There is guaranteed success when you never give up! The lack of perseverance is the only thing that can prevent your success.Perseverance is one of the most important personal character traits needed to succeed in life. Nothing worthwhile can ever be accomplished without perseverance. Persistence and determination supersedes genius, education, and talent. Those who refuse to persevere have little hope for success.

All those at the top have the same character trait in common: perseverance.The history books are full of examples of people who succeeded as a result of never giving up.The biographies of great people proves that persistance pays off.Perseverance is required for successful achievement.The most successful people in all fields never give up. Persistence and perseverance will allow you to succeed also.

Temporary setbacks can’t stop you if you’ll refuse to acknowledge defeat or give up. Bounce back when it appears that you’re down for the count. No one achieves total success without going through setbacks, hardships, and opposition. Perseverance means to hold out and remain steadfast until the end. Let perseverance carry you through pain, distress, pressure, and disappointment. Perseverance is the only key that can turn defeat and failure into success and victory. It’s impossible for a persistent man or woman to be kept down for long.

If you fail, start over. Change your methods, learn from your mistakes, then try a new approach. Once you convince yourself that there has to be a way to do what you want, you become unstoppable. Believing that a problem can’t be solved makes it unsolvable. Believing that solutions are possible attracts the right answer to you.

When things aren’t working, back off and start fresh. Come back for another go at it and you’ll eventually reach your goal because of your persistence. Picture the end result in your conscious mind and your subconscious mind will take over and direct your actions. As you see your goal in your mind before it manifests and go over your future in your mind, your subconscious mind will lead and guide you in the right direction. Your subconscious mind will take care of any past missteps by directing you to do whatever is necessary to compensate for your errors. All you have to do is get action going toward the attainment of your innermost desires and your subconscious mind will guide you in the right direction.

But above all, persevere!

–

Jawara D. King

About this Article’s Author: Jawara King is a full-time author, philosopher, researcher, and writer, working in the metaphysical and spiritual fields. As a contemporary spiritual teacher, he conveys the timeless profound messages of the ancient spiritual masters of all traditions. His works blend physics, spiritual philosophy, Eastern wisdom, and mystical Christianity with life-changing results. Jawara’s foundational teachings bring together insights from a range of spiritual paths to form a spiritually global coherent practice; guiding thousands of people to transform their lives through one of the greatest teachings in the world today. He has written five self-improvement books outlining the philosophical and spiritual framework necessary to bring forth a spiritual awakening in the real world.

To succeed, you must first have a goal. Those who do not establish goals to achieve will fail because they have no objectives to attain. Every human should have a specific and concrete goal to shoot for. Once you reach a goal, to avoid stagnation, you must establish a new goal to strive to reach.

Proverbs 29:18 says,

Where there is no vision, the people perish.

You can give yourself goals to reach without knowing how they will come to pass. Simply concentrating on the goals you want to attain will cause the methods to take care of themselves.

As you visualize all the benefits you’ll gain after reaching your goal, you’re programming your subconscious mind. Visualizing your future gives your subconscious mind goals to reach for you. Establishing a goal for yourself is the first step to whatever you desire. Your subconscious mind cannot work for you unless you give it a goal to reach.

Mental pictures of yourself accomplishing your goal drives it deep into your subconscious mind. As long as you don’t allow thoughts of defeat or fear to stop you, your subconscious mind will show you how to manifest the goal you’ve programmed into it.

Dedicate yourself to the attainment of your goal. Make up your own plan for successful achievement and give it your best shot. Unswerving singleness of purpose and organized activity withdraws universal power. Determine to follow through on your plan without giving mental recognition to the possibility of defeat. Your controlled attention, sustained effort, and concentrated energy unleashes the power of your subconscious mind. Opportunities never come to those who sit around waiting, but to those who are motivated by a burning to desire to act.

Establish a goal for yourself, learn all the details, then do everything you can to achieve it. Exert all your efforts and energies on your goal without listening to the opinions of others. Discussing your plans and goals with others has the potential to bring chaos and confusion in your mind. The information and guidance you receive from your subconscious mind is more important than the opinions of doubters.

You should never discuss your dreams, aspirations, and goals with anyone because everyone has different ideas about how to reach a certain goal. Jesus gave excellent advice when he said, “Go and tell no man.”

–

Jawara D. King

About this Article’s Author: Jawara King is a full-time author, philosopher, researcher, and writer, working in the metaphysical and spiritual fields. As a contemporary spiritual teacher, he conveys the timeless profound messages of the ancient spiritual masters of all traditions. His works blend physics, spiritual philosophy, Eastern wisdom, and mystical Christianity with life-changing results. Jawara’s foundational teachings bring together insights from a range of spiritual paths to form a spiritually global coherent practice; guiding thousands of people to transform their lives through one of the greatest teachings in the world today. He has written five self-improvement books outlining the philosophical and spiritual framework necessary to bring forth a spiritual awakening in the real world.

Everybody wants to know How can I get rich?

Well, here’s how  I did it.

I learned very early in life that the only way to make money was to “sell” something — either a product or a service — something people wanted or needed or do something for them they couldn’t — or wouldn’t — do for themselves.

I learned to “make do” with what I had until I could get what I needed to do a better job.

I learned that I had to do anything necessary (but legal) to get to where I wanted to be, even if I didn’t like doing it. Especially if I didn’t like doing it. You can do anything you need to do, until you can do what you want to do.

Start by doing what is  necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
– Saint Francis of Assisi

I learned to never ask anyone to do anything for me that I wasn’t willing to do myself. And everyone who has ever worked with me has taught me about what they have done for me and how they did it. After a while, I could do it, too, but maybe not as well as they did.

Anyone can be a genius if they pick just one specific subject and study it diligently just 15 minutes each day.
– Albert Einstein

I learned to pay for what I wanted. If I couldn’t afford it, I saved to be able to afford it. (Sometimes it seemed like forever.)

I learned that no matter how long it took to achieve my goal (whatever it was), it would have been just as long if I hadn’t persisted, but I would have accomplished nothing.

I learned that nothing is as easy or as fast as it should be. It only gets easier and faster when you know how to really do it — and learning how to really do it is just a matter of doing it over and over and over until you finally find out how it works. Of course, if you give up after the first (second, third, or fourth) try, you’ll never do it.

