You Have What Others Don’t, You Must Do What Others Won’t

Introduction

Why are some people wealthy and others poor? What do some people live calm and enjoyable lives, while others remain stressed and disillusioned? Why do some people achieve tremendous success and others struggle through life teetering on the border of ultimate failure?

There’s a simple answer. How you think!

Whatever you focus on determines your reality. Therefore, when you focus on poverty, you become and continue to be poor. Please understand that I mean FOCUS, not just dream about. You can dream about being wealthy all you want to, while continuing to focus on being poor, and your dreams of wealth will never become realities because of your lack of focus. Let’s define focus, and illustrate the difference between it and dreaming.

To dream is to mentally imagine some aspect of life, such as you winning a ballgame or a card game, or earning more money, etc. Dreaming reflects desire! Desire alone, however, never produces outcomes. In other words, your dreams might model the reality you desire, but dreams alone never produce that reality.

Focus, plus efforts, defined by plans, produces realities. Well, what is focus? I describe FOCUS as A.I.M. The acronym means Actions, developed with an Intent to achieve a specific Mission. So focus begins with developing a mission. You only develop the mission if you intend to fulfill it. So you see, you transform your dreams into mission when you include an intent to accomplish them. You prove intent by taking the necessary, specified and strategic actions that propel you to the destination stated in your mission. Allow me to illustrate. You dream of completing college with a 4.0 grade point average and being the valedictorian of your graduating class. How do you transform that dream into a mission? First you adopt it as an affirmation. For example: “I will graduate from (name the specific college or university) in (specify the year, based upon where you begin your dream) with a 4.0 grade point average (or its equivalent if the measurement changes) and I will be the undisputed valedictorian of my college graduating class.” Notice that the words of an affirmation commit you to a specific, defined, measurable outcome, with no deviation or allowance for error. Dreams are often generalizations, with no specific outcome in mind, simply unclear desires that you cannot define or develop. An affirmation is different. You can define your affirmation. You can develop your affirmation. More importantly, you can structure strategy to achieve your affirmation.

Now comes the hard work: developing an action plan that guides you in achieving your affirmation. Affirmation defines intent. Actions prove intent. Mission, plus Intent, proved by action constitute A.I.M., which defines FOCUS!

So how do actions prove intent? Let’s stick with the affirmation to graduate from college with a 4.0 grade point average and the undisputed title of valedictorian. When does your work on this mission begin? Answer: the very day you define the mission, by transforming your dream (a model of desire) into a statement of affirmation-the beginning of focus, because what you affirm defines your mission.

In other words, you must now develop a plan that specifies the actions you must take to achieve the outcomes you desire. A quality plan is a system that includes the following components:

• Vision-A statement that describes the outcomes you intend to accomplish
• Mission-Your affirmation
• Philosophy-A statement that defines and states clearly your belief in your mission that gets you to your vision
• Objectives-Orderly, specific steps in your action plan that move you progressively toward your vision and reflect your commitment to your mission
• Strategies-Action principles designed to empower you to dispel distractions, conquer challenges, overcome obstacles and maintain your relentless pursuit of your vision
• Communication-Methods you use to convey your vision and mission in life to others, either to solicit their support, or to eliminate them as threats to the outcomes you intend to achieve
• Timeline-The schedule of Actions, Intent and Mission that defines when your focus becomes reality

My 50-year plan illustrates the power of focus

In September 1968, I was about 90 days from being released from prison in North Carolina. I was also a month shy of my 26th birthday. I had become a criminal 21 years earlier when I stole five dollars from my aunt’s pocketbook. Almost every day since then I had done something criminal. I was sent to prison for the first time in December 1959, released in May 1962 and returned to incarceration in August 1963. I was released on parole in December 1965, and sent back to prison in July 1966 because of a series of parole violations. So here I was in September 1968, 90 days from a final release date. About a year earlier, I had dropped out of the prison culture mentally, and began thinking about what I needed to do to exit my criminal lifestyle, and end my repeated stints of imprisonment. In other words, I had become sick and tired of being sick and tired of being in prison.

I dreamed about getting out, staying out and becoming successful. Yet, I had to admit I had the same dream during previous releases, but I had never been able to accomplish three critical outcomes:

1. Breaking my crime habits (Note-I was not a victim of circumstances. I was a criminal!)
2. Achieving an ever-free life (Note-The system had not sent for me; I volunteered for prison)
3. Accomplishing my past criminal and prison experiences and record into insignificance

Almost like light bursting unbidden into a totally dark room, I suddenly, somehow, understood that I had not accomplished those three outcomes because I had not planned to accomplish them. I dreamed about them, but I had no plan by which those three outcomes could become realities. Somehow, I realized that I had to stake myself out! I had to publicly affirm my commitment to freedom. I had to eliminate crime and prison as possible destinations in my life. I had to establish a new vision and focus on a radically different, seemingly impossible mission. Confronting the challenges defined by those “gotta do statements,” I stumbled onto the power for affirmation. In the opening statement of my plan, I wrote:

