He had been brought up on the popular belief that the secret of success was hard work, but he had seen so many people work hard without succeeding and so many people succeed without working hard that he had become convinced that hard work was not the real secret even though in most cases it might be one of the requirements. And so he set out on a voyage of discovery which carried him through the biographies of successful people and all sorts of dissertations on success until he finally reached the conclusion that the secret he was trying to discover lay not only in just what people did, but also in what made them do it.
The things that failures don’t like to do are the very things that you and other human beings, including successful people, naturally don’t like to do. Have you have wondered why it seems that most successful people like to do the things that unsuccessful people don’t like to do? They don’t! So why do successful people do them? Because they know that by doing the things they don’t like to do, they can accomplish the things they want to achieve. Successful people have developed a purpose strong enough to make them form the habit of doing things they don’t like to do in order to accomplish their purpose. Habits are paramount in understanding the common denominator of success. Every single qualification for success is acquired through habit. People form habits and habits form futures. If you do not deliberately form good habits, then unconsciously you will form bad ones. You are the product of your habits.
Resolutions or decision are worthless until you have formed the habit of making and keeping them. As you focus your efforts on keeping your personal commitments each day, the time will come when you will wake up one morning a different person in a different world. The resolution or decision has become a habit and the decision doesn’t need to be made any more. The reason for seeming like a different person living in a different world lies in the fact that for the first time in your life, you have become master of yourself, and master of your likes and dislikes through surrendering to your purpose. In the final analysis, your future is not going to depend on economic conditions or outside influences or circumstances in which you have no control. Your future is going to depend on the strength of your purpose in life.
Let me share the story of a young man who discovered this principle. Bob had a definite purpose in life and it was definitely a sentimental and emotional purpose. He wanted his son to go through college without having to work his way through as he had done. He wanted to avoid for his little girl the hardships, which his own sister had to face in her childhood. Bob wanted his wife and the mother of his children to enjoy the luxuries and comforts, and even the necessities, which had been denied his own mother. To achieve this end, he was willing to commit to forming the habits of doing things he didn’t like to do in order to accomplish his purpose. Bob realized that the more he was willing to do for his wife and children, the more he could actually do for himself. He had surrendered himself to his purpose and by so doing, was able to achieve his desires.
For as long as you live, don’t ever forget that while you may succeed beyond your wildest dreams, you will never succeed beyond the purpose to which you are willing to surrender. Furthermore, your surrender will not be complete until you have formed the habit of doing the things that failures don’t like to do.
“The common denominator of success–the secret of success of every person who has ever been successful–lies in the fact that they formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.”
– Albert E. N. Gray
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