In presenting the book “7 Keys to Success” subtitled “Make Success Your Habit,” Will Edwards identifies COMMIMENT as the paramount key. However, before discussing the principle, he dwells on an introduction he has entitled “Your Wake-Up Call.”
WAKE-UP CALL
“If you want to be really successful, find out what God wants you to do with your life and then dedicate yourself to achieving it.” A sage told Edwards when he was young.
At the time, he did not really like that idea; he did not believe that his life could have any particular purpose; and he did not think that anything God might have in mind would be of any interest to him in any case. Gradually, he has come to believe that what that person said, all those years ago, is true.
As human beings, Edwards argues, we all share certain basic wants and needs: we have need for food, water, shelter, safety, love, respect and self-esteem. “We all share an in-built tendency, as Freud stated, to want to move away from pain and toward pleasure. This tendency is part of the human condition for our own good; it keeps us away from harm and generally helps us to make good choices.” Most people settle for pursuing a career that satisfies these basic human wants and needs; and never really think beyond them to what their life could be about.
So his message is simple: “It is time for you to wake-up! It is time for you to start thinking of your life in a different way. It is time for you to fulfil your dream – whatever that may be.” Edward believes that is why you are here on the planet right now. “By finding and fulfilling your own unique purpose in life you will be living your life to the full.” It is his hope that you will begin to see yourself as a special person, with a truly unique purpose in life – “because that is the truth.”
COMMITMENT
Edwards says ‘committedness’ is the trait of sincere and steadfast fixity of purpose; whilst he defines commitment as the act of binding yourself, intellectually or emotionally, to a definite course of action.
What are you doing with your Life: would you say you are living your dream; or are you living from hand to mouth, making the best of things, just getting to the next week – what we might call: EXISTING rather than LIVING?
To live a truly successful life, you do need to first have a dream. As Carl Sandburg, put it, “nothing happens unless first a dream”.
If you think about it, nothing at all that now exists within our experience of physical reality did not first exist in the mind of the person who made it or brought it into being. In all cases, everything is created twice: the physical creation follows the mental creation.
To succeed, you must have a dream, or you may prefer to call it a vision – and you must completely commit yourself to its ultimate fulfilment – that is the essence of the mental creation.
Here is one of the real secrets of success: you should dream BIG dreams, because you can have anything you want. Read that statement again and let it really sink in because it is true that you can have anything you want; you can be anything you want to be; and you can do anything you want to do. This may at first seem self-indulgent, but remember, your deepest desires were implanted by God.
Once you have your dream, you also need to demonstrate that kind of resolve – and be told plainly – you are capable of it. It requires you to take actions that are congruent with your wishes in order to translate them into reality, but the first step is to have that dream – your own dream, not anyone else’s ideas about what is best for you in life – and then absolutely commit yourself to its achievement.
AN OPEN MIND
Openness is characterised by an attitude of ready accessibility about one’s actions or purposes; and receptiveness is willingness or readiness to receive – especially impressions or ideas.
Once you have committed yourself to achieving your dream, you should begin to notice something rather odd starting to happen in your life: the universe actually begins to help you to achieve it.
You just need to be Open-Minded – that is, you need to be ready and willing to receive what the universe has in store for you. Some people call this principle the LAW OF ATTRACTION, but whatever you call it, it is quite true that you will absolutely set in motion unseen forces which will definitely assist you with the manifestation of your dream.
People, events and circumstances will be drawn to you that will actually assist you in the achievement of your dream. You can probably only fully accept this truth when you experience it for yourself; and once you have committed to your dream, you will begin to experience it. Things will start to happen: they may seem like co-incidence at first, but you are now living in an altered reality.
When you carry your own dream within, you will be able to touch the hearts and minds of the people around you in much the same way; and it is a truly wonderful and uplifting experience when you find out for yourself that the universe does indeed help you to achieve your goal.
PERSISTENCE
Persistence is refusing to give up, especially when faced with opposition or difficulty; continuing firmly or steadily; persistence is also the act of continually pursuing something in spite of obstacles.
If having a dream and committing to its ultimate achievement is something like plotting your final destination ahead of an exciting journey, then persistence is rather like the engine you need in order to get there.
Persistence is what drives you on to take the next step in your journey; persistence is what prevents you from getting discouraged by what may have happened in the past; persistence is where the rubber meets the road.
Translating your dream into an action plan and then constantly taking actions, each and every day, that will move you in the direction of your goal is what will get you there in the end. No matter how big your goal, you can get there if you will keep your destination in mind and then continually take actions that move you toward the goal.
When you meet an obstacle, as you inevitably will, persistence determines what you will do; whether you will give up or keep going. Persistence is what gets you back on your feet, dusted down and ready to go again.
FLEXIBILITY
Flexibility is the quality of being adaptable; flexibility is also a measure of the ability to respond to changes in demand. It is a sound principle that to become successful, we need to notice what is working and what is not; and be prepared to change our approach in order to get what we want – that is the essence of flexibility.
A wise person once said, “If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got”. That is a wonderfully true statement – in other words, if you continue doing exactly what you are now doing, then do not be surprised when you do not see any increase or change in your results.
It is the law of cause and effect in operation. The results you are now getting (effects) are the product of the causes (efforts) you have made in the past. To get greater benefits in the future, you need to change what you are doing in the present in order to produce them.
Whilst persistence is an important quality, persistence without flexibility can indeed be futile because, without some flexibility in your approach, you could end up trying to move an immovable object for the rest of your life. The willingness to constantly change what we are now doing and to also demonstrate persistence is what gets us around seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
BY CAPT. SAM ADAIH
