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Acceptance and Accountability
By Chuck Gallozzi
Do you steer by the light of the stars or the lights of each passing
ship?
 How
good a seafarer are you? Are you the captain of your destiny or is
your ship adrift in the sea of life? Have you carefully charted your
course or are you aimlessly following others? No wind can help the
ship that is bound for nowhere. And at the end of your voyage, you
wont be asked about the storms you encountered, but whether or not
you reached your destination. If you're unclear about where your
ship is heading, don't panic; there's still time to refer to the map
in the Captains Quarters (your mind). To navigate your way, you will
need the help of your shipmates: acceptance, accountability,
aspiration, attitude, aim, action, and achievement.
Acceptance and Accountability
Most of us are
damaged goods. Imperfect parents raised us and flawed teachers
educated us. Malicious peers taunted us. Were badly bruised and
still in pain. Our trauma is holding us back, preventing us from
reaching our potential. Our first step on the path to success is to
stop blaming others and our circumstances. We cannot change the
past, so we have to ACCEPT it and work with what we have. And what
we have is infinite potential!
There's no point in blaming
our circumstances or others for our lack of success because blame
doesn't advance us. We cannot control others or events; we can only
control our own thoughts and actions. So it is time to assume
ACCOUNTABILITY, to take responsibility for our own success. For as
Anne Byrhhe wrote, Every action we take, everything we do, is either
a victory or defeat in the struggle to become what we want to be.
We have enormous power within our grasp. It is expressed by the
choices we make. Consider the powerful poem of Edgar A. Guest,
You are the person who has to decide.
Whether you will do
it or toss it aside;
You are the person who makes up your
mind.
Whether you will lead or will linger behind.
Whether you will try for the goal that's afar.
Or just be
contented to stay where you are.
Aspiration and attitude
ASPIRATION, or
ambition, is the desire to improve your life. I'm sure you agree
with C. Archie Danielson who said, Intelligence without ambition is
a bird without wings. Aspiration is like taking a deep breath and
optimistically jumping into the adventure of life. Aspiration stokes
the fire of enthusiasm. When you want to succeed, you get excited
about preparing for success. Acceptance, accountability, aspiration,
enthusiasm, and optimism fuse to form the ATTITUDE of success.
Aim, action, achievement
Now that you are
fired up to embark on your journey to success, you are ready to set
your AIM. You are ready to focus on a goal. As you do so, life
becomes worthwhile, for as Maxwell Maltz wrote, People who say that
life is not worthwhile are really saying that they themselves have
no personal goals which are worthwhile. Get yourself a goal worth
working for. Better still, get yourself a project. Always have
something ahead of you to look forward to -- to work for and hope
for.
When choosing a goal, always pick one that will make you
stretch. Place your goal out of reach, but never out of sight. It
should be worthwhile and difficult so you will grow. But at the same
time it must be achievable. An unrealistic goal can discourage you
and hurt your progress.
It is important to write down your
goals. Also, state them in positive terms. For example, if you want
to stop smoking, don't write I will stop smoking. Don'tt focus on
the negative behavior you want to eliminate, but on the positive
behavior you want to begin. So, you can write it as I am now leading
a healthy lifestyle. I eat nutritional meals and exercise. Focus on
the new you, not the old you. When writing your goals use the
present tense (I am), not the future (I will), unless you have a
specific date in mind. The reason for these considerations is
because as you focus on your goals they will sink into your
subconscious mind, which is a goal-seeking mechanism. It will
automatically seek to achieve the images before it. So don't feed it
pictures of the old you, just the new you. And let it know that this
is not a plan that will begin at some vague date in the future (I
will), but now (I am).
You also need to set a deadline for
your goal, for instance, I will finish my school report by August
16, 1999. For best results, make your goal as specific as possible:
I will have a bibliography of at least 17 sources, use at least 25
quotations, have a table of Contents, section headings, and write 25
pages or more in my school report, which I will finish by August 17,
1999. Can you see the difference it makes? So can your subconscious
mind! Also, when you go into such detail, you are making your goal
measurable. On August 17th, all you have to do is count the number
of sources, quotations, and pages to see how successful you were at
achieving your goal.
Once you have set your goal, it is time
to break it into small tasks that you can easily do and schedule.
Returning to our example, you can schedule one day to get your
quotations, three days to do research and build your bibliography,
one day to work on an outline (which will become your Table of
Contents), and so on. These tasks, or ACTION steps are your keys to
success, your road map to your goal. Discover, as Alexis Carrel did
that Life leaps like a geyser for those who drill through the rock
of inertia.
Finally, as you work on your plan for success,
continually monitor your progress, analyze your obstacles, and
adjust your plan so even if you change your route, you will remain
on target. The result? ACHIEVEMENT, or accomplishment! People may
doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do, so lets start
planning our new life today. Look out world, here we come!
Chuck Gallozzi
http://www.personal-development.com/chuck
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