WHAT IS YOUR PERSPECTIVE OF SUCCESS?

Just like the popular illustration of half-filled and half empty glass of water of the diverse views of opinion on the same issue, so is human perspective of success. The world view of success is as numerous as the number of humans that inhabit this earth itself. So diverse is our perspective of success that the likes of Hitlers, Al Capones and Osama Bin Ladens of this world are heroes and models for some. Though our own perspective of success might not lead us to looking up to extreme characters like these, but it raises the issue of examining what we call success.

This post is not intended to spell out what an ideal perspective of success should be but to provoke us to take a second look at the path and direction in which we are investing our talents, gifts, time and resources. It will examine the common perspectives of success and leave us to identify where we slot into and see if that journey really is leading us to what our lives were created to fulfill.

One perspective of success that is most common is ‘possession is success’ perspective. The people with this world view believed the more possessions we have the more successful we are. They live their lives acquiring money, properties and investments. They do not do this merely to meet their needs but to have the sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. Ironically, it is never enough.

The positive thing about this perspective is that it gives some people the drive to create wealth. These people starts and build businesses to produce the needs of the community and provide sources of income for the people of the community. Starting, running and building a company is a risky and tasking job, it therefore requires high motivation to venture into any business. The high drive to make this businesses succeed; helps the people with this perspective to creatively overcome the challenges.

Men like Carlos Slim Helu, Bill Gates, Amancio Ortega, Warren Buffet, Larry Ellison (Forbes 2013) and millions of other men and women are in this category. These people have contributed to the development of the world in their various areas of specialties, meeting needs and helping people to use their skills and talents in self-actualization.

However, a negative side to this perspective is that there are people who believed this perspective and also believed the end justifies the means. To them the means of acquiring possession is inconsequential as long as they acquired it. These men are kingpins of organized crime and the various corrupt tyrants of the third world countries. According to Al Jazeera website “organized crime gangs dealing in fake goods, drugs, human trafficking and illicit wildlife trades earn nearly $90billion annually in east Asia and the pacific” siting a UN report. There are third world countries’ rulers who are richer than their poor countries.

They are the sources of heart wrenching misery in the world. The lives of men and women are being destroyed by drug addictions. Thousands of orphans, widows and widowers are being produced daily due to the senseless killings by organized crimes and wars instigated and financed by despots. Lives are being impoverished by the spreading of illiteracy, ill health and unemployment due to the corruption of government officials who misappropriates government funds. The greed produced by this perspective creates monumental failures.

The second most common perspective of success is the perspective of achievement. To these people our achievements level determines our success. These are the foot print in the sand of time people. They are driven by the desire to achieve great feats and climb to great heights in their fields. Possession is usually not their primary goal but some do acquire great wealth in the process of accomplishing their goals. But many do not and are still fulfilled and content with their achievements.

In this group, we have academicians, researchers, inventors, writers, musicians, artists and sports people. People like Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, John Forbes Nash Jr, Jimmy Carter, Steven Covey, John C Maxwell, Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and millions of others. They are the engineers of the modern civilization. Their achievements have raised the standard of living, thinking and behavior. They have raised the lid on the capacity of human ability, productivity and relationship.

Unfortunately also in this group are people who are responsible for catastrophic events and movements in the world. Guns, missiles and atomic bombs are inventions made possible by the achievements of brilliant minds. These have been used for much destruction in the world. Moral degradation pervading our society today is an offshoot of defective but applauded liberal philosophies, theories and works of arts. Racial theories have lead men like Adolf Hitler to plunge the world into a senseless war with loss of millions of lives. These and many more have brought disturbing and self-destructive trends into our modern civilization.

Another perspective of success which is not common but has been of great importance in the story of mankind is the “living and propagating an ideal” perspective of success. The focus of this perspective is living by an ideal of life and influencing others to live the same way. These ideals might be religious, social, economic or political. These are not theoreticians. They live these ideals and passionately canvass others to live it too. To these people acquisition of wealth and achieving a feat in life is not their primary goal.

Mahatma Gandhi lived a non-violent life and withstood the force of oppression and violence with non-violent means to gain independence for India. Martin Luther King Jr followed in this pattern to bring racial segregation to an end in America. Nelson Mandela did the same against apartheid in South Africa winning the love of both while and black. Mother Theresa lived a life of love and spread this love to the unloved in India and in the world. Billy Graham live a life of faith in Jesus Christ and spread this faith all over the world. Kenneth Hagins lived a life of faith and fellowship with the Holy Spirit and taught many how to do the same. These men and women and many others, by the ideals they lived and canvassed changed the course of nations and lives for the better.

