WORK TOWARDS YOUR GOAL

"To get profit without risk, experience without danger, and reward without work, is as impossible as it is to live without being born," wrote A.P. Gouthey. Every person who has attained something worthwhile has worked for that goal.
Cary Grant said, "I do believe that people can do practically anything they set out to do if they apply themselves diligently and learn."
Which path is the right way towards your goal? Do you need more education? Do you need a few years experience in your field of business? Maybe you need a teacher or guide to help you practice.
"I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached, as by the obstacles which are overcome while trying to succeed," wrote Booker T. Washington.
What obstacles are in your way? Consider them as easy to pass through as hurdles are to a champion runner. Take each obstacle as a special challenge placed especially for you. Approach it with intelligence and courage, then learn what it has to teach.
"Success is a journey," said Ben Sweetland, "not a destination." For some, the process of attainment is the attainment itself. They move on, keep growing and expanding. There is no still water at the top.
"The message from the moon is that no problem need any longer be considered insoluble," wrote Norman Cousins. And you can attain anything that seems impossible.
If you have a problem that needs to be solved, sit calmly and consider it with a clear mind. Observe all the consequences of the actions - both good and bad. Ponder the paths and actions and contemplate the core of the problem. The solution will appear.
"Ask and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you for everyone who asketh, receiveth. He that seeketh, findeth and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened."
Tap the inner self and encourage positive actions. With each outgoing breath, release the impossible; at each incoming breath, inhale the attainable. Demand the best of yourself, but don't despair from an overused sense of perfection.
What can you learn? And who can teach you? Can you attend classes and seminars from universities near home? Check out books from the libraries and absorb the material. Find a master and become an apprentice.
"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty," said Henry Ford. "Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young."
Never stop learning; never stop growing and expanding as a person and in your personal endeavor.
ASK YOURSELF
As you consider the success you desire, you need to affirm its possibilities and develop the self-confidence necessary to attain the goals. Learn to do things well. "If you know how to do one thing well, you can do everything," wrote the philosopher Gurdjieff.
Are you ready for success?
Is what you are doing now helping you to achieve your goals?
Do you weigh the consequences before making a decision?
Is this the best use of your time?
Do you cooperate with everyone and help cultivate their best potentials?Are you warm and sincere?
Do you have the courage to succeed?
Do you have the self-discipline necessary to achieve your goals?
Do you have a realistic sense of self-worth?
Do you give more than you take?
Do you have the courage to fail, and then pick up and try again?
Can you assume responsibility without blaming others if things go wrong?
Are you strong?
Can you be sympathetic to life and its sufferings?
Can you say no?
Will you follow your convictions and plans to achieve?
Do you sincerely want to achieve the goals you have chosen?
TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
"The price of greatness is responsibility," wrote Winston Churchill. Are you willing to take the responsibility once you attain the success you desire?
"The deepest personal defeat suffered by human beings is constituted by the difference between what one was capable of becoming and what one has in fact become," wrote Ashley Montague. And the greatest tragedy is to become less than your full potential, using less than the abilities you have to work with.
Are you waiting for something to happen? Maybe you're waiting for a job offer, or a promotion. Perhaps you're waiting until you get good enough at a craft or skill. Or are you waiting for the inspiration of creativity to strike your life?
It is up to you to take the actions and be responsible for their consequences. "Our responsibility: every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty," wrote John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
Inspire yourself. Read books that will spurn you to action; talk to people who have the vitality you admire. How would you like to lead your life? And make the changes necessary to be like that. "There is nothing permanent except change," wrote Heraclitus. What changes do you want to make? What are you waiting for?
ACCOMPLISHMENT
What actions will take you closer to your goals? Decide upon the steps and write them down. Review them until you feel comfortable with those steps. Then repeat them at least once a day, crossing them off as you accomplish them.
"I believe there is no escape from the rule that we must do many, many little things to accomplish even just one big thing," said James Dupont. "This gives me patience when I need it most."
The most rewarding accomplishments are those that take long to achieve and present difficulties. It is only through these difficulties that a person can rise above the rest to be the unusual, the outspoken and the well-deserved.
As if building a kit, follow your own instructions. Decide your best courses of action and achieve their benefits. Whether the steps are small or large, make them achievable and then do them. Don't commit yourself to things that you never intend to do.
"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there," said Will Rogers. Don't be paralyzed by inaction; rather act upon your own convictions.
Set yourself up for rewards. Don't give yourself goals that have no feeling of satisfaction or no monetary rewards. If you want to be an artist, be the best and learn from the best. Don't dwell on imperfections or the awkwardness of unpolished skills.
If you go into business, do it for profit or reinvestment. "In business, the earning of profit is something more than an incident of success. It is an essential condition of success. Because the continued absence of profit itself spells failure," said Justice Brandeis.
Marchant wrote, "To be a success in business, be daring, be first, be different." Think of ways to achieve the best; formulas to increase productivity or decrease overhead. Profit is your drive.
"Profitability is the sovereign criterion of the enterprise," wrote Peter Drucker. And, profitability is the core of any achievement - whether financial or artistic.
Once you achieve your goals, think of ways to benefit others. "Money-getters are the benefactors of our race," said P.T. Barnum. "To them we are indebted for our institutions of learning, and of art, our academies, colleges and churches." How can you benefit humankind and still keep enough to fulfill your own desires?
THE HIDDEN ASSET
Not all success can be counted in dollars; not all richness is measured by money. "The great secret of success is to go through life as a person who never gets used up," said Albert Schweitzer. "Retire upon yourself and look for the ultimate cause of things inside you."
Look within yourself for the ultimate inspiration, and follow the true feelings you discover. "One of my favorite methods is to whisper," said Alfred Hitchcock. "I've discovered the best work is done with sweet reason."
Act upon your own conscience -that guides; that judges your actions and signals your behavior. "Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone may be looking," wrote H.L. Mencken.
Accomplish what you desire; fulfill your inner yearnings. But don't compromise your deepest feelings.
"We do our best that we know how at the moment, and if it doesn't turn out, we modify it," said F.D. Roosevelt.
Follow the paths that life offers you and live the fullest existence you can.
TAKE A LOOK
Look at yourself and look at those who have succeeded throughout history. Do you have what it takes? Even if you have only a few of the qualities of the other great people, you can achieve your heart's desire.
Reach for the highest, then reach higher. Accomplish your steps one by one on a daily basis, always moving forward, always making progress. Encourage yourself. Insist that you can succeed and affirm these thoughts daily.
Keep a sense of proportion and judge for yourself. Then keep busy at the tasks you've set out to accomplish. What's keeping you? "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration," said Albert Einstein.
Find inspiration wherever you can. Talk to people; read about people; learn your business or craft. Believe that you can do it and you will. The only way to dispel the doubt that you can do something is to finish it.
Always be the best you can be. Never fall short from fatigue or lethargy. Don't attempt to do anything that you can't give your all to.
There is no way to inner satisfaction without appealing to the higher consciousness. Search within and without to find the paths that are meant for you and follow them with conviction and a steady heart. And, you will succeed to become as rich and full as you ever desired.
Harold Ickes wanted the "freedom to live one's life with the window of the soul open to new thoughts, new ideas and new aspirations."
And Woody Allen looked for a clear path. "If only God would give me some clear sign" he said. "Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank."
Finally, Sophie Tucker sums up everyone's worldly outlook: "I've been rich and I've been poor," she said. "Rich is better."