Thursday, June 24, 2010

Finding Success in Life

Everyone wants to be successful in their life. Success is different for everyone, so only you can define it for yourself. It doesn’t matter much what you choose to do in your life. If you want to be good at it, you must spend time learning something about it and how to do it the best.

Do you have the willingness to work hard to reach your goals? Maybe you talk about doing it. Maybe you talk about planning on how to do it. Maybe you don’t even do that. What stops you from doing more? Do you keep running into a wall?

Knowing how to do something well only happens when you struggle to find your way. It doesn’t come from reading someone’s blog. It doesn’t come from listening to a talk. Those things can give guidance, but you need to do the work. The Chinese have a saying: “To learn how to do something, do it 10,000 times.”

Look at your circle of friends. Are they doing interesting things and working hard? Are they partying all night and sleeping all day? Which kind of friend do you think will help you reach your goals?

Surround yourself with your sangha, your virtuous community, of successful, positive people. Ask several of them to help you plan. Talk about your options for the future. Ask for crazy ideas to help you come up with unconventional ways to get things done.

Nasrudin is a character in many tales and parables. He lived in the Middle East many hundreds of years ago. Here is a story about Nasrudin from http://www.unfetteredmind.com/articles/willingness.php

One day, while staying at a friend's house, Nasrudin peered over the wall into the neighbor's yard and saw the most wonderful garden he had ever seen. He noticed an old man patiently weeding a flower-bed and asked, “This is a beautiful garden. I'd like to have one just like it. How do you make a garden like this?”

“Twenty years hard work.”

“Never mind,” said Nasrudin.

Do you want to create a great garden of your life? The time to start is now. Enjoy the journey because it’s a long trip.

© 2010 Eric Borreson

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