Milo likes to get up early in the morning. For the past week or two, he has decided 3:30 AM is a good time to rise. I disagree, but it’s a matter of opinion.

Milo likes to come into the bedroom, stand next to the bed, and claw the mattress right next to my head. If that doesn’t wake me, he starts knocking things off the night stand and clawing the curtains.

Now, I keep a water bottle next to the bed so I can spray him when he starts doing this. After a couple of good spritzes, he runs away. Then Milo waits for me to almost fall asleep before returning and starting the process all over. In the end, I get up and feed him or toss him out of the house…which was what he wanted all along.

The point is, be tenacious. If you just keep picking at things and asking, eventually you will wear down the rock that stands in your way and get what you want. Children know this. It’s why they throw tantrums in the grocery store until mama purchases that candy bar.

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If you answered yes to these questions, I would like to urge you to take a deeper look into the meaning of success.

I do not know who first said it, nor can I remember who said it to me, but I was once told “we spend our entire lives chasing after wealth and our last days wishing we could trade it all in for a longer life.”

Imagine if you had a billion dollars sitting in your bank. As you sit in your dream house looking at your bank balance, you think about that small island you just bought and the trip you took on your private jet to get there.

Now, as you sit there, imagine that you have no family to help with your money. Imagine you have no friends or spouse. No significant other. It is just you and the television. Not only this, but you are so hideously disfigured, that no one will even allow you to approach.

Do you still feel like the incredible success you initially did when you were reviewing your assets?

As we set our goals, we should not just consider how much money we would like to make. We should ponder who we want to be tomorrow. We should ask ourselves where we want to be financially, and also socially, spiritually, romantically, etc. We should strive to live in 3-D.

Our lives should not be straight lines from cradle to grave. Nor should they be simple circles in which we follow the pattern of life. Our lives should be three dimensional, like a great, big, vibrant ball (pun intended).

We should picture ourselves in the twilight of our lives. Who would we like to be at that moment? The favorite grandparent? The faithful spouse? The neighbor who everyone comes to check up on?

Money is great. Everyone should have some, but if you hope to live a life without regret, money should be the least of all your treasures.

The world is conspiring to make me successful!

I am dead convinced of it. It doesn’t matter if the day is bright and sunny or cold and rainy. The world is acting in my best interest. Even those people who appear to be working against me, throwing up roadblocks, telling tales, and despitefully using me. Every single one of them is conspiring to make me successful.

I have no idea what tomorrow holds. I may have plans for it, I may expect certain things to happen, but that truly means nothing. Today is Sunday, I plan on going to work tomorrow, but if I die tonight, then I am wrong. So, always keep in mind we do not know what tomorrow holds in store.

If we do not know what tomorrow holds, then the problems of today should not matter. After all, the rain that pours in March feeds the flowers growing in April.

When I was younger, I wanted to be a writer. I have been writing fiction and poetry since I was seven years old. I continued all the way through my Master’s degree, which I received in 1999. In 2000, I took a job with a Fortune 100 company. At that time, I lost sight of my writing goals and started focusing on making it big in business. I concentrated all my time and energy on my career. I did well, too. I went to the President’s Club and won numerous awards.

After that, I started feeling empty– like I was missing something. I hadn’t written in a while. Writing was always my stress reliever. So, I started feeling empty and pressured all at the same time. I became dissatisfied with my job. I left and took another one. When I took that job, I was promised Rainbow Stew, but when the waitress came, she slapped down a big bowl of Stone Soup. I soon discovered everything the hiring manager told me about sales figures, market share, etc. was a lie. Now, I was planning on taking a pay cut, but figured I would feel less pressure. When I got in, the pay cut was much larger than anticipated and the stress level was higher than suggested. I stuck it out for a while, but slowly started writing some poetry again.

Then, an offer came for another job. It sounded ideal. When asked about sales levels, success rates, etc. the manager spewed off the numbers of his sales people. Everyone of them except one was above 100%. I took the job and moved my family from Atlanta to Alabama. That was where I wanted to be anyway.

My first week in the job I discovered the team hadn’t hit its objective in over a year. Most everybody was struggling, on a performance improvement plan, and looking for another job. In the 18 months I have been here, I have seen 100% attrition. That is, for every slot available to head count, one person has quit. Not only that, but my sales manager left, his boss was demoted to my level then quit, his boss moved to a different division, and his boss went somewhere else! So–four levels above me have all been replaced!

