Today is the first day sense I’ve started this that I don’t feel like I made a lot of progress over the past week. I do feel like I have made progress, just not a lot. Usually when I sit down to write about my journey through the Success Principles I am excited to share something I just learned.
So I have decided that I should write something here weekly weather I have made great progress or not.
I have been getting up 30 min or an hour before I need to, to work on me, sometimes to meditate and pray, sometimes to exercise, and sometimes to study. That first day was tough, I had quite a discussion with myself that morning with all the reasons why I should stay in bed…
A story that I first heard a few years ago from an entrepreneur who had just made it on to the TV show Shark Tank. I may not tell the story as well as he did but you will understand the message.
The story goes: There was a man who wanted to be successful in his new venture, so far he was not. He knew of a guru that was local, so he met with the guru to ask, what is the secret to success. The guru told him if he really wanted to know, to meet him at the beach the next morning at 5:00 AM. So the man was at the beach at 5:00 AM thinking the secret had to do with getting an early start on your day, or something to do with watching the sun rise. When the man arrived at the beach the next morning at 5:00 AM to his surprise, the guru was out in the water about shoulder deep and calling him to come out into the water. A little confused the man took off his shoes and shirt and took everything out of his pockets and went out into the water to meet the guru. The guru said nothing as the man worked his way out into the deeper water. Just as the man reached the guru, the guru jumped up grabbed the man’s head and held it under the water. At first the man thought this was some kind of a baptism or something, but soon started to panic as he was held under. The man struggled but the guru did not let him up. Soon he was fighting for his life with all his strength and might. When the man finally got free and came up for air, the guru told him “That is the secret”, What! the man yelled. The secret, the guru said, was to want success as badly as you wanted to breathe.
I have heard different versions of this story sense then and I always had the same question. How do I get there? How do I get to the place that I want money, or success, or anything that bad? I may want it, but that bad? I am a very complacent guy, I have pretty much always accepted what I have.
How do I get that drive, that burning desire? I have often thought over the years, if I could figure that out and be able to teach it to others I would be a wealthy man. So I was listening closely as I heard him talk about this as I was listening to the book Think and Grow Rich. This is too simple, I must have not heard it right, he said all you need to do is; concentrate on a desire until it becomes a burning obsession. Could it really be that simple?