"The heights by great men reached and kept, were not attained by sudden flight but they while their companions slept were toiling upwards in the night"Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Today if I have failed to motivate you to aim higher and live your dreams then I have written this blog in vain. I sat pondering life's many challenges, I thought about those who are successful in their own right. What differentiates those who have and those who have not? Is our definition of success skewed in that we equate success with wealth? How do we determine what living our dream is, are we truly living up to our potential or are we simply settling for mediocrity? Hmm well some of these questions are personal, others are debatable.
I remember perusing the facebook page of someone who recently got married. The caption to one of her pictures was "for richer and for richer, poverty is a state of mind". Although this statement is a little controversial and can be debated, I am an advocate for hard work. Those that have excelled differentiated themselves from others by not only believing that they could live their dreams but putting their dreams into action. Therefore the question is not whether or not your dreams are attainable, because they are, what you really should be asking yourself is what steps must I and have I taken to attain them.
Attitude determines altitude, in other words how high you aim and how far you reach is largely dependent on you. You have to be clear about your goals, the time frame in which you want to have them accomplished and how you are going to get there. Begin this process by putting these goals in writing. Your goals do not have to be big ones, it may involve taking a dance class just for recreation or it may involve a lifestyle change like eating healthy. Place your goals at a point where you are constantly reminded of them. Therefore if you are sitting at your desk for forty hours each week, you may want to have your goals in front of you.
We all have strengths and weaknesses. My best-friend does well at interacting with people and taking control I am comfortable on the sidelines. Determine what your strenghts are and how you can use them to reach your goals, acknowledge and challenge your weaknesses that way they no longer hinder you. If you find that you are not eloquent enough, begin reading more. It is possible that you will do well in a managerial position but the fear of having to deal with your subordinates maybe a draw back. Learn to be more assertive, do not allow your insecurities to prevent you from aiming high.
Eliminate negative thoughts and conversations. Whenever they pop up in your head, reaffirm yourself with positive thoughts. It may mean that you write an affirmation and tell it to yourself constantly. Weird at it sounds, if you compliment yourself about how beautiful you look, you begin to see the beauty in yourself. Some people never have anything positive to say. Limit your contact with them. Negative conversations are to be avoided at all times. If you feed yourself with negativity, you will always have negative results. Also, shy away from idle conversations. They may not necessarily fall within the negative conversation category but at the end of the day they will not uplift you, hence they should be avoided. Always evaluate your conversations to see if you learned anything of worth from it if you did not then you should begin finding other things to converse about and people to converse with.
Feed yourself daily and I don't mean with burgers and fries. I always tell myself, an article a day keeps ignorance away. Instead of listening to Cd's with music all the time, pop in a motivational speech or something spiritual. Take time to increase your knowledge on current events. Your brain is like a sponge, it soaks up everything that it is fed. You may not have the time to read the whole NY times however, reading at least three articles a day and or listening to talk shows that deal with current issues can expand your knowledge on issues that affect us and our world.
Do not fear disappointments. So you did not get the dream job. Life is not perfect, we are constantly being bombarded with disappointing situations. Always learn from your mistakes or past experiences, pick up the pieces, and work harder at it. Sometimes, the venture that you are working on is not for you, be willing to accept that and move on. You cannot allow the fear of disappointments to hold you back. Always evaluate yourself to see what you could have done better, no matter what it is, a failed relationship or a lost job, evaluate yourself and reenter the game making sure this time you do better at it.
Success should never be evaluated by richer and richer, however, within yourself you will know if you have reached your full potential. Living your dream is attainable, but is largely determined by the effort that you put in it. And always remember that there is a Deity who is in control.
One Love.