However, in this group also are the likes of Osama Bin laden who lived violently and build a structure of violence which had continued to unleash violence and terror across the world. James Warren Jones aka Jim Jones lived in error and lead many astray, cumulating in mass suicide of his followers and their family at Jonestown, Guayana. These and many have done a lot in creating sorrow and destruction of lives in the world.

“The more aware we are of our basic paradigms, maps or assumptions… the more we can take responsibility for those paradigms, examine them, [and] test them…” Stephen R. Covey.

As you can see these perspectives of success overlaps and can come in infinite numbers of combination to produce different shades of perspective. It is also clear that none of the perspective is misuse proof. Each perspective has people who are producing negative results. It is also easy for one that is succeeding under a perspective to be viewed a failure by one who believed in a different perspective. It is therefore important that while we assess the opinion of others concerning our success journey in order to make use of those things that will help us fine tune our journey, we should be conscious of the perspective from which they offer those opinions. This is to ensure that we do not derail from our direction in life by using the perspective of others to assess ourselves.

A closer look also shows that having a perspective of success is not enough. There must be an ethical background which must be seriously considered, understood and assimilated into our perspective of success. We can be passionate about the path of success we are treading but we need to be aware of the result been generated by this passion. If the fruits are bad, it does not matter that the tree is in a beautiful garden. A poisonous tree remains poisonous. We must examine the results coming out from our success journey and ensure it is full of wellbeing and spreads wellbeing.

Now what is your perspective of success? What ethical background is it based on? What are the effects of the results of your success? When last did you check?

LIFE CHECK                                                                                                                                               

1. Examine your heart. You should be sure your spirit is regenerated and you are living according to your faith in Christ Jesus. Your regenerated spirit will receive wellbeing-generating life from God that will help you produce good results in your success journey. “Test yourselves and find out if you really are true to your faith. If you pass the test, you will discover that Christ is living in you. But if Christ isn’t living in you, you have failed” 2Corinthians 13:5 CEV.                                                                                                           

2. Examine the reigning principle in your mind. A transformed mind produces good result and blesses people in his area of influence. “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things” Matthew 12: 35 KJV                                      

3. Start the process of change. Once the examination reveals you are not having a good effect on your environment turn to God and let Him change you. You can’t do it yourself. You need to present yourself to Him and ask Him to change you from within. When you are changed from within, it is easy to change other things. “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” Acts 3:19 NIV.                                                                                                           

4. Renew your mind. Our minds gathers information daily, most have corrupting influence over us. To checkmate this, we must continually read, study, meditate and confess the word of God. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12: 2 NIV.             

               

     

 

   

  

CAN YOU SURPASS YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS?

Success is not for those who are weak, it is for those with lion hearts. It is difficult to achieve set goals and even more difficult to sustain them. To surpass your achievement is, therefore, a herculean task. Anybody that has achieved any level of success in life will tell you how much hard work, determination, endurance, concentration and various forms of deprivation they had gone through to achieve it. Yet achievements have to be continuously surpassed to sustain success.

Yesterday’s achievements become stale in the light of today’s reality. If we rest on our achievements, soon we’ll realize we’re no longer relevant in the scheme of things. To be truly successful is to constantly surpass our achievements. The question then is how do we surpass our previous achievements so that we can sustain our success and remain relevant in our industry and community?

When we achieve a set of goals, we feel a sense of relief, accomplishment, enthusiasm and confidence. These are great feelings that help us in our success journey. However, these feelings feed on continuous achievements. Once we don’t achieve new goals, we starve them and they begin to wither. As this happens other debilitating feelings begin to set in. fear, insecurity and discouragement begin to prey on us.

We, therefore, must feed the positive feelings that help us on our success journey, especially enthusiasm and confidence. The way to do it is to make sure, no matter how small, that we are setting and achieving new goals. So, have you achieved a set of goals? Add new ones to them. Raise the stake. Set new standards. Decide to improve the package. Win more clients. Determine to achieve higher grades. Just add new achievable goals.