The secret to success is the constancy of purpose.
– Benjamin Disraeli

I learned most of what I know from my mistakes and failures.  My successes never taught me anything. They were only based upon what I had learned from my mistakes and failures. (That’s why those who are afraid to make mistakes or fail never achieve the success they desire.)

Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.
– Bill  Gates

I learned that my most prized possessions were my customers. People who, directly or indirectly, paid for my lunch every day. That’s why, unlike my contemporaries, I reply to my customers emails personally.

I learned that money is not an end unto itself. It is only a way of keeping score. The saddest people in the world are those who are forever chasing the almighty dollar and the vast majority of them have no real respect for money.

If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.
– John D. Rockefeller

I learned to ask for what I wanted or needed and to graciously accept a “NO” as readily as a “YES.”

Yes, you can get rich, but you’ll have to do  it yourself. No one will do it for you!

I get tickled by people who want to start at the top of the ladder. For some unknown reason, they honestly believe they are better than I am, since I had to start on the bottom rung and climb up one rung at a time.

When I mention the above, I often hear  ”Yeah, I could do that, but it will take too much time. I need money now. And I don’t want to just make a little money, I want to get rich.”

Sorry, you’ll have to start where I started. Do what you need to do to make a little money? Then do more and more of it to make more and more money. As you make more and more money, the greater the opportunities you will have to make even more money.

Nothing succeeds like success. Even small success.

The more things you don’t want to do, the fewer and fewer things you will do until you are doing as most people do: Nothing but dreaming!

I can teach you how to do it, but you won’t get it until you actually start doing it yourself.

–

J.F. (Jim) Straw began his long, successful career in business at the age of nine when he sold his first cans of Cloverleaf Salve and copies of GRIT newspaper. As a mail-order marketer with over 700,000 customers worldwide he has sold over four-hundred million dollars ($400,000,000) worth of products and services by mail — everything from beauty supplies to heavy equipment, burglar alarms to sleeping bags, fishing lures to women’s wigs, automobiles to wheelchairs, investment opportunities to seafood, consulting services to “how to” courses. His book Physio-Psychic Power – The Ultimate Success System is to be published by Kallisti Publishing.

You can become a millionaire in one year or less using the tried and proven methods Jim can teach you. Visit http://www.businesslyceum.com/BeAMillionaire.html.

[This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005. Source: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html]

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Anything becomes possible when you can see it manifested in your own mind. The journey of success begins by first perceiving it, then having absolute faith without giving up. Actively pursue your goal every day and refuse to give up until you acheive it.

True success doesn’t happen overnight and takes time.

Success is never giving up and overcoming obstacles.

Your success or lack of it is determined by what you do with what you have.

The gaining of something planned is the standard definition of success. To accomplish anything, you must create a plan and work at it. Failure is failing to try. Without a plan of action, you don’t have a blueprint for your success.

Take authority over yourself through the successful development of your skills, talents, and abilities. Seek knowledge and create a plan to put into action.

Passion and motivation lead to success, which is only guaranteed by taking action now.

Create short-term and long-term goals for yourself. Every goal should be realistic and specific with a completion date. Goal-setting today will determine your success or lack of it tommorow.

Failing to plan is planning to fail. Write down the steps necessary to reach your goal and gather information relating to it. No goal will come to pass without a plan of action. Success is based on the importance of planning. Failure is failing to create the proper blueprint to achieve your specific goal.

Your success can only expand to the size of your vision. Proverbs 23:7 says,

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

Your thoughts set the course of your life, which is why you become what you constantly envision. Big dreams demand big expectations. When your vision is big, it’s more likely that your success will be big. Create your plan, work it, and refuse to give up. Have a written plan of what must be accomplished every day to ensure that you’re taking action related to your goals.

To reach your highest level of success, changes always need to be made. Knowledge alone doesn’t guarantee success; it’s action taken based on your knowledge that creates change. Success is only guaranteed to those who are committed to it.

Have big dreams and goals. Success begins one step at a time. You will become successful in every noteworthy area of your life by learning and gaining knowledge. You must gain understanding in the area you want to be successful in. We have the responsibility to educate ourselves because understanding and knowledge are essential to manifesting success.

Your ability to succeed is hidden in continuous self-improvement.

–

Jawara D. King

About this Article’s Author: Jawara King is a full-time author, philosopher, researcher, and writer, working in the metaphysical and spiritual fields. As a contemporary spiritual teacher, he conveys the timeless profound messages of the ancient spiritual masters of all traditions. His works blend physics, spiritual philosophy, Eastern wisdom, and mystical Christianity with life-changing results. Jawara’s foundational teachings bring together insights from a range of spiritual paths to form a spiritually global coherent practice; guiding thousands of people to transform their lives through one of the greatest teachings in the world today. He has written five self-improvement books outlining the philosophical and spiritual framework necessary to bring forth a spiritual awakening in the real world.

I am somewhat sensitive to sounds. If I hear something out of place — an errant squeak, a slightly off-balance picture on a shelf that knocks as it wobbles when a person walks by it — I have to investigate the source of the sound and fix it so as to make it stop.

When I heard a small, barely audible knocking in my office a couple of weeks ago, I just thought it was the wind.

Then I felt everything swaying ever so slightly. I still thought it was the wind.

It lasted longer than a burst of wind usually lasts, though.

That’s when I received an email that stated that my area was struck by a small earthquake.

Holy cow! What the heck is going one here?

I know that some of you in places like California are laughing at me. I’ve seen the web sites showing the “damage” from the earthquake that originated in Virginia: the toppled lawn chairs and shaken knick-knacks.

You must understand that this was my very first one! Ever. It was the first for probably everyone in my area. It was … Weird.

Moving forward a couple weeks later to this past weekend, my area found itself once again being toyed with by Mother Nature.

This time it was flooding.

The Susquehanna River rising and almost covering the Market Street Bridge in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

A couple places in my area were decimated. Our downtown was evacuated and people expected the worst. The levees that were built to withstand waters of up to 41 feet held strong even though the river crested at over 42 feet.

It’s been somewhat crazy. I even quipped that if hordes of locusts appear, I’m calling game over!

