A lot of people don't feel very successful at this moment. Of course if you define success in a monetary context, it's hard to feel very successful today, unless you are one of the lucky few chosen by the plutocrats who have created the highest concentration of wealth in human history.
This is an essay I often read, Bessie Stanley's poem entitled Successful Life. It's worth reading right now, so ... here it is.
To laugh often and love much; to win and hold the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of little children; to earn the approval of an honest critic and to endure without flinching the betrayal of false friends.
To appreciate beauty always, whether in earth's creations or men and women's handiwork; to have sought out and found the best in others, and to have given it oneself; to leave the world a little better than one found it, whether by nurturing a child or a garden patch, writing a cheery letter, or working to redeem some social condition.
To have played with enthusiasm, laughed with exuberance, and sung with exultation; to go down to dust and dreams knowing that the world is a little better, and that even a single life breathes easier because we have lived well, that is to have succeeded.
Does this sentiment work for you? It does for me.
If you want to study success, you'll eventually find your way to Napoleon Hill. If you are not knowledgeable about Mr. Hill, let me give you a little background. Born in 1883, he came of age in the Roaring 20's. He was a writer from as young as 13 and worked his way through law school by writing as a journalist. Some time just before 1920 he met Andrew Carnegie who induced him to organize the world's first philosophy of personal achievement. The project consumed 20 years of his life. His methodology was based upon interviewing 500 of the most "successful" men in the world ... people like J.D. Rockefeller, Taft, Eastman, Ford, Wrigley, Wanamaker, Schwab, Teddy Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan .
He literally invented the field of personal development and the science of success. This seminal book, Think and Grow Rich has been in print for over 70 years. It would be a travesty to call him a motivationalist. I choose to call him a well-spring of inspiration.
Read this abbreviated list of 10 quotations for a flavor of his philosophy. This book is not a book like the secret or some "here is the quick way" approach.
Effort only releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.
One must marry one's feelings to beliefs and ideas. That is probably the only way to achieve a measure of harmony in one's life.
Until you have learned to be tolerant with those who do not always agree with you; until you have cultivated the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you do not admire; until you have formed the habit of looking for the good instead of the bad there is in others, you will be neither successful or happy.
You must get involved to have an impact. No one is impressed with the won-lost record of the referee.
I have proved, times too numerous to enumerate, to my own satisfaction at least, that every human brain is both a broadcasting and a receiving station for vibrations of thought frequency.
The sixth sense is that portion of the subconscious mind which has been referred to as the creative imagination. It has also been referred to as the "receiving set" through which ideas, plans and thoughts flash into the mind. The flashes are sometimes called hunches or inspirations.
The sixth sense defies description! It cannot be described to a person who has not mastered the other principles of this philosophy, because such a person has no knowledge and no experience with which the sixth sense can be compared. Understanding the sixth sense comes only by meditation through mind development from within.
Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.
First comes thought; then organization of that thought into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.
It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.
As the poet Sark taught me ... be, the money will come to you. Success has to do with virtue and character as the fountainhead. Virtue, at least in my mind is based in goodness, one of the six great ideas and the 17 stories we all live in our lives. Where are you "transmitting" and "receiving" goodness in your life? Give it a shot, answer this question just for you ... it may bring some personal enjoyment.
W2
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