By Sodeeq Abdulakeem Sulyman
Whatever will be extraordinary will come at a cost. The ultra successful people understand this, hence they never rest on their oars; they move from one level of accomplishment to another, trying to beat even their own records.” – Suleiman Olanrewaju
One of the beauties of life is that it gives people the opportunities to narrate their stories in a way they choose. That’s why it always seems like only the successful, accomplished or great people are given the platform to tell their stories in a dynamic fashion that fuels other people’s energies and reinvent their life. The fact is that successful people and others of their kind don’t just appear on the screen of success, what differentiates them is the fact that they refuse to give up on working on themselves, their goals.
Oftentimes as you are working on your goals or targets in life, you encounter challenges that may lead to frustrations and complacency, if care is not taken. However, those challenges coming your way are not what you have to settle for, they are what would catapult you to the status, position that will make you settle for the best you can ever earn in life. Steve Maraboli says that “Every step towards your dream today is a step away from your regret tomorrow.”
Many centuries, decades and years in the past were filled with distinguished individuals who have surmounted the hurdles of life to restore other people’s hope, strengthened their courage and be a source of inspiration proving to the world that it can still be done when they are ceaseless in taking the right steps that can elevate them to the realisation of their targets and goals in life.
One of the things great people have understood is to never settle for what life has thrown their way, but to be settled when they get what they want from life. That is why they always approach every day of their life with new approaches and strategies that will fortify them towards becoming the person of their dreams. To great people, it is better to take a step and lose than not take any step and remain a loser.
Steve Jobs remarks that “If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time work.” You would never achieve anything in life with little or below expectation efforts. If you have achieved such before, it may be because you have invested your efforts before which you consider as wasted but later manifested in working in your favour. For the fruit of life will never ripe for those who can’t go beyond normal to demand for their own shares in life.
Sometimes, some people pull themselves down on the ladder of success by discouraging themselves to continuously take steps in regards to their targets and goals. The excuse they mostly give is that they have tried enough and concluded that life is not just fair to them. Have you also resorted to fate? That makes you a victim of your imagination and Meek Mill noted that “Only the limits of your imaginations can determine how far you go in life.” If you have drawn a mental picture that it won’t work as you desire, it will sap your energy and blur your vision from seeing the rewards of your efforts.
Different people were working on the invention of aeroplanes, but those who are ready to go the extra mile got the credit for inventing the aeroplane. Sometimes, you don’t have to worry about how fast you are moving in the direction of your goals, what should be your priority is how you are shifting from your comfort zone, overcoming complacency, defeating idleness and mediocrity that may later affect you from reaching your target and achieving your goals.
As long as you are acting on your target in life, you are championing a cause you can’t assume the rewards you can benefit from it. Plato opines that “For what we have received from our ancestors is only a fraction of what we are, or may become.” Winners are born, champions are made from the actions failed people refused to take and failed people will be left groaning, complaining about everything that is not good stopping them from meeting their targets, which in the end will make them live a poor or bad life, a tragic life that couldn’t ponder on the fraction of their potential their ancestors have bequeathed to them.
