Introduction
We all desire success. I mean everybody wants to have his or her dream come true in life, don’ t we? We sure do. And the starting point is to know that we do posses the potential to achieve the success we desire.
Success without fulfillment is meaningless. Unless there is a sense of meaning and purpose, life is empty and unhappy regardless of how much prestige, money or degrees a person has.
Success begins with developing your personal success philosophy, about your health, money, family, society and values. Without a clearly defined purpose and a philosophy to guide you, life is guided by fantasies. If people have not defined philosophy of success, they have actually defined a philosophy of failure by default.
Sometimes we overlook the things that ought not to be overlooked and don’t overlook the things that ought to be overlooked. An integral part of a good value system is commitment. When our value system is clear it becomes a lot easier to make decisions and commitments. Example: you can’t make a commitment to your country by selling secrets to the enemy. You can’t keep a friend by revealing to others what he told you in confidence. You can’t keep a commitment to a job by trying to do as little as possible. Un-kept commitments result in dishonest behavior. I wonder how any relationship, regardless of whether personal or professional, would work if people said something to the effect.
Regardless of the uncertainty, commitment says, “You can count on me.” A person who makes a commitment is willing to give up a lot. For what? The answer is pretty clear. The rewards can be priceless.
What difference are we making? Big or small, it does not matter. If everyone made a small difference, we’d end up with a big difference, wouldn’t we?
What is potential?
According to Webster’s New Encyclopedic Dictionary potential means something that is capable of becoming real. Another definition says something that can develop or become actual. If then potential means something that is capable of becoming real, why is it that so many people find it difficult to work towards achieving their purpose in life? Our definition indicates that all human beings are here for a purpose and that we all have the potential to achieve that purpose.
Where are all potential come from?
Potentials are closely related from where they come from. Before anything was created, there was only God. So invariably all potential come from God. God had within Him the potential for everything He made. In the Old Testament of the Bible it was indicated that God created us in His image. In the New Testament it was indicated that we have the mind of Christ. It then means that we can achieve all having the knowledge that the source of all potential has made it possible for it to be so.
The tragedy of unrealized potential
About a hundred years ago, a man looked at the morning newspaper and to his surprise and horror, read his name in the obituary column. The newspaper had reported the death of the wrong person by mistake. His first response was shock. Am I here or there? When he regained his composure, his second thought was to find out what people said about him. The obituary read, “Dynamite King Dies.” And also “He was the merchant of death.” This man was the inventor of dynamite and when he read the words “merchant of death,” he asked himself a question, “Is this how I am going to be remembered?” He got in touch with his feelings and decided that this was not the way he wanted to be remembered. From that day on, he started working toward peace. His name was Alfred Nobel and he is remembered today by the great Nobel Prize.
