Success is a direction that you choose. It has nothing to do with how much money you have, how old you are, where you are, who you are, what you have done in the past, or even what you are presently doing. It is the direction you choose to go in with your life, and it is your choice.
Success is achieved by making a decision. The late motivational speaker Earl Nightingale used to tell a story of a successful businessperson who was asked when he became successful. He replied, "I became successful when I was sleeping on a park bench, because I knew where I was going, and I knew that I would get there."
If success is that simple, why do so few people participate? Bob Proctor would ask. "They do not know, and they do not know that they do not know. That is why so few people enjoy success."
If you had a couple of tons of gold bullion buried in your backyard but you did not know it was there, how much good would it do you? It would not do you any good. The only real problem anyone will ever have is ignorance--not knowing.
There are a few people who are truly successful and many others who desperately work hard all of their lives attempting to be successful. As a result, the average person is deluded by an overwhelming amount of evidence indicating that success is hard to obtain and that those who do achieve success are either lucky or extremely brilliant.
The great majority of people are so busy attempting to make ends meet that they never take the time to do proper research or make an in-depth study of highly successful people. Every person who has made such a study has arrived at the same shocking conclusion: success is merely a decision. You must decide what you want and then begin moving toward it. You decide now, right where you are, and you begin with whatever you have.
Bob Proctor has come to the firm conclusion that the finest and most accurate definition of SUCCESS is the one his former employer and associate, Earl Nightingale, gave to him many years ago: "success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal."
Progressive does not mean that you go at it with everything you have for a day or two and then slack off for a week. One of the definitions of progressive in the dictionary says this: increasing in severity, intensive. Proctor believes that is what Earl Nightingale had in mind.
Realization indicates an ever-increasing awareness, meaning that the materialization of the worthy ideal becomes more and more obvious.
Then worthy ideal becomes very interesting. Let us take ideal first. James Allen put it well when he suggested that an ideal is an idea that we have fallen in love with, meaning that it consumes our intellectual self, our emotional self, and our physical self.
According to Proctor the word WORTHY is the obstacle for most people. "Misunderstanding this part keeps the masses in the foothills, wandering aimlessly, never climbing their mountains, frequently frustrated, often angry, and too often miserably disappointed with themselves and their accomplishments."
Most people are trying to bolster their self-image to the point where they feel worthy of the good that they desire. Consider this: "You are the highest form of creation on the face of the earth. You are worthy of whatever good you desire." This is the question you should be asking: Is my idea worthy of me? Is it worthy of my attention? My interest? Should I be giving or trading my life for this idea? Is it worthy of my love?
When you begin to look at Nightingale's definition from that point of view, everything changes. What you want becomes very important. Unfortunately, there are only about one or two people out of every hundred who recognize what they truly want.
Let us take a close look at you (the human being), your real nature, and the idea of success. The very core of your being is spiritual. The essence of God is the very nucleus of you. You are a spiritual being. You have an intellect, and you live in a physical body. Spirit is always for expansion and fuller expression. It is never for disintegration.
God, spirit, operates in an orderly manner, which is perfect. We refer to this perfect action as LAW, frequently called the laws of the universe. Spirit expresses itself through you. "You are an instrument of God. When you are working in harmony with God or spirit, you are working with an infinite source of supply. You are an instrument, so the only limits placed on you are the limits that you place on yourself. Because your basic nature is infinite, in truth there is no limit to what you are capable of doing."
Your spiritual core keeps poking at your consciousness. Be quiet and listen. What do you really want? Everyone wants something big. Do not deny it or reject it. Grab it. Write it on paper. You do not have to know how it will happen. You only have to know that it WILL happen. God had big plans for you when He created you. That is why you were given such awesome potential. The most knowledgeable scientists alive today will not even guess at what you are capable of achieving.
Since God had such big plans for you, it will make good sense for YOU to have big plans for yourself. What do you really want? "The picture of greatness keeps popping up in your mind. Everyone wants to be great at something. That is our nature. Know that." You would not even be able to mentally see yourself doing something if you could not do it. As Stella Mann said, "If you can hold it in your head, you can hold it in your hand." What do you want?
If your friends, relatives, and neighbors laugh at you, get away from them. Do not you let them discourage you. Others will pretend to be your friends but go around moody or playing "poor me." Get away from them. They will rob you of your dream. "You do not have to get better. You are already beautiful. God did not make any rejects."
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The progressive realisation of what you want will bring with it a greater awareness. Your power and magnetism will compound. What you want must be big and beautiful, and you must really want it. It does not matter if anyone else wants it or if they want you to want it. It only matters that you want it. If you truly want to live a successful life, you must be progressively realizing a worthy ideal. That is success, and that does require change.
You are going to meet up with resistance but by following the dictates of your heart, you must choose a big, powerful want. Proctor calls it the "want of your life." He advises, "Understand that the resistance will be strong, but by properly preparing for this resistance, you will beat it. You will win." Keep in mind that the degree of resistance you will encounter is in direct ratio to the size and the nature of the idea with which you begin to work.
As William Penn Patrick said, "No person, ideal, or institution becomes great until great resistance has been encountered." Greatness cannot be achieved until this concept is understood.
Proctor believes that these next few years will record a brilliant history and establish a permanent place for our way of life, which is freedom to be and to work out our dreams for a great world, for ourselves, for children, and all of humanity. Understand our battle and be gratified that you are a part of making of history. The work you do today will provide new freedom and hope for millions yet to come.
"Greatness cannot be achieved until this concept is understood.".