Do I like the job? It’s okay. I like sales. But what’s important is this– the job has widened the void within me. It made me want to write more. It made me realize that I must have clarity in purpose. I must focus on the goals I want to achieve, and writing is one of them.

At the end of last year, I wrote another novel and began marketing it. I currently have an agent looking at it. In the meantime, I have another 230 pages completed of a second novel and a good many short stories.

From all this seeming chaos, I have found greater inspiration. I have garnered ideas for stories and novels, gained singleness of purpose, and focus.

I have decided that if I am a victim of anything, it is a conspiracy of the world around me to make me successful. All of these things that may have seemed like downturns to others–all these apparent setbacks–have actually been thrusts forward toward my eventual success.

I invite you, friend, to look at the world around you. Determine what you want from life and focus on that. You will soon see that you are not experiencing roadblocks and obstacles. Instead, you are being hemmed in by these things. Just as banks hem in a river and lead it to its ultimate destination, so too, you are being lead to your ultimate success.

The world is conspiring to make us successful!

How much will you pay for your success? When will you begin making your payments? Success has never come free to anyone. Riches may have been passed down from father to son, but success has never been handed down. Success always has a price tag dangling from its edge and the price changes depending upon who is looking at it.

Just like anything else, some people are willing to pay more for success than the tag demands. They will sacrifice self, family, and other things in hope of obtaining it. When it is all said and done, though, they soon discover they paid a high price for a tag and little more.

When bargaining for success, you must ask yourself the following questions:

1. What will I have to give up or do to achieve the goal I have set for myself?

2. What am I willing to give up or do to achieve the goal I have set for myself?

Once you have answered these questions you must add them up. If what you must give up is within the limits of what you are willing to give up, success is definitely within your price range.

To demonstrate this, consider the following example. Mary is a mother of two, a housewife, and a full-time employee. She desires to write a novel within the next twelve months, but feels she has too little time. She has set her long-term and short-term goals. As short-term goals, she must write eight pages a week. She asks herself the value questions.

“What must I give up or do?”

I must spend roughly 4 hours a week working on planning, editing, and writing, etc.

“What am I willing to give up?”

Bowling on Tuesday nights (3 hours), sleeping in on Saturdays (2 hours), two of my favorite TV shows (2 hours)

Clearly, what Mary must give up (4 hours) is within the boundaries of what she is willing to give up (7 hours). If it were the other way around, however, she would never be able to achieve her goal. She would have to have a two-year goal instead of a one-year goal.

Here comes the most important part. You have negotiated the price for success. Now pay it! Success never comes C.O.D. It is always marked Paid In Full before delivery.

A ship sailing from England to New York does not arrive by accident. It requires a captain to guide it. Along the way there will be smooth patches. There will also be rough waves and perhaps some violent storms. But the captain understands his or her purpose is to maintain the course; to correct and redirect the ship when it gets blown off that course; and to do everything in his or her power to guarantee that the ship makes it from England to New York.

You may not think of yourself as such, but you are a captain. Your job is to transport yourself from Point A in life to Point B. Where you end up will be determined by your dedication and vigilance.

Many people do not care to pilot their vessel and so they end up stranded on deserted islands or they smash against jagged rocks, sink, and drown. But the faithful captain knows where he or she is going. The faithful captain understands that even a couple of degrees off course–if uncorrected–will land the ship miles away from where it’s supposed to dock.

Each morning when you wake up, remind yourself, “I am the captain of my success!” Then take the helm and steer toward your destination. Every choice, every decision you make is a tug on that wheel in one direction or the other. Your decisions either guide you toward or away from your success.

You are the only person who determines whether or not you arrive. Your lying co-worker, the boss that abuses you, the friend who betrayed you are nothing more than rough waves and gusts of air. They are there to throw you off course. But you are the captain. You alone control the speed and direction of your ship. You determine where your ship will end up. 

As a faithful captain, you can and will navigate through these obstacles.

If you would like a constant reminder of this message to keep you motivated, check out this mug we now have at zazzle. The cup is customizable, so you can change the size and the interior color.

Success by livesuccess
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