To surpass our achievements requires new skills. We cannot rely only on the skills we previously use. To surpass is to do it better. To do it better we need new tools. To use new tools we need new skills. Continuous self-development becomes a key aspect of our lives. It is usual for us to budget monthly for food, drink, cloth and other mundane needs of our lives. But only few of us include books, seminars and conferences in this budget.

We don’t have a reading culture. And when we read, we read gossip magazines and novels. We hardly attend seminars and conferences except the ones organized or paid for by our organizations. We don’t subscribe to our professional journals and hardly understand the new trend in our industry. If we want to be relevant in our industry and community, we must continuously develop ourselves.

Self-development will help us to acquire new skills and methods of operations. It will help us understand and take a stand on new developments and trends in our industry and community. To do this, we must cultivate a reading culture, reading materials that educate and build our capacity. At every waking hour, we must have a book that is teaching us something. Pay for and attend professional seminars and conferences. And put whatever you learn in such forums into practice. Go for higher formal education, not for the purpose of adding new certificates, though it could be of help, but in equipping yourself for greater responsibility. You want to surpass your achievements? Develop yourself continuously!

Sometimes all we need to surpass our achievements is to present the same thing in a different way. Creativity is an essential ingredient of success. Creativity is the ability to imagine different forms and hue. It is the ability to see the same situation in different light. Creativity is ‘seeing’ beyond what you see. Seeing differently what things could be. Not accepting things only as they are but seeking how they could be.

The most splendid achievement of all is the constant striving to surpass yourself and to be worthy of your own approval – Denis Waitley

Creativity is based on the use of our imagination. A lot of people think they do not have creative ability. Yet they exhibit creativity every day. Most of the time we perceive the aroma of food and we conclude that the food is tasty. This is the work of our imagination. The sense of taste has nothing to do with the sense of smell. Curry and thyme smells good but are tasteless! Everybody has the ability to imagine things but only few people use it intentionally and purposefully. Artists of various genres use their imagination purposefully. Scientist must use a lot of imagination to understand a lot of the concept they research into. In fact, great scientists are known to be great musicians, painters and sculptors.

Everybody can be creative. A businessman can be creative. An administrator, teacher, parent, politician and whoever can be creative. All we need to do is to intentionally imagine things differently from what they are. Set aside time to be alone or disconnect yourself from the world around you in a comfortable place and direct your thought towards a particular object or issue. Write your thought down no matter how foolish they might seem. You will be surprised how differently you’ll see things. Practice creativity in your daily endeavors and you’ll surpass your achievements.

Man is hardly an isolated system. We are affected, influenced and inspired by our environment and the people around us. To some extend our environment and the people we associate with determines our values, focus, inspiration and standards. Your present achievement level is partly based on the type and level of influence you’re receiving from your environment and close associates.

If you must surpass your present achievement level, you must open yourself to greater and better influence. Locate yourself in better environment and associate with people with greater vision, value, inspiration and achievements. As you see these people live at this higher level of achievements, it inspires you to do more. And if some of these higher achievers are leaders, they will invest in you and give you the necessary push you need to get ahead. You must include as part of your associates people that are higher in achievement than you. Don’t be a local champion!

Surpassing your achievements might be a Herculean task but as you begin to practice these principles, you’ll discover that you've grown so much that the hard task has become easy for you. Remember if success is easy everybody will be successful. Roll up your sleeve and let the work begin! 

SOARING HIGH                                                                                                                                        

1. What you look at consistently you grow into. If you must grow, you must be filled with what you want to grow into. Your senses, your mind and your heart must be filled with the image of who you want to become. Stay focused on those who are soaring high and you will continually be upwardly mobile. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3: 18.                                                                               

2. Understand that you are totally dependent on God in your success journey. Don’t allow any level of achievements cut you off from your spiritual growth. There is a great tendency that your achievements will preoccupy you with legitimate activity which can cause you to pay less attention to your fellowship with God. If you allow this to happen, you have just cut off your real source of power for soaring high. Make your spiritual growth the underlying factor for surpassing your achievements. “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase, so then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth but God that giveth the increase.” 1Corinthians 3: 6, 7.                                                                                          

3. Practice generosity. You must think in terms of giving more than receiving more. When your desire to soar high is motivated by the desire to give more, spiritual and moral forces are released to empower you. Motivation to increase through greed eventually destroys and does not bring the positive feelings required to sustain success. As you meditate on surpassing your achievements, think in terms of what you can give more. “There is that scattereth, and yet  increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.” Proverbs 11: 24.