Failure is not a single, catastrophic event. Neither is Success a bolt of lightning or a chance lottery ticket.
We do not fail or succeed overnight.
When we fail at anything it is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. Failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day.
Taken one by one, our daily acts do not seem that important (unless it’s to rob a bank or the like). A minor oversight, a poor decision, or a wasted hour generally doesn't result in an instant and measurable impact. More often than not, we escape from any immediate consequences of our actions (or the lack of them) because consequences are seldom instant; instead, they accumulate until the inevitable day of reckoning finally arrives and the “Piper” will be paid.Failure's most dangerous attribute is its insidious nature. In the short term those little errors don't seem to make any difference. If at the end of the day when we made our first error in judgment the sky had fallen in on us, we undoubtedly would have taken immediate steps to ensure that the act would never be repeated again. But it didn’t… so we don’t.
But there is good news for those who care to hear it. Just as there is a formula for failure, there is a formula for success that is easy to follow: It's a few simple disciplines practiced every day.
Both success and failure involve FUTURE consequences, namely the inevitable rewards or inevitable “punishments” resulting from past activities.
If this is true, why don't more people take time to consider and plan for the future?
The answer is simple: They are so caught up in today that tomorrow it doesn't seem to matter.
But what if we did develop a new discipline to take just a few minutes every day to look a little further down the road?
We would then be able to foresee the impending consequences of our actions or lack of them. Armed with that valuable insight, we would be able to take the necessary action to change our paths toward a more successful future. In other words, by disciplining ourselves to consider and plan for the future the in advance, we would be able to change our thinking, amend our errors and develop new habits to replace the old.
One of the exciting things about the formula for success- A few simple disciplines practiced every day - is that the results are almost immediate. As we voluntarily change daily errors into daily disciplines, we experience positive results in a very short period of time. When we change our diet, our health improves noticeably in just a few weeks. When we start exercising, we feel a new vitality almost immediately. When we begin reading, we experience a growing awareness and a new level of self-confidence. Whatever new discipline we begin to practice daily will produce exciting results that will drive us to become even better at developing new disciplines.
The real magic of new disciplines is that they will help us to amend our thinking.
If we were to start today to keep a complete calendar, set goals, attend the classes, listen more and observe more, then today would be the first day of a new life leading to a better future.
If we were to start today to try harder, and in every way make a conscious and consistent effort to change subtle and deadly errors into constructive and rewarding disciplines, we would never again settle for a life of existence – not once we have tasted the fruits of a life of substance!
