Know this, that progress is like riding a bicycle. If you try standing in a place, you will fall. Success is not a destination, it is a continuous process. He who stops being better, stops being good. To become what we are capable of becoming is the climax of success. True success is not measured by what you have done; it is what you have done compared to what you could have done. There is always an unconquered territory. Success breeds success and nothing succeeds like success.
The purpose of existence is growth and all nature is constantly growing. Whenever anything stops growing, it starts to die. The one unpardonable sin of nature is to stagnate. One of the great gains of success is the opportunity it creates to do more. A person who quits after a success will be the next failure. Everyone should long for something better than he now possesses. Success is not permanent and failure is not final. So, never stop working after success and never stop trying after failure. Progress is maintained by forgetting yesterday’s glories and focusing on tomorrow’s challenging opportunities, while fighting today’s battle. Anyone who is not growing daily in capability and usefulness is not fulfilling the purpose of life.
If you are born into a seemingly successful family, you need caution. Don’t wait for a dead man’s shoes. You don’t have to glory in another man’s success. Living on your parent’s wealth will make you a specious rich man and create levity and incipient laziness in the pursuit of your personal career. It is duplicity against oneself, and is very detrimental to probity and dignity. It is a form of destiny vandalization common among the children of the rich, which if left unchecked gives birth to a buga-boo in one’s life from which extrication will be difficult. Your parents’ achievement is just a facility to you. You are sitting in the shade today because someone planted the tree many years ago; plant your own today. This world is a stage; each man in his own time plays his part. Play your own part in such a way that after you are gone, people should always remember that; “there was a man”. Excellence is no one’s birthright, but a reward of hard work and persistent effort in achieving one’s goal. Alexander the great, when asked if he would run a race in the Olympic Games, replied that he would do so if he were to run with kings. His ambition was to perform greater acts than those of his father and to gain glory through accomplishment. And he did. If you make yourself a rat, and compete with rats; even if you win, you are still a rat. Avoid rat race.
The worst form of poverty that can come upon a man is the poverty that comes after he had tested wealth. Seek not repose. The best way to avoid great falls is to beware of little ones. It does not require a big tear to deflate a tyre. Never underrate any enemy of your progress. We believe malaria to be a common disease but it was it that killed Alexander the great, that great army general that terrified the whole world. Take heed when you think you stand, lest you fall. In this life you can fall from any level. From success to failure is one step. From failure to success is a long journey. Climbing a tree is difficult but falling from a tree is easier and faster.
In a tale, the tortoise defeated the dog in a race because the dog was over confident in its ability and stepped aside to sleep a while.
Watch out also against impatience. Gains come out of pains only if we can make the “p” of pain to mean patience. Impatience in waiting for result has caused failure to many people. Learn to wait. It is difficult to wait, but it is more difficult to regret. That which we persist in doing becomes easy and fruitful not because the nature of the task has changed but because our capacity to do has improved. Success takes effort, time and perseverance. Persistence means enjoying the distance between the starting point and the fulfillment. Gestation period is always full of trials. Do not allow your courage to ooze away. Dreams are important but they must be mixed with the patient discipline of staying at the tough task. The race is won by right objective relentlessly pursued. Hanging tough over the long haul is an investment that pays the richest dividends. Difficulties are the measure of man. Every problem solved brings its own glory, and the more we succeed the better equipped we become to succeed further. The one who wears the crown is not he who starts the race in a flurry of enthusiasm, nor he who is out in front at the middle of the race, but he who crosses the finish line. “Stick to it” leads to success. If you don’t win immediately, you will win definitely. To achieve success, at some point we need to work harder and longer. We must suffer the pain of discipline to achieve what we want, or we suffer the heavier pain of regret. Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience. Great things never get done in a hurry. Things worth having are worth waiting for. Waiting long does not meant you are weak; it means you are strong enough to wait for what you derserve.
Sadly, we hear little about persistence in this our permissive era. Perseverance was the key word and still remains the basic principle for anyone who wants success. If you have a problem, come at it in a different way if the methodology you are using is not working. And if the new approach fails, then come at it still another way until he that seeks finds. Call it persistence, perseverance, assiduity, commitment, dedication, obsession, endurance, resolution or tenacity. Try it, it works. Search for the excellent way.
If you must win, you must watch out against discouragement. Life is warfare and there will rarely be a battle where there are no difficulties and confusions. Nothing will ever go exactly as planned. Fear no obstacle or opposition, for the Omnipotent will drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots and though they be strong. Look carefully at the edge of every weapon formed against you, you shall see it written boldly against it: “IT SHALL NOT PROSPER”. We must have a vision of making it to the top and should never condemn ourselves for not being there yet and become discouraged, as long as we are still climbing. Often failure and success are separated by a little distance called discouragement. Overcome the discouragement and become a winner that keeps on winning. Excellence, we said, is no one’s birthright. It is a reward of hard work and persistent effort in achieving one’s goal. Look for ways to do things better. Winners don’t do different things, they only do things differently. To be a champion, compete with nobody but yourself. Try tomorrow to do better than you are doing today. Always try to be better than yourself. Really, no one needs to compete with another, for there is abundance for all. The ocean cannot dry. They took abundance and yet abundance remains.
Progress is the main agenda of life. So if you are moving forward at any rate notwithstanding, take heart, you are on the right path of life. The body is made for movement and when there is no movement life becomes a way of dying. As in the spiritual, so in the natural world; every power that is not used will weaken and decay. Activity is the law of life, idleness is death. So keep moving. Always try to be better than yourself. Improve upon your achievements. Keep your tyres rolling. Make a commitment to keep getting better everyday. Get more knowledge. This statement, “in law ignorance is no excuse”, means that the law demands that you have enough knowledge of yourself and your environment. It takes only a little extra bit of performance to go from the ordinary to the extra-ordinary and their big difference is that little extra. Go for the little extra. Trifles make perfection but perfection is not a trifle. Prove yourself to be a good master in your field of endeavours. The work done reveals the character of the worker. His carefulness or carelessness is shown in it.
Man was originally made for authority. He was created and fashioned for dominion. “…let them have dominion”. Man exploits man and is exploited by his fellow man. Man uses man and is used by man. Refuse to be exploited. Dominion is one of the principles of this life. If you don’t dominate, you will be dominated. Wake up.
THERE IS ALWAYS AN UNCONQUERED TERRITORY.
-BKC YAHKA
Don’t Relax
