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It’s always difficult to start something new. It’s usually only when we’re forced into it that we do it, like getting a new job or new responsibilities at work. Unfortunately though, one of the main requirements to getting ahead in life is starting new good habits. Remember that everything we have and earned today is because of everything we’ve done so far.
One main reason why it’s difficult to start something new is because we are creatures of habit. We’re almost always very busy with all the chores and “stuff” we do every day. There’s also the fact that we usually can’t see a future that’s significantly better than what we have today. Think about it, a worker earning $300 a month can’t possibly dream of earning millions a day, right? But it’s possible (many workers-turned-entrepreneurs/executives have done it), and it’s looking at the possibilities that allow people to try for them and achieve more.
Getting Ahead in Life
There’s a very famous self-help book written by Og Mandino called The Greatest Salesman in the World. That book is NOT just for salespeople wanting to earn more. It’s a self-help and self-improvement book all the way. There’s one lesson that caught my attention in the chapter titled “the scroll marked I” and here are a few excerpts:
“Today I begin a new life…
To create the olive, king of all trees, a hundred years is required. An onion plant is old in nine weeks. I have lived as an onion plant. It has not pleased me. Now I wouldst become the greatest of olive trees and, in truth, the greatest of salesmen…
I will commence my journey unencumbered with either the weight of unnecessary knowledge or the handicap of meaningless experience…
Today my old skin has become as dust. I will walk tall among men and they will know me not, for today I am a new man, with a new life.”
Give up the old and useless habits you’ve learned and replace them with ones that can change you into a better person. That’s the difference between the hard worker who gets the promotions… and the thief who tries to steal wallets every day.
The lesson I want you to learn, however, is this:
You are different from whoever you are yesterday and you don’t NEED to stay at your level of success or failure. You don’t HAVE to stay poor, ignorant, or unsuccessful.
You are NOT limited by your state of birth, your grades in high school or college, your past careers or businesses, or anything else. While they may determine the obstacles you’ll face and how hard you’ll need to work to get through them, they will NOT determine your future level of success.
Where there is no vision, the people perish. — Proverbs 29:18 KJV
In the middle ages, people lived in huts and people traveled with horses. Nobody ever saw a skyscraper or an airplane back then, but did that stop them? No. Some people had a vision for the future and they invented everything that we have today, like lightbulbs and computers, airplanes and the internet. People saw BEYOND what they had at that time and THEN they built the future.
That goes for you too. Can you see a future greater than what you have now?
Don’t forget this lesson: You can ALWAYS create a better destiny for yourself, your family, your loved ones, and the world. All you need to do is start. Tomorrow will come soon enough, and you’ll be glad you did.
Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start. — Nido Qubein