Success has many rewards. Walking in success feels great, but rewards last only if you look forward to your next challenge.
When you achieve a goal and succeed, you feel happy and ecstatic in that moment; you feel like you have conquered the world and are over the moon.
But as soon as the excitement subsides and reality creeps in, you start looking for the next challenge to conquer.
“Successful people tend to become more successful because they are always thinking about their successes” – Brian Tracy.
The desire to keep enjoying the rewards of your success gets more and more intense as you achieve your next set of objectives and goals.
The more you succeed, the happier you feel. It seems to me that success brings a huge dose of happiness and joy.
Those who enjoy a more successful life usually live a happy and fulfilling one. We derive our happiness from our success.
Notice that people who complain a lot are usually those who are not working to be successful. They wait for success to come to them, and believe me, they will wait a lifetime. The size of your success depends on the depth of your desire.
Success does not come easy; it takes smart hard work to achieve it. The more you work at being successful, the closer you get to achieving your goals.
The closer you get to achieving your success, the more happiness you enjoy. Yes, sometimes we go through trying moments, but challenges are temporary. Challenges are the path to your success.
Often, they open new doors and new perspectives, without which it could have been impossible or difficult to achieve our goals.
They should not prevent you from fulfilling your destiny; rather, they should propel you to achieve your desired results.
If you want to enjoy the reward, you must push on and persist when faced with challenges.
Hard Work is not a Guarantee of Success
I know this may not sound good to many people; I just think hard work is not a guarantee of success.
Yes, it’s hard to be successful without hard work, but it doesn’t guarantee success. However, it is one way to ensure your success.
Am not discouraging you or anyone else from working hard. I just want to make it clear that smart hard work will surely get you the results you want.
To achieve success, you must work hard, but you must do it smartly.
The following story compares hard work and smart work.
Once upon a time, there was a quaint little village. It was a great place to live except for one problem. The village had no water unless it rained.
To solve this problem once and for all. The village elders decided to put out a bid for a contract to have water delivered to the village daily.
Two people volunteered to bid and take up the task, and the elders awarded the contract to both of them because they felt a little competition would keep prices lower and ensure a backup supply of water.
The first of the two people who won the contract, Ed, ran out immediately. He bought two galvanised steel buckets and ran back and forth along the trail to the lake, a mile away.
Ed immediately began making money, labouring from morning to dusk to haul water from the lake with his two buckets. He emptied them into the large holding concrete tank that the village had built.
Each morning he had to get up before the village awoke to make sure there is enough water for the village when they wanted it.
It was hard work, but he was very happy to be making money and for having one of the two exclusive contracts for this business.
The second winning contractor, Bill, disappeared for a while; he was not seen for months, which made Ed even happier since he had no competition.
Ed was making all the money. Instead of buying two buckets to compete with Ed, Bill had written a business plan. He involved various people like investors and managers and created a corporation. He retained six months later with a construction crew.
Within a year, his team had built a large volume of stainless steel pipe that connected the village to the lake.
At the grand opening celebration, Bill announced that his water would be 75% cheaper and that it was cleaner.
Bill knew of complaints about the quality of Ed’s water; he also announced that he could supply the commodity 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Ed could only deliver water on the weekdays as he did not work on weekends.
The village cheered and quickly ran for the faucet at the end of Bill’s line.
In order for Ed to compete, he immediately bought two more buckets, lowered his charge by 75%, and employed more people to haul water on a daily basis.
Bill realised that if this village needed water, then more villages needed it. He rewrote his business plan and expanded to other villages that quickly connected to his line.
Bill could supply more volumes of water to more people at a lower price and therefore made more money than his competitor. I will end the story here.
Now, ask yourself who was smarter between Bill and Ed? Who would you rather be?
Recognise the Advantages of Planning
The above story about Bill and Ed brings out a few things that can be learned and applied to our daily lives.
Firstly, this is a story about solving a problem that was encountered by the village. Which, I believe that our lives are meant to solve the problems that are faced by the world. Bill demonstrated the advantages of planning.
How we go about solving these challenges is largely determined by the way we think. That is why, for me, the most important asset we have is our mind.
Ed seems to have had a head start in solving the water crisis that was faced by the small village. Indeed, he did not succeed until Bill came up with a much better plan and solution.
I do not think Ed had thought thoroughly about how he was going to provide the solution. His aim was probably just to have the contract to earn him money.
For me, Bill demonstrated that having a goal is not just good enough. We must take time to plan and start working on our plans to achieve the intended target, and this takes time.
Inasmuch as Bill offered a much better solution than Ed, I am sure he must have given it more thought before going ahead to implement it.
Bill’s plan involved investors and managers. It took Bill more than a year before he started reaping the rewards of his labor. Good things take time.
Bill’s plan also demonstrates that in our life’s journey we need people who can add value to our lives. People who are going to help us achieve our goals.
If you are planning to achieve your goals, you need to identify the right people who are going to help you achieve your goals.
By employing more people to haul water from the lake, Ed demonstrated a lack of learning.
He refused to embrace change, and instead of learning from the new technology of transporting water, he stuck to his old methods. Very often in our lives, we do not want to embrace change.
Conclusion
Personal development and growth are a mix of things. I believe that self-growth does not come easily; it takes time and requires us to take small steps every day of our lives.
If you want to enjoy your life, you must always be looking forward to your next challenge. The reward of overcoming a challenge should always motivate you to look forward to the next challenge, for this is the cycle of life.
Happiness is the highest level of success. Enjoy the fruits of your labour.