Get a vision, make a plan, take a step

What is your vision for your company, career, and relationships for this coming year? Do you have a clear idea of what you want? It’s hard, if not downright impossible, to get to your destination unless you have an idea of where it is.

The difference between a dream and a goal is a written plan. After you identify your vision, you need to figure out what specific steps you should take to get to your desired destination. Not sure? Then the question becomes, what steps do you need to take to find out how to reach your destination? In the age of the Internet and Google, there is just no excuse for not learning how to do whatever it is that you have in mind.

Act on your plan. I can’t tell you the number of genuinely talented people I’ve met over the years that never went anywhere, simply because they were either too comfortable or afraid. It doesn’t matter how wonderful your idea is, if you don’t act, nothing will happen. So, ask yourself what steps you can take to put your plan in action. What is standing in your way? Are you too comfortable at your present level of success? Are you afraid of failing should you make an attempt?

Take a few moments to envision your desires, write down a rough plan, and take one step today toward making your vision a reality.

When you commit to the pursuit of personal growth, success cannot be far behind.

When you commit to the pursuit of personal growth, success cannot be far behind. If you are waiting for someone to tell you what to do, you are not accessing the tremendous resources that lie within you. You are waiting for your fairy godmother. 

Looking for someone to give you all the answers is just another way of saying you are waiting for someone to touch you with a magic wand. You must learn not to look to anyone for your success. Instead, you must examine your thinking, scouring your habits and inclinations for any symptoms of the fairy-tale virus. The treatment is up to you. Don’t turn back. Do not heed the call of complacency. Success calls your name and beckons you forward

When a person chooses poorly, they are, in effect, choosing the bad consequences that come bundled with their decision.

Quite often the easiest choice is the decision that is based on an emotional bias, rather than intellectual reasoning. Take a moment and think about all the bad decisions you have made in your life. Think about the wrong turns, the bad relationships, the money mismanaged and misspent. Is it not true that the great majority of all the poor decisions that you made were based on emotion?

In such situations, people always declare they’re following their heart, but if you look carefully, you’ll see they’re really being swept away by their emotions. The problem with such decisions is that they always produce consequences. When a person chooses poorly, they are, in effect, choosing the bad consequences that come bundled with their decision.

While it might be true that you cannot change those circumstances, you can choose your attitude...

You say if you really had your choice, you would be wealthy, happy, and fulfilled, and yet you are not. Therefore, you reason, you could not possibly have chosen your present situation.

Certainly, there are many things that people cannot, and do not, choose. The loss of a loved one, a debilitating disease, a sudden injury, or a criminal attack are just a few things over which there is little or no control. But even in those situations you are not without choice. While it might be true that you cannot change those circumstances, you can choose your attitude, and thus, your response to them. Will you let them master your attitude, or will you choose in what manner you face them?

So, while granting a concession to the unforeseen calamities you experienced, the fact remains that everything else in your life you have chosen.

Why is it such a statement brings freedom to some people and anger to others? It is because to admit that one’s life is largely the result of choice places the responsibility and the consequences of one’s life squarely on the shoulders of every individual human being. If your life really is a result of your own choice then you, and nobody else, is responsible for your present situation.

There is no “happily ever after.” Real life always continues and the story never ends.

We all get one life and this is it. There is no “happily ever after.” Real life always continues and the story never ends. There never is a place in any life where all struggle stops and happiness is a perpetual state. Sometimes there are seasons of respite from struggle, but those are usually all too brief, and shortly a new trial arises. Those who believe in “someday” define success as some mystical point in time when all problems disappear and they finally have enough. They tell themselves that they don’t want to be rich. Not really. They just want enough. But what they haven’t learned is that “enough” is a relative term and is always changing. It never stays the same, so that what seems enough to you today, will not seem enough tomorrow.

There is always someone else who has a better relationship, job, or lifestyle. “Enough” is an illusion. Even so, there are those who would cling to a “someday” that will never arrive. They pathetically waste their enormous potential by remaining dormant, waiting for a mirage. They sincerely believe that “someday” will come and their lives will be changed. But it does not matter that they are sincere, because they are sincerely wrong. The strength of one’s conviction does not turn a lie into the truth.

Throw away the notion that things will get better and “it will turn out all right” without your doing anything to change the situation or yourself. Shed the belief that good things will happen to you just because you waited for them. “Someday” will only betray and disappoint you.


Learn more about author Charles Marshall at www.charlesmarshall.net
 

The Deception of Someday

Do you believe in “someday”? Are you thinking that someday you’ll be rich, someday you’ll save some money, someday you’ll find the right person, someday you’ll lose weight? Those who believe in “someday” are fairy-tale thinkers who believe that “someday” is when the magic finally arrives. They wait for it like children waiting for Christmas morning. They believe “someday” is a magical day, sometime in the future, when happiness will finally be theirs and their dreams will finally come true. 

 

But little do they know that “someday” only comes as an enemy, and never as a friend. Those who believe in the magic of “someday” are always surprised that it doesn’t look anything like they thought it would. Suddenly they’re much older and no farther down the road toward their dreams. They realize far too late that they spent their lives waiting for a “someday” that wasn’t their friend, after all. The danger of waiting for the happiness of “someday” is that it distracts you from seeking happiness in your present situation today. Too many people are willing to endure misery today, because they think “someday” will bring them fulfillment.

Visit www.charlesmarshall.net for more information on Motivational Speaker Charles Marshall.

Reality is what the world really is. Fantasy is what you would like the world to be.

Sometimes what appears to be good in your life is really killing you. If you are to break the pattern, it is time you were honest with yourself and confronted reality. Reality is what the world really is. Fantasy is what you would like the world to be. In order to obtain success, you must accept what your world is and work toward what you would like it to be. It’s that simple.

 Unfortunately, many people choose to live in a fantasy world of dreams and illusion. Subconsciously, they would prefer to live in a fairy-tale world and are frustrated when life doesn’t behave in accordance with these preconceptions. These people do not want to hear the truth. They would cover their ears and insist upon continuing in ignorance. They are victims of the virus of fairy-tale thinking.

It is said that ignorance is bliss, but ignorance of the truth often means a lifetime of hardship and heartbreak. Not everyone is ready, or desires, to face reality. They believe it is easier to sleep in ignorance than it is to wake to knowledge. Knowledge demands action. Therefore, many people choose to live in deception and may never wake to realize the richness of the life that they have unwittingly lost.

To learn more about Motivational Keynote Speaker Charles Marshall vist www.charlesmarshall.net