On Success

"Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal." - Earl Nightingale Earl Nightingale’s words of wisdom still ring true to this day when he said, “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.” Sounds pretty straightforward, but how many people really understand what that means, let alone practice it on a daily basis?

Obtaining a car, or a house, might be nice goals to have, but they’re hardly what I call a ‘worthy ideal.’ It’s not going to get you up in the mornings, inspired to take massive action and expend a tremendous conscious effort towards a cause, a dream, that’s larger than life.

Every successful person I know decided at one point who they ideally wanted to be and how they wanted to live their life, while also realizing where they were really at, and then decided to bridge that gap until they were living their dreams.

They bridged the gap by consistently focusing on their dream, feeling it with strong emotion being realized already, and taking purposeful actions that moved them closer to their dream, every single day. And that, my friends, is ‘the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.’ We attract in life what we consistently focus on, act on, and feel through spaced repetition. If you do that, you will be successful.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), the author, poet, philosopher, naturalist, and educator, had this to say about ‘the progressive realization of a worthy ideal’:

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success in uncommon hours."

Take out a blank sheet of paper, and write down on one page, the person you want to become ten years from now and how you want to be perceived, and then begin living that now. In other words, every day, just be and act like that person. And you will, as Thoreau once said, ‘meet with success in uncommon hours.’

On Success - To learn more about this author, visit Sharif Khan's Website.

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