Your aim is to do something GREAT and wonderful with your life, and to accomplish extraordinary things. However, you cannot simply go out and have a great life; you must go out and make a great life!
The word “GREAT” has 5 letters, which stand for the 5 keys to success in your life, and in anything you decide to be, have, do and accomplish:
1. GOALS: You must know exactly what you desire to be, have, do and accomplish. Many people wander through their entire life never taking this critical first step. Determine what you want and write it down. Highly successful people write down goals as if they already have accomplished them (for example, “I am a straight ‘A’ student.”), and they review and re-write them often. [Derek Jeter decided he would be the shortstop for the New York Yankees when he was a young boy. It didn’t just happen because he was lucky!]
2. RESULTS: You must deliberately focus and direct your thoughts, words, feelings, gratitude and emotions toward the desired results. Meditate daily and visualize the end results, seeing yourself in the picture, using all 5 senses, for 5 minutes before going to sleep and/or after waking up. [Example: Fist pumping the air and high-fiving teammates after making a perfect tackle, receiving an “A” on a math test, or getting that job promotion and pay raise — feeling, seeing, hearing, smelling and tasting the experience.] Think, speak and act as if you already are a star player, an “A” student, or a business executive earning your desired income!
3. EXCELLENCE: Strive for excellence! The key to success in any field is to get good, get better, and be the best! When you resolve to be the very best at what you do, and to do more than the minimum required or expected, you will find very little competition. Your weakest skill usually sets the height at which you can use all your other skills. Ask someone you trust (teacher, coach, parent, brother) if they see any weaknesses in your performance (“feedback is the breakfast of champions”). Continually invest in yourself. Use your time wisely to improve your knowledge and skill and become excellent at what you do. Your daily choices of what to do, and what not to do, will determine everything that happens to you. [Example: You can choose to study and practice, or to watch TV and play video games – but either choice will lead to very different results.] Your actions must be consistent with your goals. Use your time in a manner that most helps you produce the desired results for yourself and your team.
4. Act Now! You must take action in the direction of your goal. Do something daily — homework, study, practice, work, research, exercise, etc., that moves you closer toward your goal. Procrastination is the big killer of human potential (putting off big, important tasks until later, or never getting to them at all). Procrastination is a habit based on inertia or fear. You can and must get over it! Make a habit of deciding what you want to do and then moving quickly, before you have time to think too much or become afraid. “Act boldly, and unseen forces will come to your aid.” Action gives you momentum that keeps you going after the average person has quit.
5. Try, Try, Try! You must persist. Never, ever give up! As you follow these 5 steps to make a GREAT life and accomplish your goals, unseen forces in the universe are working tirelessly on your behalf, moving mountains, to help your dreams come true, and making progress in ways often invisible to you. Your persistence is a direct measure of your belief in yourself. Great success comes with great risk, and often follows great failure. But no one ever succeeded by quitting. Continue relentlessly focusing on what you want and taking action to achieve it, without regard to critics, doubters, obstacles and setbacks. Repeat to yourself, “If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me!”
Copyright Murnane 2014