Success, attracting success, living a life of ease; that is the royal road we all want to tread, for the echo of it harmonizes peacefulness in our minds. It gives to us all that we desire: the opportunity of exercising our lives to the fullest; the sense of power; the feeling that our destinies are our own to decide; the knowledge that we can begin our lives and have complete control at any time that we decide.
Attracting success, like all human affairs, is slightly a matter of predestination, and mostly of free will. Are you waiting for your life to begin? Are you waiting to turn on the Global Positioning System in order to take "the highlighted route?" My friends, there is no highlighted route other than the ones that you have programmed in your mind. I travel quite a bit for both business and pleasure. I often visit AAA to have them design an itinerary to outline my course of direction. However, with the accessibility of technology as it is today, my planning would not be complete without printing out my own route on Google Maps, reviewing my layout on Map Quest, or turning on my GPS to plan my journey.
Am I interested in the shortest distance? Am I looking to avoid highways? Am I searching for the scenic route or for a less populated passage? I’m always delighted to see all my options, knowing that the ultimate course is mine to determine, maybe a circuitous mixture of all that has been presented to me. Deciding on your definition of success is no different. You must decide your itinerary on your own terms and take the highlighted route towards your journey.
The first step towards success is deciding on Life on our own terms. For this, we must have somewhat of a decided spiritual nature. This concept may be new, perhaps uncomfortable for some, but if it is broken down to its most basic concept than it is much easier to adapt and consent to.
The first essential is an awakening, a sense of the absence of spirit, the realized need of giving to our lives a new and higher quality. First there must be the hunger before there can be the success. Before we proceed further, however, we must attempt a definition of Spirituality. The word 'spiritual' becomes a synonym of muddy thought and misty emotionalism. If there were another word in the language to take its place, it would be well to use it. But there is not. We must use the word 'spirituality,' despite its associations and its abuse.
We shall try, however, to attach a distinct and definite meaning to the word. Mere definition, however, is too abstract and intellectual. Perhaps a description of some types of character, combined with definition, will be the better way. Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. Connection to a metaphysical reality greater than oneself. Some religions define spirituality as that which it pertains to the self or soul. Sit quietly for 15 minutes and contemplate life. TRULY contemplate life.
How do our finger nails grow? How do our hair follicles grow? How do we describe the creation of cells and atoms and oceans and clouds? One does not have to have any religiousness in nature to have some sense of a "connectedness," a feeling of being an individual part of something greater. A connection to all souls. (Later, I will explain as part of the success formula how to throw all of this spirituality out in a sense, and have a connection to souls without listening to another soul)! The spiritual life, then, may be described by its characteristic marks of serenity, a certain inwardness, a measure of oneness and connectedness. You will not enjoy success on your own terms without having a sense of this oneness in nature.
Take the time, now, to question your spirituality and connectedness to the greater universe. Define it for yourself. This will be your first step towards achieving success on your own individual terms.
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