My area isn’t the only place. There are fires in Texas. Flooding in other places. Hurricanes.

What’s the point of all this?

Already in my area, clean up has begun in earnest. People who have lost everything are assessing things and planning their next move. Businesses are moving as quickly as possible to get things up and running.

Human nature, even when forced to the brink by Mother Nature, perseveres and prevails.

In our individual lives, we cannot control everything that happens. As Forrest Gump said in the movie, sometimes “crap happens.” (I sanitized that for our all-ages audience.)

What counts is how we react to the crap. What counts is what we do after the crap has passed. What counts is that we keep on keeping on after all the crap is thrown at us.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Friedrich Nietzsche who exhorted “Build your houses on Vesuvius.”

Life, no matter how safe we try to play it, will always toss something at us. It will do its best to knock us down a notch. It will take its best shot time and again.

We’re better than that, though. We’re stronger. We’re smarter.

So dream big and plan bigger.

Talk loudly and act boldly.

You might fall and fail. You might lose and be defeated. You might end up battered and broken.

But you’ll overcome it. You will prevail. You will stand tall.

That’s just what tough “sum-bitches” like us tend to do.

One of my favorite quotes — one that guides much of my life and work — is a Japanese proverb:

Your garden is not complete until there’s nothing more you can take out of it.

A garden cannot have EVERYTHING in it. If it does, it ceases to be a garden and instead becomes a mess. A tangled mess.

Beautiful gardens are those in which the person who tends to it carefully and with great thought removes that which is not necessary.

The result is that those plants and flowers that remain are able to get all the nourishment they need and thus they grow strong and true.

People who see the garden or who walk through it notice the care and fore-thought that went into the planning can care and they appreciate the beauty that surrounds them.

The same holds true for your life.

As you remove that which isn’t necessary to you, you begin to nourish those notions and ideas and things that do mean something to you.

So, first you remove the weeds.

Next, you remove the things that, while not weeds, tend to occupy your time to no end.

After that, you remove the not so important flowers and plants. This is where it gets tricky because it may be a close call between what you will keep and what you will discard.

Life is full of tough choices, though.

And they need to be done.

You will finally come to the point that there will be nothing more that you can take from your garden.

What you will be left with is your completed garden. If you tend to it and care for it properly, then you will have a resplendent garden that you will be proud to show.

Sometimes, life and work and play isn’t about acquiring or attaining. It is about removing, trimming, honing, and discarding.

Think about that quote for a little while. I think that as you do that, it will make more and more sense to you.

“Your garden is not complete until there’s nothing more you can take out of it.”

It’s been a while since I posted an article. I apologise for my absence. I’ve been busy with quite a few things.

As you know, we’ve been having weekly Master Key Coaching Teleseminars. We made it to Week Fourteen and are well on our way to completing our study of Haanel’s most famous and awesomely inspiring work.

I’ve also been readying a few new and great books for release. One is entitled I Believe, Therefore I Am. It’s an amazing book and I know that you are going to love it.

As I was surfing the ‘Net, I stumbled upon this quote. When I read it, I immediately thought about Haanel, The Master Key System, and what we’ve been discussing on the Master Key Coaching Teleseminars.

The author of the snippet is Ayn Rand, philosopher and author of such works as The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Love her or hate her, one must admit that she made an impact on the world. Also, whether you love her or hate her, I think you will get a lot from the following quote from her.

“Productive work” does not mean the unfocused performance of the motions of some job. It means the consciously chosen pursuit of a productive career, in any line of rational endeavor, great or modest, on any level of ability. It is not the degree of a man’s ability nor the scale of his work that is ethically relevant here, but the fullest and most purposeful use of his mind.

Charles F. Haanel also had quite a bit to say about productive work. If you’ve been listening to the Master Key Coaching Teleseminars, then you know that. Peruse this excerpt from The Master Key System, for example.

8. The financier gets much because he gives much; he thinks; he is seldom a man that lets any one else do his thinking for him; he wants to know how results are to be secured; you must show him; when you can do this he will furnish the means by which hundreds or thousands may profit; and in proportion as they are successful will he be successful. Morgan, Rockefeller, Carnegie, and others did not get rich because they lost money for other people. On the contrary, it is because they made money for other people that they became the wealthiest men in the wealthiest country on the globe.

9. The average person is entirely innocent of any deep thinking; he accepts the ideas of others and repeats them in very much the same way as a parrot; this is readily seen when we understand the method which is used to form public opinion and this docile attitude on the part of a large majority, who seem perfectly willing to let a few persons do all their thinking for them, is what enables a few men in a great many countries to usurp all the avenues of power and hold the millions in subjection. Creative thinking requires attention.

Of course, this isn’t all that Haanel wrote on the subject. The Master Key System is full of points like this.

Take the time to review them.

Take the time to choose your goal.

Commit yourself to achieving it.

Focus all of your thoughts and all of your energy to accomplishing what you set to do.

You can begin right now. Make the choice to do so.

Matt Schmoldt

Everyday I take a break from my work when I get to the point of being tired of what I am doing, and I usually go play basketball. The breaks that I enjoy the most are when I am alone on the court. Uninterrupted.

I shoot, shot after shot. I enjoy trying to perfect my shot. I have an inner desire to become gifted. I have come to the point where I know what I need to do to consistently make shots, but I just don’t consistently do what I need to do.

The rim lets me know how I am doing. I love having it’s instant feed back. The loud clang of the rim challenges me to become better, and the soft swish of the net rewards me.

But today, I realized that the rim’s instant feed back is unnecessary.

I realized that I already knew if the shot was off course even before it hits the rim. I know by how I feel during the shot. I know if it is too short, or sailing wide left, and I know if the shot is perfectly on track.

I realized that I was concentrating on the result and not on how I felt during the shot. I was fixed on making my next shot (the destination of the ball), but not on how I should feel during the shot (the journey).

When I let go of my fixation on making shots and instead focused on how I felt during the shots, an amazing thing happened. I made way more shots. Why? I got rid of my self imposed pressure on the result, and became free to follow how I felt during the journey. I didn’t care if I made or missed a shot; I only cared if I was focused on feeling what I knew I should be feeling during the shot.

