“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference” – Serenity Prayer.
Change comes from within. Ignoring change is accepting defeat and acknowledging failure. Successful people embrace change. When you embrace change, you have a better chance to succeed.
Without change, meaningful success is impossible. Change drives success; before success, there is the “change” process. This is the painful and most dreaded process.
If you want to succeed at anything you do, you cannot expect different results if you keep doing the same things that make you fail. Change your habits, and it will positively impact your life.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks to achieving our goals, be it personal, organisational, or indeed financial, is a lack of change in attitude. You want to succeed, but you don’t want to change your attitude.
John F. Kennedy once said, “change is the law of life and those who look only to the past and the present are certain to miss the future.”
I have failed before, actually many times, and I keep failing daily. This does not mean I have acknowledged failure. No, no, no.
One of my latest shortcomings is not being able to fulfil the challenge to publish 29 articles in February, as promised.
Have I given up on the challenge? No. The shortfall taught me to set reasonable and achievable targets. The target was reasonable; I just did not apply myself.
It was a worthwhile target but one that needed a lot of time and dedication to implement.
However, I reserve it for the future. I now know what adjustments I need to make for a challenge of that magnitude and nature.
Learn From Every Challenge
I learned many lessons from the previous challenge. I will mention just a few here. The biggest one was that I needed a lot of time and dedication.
But during the implementation period, I was faced with a lot of time constraints. I guess this is usually what happens when you plan to conquer a challenge. Time will always be a constraint.
I couldn’t devote enough time to writing articles, as other, seemingly more pressing matters needed my attention. I could not dedicate enough time
This is not to negate the importance I attach to this website. In fact, the plan for this website is to grow it to be the number one stop for personal development and self-growth materials.
It is more of a long-term than a short-term project. However, the other matters were short-term and more physical, and they really drained my energy.
I needed to come up with a practical way of writing articles and publishing regularly, or better still, daily.
Unfortunately, I stayed in my comfort zone. I now need to move out of my comfort zone if I have to fulfil the vision and plan for this website.
I also plan to write and post articles that I feel add value for my readers. In other words, I write content for people, and not for search engines.
With the lessons learned so far, I hope to start showing that movement out of my comfort zone. I now know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I won’t achieve my goals without a radical change.
The other lesson learned is that I lost my focus. There were times when I could have written something but lacked total concentration.
To write valuable content, you need to be relaxed and focused and let your thoughts flow onto paper. I needed to make sure my writing skills matched the task at hand.
I know my friends who are artists will agree that you need to be focused and inspired when writing a song and, later on, singing it; it’s the same with writing web content.
You Have the Capacity to Change
Do not doubt your ability to change. We all have the capacity and ability to change.
If you want to achieve anything worthwhile, you will need to change and adapt your ways and mentality to winning ways.
There is no shortcut to achieving your dreams. Hard work, or rather smart hard work, is the key.
The Bible says, “Do not despise the days of your small beginnings” (Zechariah 4:10).
A 1,000-mile journey starts with one step in the right direction. Emphasis is on the first step. The first step is as important as the last step. Without taking the first step, there will never be a last one.
You will not move a mile if you do not take the first step. Every step that you take counts towards your goal.
Every small change you make matters. You have the capacity to make those small adjustments, and before you know it, you will have made bigger, meaningful adjustments.
Every change you make is progress. Every one of us can be progressive by changing one thing at a time, no matter how small.
I know for a fact that we all have things we want to change. No one is perfect. We all have skeletons in our closets.
One of the many mistakes we make is wanting to succeed without changing our ways. Success comes with change.
How To Prepare for the Future
Many factors should be considered when preparing for your future. Some of them are beyond your control. Do not worry about them.
However, we must always endeavour to change what is in our control and leave the rest to God Almighty.
Brian Tracy says “You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude towards what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.”
We all have a chance at succeeding. Life gives every one of us a second chance. So for as long as you have the breath of life, you have a chance to make it.
Many things that will shape your future are within your grasp. You have all that it takes to succeed.
Most of us miss opportunities to shape our future through foolish decisions and end up making mistakes that come back to haunt us.
Sometimes the mistakes we make can be very fatal. But remember, we all make mistakes, and the most successful people have learned from their own.
The most important ingredient for success is making the change and stopping the same mistakes over and over.
Decide today to make the change and start moving towards a better life. It is never too late to make the change.
Start by accepting that you are responsible for your own life. Acknowledge that you owe it to yourself to live a better life, and that no one will change anything without your consent.
Stop blaming your parents for what they never gave you; your government for limited opportunities; your siblings for not sharing; or, indeed, your spouse.
You are totally responsible for everything that you do. Go out there and conquer the world. Be the change you would like to see in the world.
I strongly believe that there is more than enough wealth in the world to go around. There are many things that need attention, and you could be the solution.
If we all played our part and did what is right, we could help change the world for the better. The world today is short of so many things.
You are the solution to some of the challenges being faced. Dig deep within you and unleash that solution that the world is craving and waiting to see.
Dr Myles Monroe says, “The richest place on earth is the graveyard.” Because buried there are dreams and ideas that were never realised. Songs that were never sung, buildings that were never built.
Conclusion
“If we don’t change we don’t grow, if we don’t grow we aren’t really living” – Gail Sheehy.
To make meaningful achievements, you must set goals. Goals that are realistic and achievable.
As a human being, you should have your own personal development goals; relationship goals; financial goals; and, above all, spiritual goals.
We must never forget that God loves us all regardless of our ethnicity and what our past holds. Stay blessed, and may the good Lord guide you in your endeavours.