a dream.  When we start act without thought we may taste limited success but it will be realized in spite of ourselves rather than because of anything that we intentionally did or could easily replicate.  In order to advance ourselves we must do things differently than they have been done in the past so we must develop new tools, thought processes and methodologies that can be leveraged to build alternative paths that lead to previously unconsidered destinations.  Seeking to leverage that which is common knowledge often reveals only what has been previously accomplished.  In order to fulfill our potential we must expand our horizons beyond the “here and now” to the “what if” and “why not”.

To achieve greatness, people MUST steadfastly advance towards the realization of their dreams.  In order to continually move forward, systems must be put in place to identify obstacles that could hinder progress AND to justify warranted changes.  An individual will never reach his or her full potential should he or she focus too intently upon the path rather than moving towards the prize at its conclusion.  Perhaps we should all take the time to chart a path upon which we can travel, setting our targets high, so that we can be an integral part of a well planned solution RATHER THAN simply a piece of the puzzle or a part of the problem that someone else must resolve.  Only by choosing to envision the future, to enact a solution and to steadfastly advance towards self-actualization (while keeping our eyes on the goal) will we ever achieve our true potential.

One’s potential is not measured by what he or she has done but rather by what he or she is capable of doing.  The potential of an individual is not an accounting of where he or she has been but rather an anticipation of where they might go.  In order to realize our full potential we should recognize and acknowledge the accomplishments of our past, allowing ourselves to bask but for a moment in the memories of what we did – as we let go of what we have proven possible while moving on towards those things that could only have been imagined.