All of us have seeds for greatness within. But few people
achieve their full potential in life. Why is that so? Why isn’t
everyone happy, healthy and terrific?
All of us have seeds for greatness within. But few people achieve their full potential in life. Why is that so? Why isn’t everyone happy, healthy and terrific? Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, authors of the best-selling series Chicken Soup for the Soul, wrote: “You are only one good idea away from success, one good idea away from being rich, one good idea away from being healthy – and you make the decision.”
Are you contented with results you’ve achieved in your life? What have you decided for yourself, either by design or by default?
There are countless trap doors on the way to reaching aspirations. There’s a huge temptation to be content with status quo, to be unwilling to pay the price for the pain of change and growth.
Tom Hopkins said, “Champions have the burning desire to achieve. Ask yourself, ‘How much pain can I handle before I quit? How many problems can I put up with before I stop?’ If you have the potential to be a champion, your answer will be that you don’t quit no matter how much pain and how many problems you encounter, because those things are nothing compared to your desire.”
Then there are those of us who become discouraged when goals are not reached quickly enough. We abandon ship on the course we originally charted for our dreams. Or we get sidetracked with stinking thinking. “I’m too old.” “I’m too tired.” “I’m too busy.” “It’s too hard.”
Even people like the famously positive Dr. Norman Vincent Peale suffered from discouragement and negativity occasionally. During the Depression, he and his wife, Ruth, struggled to build a church in New York. In the summer of 1938, they went to England for a vacation. Ruth later recalled how Dr. Peale sat on a bench in the garden of their hotel and complained so intensely, she became weary of it. She told him perhaps he should practice what he preached about positive thinking. When he got clarity of thought, he became so enthused he wanted to go home that very day to tackle the challenges at hand. She had to reason with him not to curtail their vacation.
Neglecting to fully embrace the thrill of the payoff is another short-circuit to achievement.
What is your goal’s deeper meaning, the reward you’re really after? What is the excitement and potential pleasure that will make hard work and effort worth it all? Take a look at the “things” you want. What do those “things” mean to you personally? Important payoffs to you are the ones that have the most meaning. Dig deep to discover what you truly want from the experience called living.
Sometimes we don’t excel because we think too small. “Be bold,” wrote Basil King, “and mighty forces will come to your aid.”
To enjoy the best of what life has to offer, make it a practice to think positive, bold thoughts, while ruminating over rewards.
