Good To GreatSample

Achieve Success in Bits and Pieces

“Fact is we exaggerate yesterday, we overestimate tomorrow, and we underestimate today: People create success in their lives by focussing on today” – Equip

I generally write down my sermon notes in a notebook before typing it in. Printed on its cover is a powerful statement which reads, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life”. It is absolutely true. Today is not only the first day, but it is the best day of your life; it is that big opportunity you have been waiting for, and it is the only day on which you can do something. Truth is, it is too late for yesterday, yesterday is gone. You can’t depend on tomorrow, you don’t know what tomorrow holds. Therefore, you are left with Today, and what you do with today matters the most. The way you choose to invest your time today directly affects your tomorrow. We will be able to make use of today effectively when we change our perspectives.

Look at the Wiseman as he comments on life and today, “After looking at the way things are on this earth, here’s what I’ve decided is the best way to live: Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life. And that’s about it. That’s the human lot. Yes, we should make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what’s given and delighting in the work. It’s God’s gift! God deals out joy in the present, the now. It’s useless to brood over how long we might live.” (Ecc. 5:18-20 MSG)

“Fact is we exaggerate yesterday, we overestimate tomorrow, and we underestimate today: People create success in their lives by focusing on today” – Equip

We generally have a faulty view of success, and that leads to under-utilization of today. We believe success is impossible, or that it is luck or we associate it with hard work and attaining power, or we strive to achieve it through connections and recognitions and we fall flat on our faces. Some may have created some sensation following those ideas, but eventually, all the hype will die down in the true light. Some of us have a slogan, which we repeat our entire life– “If Only…”

What we need to understand is that Success is relative. It is different for each person. You cannot live someone else’s glory. All of us cannot become Abraham Lincoln or Abdul Kalam. For someone, giving up a well-paying job and pursuing filmmaking is a success; even if the first film fails. For another, walking onto the stage in front of an audience of five colleagues and delivering a five-minute introduction about himself is a success. For a chronic smoker, spending an entire day with a single smoke is a success. For someone who is extremely shy, even asking a girl her name is a success. Success depends on what each person achieves day in and day out. Paul challenges the Ephesians to do the same, making most of every opportunity. (Eph. 5:16)

The secret behind many successful people is that they choose to live one day at a time. Instead of waiting for tomorrow’s big opportunity, and sitting in their cosy couch today, they choose to achieve something each day and look forward to the next day. Something marvellous takes place with these kinds of people. Every day, success in small scales, in bits and pieces gets accumulated in their lives. Today’s success adds up to what that person achieves tomorrow, and the chain continues, till one day the culmination of all these would spell a Mahinder Singh Dhoni or Amartya Sen or YOU.

We suffer from destination disease. We convince ourselves that if we are supposed to be successful, then we will be. No, we are dead wrong.  We need to wake up and make choices today. Making the right decisions and managing them daily is the formula for success. Success is on our daily agenda. Someone said, “Never postpone what you can do today to tomorrow. Chances are tomorrow never arrives.” If we can choose to develop a perspective that says, ‘I will achieve the best I can today and then wait for tomorrow’, we will make a difference in and through our lives. You can then attain what you have been dreaming all along.