JUST DO IT: How Taking 'That' Step Can Turn You Into A Success.

Still life of the first electric light bulb, invented by Thomas Alva Edison in 1879 and patented on January 27, 1880

 

 

A couple of years ago , I read an interview of a certain celebrity. She said that her life dared to change for the better because as a teenager she came to the realization of what she wanted in life and took a bold decision without being ready for the consequences of such a decision. She left her village for far away Lagos without any qualification or immediate family in Lagos, simply because she had a dream.

Today, she is a graduate of University of Lagos and a known actress, far from the poverty and limitations of her family and village. She has become the light of her family and an inspiration to other ambitious young girls.

She could have stayed back in the village and perhaps convinced herself that being from an indigent home she didn’t stand a chance, or that it was God’s design for her to be contented with the life her parents could give her. She could have waited for the perfect opportunity or circumstance (which probably would never come), but she just did it, she broke free in pursuit of her dreams. It must have been a difficult and perhaps an unbearable journey, but she survived and dare to live her dreams.

Stories abound of successful men and women who are what and where they are today because they took that first step to achieving their dreams, they just did it.

 

A lot of people have dreams, but how many actually go out and dare to live it? There’s always uncertainty or fear of failure. But it is better to try and fail than not to try at all, that way you will not be haunted by thoughts of whether you would have succeeded or not. You will know the limits of your ability and work to develop your capacity. It is not the number of times you fail but the times you get up and try again that really matter. Thomas J. Watson, founder of IBM, once told a young entrepreneur who quizzed him “if you want to be successful faster, you must double your rate of failure. Success lies on the far side of failure.”

The thing is, there may never be a perfect setting or platform for that dream of yours to take off. So I say, take the first step and if you are passionate, diligent and consistent, if you persevere and are determine, many other needed things will fall in place and take you to the next level. Whenever you are faced with a risky situation, ask yourself this question “what is the worst possible thing that can happen if I go ahead?” then do as J. Paul Getty, the self-made oil billionaire suggested; go ahead and then work to make sure that whatever it is you fear will happen, doesn’t happen.

 Just do it;

• start writing that book, write the first word.
• Come on, lose that weight, get up and exercise and start eating healthy foods.
• Start a business, no matter where you are or what you have.
•  Pick that form, enroll and start that school,
• stop wondering about lack of time or money, because you never can tell where help will come from once you are set on doing a thing. For once, think of the joy of achieving that dream and not the limitations you may face.
• Quit that toxin relationship, learn from your mistakes and work on being and  meeting a better person.
• Start building on that land with what you have and watch it metamorphose into your dream house.
• Get up right now and go to the hospital, do not allow fear of an unknown disease keep you from having that medical test or examination, because that single act could save your life.
• etc.etc.

Do you desire to be a better person; father, mother, child, worker, leader, etc.? It all begins with one needed act in the right direction. Be it an act of love, forgiveness, loyalty, accountability, faith, etc. You have waited and feared for too long, whatever you have to do, just do it. According to the words of Ralph Waldo “make a habit throughout your life of doing the thing you fear. If you do the thing you fear, the death of fear is certain.”

If you do not succeed the first or even third time, at least, you would have learnt of two or more ways of not doing that particular thing. This is said of Thomas Edison, who failed a record one hundred times before he succeeded in the invention of electric light bulb that we use yoday. To him it wasn’t failure but a lesson, because he discovered 100 ways a bulb cannot be made. Such perseverance is worth applauding and emulating. Abraham Lincoln of the USA contested for the presidency several times before he won and became the number one citizen. General Mohammadu Buhari of Nigeria won the Aso rock seat on his fourth running for president. Success lies on the far side of failure.

I leave you with the words of Teddy Roosevelt, former USA president. “far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs,(even though checkered by failure), than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat”. 

Dare to do it. Just do it.  

 

Do Have A Lovely Weekend. Feel free to share your thoughts here & always.

Lights n Warmth             

-Aitee