1. When I’m released on Dec. 9, 1968, I will begin a 50-year trek from crime to contribution!
2. I will break my crime habits!
3. I will earn an ever-free life!
4. I will achieve my crime and prison experiences and record into insignificance so no one, including myself, can use them to impede my growth, development and progress!
5. I will become a professional writer!
6. I will accomplish many other important goals and objectives that I will define as I envision new, interesting and achievable “mountain peaks” of opportunity!
7. The previous six declarations will reflect my lifelong commitment to personal transformation and unlimited accomplishments and success!

Now on that day in September 1968 when I wrote those affirmations, I had no empirical evidence that I could accomplish them. Over the years, then, I’ve uncovered and conquered one of the great lies that lead to failure. People, including and most importantly, ourselves, insist that the evidence of a person’s past defines and proves the limits of an individual’s future. That’s not true because you write the limits or the limitlessness of your future with your actions, intents and mission of each day of your life-your present! In other words, your daily focus, the Actions, Intents and Mission, that you live each day, and not the mistakes of your yesterdays, determine the quality of life of your tomorrows!

Without taking the time to discuss exhaustive detail, let me summarize the first 40 years of that 50 year plan that I began writing on a September day in 1968, while in prison:

• I began my professional writing career in 1969
• I became a home based business owner in 1979
• I became a college professor in 1983, teaching my first course-Write For Profit-in the Continuing Education Department at Duke University
• I have managed a FM radio station, produced and appeared on numerous television programs, and now as I countdown to the 40th anniversary of my release from prison, and the launching of my 50-year plan, I fully understand that to achieve what others don’t, I must always do what others won’t! I commend this process to you!

What is it that others won’t do?

People who fail, defined as anyone who never fully enjoys the amazing benefits of the incredible human potential, do not align themselves, the totality of their lives with the wonderful, non-discriminatory laws of S.U.C.C.E.S.S. I define this acronym as Striving Until Clear, Comprehensive Empowerment Secures Stability. Striving refers to your day-to-day efforts, defined and dictated by your plan. Until means simply you align yourself with the law of endless effort. Clear and Comprehensive refer to the paradigm that governs all you “see,” emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Empowerment means the energy you use to direct and move your focus forward. Secures means simply to possess various outcomes. Stability refers to the achievement of time, financial and debt freedoms.

In summary, others-identified as failures-will not align with and R.E.A.P the benefits of these laws of success. This acronym means: Recognize value, Embrace power, Acquire Skills and Purchase technology! Failure do not R.E.A.P. because they never become N.I.C.E. This acronym means:
New, Innovative, Creative and Enthusiastic thinking.

For far too many people, N.I.C.E. and R.E.A.P. become invisible barriers to launching a personal S.U.C.C.E.S.S. plan. These barriers remain invisible to almost all individuals who failure because they exist inside of us, while we spend most of our time searching and settling for outside situation, conditions and circumstances as the cause of our personal failure. As Stephen R. Covey says in his best-selling book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, an individuals must conquer the inner struggle before engaging the outside battles. Those seven habits that Covey discusses work equally as well on the inside of each of us as they do when applied to outside factors.

The 7 habits of highly effective people are:

1. Be proactive, instead of reactive. In other words, live, rather than simply letting life happen.
2. Begin with the end in mind. In other words, craft and adopt a specific vision
3. Do first things first. In other words, take important actions before they become urgent.
4. Seek to understand before trying to be understood. In other words, struggle to understand yourself before you insist that other understand you. The flip side of this emotional and mental “coin” is to seek to understand others before insisting that they understand you.
5. Think win/win. In other words, acknowledge that competition ultimately produces destruction, while cooperation brings life, peace and harmony.
6. Practice synergy. In other words, become an expert team builder because with a team you can leverage the cumulative total of collective resources into a powerful “whole” that benefits all.
7. Sharpen the saw. In other words adopt scheduled self improvement. Allocate time to think, to nurture and enhance your plan.

Finally, all this centers on you aligning yourself with the 21 laws of success. A law is a principle

with its origin in the spirit realm, and its impact in human lives. You do not have to know “how” laws, or principles work. You simply need to know that they work. For example, you do not have to understand the laws that power your vehicle. You simply need to know how to use the ignition key to fire those laws into action. Then you must know, honor and practice the concepts of safe and sane vehicle operation.

In Part 2, I will introduce the 21 laws of S.U.C.C.E.S.S. Meanwhile, please remember: to have what others don’t, you must do what others won’t!

God guarantees S.U.C.C.E.S.S. In Him we can refuse to fail! Page