Success: A Worthy Destination
By: Earl Nightingale
The stories of people achieving unusual success despite all
manner of handicaps never fail to capture our attention.
They're inspirational to be sure. But they're much more than
that if we study them closely.
The boy whose legs were terribly burned and who was told
he'd be lucky to ever walk again becomes a champion track
star. The woman blind and deaf from infancy becomes one of
the most inspirational figures of the century. And the poor
children who rise to fame and fortune have nearly become
commonplace.
In this age of unprecedented immigration, we see examples of
people who start off in this world with virtually nothing
and within a surprisingly short time have become wonderfully
successful.
What sets these people apart, people with vast handicaps
such as not knowing the language, not knowing the right
people, not having any money? What drives the boy with the
burned legs who becomes the champion runner or a Helen
Keller, blind and deaf who becomes one of the most
inspirational figures of our time? The answer, if fully
understood, will bring you and me anything and everything we
truly want, and it's deceptively simple. Perhaps it's too
simple.
The people we've talked about here and the thousands
currently doing the same thing all over the world are in
possession of something the average person doesn't have.
They have goals. They have a burning desire to succeed
despite all obstacles and handicaps. They know exactly what
they want; they think about it every day of their lives. It
gets them up in the morning, and it keeps them giving their
very best all day long. It's the last thing they think about
before dropping off to sleep at night. They have a vision of
exactly what they want to do, and that vision carries them
over every obstacle.
This vision, this dream, this goal, invisible to all the
world except the person holding it, is responsible for
perhaps every great advance and achievement of humankind.
It's the underlying motive for just about everything we see
about us. Everything worthwhile achieved by men and women is
a dream come true, a goal reached. It's been said that what
the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.
It's the fine building where before there was an empty lot
or an old eyesore. It's the bridge spanning the bay. It's
landing on the moon. And it's that little convenience store
in Midtown Manhattan. It's the lovely home on a tree-shaded
street and the young person accepting the diploma. It's a
low golf handicap and a position reached in the world of
business. It's a certain income attained or amount of money
invested. What the mind can conceive and believe, it can
achieve.
We become what we think about. And when we're possessed by
an exciting goal, we reach it. That's why it's been said,
"Be choosy, therefore, of what you set your heart upon. For
if you want it strongly enough, you'll get it."
Americans can have anything they want. The trouble is they
don't know what they want. Oh, they want little things. They
want a new car; they get it. They want a new refrigerator;
they get it. They want a new home and they get it. The
system never fails for them, but they don't seem to
understand that it is a system. Nor that if it'll work for a
refrigerator or a new car, it will work for anything else
they want very much, just as well.
Goals are the very basis of any success. It is in fact the
definition of success. The best definition of success I've
ever found goes like this, "Success is the progressive
realization of a worthy goal." Or in some cases the pursuit
of a worthy "ideal." It's a beautiful definition of success.
It means that anyone who's on course toward the fulfillment
of a goal is successful.
Now, success doesn't lie in the achievement of a goal,
although that's what the world considers success; it lies in
the journey toward the goal. We're successful as long as
we're working toward something we want to bring about in our
lives. That's when the human being is at his or her best.
That's what Cervantes meant when he wrote, "The road is
better than the inn." We're at our best when we're climbing,
thinking, planning, working. When we're on the road toward
something we want to bring about.
With our definition, success being the progressive
realization of a worthy goal, we cover all the bases. The
young person working to finish school is as successful as
any person on earth. The person working toward a particular
position with his or her company is just as successful.
If you have a goal that you find worthy of you as a person,
a goal that fills you with joy at the thought of it, believe
me, you'll reach it. But as you draw near and see that the
goal will soon be achieved, begin to think ahead to the next
goal you're going to set. It often happens that a writer
halfway through a book will hit upon the idea for his next
one and begin making notes or ideas for a title even while
he's finishing work on the one in progress. That's the way
it should be.
It's estimated that about 5% of the population achieves
unusual success. For the rest, average seems to be good
enough. Most seem to just drift along, taking circumstances
as they come, and perhaps hoping from time to time that
things will get better.
I like to compare human beings with ships, as Carlyle used
to do. It's estimated that about 95 percent can be compared
to ships without rudders, subject to every shift of wind and
tide. They're helplessly adrift, and while they fondly hope
that they will one day drift into some rich and bustling
port, for every narrow harbor entrance, there are 1,000
miles of rocky coastline.
The chances of their drifting into port are 1,000 to 1
against them. Our state lottery is a tax on such people. So
are the slot machines in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
Someone wins from time to time to be sure, but the odds are
still there ... stacked steeply against them.
But the 5 percent who have taken the time and exercised the
discipline to climb into the driver's seat of their lives,
who've decided upon a challenging goal to reach and have
fully committed themselves to reaching it, sail straight and
far across the deep oceans of life, reaching one port after
another and accomplishing more in just a few years than the
rest accomplish in a lifetime.
If you should visit a ship in port and ask the captain for
his next port of call, he'll tell you in a single sentence.
Even though the captain cannot see his port, his destination
for fully 99% of the voyage, he knows it's there. And then,
barring an unforeseen and highly unlikely catastrophe, he'll
reach it. If someone asks you for your next port of call,
your goal, could you tell him?
Is your goal clean and concise in your mind? Do you have it
written down? It's a good idea. We need reminding,
reinforcement. If you can get a picture of your goal and
stick it to your bathroom mirror, it's an excellent idea to
do so. Thousands of successful people carry their goals
written on a card in their wallets or purses.
When you ask people what they're working for, chances are
they'll answer in vague generalities. They might say, "Oh,
good health or happiness or lots of money." That's not good
enough. Good health should be a universal goal. We all want
that, and do our best to achieve and maintain it.
Happiness is a byproduct of something else. And lots of
money is much too vague. It might work, but I think it's
better to choose a particular sum of money. The better, the
clearer our goal is defined, the more real it becomes to us,
and before long, the more attainable. Happiness comes from
the direction in which we're moving.
Children are happier on Christmas morning before opening
their presents than they are Christmas afternoon. No matter
how wonderful their presents may be, it's after Christmas.
They'll enjoy their gifts, to be sure, but we often find
them querulous and irritable Christmas afternoon. We're
happier on our way out to dinner than we are on the way
home. We're happier going on vacation than we are coming
home from it. And we're happier moving toward our goals than
even after they've been accomplished, believe it or not.
Life plays no favorites. Yet of one thing you may be sure,
you will become what you think about. If your thinking is
circular and chaotic, your life will reflect that chaos. But
if your thinking is orderly and clear, if you have a goal
that's important for you to reach, then reach it you will.
One goal at a time. That's important. That's where most
people unwittingly make their mistake. They don't
concentrate on a single goal long enough to reach it before
they're off on another track, then another, with the result
that they achieve nothing. Nothing but confusion and
excuses.
By thinking every morning, every night, and as many times
during the day as you can about this exciting single goal
you've established for yourself, you actually begin moving
toward it and bringing it toward you. When you concentrate
your thinking, it's like taking a river that's twisting and
turning and meandering all over the countryside and putting
it into a straight, smooth channel. Now it has power,
direction, economy, speed.
So decide upon your goal. Insist upon it. Demand it! Look at
your goal card every morning and night and as many times
during the day as you conveniently can. By so doing, you
will insinuate your goal into your subconscious mind. You'll
see yourself as having already attained your goal, and do
that every day without fail, and it will become a habit
before you realize it. A habit that will take you from one
success to another all the years of your life. For that is
the secret of success, the door to everything you will ever
have or be.
You are now and you most certainly will become ... what you
think about.
The Eagle
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