room with a priceless treasure but not having the energy to cross the floor to get it. It’s that ridiculous. Success is just sitting there waiting for you. Who cares whether or not you “feel like” going for it? If you wait around to be in the right mood, someone else will steal your opportunity while you’re putting off achievement.
As the quote suggests, you may be standing in front of a huge stack of firewood. Without a spark it doesn’t have much of a chance to turn into a roaring fire. It doesn’t matter how talented you are; you have to follow ability with hard work. So get out there and stack up that kindling —and then light the match. You can turn opportunity into a blazing fire in a very short time if you are willing to do the work.
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Everyone has ability. We have that in common. If you want to be uncommon, you have to find a great way to use your ability. Are you starting to formulate some good ideas on how you can do that?
List your abilities again in your journal. Look over your list and let yourself be a little smug. You are one cool individual. Are you ready to turn your ability into success? Scoop up those abilities and put them to work. Are you good with numbers? How can you capitalize on that talent? Are you artistic? What can you do to build on your artistic nature and come up with something really unique? Do you excel in the sciences? How can you get into a position where you have more of a chance to pursue your talents in that area?
You understand by now that it is not good enough simply to be talented. You need follow-through to make this work. No one can tell you exactly what route to take to reach success. You have to find your own opportunities.
Singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist Stevie Wonder has been blind since birth, but he has not centered his life on his physical challenges. He recognized that he had talent as a musician at a very early age, and by the time he was eleven years old he signed his first contract with Motown Records. Now he boasts a pile of top-ten hits and awards that reflect his success. Stevie Wonder knew how to use his ability. He followed through by working hard to expose his talents to their full extent, and now he is without question a success. There is nothing stopping you from doing the exactly the same.
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If you are suffering from a feeling of inferiority in the smarts department, don’t worry about it. It won’t keep you from achieving your dreams. You have a weapon, and that is hard work. You don’t have to be brilliant to be successful. History is littered with people who had mediocre talents but excelled through their extraordinary ability to outwork everyone around them.
Do you know what this means? (This may be unfortunate if you have a lazy side.) You have no excuse not to be a success. You deserve to achieve your dreams every bit as much as anyone else. It all comes back to effort. Are you willing to put in the effort you need in order to achieve success?
Woody Hayes was right. You can have a lot of fun with life when you start believing that you deserve success. When you believe that all you need to do is outwork those around you to get ahead, you no longer spend your time worrying if it’s going to happen. Instead you start planning for when it’s going to happen. When a competitor scoffs at your talents, just smile and keep on working. You will come out the winner no matter what they think of you. This is a life-long race, and you’ve got plenty of time to make up the distance.
What can you change in your routine to increase your efforts to achieve success?
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A key element of success is to always be open to opportunities to learn and grow. You will never know it all, no matter how old you are or how successful you become. In fact, you should continually seek out opportunities to learn new things. A new prospect for success can be unearthed just about anywhere, so get out your shovel and