Be happy – Accomplish Your Dreams (Part 60)

To Accomplish Your Dreams, you must develop your talents by utilizing every opportunity available, by attending long term, short term or distant education courses, practical training, events of adventures, by visiting venues of knowledge like library, touring historical places and those of remarkable achievements, by keeping constant touch with those whom you understand can guide you in your quest for technical, professional expertise, by keeping yourself posted of latest developments in your surroundings and advancement taking place etc. All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents. Sometime, the equal opportunity does not come handy to everyone, we need to explore out how it is possible that we must get the opportunity. Nothing is available unless we make efforts to get something. We must continue to analyze how much more work would it be to do a particular task as well as I can versus as quickly as I can? What value would it be to me to do it as well as I can?

In the back yard of my house, about 15 feet from the main building is a large, gorgeous maple tree. In the summer, it is home to a number of birds. Last year, at the end of a long branch, which extends to within 7 feet of our upstairs bathroom window, some robins built a nest where they lived all summer until the weather got too cold. Both our cats just lay in the windowsill for hours all summer watching the birds come and go less than 7 feet from their window perch. Now keep in mind that this winter was absolutely brutal. 14 feet of snow. The wind that blew like no winter that I can ever recall. Never as often and as hard as this year, it seemed. It was just miserable from mid October until April. Yet this bird's nest, sitting on a long branch wide open to the chilling, hammering winds and cold that snaps electrical wires like tooth picks, stayed right there. Every day, I'd look out at this nest and there it was, gripping that branch... And I've got to believe that the robins that built the nest were no smarter or more skilled in nest building than any of the robins in my neighbors' trees. They simply didn't want their home to fall apart no matter what. So they build it to withstand the worst possible conditions. No short cuts. No excuses.

Tell me, what if you were to take every little task you do today, and do your absolute best? What if you were to mow the lawn as well as you could today? What if you gave your all to every customer or prospective customer? How much more effort would it take to be the best husband, wife or significant other than you normally put in? What would it really take to avoid eating beyond being comfortably full? How much time does it take to finish your homework and then study for another 30 minutes for good measure? You know, the difference between failure, moderate success, a successful marriage, an undistinguished career and a raging success in any one of those areas is usually miniscule. It's not that much more work. Often it's hardly any real effort at all. Every day I get messages from people who have given up hope of ever being really happy and satisfied in life. "I'm beyond help." "I'm happy that you're doing this work for other people... Too bad it can't help me." “Your words can not help me much”.

They go through my replies. They may even buy the books, and motivating tapes either don't listen to them as prescribed, or when changes do begin either with positive progress or with negative tension created by the rapid changes happening, they quit because the change is uncomfortable at first. "Whoa! That's not me! Who am I kidding? Better slow down." The bottom line is, change is always wanted on some level but hardly ever completely enjoyable at first. If there is one thing that you MUST beat into your head every day like a mantra is that success at anything is simple. It is so simple! It is just a matter of repetition of little thoughts and little actions. For example, to allow yourself to do shoddy work once and then again is to create momentum. A third time is like an avalanche... Hard to stop it. The fourth time is virtually guaranteed. When the brownies or chips and soda make it into the shopping cart every week, that's it. Run past that aisle. Achieve a little success. Get a little momentum going the other way.

With just a little effort we can change those things by making only slight direction changes. The nest in my back yard is now housing a new family of robins who didn't have to do a thing. They just moved in. All the work was done already. They just hung a few pictures, threw out a "Welcome" mat and called it home. And once you change the momentum of any downward slide you may be in, it's deceptively simple to stop the slide, make a few right decisions and your entire destiny can change. Just, turning to the right instead of left at some cross roads in your journey can change your destinations. You see, most of the time the difference between horrible, devastating failure and massive, glorious success is only that far apart.

Keep reminding yourself of how important each hour and each decision is. Do that every hour today, and I guarantee that no matter what doesn't go right, you won't be too terribly bothered by it. Isn't THAT the direction you wanted to go in today? You must constantly watch over your own activities and ensure that you are keeping on right track, that leads to your targets fixed for the day before you went to bed yesterday night, that today is your day to succeed, that you are making all the right decisions now – they are right because you have already examined all the aspects before arriving at, that you will enjoy each of my victories no matter how small and that you will be doing things right the first time today by not repeating your past mistakes. If you do it, it is sure that You Can Accomplish Your Dreams.

Be happy – Accomplish Your Dreams with your strong conviction.