Choose to Take the Journey

As long as you are alive, your potential is essentially unlimited.

Do attributes like looks, height, IQ, talent, or family background matter? For the sake of argument, let’s just say that they do. So what?! Does that mean that if the deck is stacked against you, you are going to just give up, roll over, and die?

NO.

Let me ask you a question. Does your life as it now stands reflect your full potential, or are you capable of more? In fact, at any point in your life if I ask you that same question, your answer should always be that you are capable of more. You can always add (or remove) one more element from your life to make it even better. So though theoretically your potential might be limited, for all intents and practical purposes, it is unlimited, as long as you are alive.

So the real question is, what do you think you deserve?

Because, whatever you think you deserve is roughly what the world will allow you to have. Your sense of deservedness translates into proportionate action. Those actions produce results, which feedback to increase your level of deservedness.

More action equals more results. Of course you will need to periodically take a step back to make sure those are the results you actually want and to make big-picture adjustments as needed, but that doesn’t change the fact that more action equals more results. Yet most people don’t take very much action at all. There is a key distinction between the many who fail to take action and the few who take consistent and persistent action that will eventually transform their dreams into physical reality. It is their feelings of deservedness. If you knew that you had to succeed at something because that is what you deserve, you would never fail to act. Excuses for failure would become reasons to succeed. Instead of wallowing in memories of defeat, you would reminisce in remembrances of glory. Rather than complaining about problems, you would just shut up already, and find a solution.

So the question becomes, how do you increase your level of deservedness?

1. First of all, focus on the success you already have. As you look back at your life, no matter who you are, notice that you have already achieved many successes. There was something you wanted, you felt that you deserved it, and you went out and got it.

2. Dare to visualize the success you want to have in the future as if it already belonged to you. Remember, if you deserve it, it’s yours.

3. Take action. Consistent and persistent action.

4. Be patient with the process because it may take a while depending on where you are coming from emotionally and psychologically. It took me 4 years of visualizing, trying, and getting rejected before I finally kissed my first girl, who incidentally, also became my first girlfriend. Regardless of how long it takes, don’t be discouraged. A lifetime of self-betterment, no matter how small the gains, still beats a lifetime of regret.

As your feelings of deservedness increase, you will no longer feel the same. You become someone different. You become someone who deserves more, believes in more, and indeed gets more as you come to take on the thoughts and behavior of someone who already has what you want.