Do you know the reason why most people don’t own their lives? The reason why they just mindlessly go to their day jobs every morning and park themselves in front of the mind-numbing television every evening? It’s because they’ve never made a decision to own their lives.
Some people go to work because they have to. They have mortgages and bills to pay. Others just go because heaps of other people are doing it. Very few do it because they love it. Most people just don’t make the important life decisions and because of that, the most important decisions are made for them.
Rarely do people work at careers truly of their own choosing. Most people work at their jobs because it was the first place hiring! They say “Oh well, it’s not really the job I want but they’re offering me a good package with benefits, so I’ll take it until I find my ideal career” They rarely do, such is their lack of self worth.
I once heard Brian Tracy say “There are three types of people in this world. Those who make things happen, those watch things happen and the vast majority who wonder ‘What happened?’”
The economic crisis has hit the third category of people the most. It was a hammer blow they could not deal with because they were not in control. They’ve made a choice to be governed by the surrounding circumstances. And it’s not their fault, because they didn’t grow up in an environment that fostered critical thinking and making decisions for oneself.
Yet there are people in the first category, the ones who make things happen, who’s businesses are thriving regardless of the economy because they made a choice to be in control of their destiny.
In Chapter 8 of his famous book “Think and Grow Rich”, Napoleon Hill writes…
Accurate analysis of over 25,000 men and women who had experienced failure, disclosed the fact the fact that LACK OF DECISION was near the head of the list of the 30 major causes of FAILURE.
Making a decision takes a lot of courage. Most people are too afraid to make the important decisions. They fear being ridiculed by other people. And that’s how they live their lives – always under the influence of other people’s cheap opinions.
Most people don’t love themselves enough to make their own decisions. They feel guilty. They fall under the falsehood that every decision they make must directly benefit the people close to them, otherwise they are being selfish. Which means again, they are not in control of their own destiny, but are being controlled by the influence of others.
You must let go of that if you want to have success. Look after Number One first, and everything will take care of itself. Be selfish enough to pursue your own vision. It’s the only way you can be a positive influence on others. And stay focused on achieving that vision.
Unsuccessful people can’t make up their minds, they’re always “keeping their options open”. In reality, they are deceiving themselves. It’s just an excuse to procrastinate.
A decision is final. People who are successful are decisive and they stick to their decisions. They only change course when it’s absolutely necessary.
Personally, I made the decision to have financial freedom a little over two years ago. So far, I have not changed my mind. If anything, my desire to be wealthy has only gotten stronger over the past two years, despite the challenges I’ve come up against.
To your MLM success,
Wayne Wu
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Awesome post. I was just talking to one of my friends about this the other day.
I think one thing that really helps is Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power. Some people may see it as manipulating others, but it’s really about not caring so much about what others think, and not being afraid to go after whatever you want.
I try to think of my life in two ways: one, by thinking about older people and how they say things like “If I were your age again, I would do…” These people don’t have the chance anymore to do what they would like to do. The would gladly exchange places, and use their knowledge to take the risks they wish they had taken when they were younger. now they are unable to, and sometimes hope that you will do it so that they can live vicariously through you. This motivates me to take more risks, because if I got hit by a bus tomorrow, at least I would have felt good about going after a goal.
Also, two, I think about life as a video game. When I play a game, I don’t really fear losing, because there is always a “continue” after the Game Over, always the reset button, always more “lives” that I can utilize. It’s true that we don’t get these chances in some aspects of life: if we kill someone, we go to jail. If we get hit by a bus, well, we die. But how many times do we come up against these scenarios? We do not take as many chances as we should, therefore we are choosing not to pursue the life that we say we want. Too many of us sit back and hope someone else will hand it to us or place it in our lap, when that is unrealistic.
And no, playing the lottery is NOT going after your dreams either!
But if people took the words in your post more seriously, I think the world would have a larger amount of happy, satisfied people.
Hey Sean,
I like your Point Number 2. In video games, it really doesn’t matter if you lose, because every time you restart you get better and better.
And that’s how we should treat every failure – as a learning experience. Get better and better all the time.
Thanks for the comment,
Wayne