Our lives are the same way. We want to succeed so badly that we become fixated on succeeding. Our every thought and desire is to succeed in whatever thing it is. Sometimes we want to succeed badly enough that we do things against our conscience and better judgement. You see this happening in our schools. Students want to pass a class without putting in the work, so they turn to cheating, and when they aren’t caught, they continue cheating.

The world has recently seen what this pattern of cheating leads to in the likes of Bernard Madoff and Allen Stanford. They wanted to succeed so badly in their financial businesses, that they lied and cheated for decades. They took their new investor’s money and gave it to their old investor’s, pretending that this money came from legitimate investments.

They let their fixation on succeeding rule their actions and look what it brought. It brought devastation to thousands of honest people who invested in their lies. It brought families heartache and devastation.

In the words of Joshua Marcus Manuel, “It hurts to look at yourself in the mirror and hate yourself, look into the mirror and wonder what ever happened to that smile that used to shine so bright. When you look at yourself, you see this version of ‘you’ that your mind has created, someone that has become so distant and cold that nobody wants to be around. Empty eyes. Fragile bones. The only thing you have left are the lies you tell yourself everyday to survive, lies that have become your painful reality, lies that will swallow you whole and crush your insides, lies that have turned you into someone you never wanted to be.”

Let go. Let go of those fixations that are preventing you from living a successful life. The way to success and happiness comes from letting go and following your heart, from being in harmony with yourself.

Look at what this did for Mother Teresa. For over 45 years, she ministered to the poor and the sick. She lead 610 missions in 123 countries for people with AIDS, leprosy and other illnesses. She dedicated her life to being in harmony with her conscience; she was her best self.

What things do you need to let go of?

Let go of them.

What things does your heart ache to achieve?

Achieve those things of your heart and live a life of success in harmony and happiness. Remember, “It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.” (Mark Twain) and “A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men.” (Thomas Carlyle)

About the Article’s Author: Matt Schmoldt currently attends Utah State University in Logan and is studying marketing. He loves life, his family, his heaven, and his sports (golf & basketball). He also runs a necktie website on the side which teaches people how to tie a tie.

Tony’s Comments: If you’re doing the exercises in The Master Key System, then you know that quite often Haanel instructs you to let go, both mentally and physically. This is a method of relaxation, which is somewhat key to truly understanding and getting results from Haanel’s philosophy.

When I am consulting with Master Key Coaching clients, one of the things we often do is practicing letting go. I’ve seen it do some amazing things. As one lets go, they lose the tension and they clear their mind. When that happens, they are not “tied” to the goal in a debilitating way; rather, they allow themselves to move fluidly and with agility.

Try it! Let go.

In The Master Key Workbook, I wrote

Many people dwell on the past. “It’s not my fault, Your Honor. I had a bad childhood.” Have you heard that before? How about “My mother was never there. She didn’t love me enough.” Have you heard a person explain with that excuse why they encounter one bad relationship after another?

Let go of the past. It is gone. Bring yourself into the Now. Why dwell on something that happened many years ago? If you’ve encountered failures, then try something new! The movie Vanilla Sky provides us with a wonder- ful thing to remember.

Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around.

What goes for the past is true of the future. If you are not making plans, then why are you worrying about the future? Worry and anxiety are some of the biggest wastes of mental energy. They cause us to fear and many times they throw us into a state of paralysis. Keep your thoughts courageous and in the Now. You will be happy that you did.

Letting go may not be easy at first, but with practice you’ll get there. Pretty soon, you’ll be able to let go with ease.

As Haanel wrote, “You will not succeed the first time you try, but practice makes perfect, in this as in everything else…”

I was speaking with a prospective Master Key Coaching client. He was telling me what he wanted to attain and what he wanted to do. As he told me his goals, I noticed something — something just popped into my head.

One of his goals was that he wanted to tithe to his church. He wanted to give a portion of the money he made to his church so that they could perform good deeds.

As you well know, giving is important. The amount doesn’t necessarily matter. It’s mainly the idea that you are putting yourself — and your money — out there so that it will do good for others.

I asked this person, “How much  do you give now?”

His response was, “Nothing. It’s something I want to do when I have more money.”

I responded, “Why not begin giving now? Just give yourself permission to give now. It doesn’t have to be a lot. You don’t have to make a grand gesture. Every little bit counts and as your income grows, then what you give can grow with it.”

This seemed common-sensical to me.

It was a revelation to this person.

What I have discovered from coaching so many Master Key Coaching clients is that more often than not, it’s not that a person doesn’t know how to achieve a goal; it’s not that a person doesn’t have the means; nor is it that the person isn’t willing.

What happens far too often is that the person — like you — is probably just not giving themselves permission to do the thing they want to do!

Instead of just allowing themselves to do or get the thing they want, they make  excuses about why they can’t!

If they want to tithe, they say it won’t be enough.

If they want a new car, instead of investigating the various financing options that are available, they just file that goal under the heading “Pipe Dream” or, even worse, “Later.”

Instead of springing into action on their idea, they over-think things and instead of inventing ways to make it happen, they invent reasons why it won’t work — without even trying!

Stop it! Now.

Give yourself permission to live how you want to live, to do what you want to do, to get what you want to get.

You are ALLOWED to do so!

This is your life. Live it. Own it.

What is the difference between you and the people who “made it,” who succeeded?

Beyond what they did, beyond what they thought, beyond the actions they took and the alliances they made, it was the fact that in the beginning, when they first conceived their goal, they gave themselves permission to go after it.

Far too often, I speak with people who deny themselves their goals and their dreams, no matter how simple they are. And the only reason they do so is because they don’t give themselves permission to just go for it.

So, give yourself permission to chase your dreams. Give yourself permission to catch your dreams. Give yourself permission to live your dreams.

If it helps, I give you permission.

There are many things that you can do today — right now — that will increase your chances for success.

What is the BIG ONE, though?

Is there even a BIG ONE?

I know that there is.

It’s something that most people don’t do.

Why don’t they do it? Is it too hard? Don’t people know any better? What is it?

It’s theoretically simple, but it is a hard thing to do. But, once it is done, then success, while not guaranteed, is definitely closer. Success becomes in reach!

So, what is it?

