Before success comes in any man’s life, he’s sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That’s exactly what the majority of men do. – Napoleon Hill
I call quitting an art, because I am a master at it. All my life, in everything I have done, I have only given half-measure in the attempt. In very rare cases did I ever finish what I started meaning that most times I simply said the heck with it and abandoned the project.
From building plastic models to life changing events I only gave fifty percent of myself, if that much. And most of my work was shoddy and far below any type of professional standard. It is no wonder I live from payday-to-payday because I was never taught how to succeed, only how to fail.
I know there are millions of individuals out in this country, even the world who are just like me – successful failures. So what changed? What changed in me that I have now decided to give 110 percent to my website and the enhancement of my life?
For years I have read the motivation books and listened to the tapes but not once, never once did I seriously apply the lessons these items were teaching. Heck I didn’t even understand the lessons much less apply them. So why now, why change now?
There comes a time in everyone’s life when a breaking point is reached. Life has given us a raw deal, or so we think and we need to do something about it. The results of that breaking point can range from small emotional whimpers to brute physical hostility. For me the breaking point resulted in determination, a renewal of my faith and a desire to change my life. Not just a desire, but a burning desire for change.
And just what is a “burning desire” you ask. This was the issue that I could never truly understand when I read the books and listened to the tapes. Then, one day in November 2010 the concept struck me. I’ve told this story in an earlier blog post so I’m not going to repeat it here, but I will say this, nothing of a life changing experience happens to a person until the person is ready, truly ready to receive it. For me the burning desire is to quit living from payday-to-payday. I am so sick of living this way I must change me, and so my journey began.
While I have been working on myself for a year now, I constantly find myself adapting to new ways of thinking. New concepts enter my mind which I try, and if they work I keep, and if they lack what I need I reject and discard.
As I re-read my books and listen to my tapes I realized that not everything I read or hear applies directly to me. But some things do and I have categorized these items under something I call Project G.
Project G consist of four factors: goal setting, learning/training, action, and the most important factor of all – persistence. I’ll be talking about these items in later posts, but for now I just want to introduce you to them.
Never in my entire life have I ever been taught to set and obtain goals. It was always “I want to leave my options open” with me. What a bunch of malarkey. Setting goals and achieving them is the only way to move ahead in life. For decades I have set goals only to quit when I hit a little resistance. What I have discovered over the course of time is it is one thing to set a goal but quite another to achieve it.
In today’s political climate setting goals is being stripped away from us a little every day. The concept of self-reliance is being replaced with government cradle-to-grave social care. We are being brainwashed into believing that only the government can care for us, raise our children, and determine our future. And one thing that is not in our future is goal setting for that would mean self-reliance, something the liberal mindset cannot, nor ever will tolerate.
I do not know of a time in this country when the people were ever taught the subject of how to set a goal. And I don’t think for the foreseeable future goal setting will ever be taught. Teaching goals doesn’t fit with the socialist mentality of population control, which is of course the ultimate objective of the political elites.
There are forces, read that people, in this country who believe they are superior to others. It is their intellect which will “guide” the down trodden (translation: all of us low-life’s) towards the utopia of the imagination, the elitist imagination and their definition of utopia (translation: slavery for the masses).
As I look at myself I realize that I am only existing, not living. So why am I this way? Very simply, I listened and I believed the message the elitist was preaching, a message that I was unworthy of having a great life and the only way I could survive is to be poor, never achieve, and believe those who went to Harvard, Yale, and other Ivy League schools, for they knew more than I and I was not worthy of touching their feet. To which I now say: Bull!
There is no reason I should be in the mess I find myself in, no reason at all. But, I have only myself to blame. I never took complete responsibility for my actions, much less my life. I always deferred everything to tomorrow thinking I had all the time in the world. Well, it is now tomorrow and there can be no more deferring. I either change today or I don’t change at all.
I always quit when the going got a little rough, when minor resistance was met, and when I was criticized for anything. I became a master at quitting, giving up, and conforming to the will of others. No more. I will not, I cannot give up or quit this time. I refuse to yield and raise the white flag as I have done so many times in the past. Not this time. Things are different; I am different, for I am determined to obtain my definition of success no matter how long it takes.
It is very possible I may die before I achieve it, but it won’t matter. The seeds I am planting today will one day provide fruit for someone else. At least that is my desire. Still I will work towards my goals; I will plan, act, and persist until something gives, be that me or the stubborn universe. For I have learned that success does not come easy, but with persistence it will come. And this time I intend to stick it out, for this is my last stand to prove to me that I can live up to my own expectations.
G.
