A Matter of Perspective

I started writing this article four years ago! Wow! I still don’t know why I stopped writing it. It looks like it would have been a good one! Well, with new eyes and a new ambition, I will now finish it. I bet it will be quite a bit different than it would have been four years ago! (Yes, I use a lot of “!” points! I am just so excited about everything right now!)

So on with the show . . .

If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes. ~ Andrew Carnegie

Actually, when I saw the beginning of the above quote, a song popped into my head. It goes like this:

“If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, never make a pretty woman your wife. So from my personal point of view, get an ugly girl to marry you.”

You know what is funny about this? When I read the Carnegie quote again, now four years later, the same phrase of that song came to my mind!

FOCUS...

My brain jumps around a lot. One moment it is focused and the next moment I am noticing every squirrel that bounces around my yard.

When I worked in the mental health field, I worked with clients who had similar problems. Back then it was one of the forms of manic/depression. I do believe I have a form of it, but not usually to the extent that I saw in my clients.

But I digress... back to FOCUS!

It’s hard for me to have focus because of the squirrel sighting syndrome, but without it success will be nothing short of a miracle.

Having focus to achieve your goals is paramount (now that is an AI word for sure, but I actually dug that one out of my own brain).

If we don’t put FOCUS as a priority, it can be very difficult to achieve anything.

Nothing can stop the man (come on Tom, what about women?) with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. ~Thomas Jefferson

What a true statement. With the correct mental attitude we can not be kept from achieving our goals. It might mean changing things around from time to time, but we can do it. It has been proven over and over again.

But achieving your goal is probably not going to roll over and let you scratch its belly. You are going to have to work for it, earn trust and show value for your goals to be met.

The importance of having goals . . .

It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach. ~Benjamin E. Mays

Woe to those without a goal. Or maybe a goal without a plan is more accurate. Without a plan to see a goal through, it’s just a couple of posts with a net. Or maybe no net at all!

While the goal is important, a plan of how to reach the goal is even more important.

Planning might include:

• When to do certain tasks to achieve your goal

• Listing the things you need to do to achieve your goal so you know when you have achieved it

• And the list goes on

There are a lot more things to consider, but those might be a few to get you started. 

What you can become . . .

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. ~Zig Ziglar

Imagine being your own boss. Imagine being an influencer or a YouTube sensation. These are all things you could become. 

A better parent, a better doctor or nurse, a better garbage hauler, a better ____________ (fill in the blank).

But again, you must put in the work. Very few people—mainly scammers—will make money without much effort. And guess what, scammers seldom become anything more than scammers!

I will end this post with these two quotes from some of the late greats!

All successful people have a goal. No one can get anywhere unless he knows where he wants to go and what he wants to be or do. ~Norman Vincent Peale

Goals. There’s no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There’s no telling what you can do when you believe in them. And there’s no telling what will happen when you act upon them. ~Jim Rohn

Until next time, I hope you are inspired to greatness!