Vision to Succeed

An old Proverb states the premise nicely, “Without vision, the people perish.” Or to frame the same principle in the vernacular, “Stand for something, or fall for anything.” We need vision to succeed in Life.

You’ve heard the expression, “Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.” An experience last week reminded me of the incongruity of dysfunctional thought patterns, in the face of reality and facts of imminent demise.

While prattling on with the rah-rah nonsense of a used car salesman, the Owner of a roofing company (known to me from prior experience as EGO) wanted me to believe he was ready to manage in a new and better way.

His new CEO is quite fluent in Corporate Speak, which we all know wedges itself into the category of: Talk is Cheap. Between the two of them, the cacophony of their silliness lasted all of 30 minutes.

Dynamic Carousel

Life is like a carousel — it only goes in one direction: Forward. There’s no going back to undo, redo, or otherwise change anything in the Past.

And, on that Carousel, we have a choice: Sit on the benches near the center, move to the stationary animals to the right of the benches, or climb on a horse moving up and down — while we reach for the brass ring.

Obtaining a brass ring involves three components: Fate + Choice + Skill.

The Want To

To succeed at anything, we must want to. Not any old ordinary want to will do. The want to that I’m talking about is an all persuasive, gut churning, bone chilling, teeth gritting, and heart aching passionate desire to achieve.

Good, I lost the snowflakes among us. They quit reading half way through the first paragraph. What keeps you here with me? Do you want to know the first step on the road to Success?

Think Know Do

I was sitting at the desk with a salesman and behind him, tacked to the wall was a piece of plain white 8½” x 11″ size paper with these letters: TKD. Thoroughly impressed, I commended his belief in “Think Know Do.”

He grinned sheepishly and confessed that his manager had pinned the sign as a reminder “Time Kills Deals.” My antennas shot straight up. After a tour of their factory, conversations with upper echelons, and a discovery of inferior processes and unethical people, sure enough, “Time Kills Deals.”

So, TKD is a two-edged sword — it can represent success, or defeat.

Legacy

In the vernacular of today, legacy has come to be equated with money and the bequest of little empires to heirs. What might surprise you is that the word originally was used to denote an envoy or ambassador.

For those tying their hopes and dreams to material possessions, good luck with that. We’re physical, temporal beings stuck to a spinning orb in the vastness of the universe and history bears record that empires come and go.

So, what is a legacy — and how do we create one?

The answer to the what and how comes immediately after the why.

Fix Thoughts

How important is it for us to find a way to fix Thoughts?

There is a battle raging for our souls and it is life-altering to acknowledge that our thoughts are the only thing within our control.

We cannot change the political climate, celebrity morals, Mother Nature, Father Time — or, even, your neighbor’s yapping dog.

Yet, we can be the Captain of Destiny — as we create a future of our choice.

All We Do Begins With A Thought

Relentless Pursuit

Begin creating something of value and watch what happens. The dark forces of the Universe and people of that disposition will gather their armies in a relentless pursuit to attack YOU — and your creation.

Why?

Because it’s much easier to destroy than to build. Those individuals who won’t build anything special of their own don’t want you to, either.

Performance Realms

In an ordered Universe, these four — in this order — would be the performance realms: Goodness, Thought, Action, and Feelings.

Goodness would fuel our Thoughts, which motivate us to Action, resulting in warm fuzzy Feelings.

However, we live in a time with slogans similar to, “If it feels good, do it.“

Thoughts

All We Do Begins With A Thought

The thoughts that got us into our present situation will not be the thoughts that get us out of it. And — I’m talking about good situations and bad situations.

If all is well in our world, it’s easy to become complacent. Or, in simpler language, we find ourselves in a rut — the definition of which is a grave with the ends kicked out. So, we need to enhance our thoughts to move beyond where we are — to where our passion is pointing.

If all is not well in our world, then, it’s obvious to the whole world — except maybe ourselves — that we’ve engaged in some stinkin’ thinkin’ somewhere in the recent past. So, we need to change our thoughts to move out of the ditch we find ourselves, up to a solid footing and foundation, upon which to Build Something — Special.

Seeds of Opportunity

When adversity, failure, and heartache are part of my day, the first reaction is not, “Oh, great! These are the seeds of opportunity to learn and grow.”

Yet, the definition of opportunity is:

When the situation is right for you to do something you’re interested in doing, you have the opportunity to do it. The word comes from the Latin phrase, ob portum veniens “coming toward a port” which refers to a favorable wind blowing ships into the harbor. Think of an opportunity as something a good wind blew your way.

When problems raise their ugly, fire-breathing, dragon heads, I’d much rather gather up the black balloons, invite some whiners, crawl off into a cave to lick my wounds, and throw a grand ‘Pity Party’ — all for me.