Immobile Progress

“I am a slow walker but I never walk back.” – Abraham Lincoln (US President)

It is possible for me to sometimes get obsessed with making progress. It may come from a sincere desire to make life better for me and my family members or it may come from a competitive disposition when I compare myself with others. Irrespective of what motivates me, what I really want is to make progress.

Progress is sweet. It is good to see that the steps I am taking toward my goals are bringing fruits. Unfortunately there are times when it seems as if my progress has stopped. It suddenly seems that I have hit a brick wall in my success journey. It is true – but rather simplistic – for me to console myself with: “It is all part of the success journey,” until I realized a liberating concept that I am about to share with you.

I believe that the two most important parameters to anyone’s success is whether the person is on the right path and whether the person is taking the right steps at the right time. For as long as these two are satisfied, success is assured irrespective of mobility. By this I mean that the fact that you are not moving is not a prove that you are not making progress.

If, for example, you are in journey to a place and you are suddenly stalled to a spot for two hours by a traffic jam. You get annoyed and curse the cause of the impasse but you do not conclude that you have failed in your journey. You don’t do this because you know that you are on the right path and in a matter of time you will get to your destination. Also, you realize that every minute that passes by you edge closer to moving forward than you were a minute before. This means you have made progress (with respect to time) even though you have not left the spot.

This concept is the same with your success journey. You may find yourself deadlocked and immobile but for as long as you know you are on the right path, your success is simply a matter of time. Also, even though you may be in the same situation you were months earlier, you know that as long as time has passed you are not on the same spot.
                          {For Articles on Progress Click Here}

If you understand this you will cut yourself some slack because you are simply making immobile progress. 

Parable of the Blessing: THE GOALSETTER

I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward – to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back. So let’s keep focused on the goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. - Paul (the apostle)

Peter J. Daniels once wrote:

If you are uncertain, timid or vague,

If you are not sure which is the way,

If you are concerned what the future will bring,

If you are dissatisfied with any old thing.

Then you need to take hold of your life from this day,

And you must plan a far better way.

Its goals that you need to straighten you out,

To smooth out the paths and to get you about.

For goals set a sight that is clear and is bright,

And goals give you purpose to strive and to fight.

Your life is of value and the world is your home,

So stop now and think of where you should roam.

Just make a new start, to win and to claim,

A fresh firm new goal with a definite aim.

Then chase after your goal with desperate desire,

With passion and excellence, as if you were on fire.

Do not be timid or reluctant or slow,

Just move into top gear and let all systems go.

Goals direct a person’s life. Goals guide you and move you forward. To live without goals is to live aimlessly. All high achievers set goals again and again. Your goals should be believable to you, have a time frame, consistent to other aspects of your life, and easily broken down into smaller parts. 

Excellence

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause and say, "Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well." - Martin Luther King (jnr)

 How much boast can you make about your works? Can you boldly speak about the works of your hands and demand they speak for themselves? Can you append your name on your work if you knew it would be placed side-by-side with the best in your field?

If you would be tremendously successful you must have a spirit of excellence. This spirit will give you the boast for your work anywhere in the world because it dots the “i’s” and crosses the “t’s”. Noah had this spirit and so we read of him that, “Noah did everything exactly as God commanded him.” To develop the spirit of excellence, consider the following:

Make every work a masterpiece. It is important you take every work you do as an extension of your life. People considering your works are not merely meeting a piece of work but are meeting you; what first impressions are you leaving?  If you have this in mind you will handle each task as a masterpiece work of art set with intent for the audience.

Develop skill. It is also important you develop skill in every detail of your works. The archaic definition of the word skill means to “make a difference”. In view of this, decide to make a difference in every area of your works. There is always something else you can do to improve your work. You do not need to do it the same way you have done it before neither do you have to do it the way others do it.

Learn from others. It is important to keep an ever- learning attitude in all you do. Don’t get to the point that you feel you know it all. If your heart is open there is always something you can learn from just about everyone.

Innovate. Innovation is the icing on creativity. It means to effect a change. Do not strive endlessly trying to do something nobody has done before. Simply change what has been, making it better.

Excellence is reserved for a select few – follow this and you will be one of them. 

Timing - Your Key to Success

He (God) has made everything beautiful in it's own time. - Solomon (the king)

          It is easy to feel insufficient and dissatisfied with our states at every phase. It is common among many young folks to consider where they are in their success chart and feel they are far from attainment.

         This is more so because we are not familiar with the path of our success journey. This way we will not be able to know how much of our peculiar success-journey we have covered.  

         In addition many of us easily compare ourselves with others. When we compare ourselves with people we place ourselves upon uneven scales and we never become all that we can be. Rather, we are left with a sense of inner insufficiency. Making matters worse is the fact that many young people compare themselves with people that are much more advanced in age and advancement than they. This will simply make you less than you should be.

          It is important we note that there are some platforms of success we may never experience irrespective of how we desire to because of one basic thing - Timing. Some things will not come to us simply because it isn't yet time for them to. It is God that grants us the things we desire and just the way no reasonable father will give his car keys to his ten year old, God does not grant desires to immature children.

Every father knows that keeping a child from the car keys isn't denial. In time, the child will grow mature enough to drive. All that matters is time. Joseph Onilede once noted that, “The difference between a ripe fruit and an unripe one is time.” Indeed with time all things fall in place.

         Wait for the right time. The things you desire are not impossible. It may just not be the right time to attain them has not yet come. When the time does come – and it will – the beauty that comes with attainment brightens it and makes it an envious thing in the eyes of many. Discover and wait for the right time to attain every aspect of your goal.