Well, I have some sad news. You may never get that break. Fate will disappoint you as it has millions before you. The good news is you don’t need fate to help you. You just need to follow “the process” to make your dreams come true.
There was a man who spent his life searching for the big break. He was searching for that one get-rich-quick scheme that would change his whole life. He was intelligent, no doubt, and had great ability in more than one area. He did not live a spectacular life. In fact, by most standards he was poor. He could not hold a job for too long either. I can only guess that that was because he felt the process was taking too long and required too much effort. Continue after the cut...
However, when you spoke to him, he was always on the verge of some major breakthrough. He would always talk with great enthusiasm and energy about that one great deal he was about to make that would make him a huge fortune and change his life forever!
Of course, all he needed was some start-up capital to get him along. You could help him out a great deal by lending this to him and, once he made his fortune, he could pay you back in no time. Sounds familiar?
It all sounded very easy and very possible at the time. But years went by with one failed scheme after another. He died a poor man with very little to his name and left nothing for his children to inherit. They were left to struggle through life.
I always wonder what he could have achieved had he not been searching for a quick fix. If he could have committed his time and energy to one thing, consistently worked at it and followed the process of building a good solid business, surely he would have succeeded eventually. With time, he would have made that huge fortune and lived a better life. How different life would be for his children today!
Sad as this story is, it is being replayed in millions of people’s lives throughout the world. They are looking for an easy way out or a shortcut to success. These are people who have not realized that there are no quick fixes to life’s issues. A quick fix by definition is “a remedy that has the benefit of immediate gratification but the drawback of not being very effective.” It can be present in everything we do from our relationships to our health and spirituality.
We wait for that big promotion, that big house, a good family and rich businesses all our lives. What else are we doing about it but waiting? We are waiting for the quick fix. We are waiting for the instant answer that will some day just reveal itself and give us all our desires.
Some people actually do get the answer. They might win the lottery, get an inheritance or get their hard earned pension if they had a good job, which for a lot of people, seems to be the only plan they have of getting rich. It then suddenly seems that their dreams are coming true. Then, as suddenly as it came, it’s all gone. The lesson is that if it did not come through a process but by some quick fix, it will leave the same way.
It is surprising how many think once they get their pension they will start a business and live off the business. Meanwhile, their whole life they have never run a single successful business. Their pension is the quick fix they are looking for. It will solve all their problems.
You have to realize that life is about gradual processes and not quick fixes. Whether you find yourself poor, unhappy, lonely or defeated, there is a process that has led you there. It did not all happen in one day. How then, do you expect to find the answers and reverse the situation in one day or one week?
Before you go out looking for a quick fix or some get-rich-quick scheme, you should know that there are several problems with this approach. The first is that quick fixes are temporary and do not last. Secondly, they do not deal with the underlying problem nor can they satisfy your ultimate aim of living a fulfilled life.
A more serious consequence of quick fixes is that they do not address the underlying problem. In medicine, we call it “symptomatic treatment”. For instance, paracetamol may stop the headache, but it will not cure the malaria. Quick fixes will offer superficial solutions, but the real issues will be overlooked.
The person who is always looking for the easiest way to get something is a person that never matures in character. As a muscle must be strained to the limit for it to get stronger, so your character must be challenged for it to develop. This can only happen if you are willing to grow through the process required for you to achieve your dreams.
It takes time, patience, planning, perseverance and determination, amongst other things. However the effort is well worth it because it will yield to you the ability to surmount any obstacle that comes your way.
It will also help you to appreciate your success more because you will realize that it took a lot for you to get there. It is a sad, but true saying about human nature that we do not appreciate things that come easy. When you are going through the process, success will be even sweeter.
In the words of Louis Binstock: “Too often the shortcut, the line of least resistance, is responsible for evanescent and unsatisfactory success.”
Build your dreams on a solid foundation. Follow the process necessary for you to achieve lasting results.
You are all you can be. Go on and be it!
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