The Path To Success

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

I found this to be truly amazing the other night as my wife and I were watching one of a series of shows entitled Touched By An Angel for I was looking to convey a message that is essential to true success. Actress Della Reese, in her script said the following: “You’ll never know what can happen, until you open yourself to new possibilities.”

I honestly believe so many of us fail to achieve our true potential, merely because we adapt someone else’s path to success and not our own. By committing yourself to studying and understanding “the bigger picture” of life, you can appreciate and commit yourself to carving your own path to success.

As an example, let’s look at a simple aspect of life so many fail to appreciate. What is the difference between taking a risk and taking a chance? Let’s begin with taking a chance. Consider the flip of a coin. “Heads I win, tails you lose!” Yeah, we all wish it were that way, because no one wants to lose and when we do, we tend to abandon whatever it is we are doing. Often a major mistake here, is not realizing that without a heads and a tail, you don’t have a real coin, therefore you couldn’t possibly win.

Okay now let’s take a look at taking a risk as opposed to taking a chance. What is it that distinguishes risk taking from merely taking a chance? Very simple, a proper risk is calculated. So what does that mean? Quite simply that as we study the challenge before us we learn that failure could indeed be a part of our reality. But the truly success oriented people don’t give up and stop here. They look at that failure as a true learning asset, which can be employed to refine the solution they are looking for. They don’t give up on themselves, but it doesn’t end there either.

In subsequent articles I’ll explore that approach in greater depth, but here and now I believe it is essential to understand how we are frequently restricted, by our past. Do you know what self-esteem is? Please bear with me as we explore that. It is essential confidence in your own worth or value as an individual person. Let’s begin with paradigms. A paradigm serves as a pattern or model for something, especially one that forms the basis of our thought patterns.

Please also understand that I mean no disrespect to anyone here; not your parents, family members, religious upbringing, nor your education. However, there is no doubt that within those relationships, your learning was limited and/or restricted. This goes back to the article I published prior to this concerning change.

For you to be truly successful, you want to reshape your self-esteem, so that it is not susceptible to negative paradigms (in this case what you have learned from others), thoughts of lack, fear, doubts, failure, stress, worries or concerns, which you yourself have actually  experienced in the past. As the old saying goes, “Let bygones be bygones.”

Be sure and keep something else in mind, and that is the fact that quite often when facing a challenge, we tend to simply want to fix something. You must realize that it is time to replace whatever it might be, due to the true nature of change and the needs within the area, position, or portion of thought that occupy your thinking.

And finally; “Certain thoughts invite certain behavior, and consequently certain reaction, from the surrounding world. This is the secret of change and improvement. Change the inner world (your thoughts), and you change the outer world (what shows up in your life). Whatever happens in the inner world has its effect on the outer world.” –from Visualize and Achieve by Remez Sasson