Once you truly commit yourself to self-mastery and lifelong success, you will appreciate how easy and fun it is. Small victories lead to large victories. Once you start feeling more vital and energetic, you will start achieving even more because you cannot do good unless you feel good. This leads to another primary principle of successful living: “we are happiest when we are growing and feeling that we are contributing in someway.”
“The purpose of life is a life of purpose” and we all, deep down, want to leave a legacy of some form or another. When you dedicate yourself to tapping into the extraordinary potential of your mind, body and spirit, you set powerful forces into play and things start to happen in every aspect of your life. And when you know that you are improving, your confidence and enthusiasm starts to blossom. And when your enthusiasm starts to blossom, your passion and energy bloom. And when your energy starts to explode you start to create opportunity after opportunity for success in your life. One of the great philosophers of India, Patanjali said it best: “When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all of your thoughts break their bonds, your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”
If others have achieved results which you want, they are simply doing things a little differently. Perhaps they are running their minds a little more effectively or managing their time more meticulously. Perhaps they are using the power of the knowledge around us more diligently or living a more disciplined, principled life. Once you start to apply the tools for lifelong success, you will also see the results you have hoped for. You will understand the importance of self-mastery and the tremendous opportunities that live in every moment. You will appreciate that every day is a miracle and life is a special path that we walk on. It can be a nirvana or a nightmare – the choice is yours and yours alone. As British poet, William Wordsworth wrote: “All which we behold is full of blessings.
”Man is made or unmade by himself. In the armoury of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy, strength and peace. By the right choice, and true application of thought, man ascends to divine perfection. By the abuse and wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of the beast.” James Allen elucidates in his book “As a Man Thinketh.”
Kaizen means constant and never ending improvement in Japanese. There is no pursuit more noble or important than the pursuit of self improvement. As Confucius said many years ago: “good people strengthen themselves ceaselessly.” Consistent and constant improvement in all areas is essential to reaching your true potential. The personal trademark of almost every high achiever and successful person is a dedication to daily improvement in both their personal and professional lives.
You must also apply the Kaizen principle on a daily basis to condition your mind to peak performance. It has been said that the mind is a terrible master but a wonderful servant. By seeking to improve your mind and condition it to excellence of thought, this wonderful servant will most certainly bring you all the peace, prosperity and joy you now search for.
Study any great success story and you will undoubtedly learn of their commitment to Kaizen. They will be dedicated to small, daily improvements in the key areas of their lives and becoming the very best that they could be. Personal mastery is like a bank account; call it the Personal Excellence Account. By improving daily, whether it is by spending some time exercising, reading, visualizing or forging better relationships, you are making regular deposits into your account.
To be great you must act great. Nothing can stop a person who refuses to be stopped. Yet most people spend their entire lives struggling for a little happiness against a current of problems or difficulties, hoping to see a small glimpse of blue sky against the mass of dark clouds which seem to blanket their lives. These people never realize the magic secret of true happiness: one must rise above the clouds to see the blue sky rather than constantly trying to push them aside.
Clouds will always be there but anyone who conditions their mind and body to the correct degree will rise above any cloud to live with lasting bliss in the blue sky of life. Dedicate yourself to such self enhancement each and every day of your life. Become a champion. Remember, happiness is a method of travelling through this wonderful world and not a destination, a place you arrive at in the future. A time will definitely come when your personal power takes you to a place where you have real freedom and joy. This is a place where all dreams come true.
Sir Isaac Newton, the father of classical physics had an exceptional ability to concentrate on a particular problem from morning until it was solved late in the evening. This mental giant said that “if I have done the public any service, it is due to patient thought.” What most people do not realize is that anyone can enhance the level of their mental functioning. You can become more mentally agile, improve your memory well beyond its current level and become a smarter mental athlete. You can train yourself to go weeks without even one negative thought (William James said: “the essence of genius is knowing what to overlook.”). But you must go into training like any serious athlete. You must place your mind on a regime designed to fire up the brain and dramatically reshape it. William James suggests that to change personal habits, we first make deep internal commitment to pay whatever price is necessary to change the habit; second, we grasp the very first opportunity to use the new practice or skill; and third, we allow no exceptions until the new habit is firmly imbedded into our nature.
Of course change carries some degree of risk. Because of that risk and the fear of failure, many people resist change. Those who adapt well to changing environments generally have a set of changeless values within them and are congruent in behavior to those values. This integrity boost their self-esteem and provides a bedrock of security from which they deal effectively with changing circumstances.
It is amazing to learn of the strategies and techniques available which would do wonders for most peoples’ lives if they only knew about them. All we need is a single powerful idea to change our lives for the better. What distinguishes successes from failures is that the successes constantly thirst for new ideas and knowledge. Successful people are hungry for anything that will give them an edge in life’s wonderful game. The answers to a life of perfection and bliss are out there and as abundant as the air we breathe. Be open to them and be on the lookout for them at all times.