As I wrote, it’s seemingly simple, but oh so hard to do.

It’s …

DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO DO.

See? Simple.

Yet hard.

You have to make the decision that you are going to do something. You must stand by that decision. You must follow through on that decision and see it to the end. When you do that — and as you do that more and more — you’ll find yourself becoming … *gasp* … SUCCESSFUL!

Why?

Because successful people do what other people are either unwilling or unable to do.

Most people are not able and willing to make a decision — to choose a course of action — and stick to it.

Think about how many people declare New Year’s resolutions. Now, think about those people one, two, three months later. They’ve forgotten their resolutions, haven’t they? They’re unwilling and they’re unable.

But you are willing and able. Because you were meant to be successful. That’s why you’re here.

Now, please note one thing:

I did not write “DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT.”

I wrote “DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO DO.”

There’s a big — huge! — difference between the two.

Some gurus, movies, infomercials, whatever declare that all you have to do is concentrate on the things you want. We all want things. We’re human beings. We want an infinite amount of things. Sitting around and thinking about them all the time is nothing more than mental masturbation. Or, as Haanel would write, “mental dissipation.”

While those things that you want may serve as an incentive, it’s not the thing that will bring you success

Only your actions will bring you success!

Once you begin thinking about what you want to do — whether it be starting a business, changing careers, embarking on a career, helping a charity, going on an adventure, exploring, writing a book, learning a new skill, solving a problem, going on a date — and once you make that decision, then the planning is easy. And when the plan is in place, the doing practically becomes a no-brainer.

Chances are likely that once you decide to do something, you can find someone whom you can model — and perhaps even follow their plan!

If you know where you’re going (what you want to do) and you have a map (a plan), how much will your odds of succeeding increase?

From my experience, I would say a lot. It happens with me — and I see it happen with my Master Key Coaching clients all the time.

So stop masturbating over vision boards. Become the person you want to be by your actions — by the things you do — not the things you own.

People on their deathbeds never regret not having things. They only regret the things they haven’t done!

Decide what you want to do and do it!

It’s the best — and only — way to become successful.

Goals.

If you’ve been into personal development for a mere five minutes then you’ve heard of them. Even if you’ve never cracked a book like The Master Key System or Think & Grow Rich I am highly confident that you’ve not only heard them mentioned, but you’ve even set a few goals for yourself.

I receive emails from people around the world. I recently received the following email from a fellow who needs help discovering what he really wants. He also has a question regarding the number of goals he can set. Here is what he wrote to me.

Dear  Tony,

I have been thinking about this question: What do I really want? Must it be one thing or many things? I had been changing my desire because of feeling like this is not what I really want. How do I find my real inner-most desire?

From my years of studying and practicing and coaching this material, I emailed to him what I think is a good response to a question (to a few questions, actually!) that we all have. What follows is my response in full.

Thank you for your email. Your question is one of the main reasons I have discerned that people don’t succeed often despite their talent, ingenuity, and drive. Without knowing where you want to go, chances are great that you’ll get there — and that “there” may not be where you want to be. So, it behooves you to decide what you want; that way, you can form a plan to attain it.

Must it be only one thing? Yes and no. You see, we can have different goals, or “levels” of goals. I consider business and lifestyle goals to be what I call the “grand goals,” those goals that impact our entire life. If you decide that you want to become a doctor, then that’s a grand goal because every aspect of your life will be influenced by that decision — you’ll have to devote time to school, you’ll have to work to earn money to attend school and live while you’re in school, your friends will become fellow students, your role models will become your teachers and doctors, and your future will be in many ways decided.

You also have a level of goals that are what I consider “secondary” goals. You may want a new car. Well, your grand goal will help you to attain the car (or cars) that you desire. The same for your house and your sundry possessions.

Along with those goals, we also have goals for our relationships, our spiritual life, our hobbies … Everything! Just think about when you decide that you needed a new shirt. Well, that’s a goal! You go to the store and endeavor to find a shirt that you like at a price that is a good deal for you.

What I have found is that the grand goal is the most important one. It’s the one where we are called to stretch ourselves. It should be one that motivates us and practically compels us to take action — lots and lots of persistent action and hard work. That’s why many authors advise people to pick a goal that is not only financially rewarding, but one that we enjoy. (I will say here that just because you enjoy something does not mean that you will earn lots of money doing it. That’s where a person can make a choice between complete enjoyment (emotional reward) and compensation (financial reward). Think about it this way: we all want to be rock stars and movie stars; a lot of people actually embark on making that dream a reality; but very few actually attain that goal and the ones that stick through it even though they don’t “make it” are the ones that truly love the art.)

How can you find your “innermost desire”? I cannot answer your question completely in this email, but I did write a book that will help you find your goals and form a plan for their attainment. It’s The Master Key Workbook and it is based on Haanel’s The Master key System. Here is where you can find it -

http://www.masterkeyworkbook.com (You can also find it on Amazon.com or at any other bookseller.)

The book is replete with written and mental exercises (You can view a few examples here) that will help you discover what you really want. It will also start you on the path for planning the attainment of those goals.

The Master Key Coaching Program is also a great way to define your goals. It is slightly more expensive than The Master Key Workbook (or The Complete Master Key Course, for that matter!), but you’ll get to work one-on-one with a Master Key Coach who will guide you through the goal setting process, the planning process, and whatever else you may need.

I hope I helped you a little with my response. Please let me know if I can be of service to you. All the best!

Walt Disney

Walt Disney said this in 1966:

A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive.

In other words: Tune in. Unlock. Attain…

On this date forty years ago, the most significant triumph of mankind–a triumph of thought, will, determination, and execution–occurred. On this day forty years ago, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin alit on the Moon. That object that illuminated our nights and our myths for millennia was finally being touched and explored by man.

Just nine years prior to this most monumental event, President John F. Kennedy challenged America’s best and brightest to “go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”

On July 16, 1969, Kennedy’s vision was about to become reality as the mighty Saturn V rocket thundered toward space carrying Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Lt Col Michael Collins on their journey to the Moon.

We know the rest of the story. Neil Armstrong descended from the Eagle Lander and uttered the words that would be heard ’round the world: “That’s one small step for [a] man, and one giant leap for mankind.” (Please watch the YouTube video to see this.)

