What It Takes To Achieve!
“Ask yourself- Why do I want what I want? The answers to this question are the foundation of all your success and motivation.”
-Daniel Chidiac
In order to be successful, you must have purpose. In Napoleon Hill’s masterpiece Think and Grow Rich, he presented the idea of a ‘Definite Major Purpose’ as a challenge to his readers to ask themselves, ‘In what do I truly believe?’ According to Hill, ninety eight per cent of people had few or no firm beliefs; this alone put true success firmly out of their reach. His journey also consisted of researching and interviewing 500 of the most successful people in the world at the time. Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, F W Woolworth, John D Rockefeller, William Wrigley Jr and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were only a few. These highly successful people displayed definite patterns in their attitudes, but at that time, which was not so different to our era, most people had serious misconceptions of the qualities they thought brought them success.
It was evident that negative emotions such as fear, selfishness and resentment were the sources of failure. This came as a big shock to most. The opposites of these attributes were found to be some of the secrets to success, but it was said that everyone must discover this on their own and thus gain the knowledge to really influence their lives.
In my experience, achievers who think that winning means they have to be a jerk in the process, actually lose more than they gain. They may have gained money, but they lost everything else, including themselves. There is a way of gaining what you want and staying true to yourself in the meantime, and that’s what real success consists of.
‘Your worth consists in what you are and not what you have.’
-Thomas Edison
Task: Why do I want what I want?
Look at your wants list and note down as many reasons why you want what you want. Also write down why you must have them and why you will not settle for less. If you do not have a clear indication about why you want what you want, then you will not enhance the emotions that create the certainty to obtain them. Passion builds up; it is not something that you just find at its peak. This exercise is crucial for assigning passion to your wants. Stay away from writing what you don’t want. For example, ‘I want…because I don’t want to be poor’. Instead you would write, ‘I want… because I want to feel like I have accomplished what I’m worth or because I want to give my family great opportunities’. Go and write a list now.
Source: BHLS
These next sets of questions also create an enormous amount of emotional charge. Focus on each one individually for a few minutes and write down the answers.
If you are acting in the same way as you would if you never got what you wanted, how on earth do you expect to get anything!
• How would it make me feel if I didn’t get what I wanted in my life?
• What would I think about myself?
• How would my body language be?
• What are the emotions I would experience on a daily basis?
• Are some of the answers to these questions things I am doing now?
If you are acting in the same way as you would if you never got what you wanted, how on earth do you expect to get anything? Ask:
• How would it make me feel if I did get what I wanted?
• How would I hold my body? What would my body language be like? What would my shoulders, facial expressions, or attitude be like?
• Throughout my day, how can I produce those same emotions I would get when I attain what I want? How would I have to think, talk and walk?
• Must I allocate time to really think about their accomplishment and continually embrace the emotions?
• How can I create rapid change from the answers I have obtained from these questions? What can I do differently? What are the different emotions I need to start commanding?
Only by answering these crucial questions can you bring forth the emotional charge needed to achieve. Take the same feelings that you imagine you would get if you gained what you wanted with you all day. Let those feelings drive your decisions. Constantly remind yourself of why you really want what you want!
