We have all experienced outcomes that are great, good, okay, mediocre, and complete and utter failures. I personally have experienced each of these at different points in my life. People who achieve astounding success have also experienced each of these outcomes. Think of Andrew Carnegie, Oprah Winfrey, J.K. Rowling, Madonna, Martha Stewart, Steven Spielberg, or Bill Gates. These super successful people have had plenty of failures. However, in the areas of their life’s great moments, they achieved astounding success. The relevance is that my list of great moments includes outcomes that are great, but typical. Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey’s are just plain astounding. People who have achieved astounding levels of success do one thing differently; they have a vision and employ pure diligence.
I am sure most people think they understand what diligence is: Repeated effort targeted at a task. However, that is far from what diligence is. Diligence is not chipping away at the leaves in the back yard, studying until wee hours of the morning or working late hours at a job. Diligence is not the same thing as hard work.
During the time I owned rental properties, I had a friend who also owned a string of properties. This friend was constantly running from property to property checking on the progress of the rehab work. Often he would show up on the job only to remember that he had forgotten to bring some necessary painting supplies or other such items. Off he would rush to the other side of town to pick up paint. He would drop the paint off; then get back in his car and proceed to drive to same side of town he picked the paint up to check on a property he was rehabbing over there. His day was consumed with overlapping errands. There was no question that this friend worked hard. He worked long hours every single day nearly seven days a week. However, diligence is not persistently working hard. Diligence is not working long hours or sticking to the task at hand. Diligence is persistently working smart. And to work smart, one must have vision.
When you persistently work smart, it is with a plan or vision in mind. My friend never sat down to plan his day, considered what he wanted to accomplish or take time to plan his success. Since he had no plan he accomplished only a fraction of what he could have. He ended his day feeling overwhelmed and very much like there were not enough hours in the day to finish his work.
It is easy to view this friend as having poor time management skills. We could accuse him of being disorganized. We could even say he is inefficient. What we do not recognize are these same characteristics in ourselves as they are applied over the course of our lifetime. We fail to see how much of our life is an overlap of yesterday. We fail to see how inefficient we are at achieving our goals. And time management? Really, when are you going to get around to living the life you intended? Where he lacked a daily plan, most of us lack a vision for our life! Diligence is not persistently clamoring away at a job. Diligence is not organizational skills or great time management. Diligence is persistently acting upon your vision.
We never succeed at realizing our dreams because we do not act with diligence towards them. We work towards the wrong purpose. Most people have only a vague idea of what they want in life. Like my friend who had only a vague idea of what he wanted to accomplish each day. We want be wealthier, healthier or happier yet we have no real plan of achieving it or exactly what we mean. We hold only an abstract idea that we want more than what we have. Ultimately, we also are consumed by our day. While my friend overlapped many of his errands, our days to some degree are repeats of the one before. So little changes and so little is accomplished when we have no aim. One of my favorite quotes comes from the story of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. I use this reference often in my writing as I think the wisdom is inescapably clear.
"Cheshire-Puss," she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider.
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where---" said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.
"---So long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation.
"Oh you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Martha Stewart, and anyone who has achieved astounding success simply new where they were heading. They had a vision and they worked diligently towards that vision. Remember, diligence means working persistently towards your vision. It does not mean I am a hard worker. Paraphrasing the Cheshire cat, you will arrive somewhere if you walk long enough. The somewhere should be your vision. However, most people do not take the slightest step towards their vision, ever!
If I ask you where you are heading and what your plan is for arriving there, would you know? Or would you answer, I don’t know? The sad truth is most people do not know where they are heading because they believe life happens to them. They do not take aim because they believe attempts are futile. Why bother! Why work diligently towards matters unobtainable!
I was reading recently that diligence runs contrary to human nature. The article stated that people are content to take the path of least resistance. It said that we want instant gratification. We do accuse ourselves of such mediocrity often.
However, what is the path of least resistance? The path of least resistance is what you are doing now! And it takes a whole lot of effort. You have an entire belief system structured to hold your now moment in place. You are in active attraction. Change requires effort too. A whole lot of change requires a whole lot of effort. After all you are trying to uproot a belief system.
Change will not occur until you (1) believe in a vision and (2) work towards that vision diligently. Diligence is work away from what you have and towards what you want. That is what Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart and all others did. They plow horsed their way from point A to point B. Vision gave them aim. Diligence, which we said is action aimed at your vision, is what got them there. Vision is mental work. Diligence is persistent action aimed at your vision. The two combined turn you into an unstoppable force.
HOW YOU ACQUIRE VISION
Vision is your ideal image of you. I talked in depth about ideals in section #32 Living the Ideal Life, #33 Ideals Uncertainty and Problems that arise, #34 Creating your Ideals, and #35 Your Ideals, other People and Your Fears. You acquire vision by holding an unrestricted view of who or what it is you want to be. Your vision should be audacious! It should be extraordinary without compromise.
Once this vision of you is firmly cemented in the conscious mind, specific goals should be set. Goals are chunked down into steps. Steps are assigned tasks. What is the result? By following the tasks, you are sure to complete the steps. Once the steps are followed, your goal is reached. Upon completion of your goals your vision arrives. Reaching our vision is impossible when we neglect or refuse the process. Achieving your vision is absolutely inevitable when the process is followed.
I volunteer at my children’s elementary school. Every other Friday, I sit in the hall and work individually with first graders learning to read. As these blossoming readers struggle with a word, my job is to help them figure out the word. Compound words like baseball, cannot, sunflower, lifetime or fireworks are intimidating to these first graders. I can actually tell by the expression on their young faces that they have no idea how to tackle the word. However, I rarely have to tell them the word. Often it is only a matter of chunking it down. I cover up base and let them read ball. I then cover up ball and let them figure out the word base. They inevitably scream, “Baseball!” You arrive at your vision in much the same matter by chunking it down. Inevitably, you will arrive.
The conscious mind and the Universal Mind always provide for us in exact correlation to the thoughts and beliefs channeled through their gateway. Therefore, you must channel greater thoughts of your vision and restrict the entrance of status quo. Without fail, every super successful person has held strongly to a self-created vision supported by thoughts and beliefs propelled by diligent action.
Reality is materialized from our strongest thoughts and beliefs. The consistency that we see or status quo is not the path of least resistance. It is the epicenter of our greatest strength. Diligence is not against human nature. It is a part of human nature, albeit employed in the wrong direction most often; that is towards status quo. As you create a vision and consciously direct your thoughts towards that vision taking diligent action, your reality has to follow. It has absolutely no other choice. It is a Universal Law that you experience what you believe. Therefore, your vision must follow thought and action, thought and action, thought and action!
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