History was made. Man had accomplished the “impossible.”

Celebrate this day. Celebrate the achievement of thought, of rigor, of audacity. Celebrate so that you too can define your own goals and proudly march toward them–and bravely grasp them.

Like the men and women who made this climactic event happen–the astronauts, scientists, engineers, and many others–you too can “tune in, unlock, and attain.”

Every so often I come across something that someone has said that just captures a point perfectly. Better than I could ever write.

I call them “quotables.”

When I find a new quotable, I will share them here with you.

They can come from anywhere: business people, actors, scientists, criminals, politicians, athletes … I don’t care. The only thing that counts is what they said and if it resonates and makes a point.

Here’s something T. Boone Pickens, the businessman and investor, said about pulling “the trigger.”

T. Boone Pickens, business man, investor, and author of The First Billion Is the Hardest.

“I’ve always said that the most important quality of a good leader is that you’ve got to be willing to make a decision. Too often, people fall victim to what I call the ‘ready-aim-aim-aim-aim’ syndrome. Everything has got to be absolutely perfect. The truth is sometimes you’ve got to be willing to pull the trigger. Only afterward does it become apparent that the time was right.”

Is this something that you do? Do you think it is impeding your success and the attainment of your goals?

Are procrastination and being a perfectionist keeping you from becoming what you want to be?

If so, then read through the books of The Complete Master Key Course. Pay particular attention to The Master Key Workbook. I have found often that people fail to act (to “pull the trigger”) because they are unsure of what they want — or that what they want is not what they really want, which creates a disconnect. When you define your goal, the acting — the actions — flow naturally. You not only want to “pull the trigger,” but you need to pull the trigger. You are compelled to do so.

With this knowledge in mind, take the time to define your goal(s), plan your actions, and then act.

Pull the trigger!

[For more information about T. Boone Pickens, I highly recommend that you read his book The First Billion Is the Hardest.]

Here is a short video taken by a fellow from the Italian Car Show in Philadelphia, PA not too long ago. I find the video particularly enjoyable because I own a 1992 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce.

Italian Car Show from Robert Wynn on Vimeo.

It’s nice to watch videos like this. Why? Because it’s nice to dream and to see things that may serve as an inspiration to you. Then, you just may find that those dreams of yours will become your goals.

And that, my friends, is when the “magic” starts to happen.

I received an email from a fellow who wanted some techniques on maintaining focus, especially the conscious focus that Haanel describes in Week Fourteen in The Master Key System.

26. But the thought must be clear cut, steady, fixed, definite, unchangeable; you cannot take one step forward and two steps backward, neither can you spend twenty or thirty years of your life building up negative conditions as the result of negative thoughts, and then expect to see them all melt away as the result of fifteen or twenty minutes of right thinking.

I have three ways or techniques you can use to maintain focus. They are pretty self-evident, but I hope that when you read them here, you’ll see them in a different light.

More importantly, I hope that you will put these techniques into practice.

(1) Practice, man. Practice!

You must be consciously aware of your mental state at all times. Take stock of why you’re feeling the way you are when/if you get down.

Get to the root of things.

It takes serious practice to do that.

The Master Key System is not a pop psych book. It’s a serious philosophy that demands some serious effort. There are no shortcuts in this. Practice is the key way to achieve this success.

(2) Get a better goal (or why)!

If you tend to lose focus, then maybe your goal isn’t a true goal–a goal that you really want. Use The Master Key Workbook to hone your goals so that they are what you really want. It’s funny how when you really want something, many distractions just fade away.

Think of things this way: If you were submerged under water and held there, you would struggle with all your might to get to the surface so that you could breath again.

That’s a goal! That impels you to keep reaching!

That’s focus: when you can think of nothing else but that which you desire.

As long as you truly desire the  goals you set for yourself–and you have compelling reasons why you want them–then the focus you need will be easy to attain–and maintain.

(3) Live up to it!

I’ve found that many folks don’t live up to anything. They don’t have a compelling reason to want to be better.

Think of any bachelor that you know. Their house (or apartment) is a mess, they’re slovenly, unkempt, unshaven. I think you get the picture.

Once they meet a girl they want to impress, though … Wow! Don’t they do a complete 180?

They clean themselves up, get their act together, and try to win the girl.

Why?

They’ve found something they want to live up to.

A leader wants to be the best leader so that he/she can gain the respect of their group. A father wants to live up to being a hero in his son’s eyes. A mother will do what she can to retain custody of her children so that they can stay together as a family.

That is what living up to something means.

To maintain a focus, find or realize all the ways you can live up to things–and then become that person. Maintaining that image will help you to maintain that focus.

I hope that this helps and that it provides a few insights to keeping yourself on track. Focus is something with which most people struggle. As I like to say, all too often life interruptus rears its ugly head.

Life interruptus … That destroyer of time and waster of energy.

Ask yourself how much of your time is interrupted by phone calls, people stopping by, or even yourself getting involved in one distraction or another. If you make your plan and then stick to it, then you are increasing the chances of maintaining your desired focus and therefore achieving your goals.

David Rockefeller would maintain his schedule no matter what. If he scheduled that a meeting would last for one hour, then it would last for one hour. When that hour was up, the meeting was over.

Eliminating life interruptus is often times difficult to do, but it must be done. If you constantly find yourself depleting your energy on useless, unfocused tasks and endeavors, then you will find yourself adrift, not getting to where you want to be.

Use these techniques to maintain your focus. When it all comes down to it, your life becomes what you focus on. Focus on the good things and the good things will come to you.

Luck is something that many people who get involved with self-help and personal development shun. Most shun it with good reason, as the people who say that others are “lucky” tend to do so out of a sense of helplessness or hopelessness. Other people who shun the idea of luck do so without acknowledging that something like luck exists at all.

A classic – and quite poignant – definition of luck is

Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity.

When you prepare yourself for anything, the time will arise when you will have to use your skill or knowledge. And when you succeed, you’ll be called “lucky” because you knew what you needed to know.

For example, let’s say a person studied computers in school. When he went to get a job, chances are pretty good that he got a very decent paying job. People will say he was “lucky” because he prepared for when an opportunity would arise.

