Achieve Personal Success

by

Jared D Ingram

We all strive for success...  But what is this success? Success, when viewed with a positive mental attitude, is a process, a journey and not a destination.

Success for the husband and wife means making their marriage work with hope that they can celebrate their golden wedding anniversary. Success will mean keeping their family intact with communication lines open.

Success for a student means passing the courses in school and developing mind and talents to make a beneficial contribution to the human race.

Success for the surgeon means saving a life!

So what does success finally add up to? A diploma on the wall? A trophy in the case? Money in the bank? Professional honors? Yes, this is success, but more than this, success is being able to look at yourself in the mirror and be proud of the person you have become! Success is noblest when it leaves you with self respect that you have become a good steward of life, liberties, possibilities, and opportunities that God offered to you.

Achieving personal success gives you joy, real joy, when you look at yourself. As the cliche goes "Don't love the office you work for, instead love the work you do. Your office may betray you, your work wont."

The moment you fall in love with your work is the moment you can be sure of your success. Your life is in your hands, and so is success if only you try achieving it. Are we all successful in things that we do? What is keeping us from success? Why do we limit our own abilities?

The reason for failure is lack of self confidence. No matter how impossible the task may seem, self-confidence is the seed for success. Success is analyzing, recognizing, visualizing, mobilizing and energizing our possibilities and seeing them turn into realities.

The first step towards achieving your personal success is to frame a goal which is long term. Visualize yourself after 10 years. How and where do you want yourself to be? This clears your mind of any doubts you may have. The next step is to frame short term goals, goals that lead the way towards the main objective. Take a goal, make it your life. Dream of it, breathe it, live it... And don't fail to love it. "Be the change you want to see". Seek pleasures in small and beautiful things around you, yet don't get immersed. Stay focused on your vision.  If you do this, success is all yours. Dare to dream the impossible. Yet work to turn your dreams into reality. Dreamers who become doers operate emotionally and rationally with self confidence. When opportunity meets preparedness the outcome is called "luck", but don't rely on that all your life. Take a goal, make it your life, dream of it, and achieve personal success.

With these simple but powerful approaches you can bid goodbye to failures and hello to success.

Limited Good and Personal Success

by

Dr. Lamar Ross

There is a concept or philosophy of "limited good" that basically tells us that in the universe there is a limited amount of everything and that every time someone gets something, it limits the possibility of anyone else getting the same. It is like saying that if I get a piece of the pie it limits the possibility of anyone else getting a piece. It is assumed that there is a limited supply of pies. Up to a point this is true! However, this belief does not take into consideration that in reality there can be an unlimited number of pies, and when those are gone, more can be made.

If we accept the premise of this limited good concept, we immediately limit ourselves to an existence which contradicts the basic facts of nature. There is an abundance of everything in nature and multiplication is the rule and not the exception. One fruit can contain anywhere from a few to hundreds of seeds. From these seeds another plant and a multitude of fruits can grow. This multiplication factor is basically endless. Any gardener who has ever started off in the spring with a mere handful of seeds and ended up with an abundance in the fall is well aware of this law of nature. I have seen this every year in my own limited gardening activities.

Businessmen are less prone to take this position than politicians. Entrepreneurs are aware that there are endless possibilities for starting new businesses and fine-tuning the ones already operating. As long as there is a perceived need that is unfilled, there will be someone who recognizes the opportunity and fills that need. If Henry Ford and the Wright brothers had not seen a need for faster means of transportation, we would still be looking for faster horses to pull our buggies. These entrepreneurs saw the need and filled the need. The transportation industry as a result has expanded peripheral economic opportunities by creating support areas that were never imagined before its development.

Unfortunately, politicians seem to lack the ability to see beyond the "limited good" concept. The philosophy of wealth redistribution assumes that there is a limited supply of goods and services, and that as long as there are a few who have more than others, it must be taken from those who have and a portion given to those who have not. If, contrary to the "limited good" concept, we accept the fact that new wealth and goods can be created without limit, more time would be spent by governments encouraging people to create and less time teaching them to expect handouts.

Now to you as an individual! You cannot control the decisions of the politicians and businessmen, but you can control your attitude and your own belief system.

We must insist in our own lives that we will not accept less than what we are capable of. We must realize that the universe is full of possibilities and adhering to a philosophy that insists on limited possibilities can do nothing but have a negative effect on our personal success.

Dr. Lamar Ross, a cultural anthropologist by training, has a special interest in training individuals for expatriate living and providing information on unique travel destinations. He is an author, educator, photographer, internet entrepreneur, and international traveler. He has lived in the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and India and has traveled extensively in 29 different countries.

He presently splits his time between the U.S. and the Republic of Panama. He speaks both English and Spanish fluently and has a basic ability in several other languages. Check out his "Everything Travel" blog.