The MONTHLY Motivator - February 2007

Make success an everyday pursuit

Success is not something that happens to you. It is something you are. It starts in the morning when you get out of bed. It continues through every moment of the day. Success is built while you are waiting in traffic, during lunch, when you’re walking the dog, sitting at your desk, running errands, and sleeping. It comes from your attitude, your posture, your diet, your use of time, the way you relate to others, the way you respond to challenges both large and small, the way you talk to yourself and others, the priorities you choose to follow, and every little detail of every day.

Success is not a one-time, get-it-done-and-get-it-over-with proposition. It is not something to be acquired and then squirreled away for safekeeping. It is a way of life. Successful people are not just people who have gotten something. They are people who live each moment of each day with an attitude of success.

What can you do to be successful? Everything. Everything you do affects the level of success you achieve at anything you do. Success in one area of your life cannot be isolated from your behavior in another area. After all, you are one person, and however diligently you may attempt to compartmentalize your life, it is still, after all, your life. Real, lasting, fulfilling success is achieved and experienced by the entirety of your self. It is not a part of you. It infuses the whole of you. It comes when you integrate a mind-set of success into every part of every day.

Does every little detail of your life have to be going perfectly in order for you to enjoy success? Of course not. Does every little detail have an affect on your level of success and your ability to reach it? You bet it does. The way you handle the small things has a lot to do with the results you get on the big things. Because most big things are made up of lots of small things.

A business owner would be foolish to say “we lose money on every sale but we make up for it in volume.” It’s a classic example of wrong-headed thinking. If you lose money on each transaction, more transactions cannot possibly help you. The same is true of the details, which make up the moments of your life. If you lose ground with every detail, you lose ground in terms of the big picture, too.

To get from point A to point B you must cover the distance, you must somehow traverse the ground in between. There is no Star Trek-style “transporter room” that will take you there instantly. You must figure out a way to get through the details and then follow that strategy.

If your goal is not within reach,

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--Ralph Marston

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