Likewise, a person who didn’t even graduate high school, doesn’t practice any trade or skill, will continually decry his “bad luck” as he looks in envy at those who succeed around him – those he calls “lucky”.

As you prepare yourself to handle different situations and events, as you continue learning and meeting new people, you’ll be ready for those times when opportunity presents itself.

Why is it that the people who win massive lotteries eventually return to the same dire financial straits they had before they won?

Not only because of their mental attitude (or lack mentality), but because they were not prepared to deal with wealth of that magnitude. Hence …

Not only is a fool and his money soon parted, they were lucky to ever get together in the first place!

Keep yourself prepared and ready for the opportunities that life presents. Plan your goals and prepare for them well before you reach them.

A writer is a person who writes daily; he will have a portfolio ready for when an editor needs a sample.

A singer will be ready to audition at the drop of the hat.

A salesman is always on and knows how and when to close the deal.

Opportunities present themselves all the time.

The only thing that isn’t always there is one’s preparedness for those opportunities.

One of the best ways to approach goal setting that I ever heard was from a speaker named Fred Gleeck. He is a speaker who holds seminars about sundry topics from how to be a professional speaker to how to market different products. In addition to that, he is a pretty cool guy. If you get a chance to attend one of his seminars, I highly recommend it.

When he begins his seminar, he talks a little about goal setting. Basically, he says to plan your ideal day or how you would like to live every day. Many people don’t like their average day and instead live for the weekend or those days when they can “do what they want.” That isn’t much of a life, is it? Our goal should be to have every day be a good day – a day to which we look forward. It all begins to defining what that day would look like.

Now, we have to begin by being completely honest about it. Let’s face it, many right now would say that they want to relax by the pool and do a bunch of nothing, but that would not last too long. Why? We would get bored! Look at how many retirees go completely nuts because they have nothing to do! Or worse, look how many basically opt to die because they aren’t useful anymore.

Furthermore, it has been found that work-related stress is not the killer it was once thought it was. It has been found that stress in those situations actually improves one’s life! As a healthy human being, one needs to struggle, one needs to compete, one needs to set high goals and work to attain them.

These are the things that not only define us and give meaning to us, they give us life.

So, with that in mind, define what you love to do. List those things that you absolutely love and would like to do every day. Maybe you’d like to awaken at eight or nine and relax with a cup of coffee or tea whilst reading the paper or listening to the news. Afterwards, you work – either you go to a job that you enjoy or you have a business. Perhaps you’d like to workout or go to the gym; maybe even take a sauna or steam. Do you want to prepare dinner at home? Go out to eat? What do you want to do in the evening?

In other words

What would be a perfect every day for you?

You see, as you hone what you want and what you are passionate about and as you get that clear picture in your head, you will discover the ways and the means to make it happen. It may not happen over night, but by keeping your eyes open to the possibilities around you, you will attain that day – every day.

Plan your perfect day. Find the ways and means to make it happen. And live it every day.

A Zen story goes something like this:

A student was having a meal with his Master. When they were finished eating, the student asked his Master, “What should I do now?”

The Master replied, “Clean your bowl.”

At that moment the student was enlightened.

This story illustrates one of the most important ideas that we all should take to heart: whatever we start, we must complete. Leaving a task undone, unfinished, or incomplete is the surest path to failure. Success in life can be summarized in a sentence:

Show up and complete the job.

It’s amazing how few people fail to do those two seemingly simple things. That is what separates the winners from the losers.

In Week Four of The Master Key System, Charles F. Haanel held no punches when he wrote:

12. Unless you do this, you had better not start at all, because modern Psychology tells us that when we start something and do not complete it, or make a resolution and do not keep it, we are forming the habit of failure – absolute, ignominious failure. If you do not intend to do a thing, do not start. If you do start, see it through even if the heavens fall; if you make up your mind to do something, do it; let nothing, no one interfere; the “I” in you has determined, the thing is settled; the die is cast, there is no longer any argument.

As Haanel stated, not completing something forms within a person the habit of failure. Once a person begins to quit the things he endeavors to do, he finds that it becomes easier and easier to quit the task at hand rather than complete it. In the end, then, what does he have? Nothing.

If man had stopped at the launch pad rather than launching and landing on the Moon, would we have that amazing accomplishment to inspire us?

If Jonas Salk never completed his investigations into disease, we would still be suffering with polio (and probably other illnesses) to this day.

When the going gets tough, we are often told, then the tough get going. They don’t “get going” the other way, though; they go toward the trouble and get the job done.

A good analogy to illustrate these points is to think of your life as having a checking account. Every time you set yourself to do something and you attain your goal, then you deposit money into your account. You become richer. You’re life becomes fuller. You have bettered yourself. When you leave something incomplete, when you quit before you’ve attained your goal, then money is removed from your account. You are a little less than you were before you started. You’ve attained nothing, but lost the time you put into whatever little efforts you made.

A friend of mine made it his goal to become a master parachutist. (Please excuse me, but I do not know the proper term for someone who completes one hundred parachute jumps. “Master parachutist” will serve the purpose for this illustration, though.) He went through months of training and finally went on his first jump. After the jump, someone asked him how he liked it. My friend said that it was “the worst thing he ever did” and that he “couldn’t wait until it was all over.” He was then asked why he would keep on jumping if he hated it so much. He answered that he had to complete what he set his mind to.

Once he made his one hundredth jump, he quit jumping and has never done it since. He had attained his goal and in the process set himself up for future success. (He currently owns his own company and is very successful.)

Life, when all is said and done, is about the things we’ve done and the things we’ve accomplished and attained. Even something as little as buying something, if left incomplete, would leave us lacking in some way or other. Imagine needing a television, but never leaving the house to buy one or never committing to a particular model. You’d be inconvenienced for a very long while.

Complete your tasks; complete your goals; attain all that you can. Life might be a race, but it is a race of endurance, not speed. It matters not how we finish something nor how quickly. The fact that we finish is all that a person needs to be on the path to success.

Segal’s Law states this:

A man with one watch always knows what time it is.

A man with two watches is never sure.

Many have heard this before reading it here. What does it mean, though?

