My Success Creed
I have the ability to create my own life the way I want it to be. There are no limitations on what I can do or achieve. Everything I need to make this a reality is already present within me. I just need to acknowledge its presence and decide on how I want to use it to create what I want. I am much stronger than what anybody can say that I am, because they don’t see what’s within.
I have the intellect and wisdom to make a significant contribution to the overall quality of life. I interact with people daily and I am always relevant when I speak. People want to hear me and they listen to my words because they know I have something important and vital to say. I speak factually, literally and sometime figuratively, because they are all ways to get my point across and are very relevant in life. I am gentle and kind with my children and they love me more and more each day, and I reciprocate their love ten fold.
I am focused on the positives. I am always punctual or early, and never intentionally late. I respect other people’s time, energy and schedule, and they respect mine. I apply myself 110% to what I do at any moment because multitasking is a psychological myth, not a reality. I dedicate time to understand my limitations and strengths. I invest time into improving my strengths, so that I may become better; while endeavouring to marginalize my limitations so that they do not become a hindrance or nuisance to myself or those whom I interact with daily.
I handle myself in a professional and esteemed manner, even in difficult situations, because I know I am mentor to my children and society at large. They expect that I lead by example, and that my behaviour will be commensurate with that expectation. I do not make it a blind obligation, but a commitment that brings extraordinary value to my life and all whom are around me to feel its effects.
I accede to a mission or goal that is beyond me and any material gain, because true meaning and purpose lie well beyond any material gain that can be attained in my life or beyond. I make that mission the premise on which I assess what is truly important to me and everyone who depends or interact with me. I use it to determine my values and attitude under any circumstance where I need to make a decision that involves personal, societal or environmental ramifications that are not easily reconcilable. I use this mission to make ethical and morally correct decisions in the face of personal and institutional pressures to do otherwise, or compromise on what I believe to be “the right thing to do.”
Small Steps, The Big Difference
Most people, like me, can get caught up in worrying about the big moments in their lives, the last big decision they made, or one they will have to make at one point or the other. We do this at the price of ignoring the everyday small steps and small things we need to do daily that prepare us for those big moments.
The small steps are more frequent, varied and, at first thought, may not appear to be important in us achieving our ultimate goals. But that is wrong! Those small, almost autonomous, things we do daily or weekly will put us on the right path for success—these are the Success Precepts!
Success Precepts are the fundamental ways we approach anything we do: whether to make a decision, how we use our time, what we focus on, the time we allocate to our personal growth, etc. Ignoring or not appreciating these Precepts each day may eventually lead us to fail, not fully realize our dreams, or make the climb along the success ladder much harder than it already is.
Success Starts with a Vision
Before you start your pursuit of success, you must first know what success will look and feel like to you. Yes, to you! That’s because every one will have their own view of success. And in most cases, the views are radically different.
Take the case of two partners in a start up business, they each want the business to do well, be profitable and provide a good ROI (return on investment). But even though the external metrics which both will use to measure success are the same (the success of the start up), how they interpret their individual success will be different. This is because they have different perspectives and visions of success.
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozinack, founders of Apple Computers, are two famous examples–they had a shared objective, but radically different views of the look and feel of success. This difference was epitomized by the paths both of them took with the success of Apple. Jobs was always visible in the spot light, while Wozinack enjoyed his success equally, but more low keyed.
In order to develop that vision of success, Richard Shell, author of Springboard: Launching Your Personal Search for Success, advises that we need to ask ourselves “two big questions”:
- What is Success?
- How will I achieve it?
There no two more fundamentally easy questions to understand, but are incredibly difficult to answer. The truth is that without knowing your answers to these two questions, you cannot thrust your time and energy into any meaning full plan for success–what if you get to the top of the ladder, only to realize it was leaning against the wrong wall? These two questions are therefore integral to the success precepts that we must learn in order to start on our journeys of success.
Take the Small Steps
There are many metaphors in life that can be drawn upon to show that the small steps or precepts for success are not to be taken for granted. Think of your car; ignore regular small, routine maintenance and when something goes wrong it costs you exponentially more to fix it than you would have spent for maintenance over the period.
More vividly, imagine a large block of ice below a dripping facet. Initially the water droplets seem innocuous to have any major effect on the ice block. However, after a few minutes those droplets begin to have an exponential effect on the thawing of the ice block, which melts rapidly once the droplets have reduced the surface temperature sufficiently.
Consider Success Precepts as water droplets and your goal is to use them to create the most magnificent block of ice you can envision. At first, each successive water droplet does not appear to make a perceptible difference, but as the droplets accumulate they begin to take the form of the container in which they’re collecting and the vision is complete. Applying the precepts to your life are also like this. At the outset, they may seem to have no perceptible effect on moving you towards your goals—but that’s only superficial thinking. Once you understand and begin applying the precepts, they take on a form consistent with your goals and build your momentum exponentially.
Nothing energizes us more than a well thought out and executed goal. This is what success precepts will do for you. But remember, true success does not come overnight—it needs work and effort! Success precepts give you the tools you need, but you still need to exercise the patience, tenacity, diligence, and determination that are the prerequisites for success.