In a nut shell, it means that when one pursues more than one goal or aim, he rarely achieve either. One’s efforts become too dissipated and he rarely (or never) allows himself to focus on just one thing – quite possibly the one thing that would make for him his fortune. 

All of us have talents and skills, wants and needs, goals and desires. That is normal that is what makes us a human being. If we look around us, though, and look at those who achieve and attain, we will notice a startling thing. That thing is the fact that those who attain massive success, achieve that success in one thing – one specific thing.

Bill Gates achieved his success in the computer industry. Rush Limbaugh attained money and fame through radio. Tiger Woods mastered the game of golf and succeeded massively.

One thing. These people – and others like them – took one thing and ran with it. They ran with it until they achieved all of their goals.

Most of us fritter our time and talents by leaping from one toad stool to another. We never settle on any one. We jump around like lost frogs looking for the next fly to eat.

The smart frog, on the other hand, finds his place and lets the flies come to him. And come they do!

It has been postulated, and in my experience proven very true, that it takes ten years of doing something before any kind of success or mastery is to be attained. A person studying for a black belt in karate will study that long before they attain that vaunted level of skill. Microsoft went public as a company in 1986 and it grew through the nineties, but not until the later half of that decade did Microsoft really become a household name.

It takes time and patience and persistence – and more than a little perspiration – to achieve a goal.

What many find the most difficult, though, is finding just that one thing to do.

The greats were in many ways most fortunate because they found their passion early. Tiger Woods, Ludwig Von Beethoven, and others like them began studying their crafts while exceptionally young. That is one answer as to why they were hyper-successful.

That begs the question, if one is getting off to a “late start”, does that deny him from the race?

Not at all. Albert Einstein was 26 when he published his Special Theory of Relativity. Babe Ruth was older when he became the home run king. Many CEOs and executives work many years through the ranks before they begin to see the fruits of their labors.

In other words, age is rarely of consequence.

The hardest battle one will fight with himself is deciding what that one thing is!

Take the time to discover what it is exactly you want to do. I wrote The Master Key Workbook to assist you with that “great battle”. It’s a step-by-step guide to discovering what is important to you and how to form a plan to attain it. Most people have found that once they decide definitively on something, whether that goal be tangible or intangible, it is often times easier to achieve than they thought it would be when they were merely musing and day dreaming.

A person merely “wanting a job” will often find it difficult to obtain a desirable position. The person who declares “I want to be an engineer!” will practically have their path laid out for them.

A person who wants “somebody – anybody!” in his life will more than likely by mired in bad relationship after bad relationship. The person who takes the time to define exactly what they would like in another person will eventually find that person and enjoy a sublime happiness.

You who would like to own a prosperous business must take the time to decide what you want to trade. Once you have that, you can then form you plan. And then you implement. And then you persevere. And then you prosper. If you jump from one plan to another or one industry to another with no good reason, though, then you will never gain the traction you need that will propel you to success.

Once you have that one thing in mind, then you can put into practice what Haanel wrote in Week Seven of The Master Key System

Visualization is the process of making mental images, and the image is the mold or model which will serve as a pattern from which your future will emerge. 

Make the pattern clear, and make it beautiful; do not be afraid – make it grand. Remember that no limitation can be placed upon you by any one but yourself; you are not limited as to cost or material; draw on the In?nite for your supply, construct it in your imagination; it will have to be there before it will ever appear anywhere else. 

Make the image clear and clean-cut, hold it firmly in the mind and you will gradually and constantly bring the thing nearer to you. You can be what “you will to be.” 

Decide! Decide! Decide! Find that one thing and pursue it with every fibre of your being! Don’t relent and never surrender. Time is running short. Run with your dream or else your dreams will run past you.

A man lived in a small town. He played the violin. More than that, his passion was the violin. He played and practiced day and night. According to everyone in town who heard him play, he was a master – he was great!

One day, this man heard that a great virtuoso violinist would be giving a concert in the town’s concert hall. The man was excited. Not only would he get to see a living legend and one of his personal heroes play, but he would also take the opportunity to play for HIM after the concert. That way, he could get some valuable advice from the Master himself.

The concert came and the virtuoso performed. The music was spell-binding. The playing magnificent. Everyone who attended sat awestruck at the musical abilities of the Master.

After the concert, our young man went backstage, violin in hand. He approached the Master and said, “Maestro, would it be OK if I played for you so that you could let me know if I have what it takes to become a virtuoso such as you?”

The Master replied, “Please! I would love to hear you play.”

The young man tucked his violin underneath his chin and for five minutes he played with all of his heart and all of his soul. Those who heard this impromptu audition were amazed by the talent this young man possessed.

All the while the young man was playing, the Master merely sat with his eyes closed showing no signs of emotion.

When he was finished, our young man asked the Master, “Well? How was I?”

The Master replied, “You play excellently, but you haven’t got the fire.”

The young man nodded, said thank you, packed his violin in his case, and returned home. He proceeded to get for himself a respectable position in the local bank and worked his way to a position of responsibility. He married and had two children. He never played the violin again.

Ten years had passed since that fateful day and once again the Master returned to town to play a concert. Our young man went to see him and was once again rapt with awe at the Master’s playing. After the concert, the young man once again went backstage and approached the Master.

“Sir,” said our young man, “I played for you many years ago right here. Thank you for telling me I hadn’t the fire or I would have foolishly continued to dream about being a virtuoso rather than working on the life I now have. I owe you a lot.”

“Ah, yes,” replied the Master. “I remember you well. If you had continued, you could very well have been a virtuoso. You were an excellent player.”

The young man became angry at this point. He raised his voice and yelled at the Master, “WHAT! YOU told me that I didn’t have the FIRE! Because of that I quit! YOU heard me play. Why didn’t you tell me that I could have become a virtuoso? Why did you tell me that I didn’t have the fire?”

Calmly, the Master replied, “My dear boy, I tell every one who auditions for me that they don’t have the fire. If they truly do have the fire, then they disregard what I say and continue to play; if they don’t, then they quit and never play again.”

The young man was humbled and said nothing.

“You see,” continued the Master, “I was right. You didn’t have the fire. If you did and playing the violin was your passion and your love, then no matter what I had said or what anybody had said would have deterred you from playing.”

###

In the words of Winston Churchill:

“Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense”