The Eleven Power P's of Enduring Success

Remember these powerful 'P' words whenever life has you feeling down.

Patience - Are you being patient?  Things come in perfect unison to God's time and design, not ours.  Do not let your impatience frustrate you or move you from your path.

Persistence - More important to success than skill, talent or education.  Those who persist are the ones who are ready to jump when opportunity presents itself.  The rest are not only not ready, they usually don't even recgonize opportunity for what it is.

Positivity - A optomistic attitude is a choice and a habit.  Those that can find the good, no matter how small, in every situation, are the ones who get ahead.   Every adversity, every setback, every heartache provides the seed for an equal or greater opportunity.  A seed not planted is wasted potential.  Always find the positive.  Everything in life is there to serve you.

Prayer -  Sometimes we must rely on God to give us strength, wisdom and grace greater than our own.  Let Go and Let God.  Don't wait for crisis to arise to turn to God, make it a habit, and grace will follow you everywhere.

Perspective - Often the only real problem, is how we are viewing the situation.  We get so caught up worrying about the old, great tree dying, we forget we're in the midst of a forest.  As the old tree passes, the smaller trees finally come out of it's shade and are able to grow.

Promise - Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt... ...you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. - Matthew 21:21.  Whatever righteous thing you ask for, is given to you - in God's time and by God's design.  Hold on to your Promise and never let it go.  The enemy will always cloud your vision and try to steal it.

Progress - Do not stop.  Keep on, keeping on.  Learn from each of life's lessons and put it into immediate practise.  There is no standing still in life.  You are either progressing or regressing.  If you stop, you'll only have further to go when you start again.

Passion - Your passion is like a fire, it must be given fuel to burn and fanned to become bright.  When passion is turned into a bonfire, it will keep you warm through the coldest nights.  Neglect it and it will burn out quickly.   Purpose is fuel, Promise fans.

Purpose - Why?  What is your driving motivation?  What pleasure will success bring?  What pain will failure result in?  If you do not know, specifically, why you want what you want, how can you hope to substane? There is no wrong answer.  Follow your bliss. 

Price - Anything worth having is worth paying for.  There's always a price to pay but often in difficult times we lose sight that the challenges we are experiencing, are the price for what we want.  The price of growth, the price of wisdom, the price of freedom. 

Plan - Do you have a plan?  If so, is it working?  If not, goto plan B.  Then C.  Then D.   Don't worry if it's the best plan, any plan is better than no plan, even if it takes you the wrong way.  Movement is always better than procrastination. Things rarely happen the way we plan them, but plans keep us focused and give us comfort in structure.  Keep your plans flexible but the Purpose resolute.

Preston Squire is an author providing free positive thinking, inspirational, motivational and success materials. You can find more articles by Preston Squire at http://www.thecuphalffull.com/

©Preston Squire 2010

The Eleventh Power 'P' of Enduring Success

By Preston Squire

I was sharing the Power P's of Enduring Success with a friend and he quipped I had forgotten a set of 'P's:
"Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance."

While it's not exactly rocket science or highly enlightening, he is fundamentally right.  Simply because you won't get very far without a well executed

PLAN

The Power 'P's are tools to use when you feel like you are at your wits end, about to throw in the towel and can't see any hope of accomplishing that which you really desire.

Are you being Patient?  Don't give up, victory is so often just around the next corner if you only Persist.  Don't give into negativity, always remain Positive.  Use Prayer to boost you when you feel overwhelmed.  Check your Perspective; choose your fights wisely.  Hold onto the Promise the Lord has given you.  Even though it may feel pointless, continue to Progress, action and momentum are critical.  Feed your Passion and it will give you new life.  Always remind yourself of your true Purpose.  And remember whatever difficulty you are having, is necessary, and desirable, for there is always a Price to bare.

If you have checked all of those things and are still not seeing progress or feeling inspired, then you need to review your Plan.

First off, do you even have a plan?  Action without a plan is like trying to shoot ducks in the dark.  You might get lucky and hit one occasionally, but you are still a complete knucklehead.

If you don't you are in good company, or at least, plenty of company as most people don't.   The reason most people don't have a plan is because;

A) They don't know exactly how they are going to accomplish their goal.

You don't need to.  You don't need to know How.   The How will be revealed, bit by bit along the journey.  I assure you no one else who became rich and famous knew exactly 'How' they were going to accomplish it, but they had a plan.   You only need to start with a strong enough WHY.   Your sense of Purpose, of why you are doing this.   If your sense of Purpose is strong enough, if your Passion is burning bright enough, you will be like Hannibal:

"We will either find a way, or make one."


Indeed Hannibal did make a way.  He defeated his Roman oppressors by taking his army, including war elephants through the Alps to attack the Romans where they least expected it and capture most of Italy in the process.   Hannibal always had a plan.

B) They are waiting on God/the universe/Infinite Intelligence to deliver their Promise to them

I've blogged on this before.   I'm a firm believer of 'God helps those who help themselves.'   You have to be walking in Faith, not sitting in it.  If you are not Progressing towards your goal you are sending a very clear signal that you either don't really want it - you lack Purpose, aren't willing to pay the Price to get it, or your sense of Promise isn't that strong and if you do nothing then God becomes your scapegoat.  'It wasn't meant to be.'

Accept responsibility for yourself.  You need to create a plan and put it into action.  For Without Action, The Law of Attraction, Has No Traction.  If you are not already using the gift God's given you, why should you expect more?  Put faith into action.   There must always be Progress.

"The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too." ~ Goethe









Have a plan?  It's not working?  Then move on to Plan B.  The definition of craziness has been describe as repeating the same action, over and over and expecting a different result.  There are no failures.   There are positive results and negative results.   If you have a positive result, great.  If you have a negative result, good, you are one step closer to discovering how to achieve the result you want.


When dating I like to date women a little older than I am.   One of the primary reasons is because they have had enough failed relationships that they now have a very definite idea of what it is they are looking for in a man and a relationship.   If I don't fit the criteria, goodbye.  Which is fine because we are not wasting each other's time.   If I do, then they clearly articulate what their expectations are and it's up to me if I want to meet them.


Bob Proctor is fond of saying: "Every day in America, you hear about a baseball player signing a contract which will pay him a few million dollars a year. You should try to keep in mind that same player misses the ball more often than he hits it when he steps up to the plate."


Fans love baseball players with a high home run average.  But those players also strike out all the time.  Fans hate to see them strike out but they forget all about the strike outs whenever a ball goes out of the park.   The strike outs are the Price to be paid and those players and their fans gladly pay it.


In the same way, you will have plans that don't turn out as you had hoped.  Just accept it.   The reality is success very seldom comes the way we envisioned it.  People who are more successful than you didn't get there by simply having more success than you, they also had a lot more failures.  They just accepted them as a Price to be paid to make it. 


So if your current plan isn't creating the results you want, you need to reassess it and change it.

If at first you don't succeed

The Tenth Power 'P' of Enduring Success

By Preston Squire


"To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction." ~ Sir Issac Newton

The Toaist belief in China is well known for it's belief in Yin Yang.

The concept that there is an inheritent duality to everything.  Life cannot exist without death.  East without West.  Hot without cold.  Masculine without feminine. Light without dark. Growth without decay.  Etc.   

Toaist do not believe one is good or bad, that is a common western misconception, they simply are, one cannot exist without the other, nor is either pure as there is always a little yin in the yang and vice versa.   As such, you need both to accomplish anything.
And that, my dear readers, is one of the biggest fundimental problems we have in accomplishing our goals.  The lack of the total acceptance of:

Price

Whatever you want in this world, there is a price to be paid for it, and if you have to ask, 'How much?' you cannot afford it.

The price, is the yin to your desired yang.   You cannot call yang (or yin) into being without creating it's polar opposite.  One simply can not exist without the other.  To make it even more interesting, you can expect, to experience the opposite of what you want (yin) - first.

If you want to become wealthy, without depending on extreme luck to win the lottery or misfortune to gain an inheritance, the only way to do so is to invest.    That is the irony.   Why do people want money?  Primarily for a sense of security.  A sense that they'll be able to obtain whatever they need to be happy or at least, comfortable.   Yet, in order to become financially secure somehow it's going to require an investment of money without an absolute guarantee of return.  An inheritant lack of security.  

That could take many shapes from investing in a business, your own or someone elses, stocks, funds, reality or even investing in an education.    When it comes to investing, the highest rate of return comes from the that which is most risky.   Nor do wealthy people idly sit on their fortunes, they are virtually always being invested into something, to create even greater returns.   But what happens when the market crashes?  A lot of wealth is lost.   Such is yin yang at work.   In order to enjoy financial security, you have to tolerate financial risk.   And you have to start from where you're at now.

Same goes for love.  You cannot have love without risk of heartache.  You cannot expect to be promoted without investing hard work, unsolicited, first. You cannot expect spiritual growth without having to endure life's hard lessons.   Anything you want, is going to have some consequence, some price that must be paid, in order to obtain it.

Okay, fine.  You realize this of course.   Yet, when the challenges come, we balk.  Worse, we become fixated on them.    Whatever you focus on in life, you'll attract more of.   So in trying to gain yang, we must first bare yin.  But yin is so distasteful to us, we push against it - which creates more of it.   Then we wonder why is life being so unfair to us.   But life is giving us exactly what we are concentrating on.

When my marriage was falling apart, I lost all sight of the greater sense of what I wanted, a happy relationship, and focused on fixing the broken one.    In hindsight, I can see that once I had started down the path I was on, I was elevating myself to a place my partner was not prepared to go.    As much as I like to romanticize it and remember the good parts, it was a trouble partnership from the get go.  We were every different people, with different values and wholy opposite ways to deal with life's situations.    We argued a lot.   As we grew, we continued down our own paths, growing further apart.   If I was to be in a truly happy relationship, that one had to end, if only because my wife(at the time) was not interested in self improvement and therefore could not grow with me.

Looking back, I can see that clearly.  At the time, I saw only the loss and I pushed against that with everything I had.   Which only denied me any potential happiness I could have found elsewhere and kept me in a state of loss.    I'm not into astrology, but I'll give it this.  I'm a Taurus and true to my sunsign, I'm stubborn and don't like to move from where I'm at.  I stubbornly pushed against loss and stayed where I was for years before I finally understood that I was creating my own misfortune in love.  Once I did, and accepted the loss,  focusing only on finding new love, accepting the risk gladly, then love came.

So are you ready to tolerate the risk or pain or sorrows that must come with the glory you seek?  Then you are doomed to failure.  It is not about tolerating.

Price is not the same as Pain

There's a reason this prinicipal is Price and not Pain.   If you are seeing it as a pain then you have an inheritent problem with your Perspective.  Yin and yang are not exclusive, you cannot have one without the other, there is no dichotomy here.   They are intertwined and inseperable.   You must love them as one and the same.

My friend Cathy Morenzie really got my head in the right place for working out.  I've learned to associate stressing my body and the aches and pains that come with it as good things.   I like to feel the burn in my muscles now, because it means they are growing.  If I go a few days without hitting the gym, and now longer have any aches, it now psychically pains me, because I know I'm lossing muscle mass that I've worked so hard to gain.   I want the burn, the aches, the stress.  I GLADLY pay that price because it is a part and parcel of staying in top shape.

Investors GLADLY make risky (not stupid) investments, because they know that's where the real money is at.  People who want to experience love at the deepest levels gladly (but intelligently) accept the risk that comes with it.

"The whole process of mental adjustment and attunement can be summed up in one word: GRATITUDE " ~ Wallace D. Wattles


"He who loves his job, never works a day in his life." ~ Confucious

Most people complain about all the little annoyances in life but those things exist because of all the blessings in your life.   Those annoyances are the yin to your yang.  Instead of complaining be grateful to have them in the first place.

Instead of complaining about being stuck in traffic, give thanks that you have a car which provides you with freedom of travel.

Instead of complaining about your partner's habits be grateful you have found someone that wants to spend their life with you.

Instead of complaining about your children's behaviour (correct it and) rejoice in the blessings God/life has bestowed on you.

Instead of feeling sorry for yourself that you have no one in your life, rejoice at the unlimited opportunities to meet someone that are now before you.

Always be grateful for what you have.   Always be grateful for the challenges life presents to you.  Live in an attitude of gratitude.  Because you are either experiencing a yin for a yang that you are already enjoying and want to continue to enjoy, or the yin is a harbinger of the yang to follow.  As such it should be embraced, accepted, learned from and used to prepare you for the yang you are about to recieve.

"...the cycles of life are endless -- and always serve you, because life is a process that serves Life Itself.
When things seeem to be shifting away from you, moving in the other direction, closing doors, shutting down opportunities, remember that all things are cyclical -- including Life Itself.

What you are experiencing is temporary -- whether it's "good" OR "bad." So stop calling it one thing or the  other, and simply embrace it as What's Happening Now.


You'll move through it all much more peacefully. And one day you'll call it ALL "good.""
~ Neale Donald Walsch


When you come from the right Perspective, you realize that everything in life serves you in one way or the other.   Because nothing can be purely 'bad' or wholy 'good' but we can find the 'good', that which currently serves us, in every situation.  When you are grateful for the blessings or the challenges that make you grow, to become the person you need to be to accept greater blessings, then you are staying focused on that which you want.   You are walking in faith.  Holding onto your Promise, assured that todays troubles are working for you, somehow (and we often can't see how in our linerary experience of this life until afterwards), to deliver tomorrows triumphs.  Accept the yin to your desired yang for without the yin your yang can not exist.

When you are in a place where both yin and yang are 'good' things, then you have no problems.   Life becomes easy because there is no pain to be borne.    You begin to love that which you once sought to avoid, knowing it is a part of that which brings you joy so it too, brings you joy.   You go from joy to joy to joy.  Following your bliss.

Once Price is your Pleasure, then nothing is beyond you.

The Ninth Power 'P' of Enduring Success

By Preston Squire

By now you're probably wondering when this series is going to end.   To be honest, so am I.  Originally I had three, which become four, then five.   Last Sunday that exploded into nine in a burst of revelation.   This is the last of those, the Ninth Power P. 

However, the revelations keep on coming.   There are now eleven in this series and I feel strongly that there will be one more, that the Lord will reveal to me in due course.   It does concern me somewhat that this series or list of P's may be too long but I have not gone out looking for them, and as each is revealed they add unique value and integrate so beautifully with the others that I have not seen a need to purge.

The entire Purpose of this series was to give you a 'restart' when you feel defeated in life.   To recharge your batteries, give you a renewed sense of confidence and hope, so you can continue on, continuing on.

So far we have covered; Patience, Persistence, Positivity, Prayer, Perspective, Promise, Progress, and Passion

Today we cover perhaps the most profound Power P of them all.

Purpose

WHY?   Why are you doing what you're doing? What is your driving motivation?  What do you hope to accomplish?  What do you hope to gain?   What pleasures will you derive should you accomplish it?   What pains will you suffer should you not?

The answers to those questions will lead you to your true Purpose.   In short: What is your Purpose in life?  What meaning have you given it?

In the end, we all basically want the same thing out of life.   Joy, security / comfort, love, contribution and to leave a lasting legacy.  But how we arrive at those ends will be different for each one of us.  What works for one person may not work for you.   You must define your own path.

I know a lot of people are waiting for God to tell them what to do.   For God to reveal their 'God given destiny'.  In my mind that is backwards.   That is like you telling your children what they must do in their lives.  You MUST be a doctor.  You MUST be a lawyer.  Then directing their every action in life, through school, university and beyond until they reach that point.     I know this sounds good to a lot of people.  We want our children to succeed and doctors and lawyers are very respectable and important positions in life.   But when we impose our will on them what happens?  Generally they either break away, realizing that they have their own dreams to pursue or they crush their own dreams and do as they're told.   While there's nothing wrong with becoming a doctor or a lawyer, wouldn't it be better for them to follow their own dreams?

Now someone is going 'Oh you don't know my kid(s), they want to be a bum rock star', or 'go do charity work in Africa', or 'some crazy, fool thing.'   Sure, kids make a lot of poor decisions.  But where do you think the Bon Jovi's, Mother Theresa's and Picasso's of the world came from?   Obviously, they are people who followed their own hearts and dreams.   I'm sure their parents were very proud of them in the end, even if they worried about how it might all turn out.   It's right and proper to give our children direction, but we must allow them the freedom to find their own path.  In the same way God allows us to follow our own path and supports and guides us along the way.

Some will say, 'But I want God to tell me what to do.  He knows better than I.'   To this I agree.   If you want to know His will for you, you need look no further than your own heart.  The Father / Infinite Intelligence is IN you.  Whatever passion you have already (probably deeply buried, try to remember), whatever skills you have natively, THAT is what God wants you to do.   If you have a talent for writing, then write!  If you have a passion for the ocean's creatures, then go study and preserve them.  If you feel compelled to help the less fortunate, then DO that.   Maybe you're a gifted programmer, or cook, or singer.   Perhaps that doesn't seem special to you.  Probably because you can't see how that talent would benefit anyone.  Your talents are what you make them to be.   Open your mind, listen to the still, small voice inside, it will direct you and show you how your talent, can make a real difference.

"Follow your bliss."  ~ Joseph Campbell

I could write a whole chapter of a book on how to find your Purpose but let's move on here...

Even when we know our Purpose, we need to be constantly reminded.   In the face of current events, we tend to forget what we are all about.   We get so busy putting out little bush fires, we forget why we are even there in the first place.  Not for that!  We need to constantly remind ourselves.

Many workplaces nowadays like to post their mission statement.  Employees and management see it regularly and (hopefully) are reminded what the overall, overarching mandate of the business or program is.  While those go mostly unnoticed and forgotten in workplaces, it's a great idea to do that at home.   Write out your own mission statement and post it somewhere you will see it prominately, every day.

Get into the habit of actually reading it.  At least once a week, until you can recite it off the top of your head.  Then when you're struggling it'll quickly and easily come to mind.   You will know what you are about, and with that knowledge, you will know instintively where you need to head.

"Every decision you make—every decision—is not a decision about what to do. It’s a decision about Who You Are. When you see this, when you understand it, everything changes. You begin to see life in a new way. All events, occurrences, and situations turn into opportunities to do what you came here to do." ~ Neale Donald Walsch

Knowing our Purpose fuels our Passion which keeps us Positive, helps us to remain Patient and to Persist when things do not appear to be going our way.   Holding onto Purpose with one hand and our Promise in the other helps us to always have the right Perspective, and to continue to Progress through even the most difficult of times.

Do you know what your Purpose is?  If not, then is it any surprise you aren't seeing your life progress as you'd like?  Find your Purpose and with it, your destiny.

The Eighth Power 'P' of Enduring Success

By Preston Squire

Passion

I've taken a break for a few days because I knew the next Power 'P' was Passion and I wanted to be feeling really passionate while I wrote it.   However, I'm writing from work, as that's when I have the most time and least distractions - sad I know - and it's really hard to be passionate in this office.  Lol.  Serious.

Government jobs suck your soul.  Good pay, mediocore benefits, but great job security and pension keep people sticking with them even as the dullness and drudgery take their toll.  LOL.   Yes, this is a great start to a chapter on Passion!

The very fundimental problem with government jobs is that they give you security but at the cost of your passion.   You see a lot of young folk come into government jobs with lots of ideas of how they'll change the system, bring in innovation, make it all work the way it should.  They have tremendous energy and enthusiasm and the upper levels of management always seem happy to indulge them.   They are a breathe of fresh air after all.    However, within five years, the enthusiasm is long gone, replaced by a realization that the system will not be changed.   The system, although it screams for change, hates change; unless it's externally motivated change and then it happens lightning fast, because it must.   

That is not so unlike many of our lives, or parts of our lives.   We acknowledge the need for change, we want the change, but no amount of enthusiastic outpour, no amount of great ideas, no inspiration ever really makes a lasting change.   We do not want the change, because we, like settled in government workers, want our security, even though it costs us our passions.    So we're conflicted.   We associate pain to remaining where we are, but we have some comfort level there, and associate pain to change and to the unknown.

Being in a Pain-Pain situation can bring about learned helplessness.   You just accept that you can't change.  Nonsense.   If someone put a gun to your head you'd change in an instant!   We just need to get that motivation generated from the inside instead of from the outside. 
Without Passion we become stagnant.

When we think about passion we think of fiery emotion.  Like a fire, passion must be given fuel to burn and be fanned to burn brightly.   If we don't add fuel and fan our passion, like a fire it will slowly burn out.

For our emotional passion, as far as maintaining our motivation to succeed, the fuel is our Purpose and our Promise.    I will talk more about Purpose in the next blog entry but suffice to say, it is our reason for wanting to achieve, our reason for being.    Like logs to a fire, the mental logs of Purpose must be occasionally added to our passion.   We need to keep reminding ourselves WHY we want what we want and WHY we're doing what we're doing.    What are the pleasures to be obtained by doing it?   And what are they pains of failure for not?

Hand in hand with our Purpose, we must remember our Promise.   That our success is already Promised to us.   That whatever we ask for in faith, and do not doubt, will be given.  In God's terms and time, not ours. 

Promise fans the flames of our Passion.   We know why we're burning, the logs of Purpose, and the knowledge that it's guaranteed, our Promise, helps us to burn brightly, even when the logs are damp or the wind threatens to extinquish our flame.

Passion helps immessurably to help keep you focused, Progressing and on track.   When you are passionate about something it's a lot easier to remain Patient and Persistent when things are not going your way.  You Pray a lot more fervertently.  The more emotion you put behind your prays/desires the quicker you tend to attract them to you.   You can't help but be Positive about something that you feel Passionate about.  

One thing about living in Toronto.  People here are passionate about hockey and the Toronto Maple Leafs.  Every year you hear those fans saying that this is the year that they'll take the Stanley Cup.   Hasn't happened since 1968 but you've got to love their passion and positivity.

The other great thing about Passion is it's a massive enabler.  When people are really passionate about something they are willing to do more and endure more to get what they want.   I remember as a kid when the second Star Wars movie was coming out or even more recently when the Nintendo Wii came out, people lined up outside the theatres or stores for hours, some people for DAYS prior to the launch.  Just so they could have it or see it first.    Really?  Would it kill them to wait a week or a month or even a year?  No.  But they were so passionate, that camping out on concrete, in the winter, was a Price they were gladly willing to pay to get what they wanted as soon as possible.

So take care to fuel and fan your passion for once it's burning brightly, it takes on a life of it's own and will help drive you through some of life's most difficult times.

The Seventh Power 'P' of Enduring Success

By Preston Squire

Progress

"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and THAT AINT YOU. You're better than that!" - Rocky's speech to son Robert from the movie Rocky Balboa


I've talked countless time on this site about how life is no bed of roses. There's a reason that only a select few truly live the life of their dreams while everyone else lives the lives they'll settle for. Life is designed to separate the wheat from the chaff. But the difference between those who shape life and those that allow themselves to be shaped by life isn't intelligence or willpower or money. The difference is about who has enough burning passion, a strong enough purpose, and a patient persistence covered in prayer, always keeping things in a positive perspective, knowing that they are promised success as long as they are willing to bear the price.

“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.


In order to break through you need to understand, accept and EMBRACE this one simple concept. It's a concept most of you will not like. Some will reject it entirely.  A few may be so turned off they'll never return to this site again. Fine, go. In time though, you will have to accept this fundamental truth.

Failure IS Progress

Not only is failure a part of life, it's an essential part. Knowledge, wisdom and maturity are the end results of failure. You don't learn anything playing it safe. If you take a risk and it pays off, great, you've learned what works. But if you take a risk and it doesn't work, if you're smart and maintain proper perspective, you've learned what doesn't work - and that puts you one step closer to discovering what does.


"I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work." ~ Thomas Alva Edison in response to a question about his failure to produce a (cost efficient) light bulb.

Reasonable people do not take many chances. They stick to what they can see and what they know. They follow what society deems as acceptable and expectable. But the masses very rarely ever affect any change in the world. Virtually all progress is made by a few people who are considered unreasonable when they begin. People who do not follow the beaten path but strike out on their own, cutting their way through the bush for others to follow. You must become unreasonable.

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him... The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself... All progress depends on the unreasonable man." ~ George Bernard Shaw

Unreasonable people keep on, keeping on long after 'reasonable' people would have said it was time to throw in the towel. Why? Because they are not in the slightest intimidated by failure. In their minds, there is no such thing. There are only positive results and results that didn't produce the desired outcome. They learn from the results they get, either way, and progress.



It goes without saying that without progress you simply cannot get to where you are going. Once you have set your goal and made a definite commitment to it, you need to maintain your progress. It doesn't matter how fast you go. It might be cautious baby steps or the weary steps of the exhausted marathon runner, it might be bold leaps or a sure and steady pace but only by continuing to ever move towards your goal will it ever be reached.



The problem is, most people when faced with failure; stop. Heck, most stop even before they face failure. They are halted in their tracks by the mere sight of failure. They refuse to take the risk, instead the stay within their comfort zone.



I hate to tell you this folks but there are only two states of being in the universe, creation or decay. Everything, every tree, blade of grass, rock, drop of water, comet, molecule or galactic cluster is currently in a state of growth or decay. Scientist carbon date fossils based on the amount of molecular decay in the base material and can tell the age of trees by the growth lines (rings) in the trunk. The same goes for your soul. If it is not in a state of growth, if you are not progressing forward, then your life is in a state of slow decay.


Embrace the challenges that life gives you. They are not there to stop you. They are there to help you grow so that you will be ready, willing and able to achieve your God given destiny. There are times when life will beat you down, which is why it's so important to have that fire in your belly, that burning desire that simply will not be quieted. Your Purpose drives your Passion, which in turn fuels your Persistence. Purpose and Promise also allows for the graceful Patience to wait out the difficult times knowing you will and must succeed. But you will not succeed unless you maintain your Progress.


When life knocks you down, take note of why, how and what happened. Then get back up.


"Every adversity, every failure, every heartache, carries with it the seed of equal or greater benefit." Napoleon Hill


Maintain your Positive Perspective and always find the good in every situation. Learn the lessons - THEN IMMEDIATELY PUT THEM INTO PRACTISE!

One of the great failings of the Canadian school system is our French Language programs. Kids learn the words they are being taught long enough to pass the test and then immediately forget them. They do not retain the French they are being taught because most children, outside of Quebec or other francophone communities, never have the opportunity to put their new found skills into practice. Without speaking French regularly they simply cannot retain it.

The best way to learn French, is to go into a French Immersion program, where the teachers only speak to you in French, or even better, take a French Immersion course in Quebec. Then the instant you learn a new word or phrase it is being put into immediate and regular use.


In the same way, if we do not take the lessons learned in life and put them into immediate and regular use, you will lose them and have to repeat the same mistakes. Which is why progress is so important. If you hit a roadblock and stop, wait ten years before you decide to give it another go, then you will have lost many of the key distinctions that could have helped your progress in the first place.

Progress also builds momentum. If you've ever decided to go to the gym, you know that hardest part is getting yourself into a set routine. If you don't get yourself into a habit of going, you probably won't last a month. Gyms know this and always give amazing discounts in January to capture all those people making New Year's resolutions to lose weight. The gyms know that ninety percent of those new customers will not be disciplined enough to make the gym a regular part of their routine and will be gone in a couple weeks to a month even though they have paid for an entire year.

If you stick to it though long enough for the gym to become a regular part of the life, it's easy. You start to see results and that motivates you to continue. People start to notice and compliment you and that really boosts your determination to stick with it. The longer you continue your progress the more momentum you build and the easier the journey becomes. That is until something, like a three week vacation or a long business trip comes around to derail it. If you're smart you'll stay at a hotel with a gym and keep going to maintain progress, otherwise you have to go through a period of forcing yourself back into the routine.

The same goes with life. Once you get going, and the best time to start is always this instant, and maintain steady progress it will become easier and easier to continue but life will always through curve balls at you. Expect it. Embrace it. Eventually you'll be able to hit them out of the park. In the meantime, as difficult as it may seem at times, just keep moving forward. Remember the Power 'P's. I think one reason God has been giving me these lessons' in the form of 'P' words is because it make them easy to remember. So when you're feeling like you're about to quit you can start going through the 'P's in your head. You may not remember them all off hand but with some thought, they'll all come back to you. Some may not help much at that time but I'm certain one or more of these Power 'P's will reinvigorate you and help you to maintain your progress.

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." ~ Barack Obama

The Sixth Power 'P' of Enduring Success

By Preston Squire

Promise

At this point I wouldn't blame you if you thought I was beginning to look through a dictionary and stick more 'P' words into the premise of 'Enduring Success' but I assure you nothing could be further from the truth.

When I got up this morning I was feeling inspired to write but before I did I went through my normal Sunday morning routine (for the sake of not overwhelming readers this is being released Monday).  I watched Joel Osteen who touched on and inspired the subject for today's blog.

Next I watched my video of the day (and yesterday) from the 100 Day Start Fast / Finish Strong Challenge by Gary Ryan Blair.  That inspired two more blogs in this series.    Finally while I was marveling at how God had drop these into my lap and how intricately they all fit into each other like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, I glanced over to my calendar, which as you might suspect, has those inspirational sayings and images.   It's the end of the month so I've seen this particular  saying for a full 28 days.   However today as my head was on fire with the revelations God had already shown me, it suddenly clicked in a whole new way.

So in one morning I was inspired to write not just the continuation of the Perspective blog (seen yesterday) but four other entries as well.   I'll endeavor to write as many as I can today but either way I'll be spreading these out over the next week.   Currently, I'm writing this as Canada plays for Olympic gold in men's hockey, so far successfully (Go Canada!), but it's rather distracting to say the least.

AND WE WON!!!!  But by now you already know that and have probably seen the clip a thousand times.   At least, if you're in Canada.   To my American fans, your team played a hell of a tournament and you should be very proud.  Congrats on being the overall medal winner in these games.    To everyone else: We own the gold medal podium!   Highest number of gold medals won by a country in the Winter Olympics - ever!

Canada went into this Olympics with a different attitude this year.   Normally we are just grateful to rank well, but this year there was a very deliberate focus on now only performing well but specifically on 'Owning the Podium'.    Those in charge of our athletes set a higher standard for themselves and for our men and women to aspire too.  Coming up to these Olympic games it became a rallying cry for the whole country.  But many wondered if it would make a difference.

Over the first week, Canada did well, we normally do, we are 'The True North' after all, but not enough to really say we were 'owning the podium'.     It became clear early on that there was no way we could win the overall medal count.  That was going to the USA and Germany was also too far ahead for us to reach.   We were amoungst a group of countries vying for third.  Then in the closing days of the games, Canada had a rush of gold medal wins, tying us with the U.S.S.R. and Norway for most ever won during a Winter Olympics.  I cannot express how momentous it is for Canadians for us to set a world record with 14 Golds won with an overtime win in Men's hockey at the very end of these games.   It's like the perfect storybook ending.

Clearly that idea of 'Owning the podium' translated into performance.   Part of the reason why is because our athletics held onto the

Promise

When we set a goal for ourselves, in faith, then it is already promised to us.

Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. - Matthew 21:21


God or Source Energy / Infinite Intelligence or however you chose to look at it, wants us to succeed. It is important to have the right morals for what we are doing. There is nothing inherently wrong with being rich, but there is something wrong with being obsessed with money for the sake of being rich. That is self-serving and ultimately that selfishness will come back to haunt you. However, becoming rich through service to others is not only fine, it's honourable. It glorifies God. So as soon as you make a committed decision, not some wishy washy dream or hope but an absolute commitment to achieving then the universe responds. Things are set into motion and that reality becomes real. It just hasn't arrived as yet.

"Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elemental truth - that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too." - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Our success is promised to us. However, it is not promised to us on a timeline of our choosing or in a way that we envision it. Often growth, our personal growth is required for us to achieve our goals and dreams. What good would it be to meet the man or woman of your dreams if you are not mature enough to satisfy them? What good would owning a huge company be if we have not developed the wisdom to run it successfully? What benefit is there to us being in some starving, war ravaged country to help if we are unable to cope with the reality around us? Everything happens in accordance to the Laws of the Universe in perfect accordance to God's time. We just can't see it or understand it. Nor do we need to. You probably don't understand exactly how a light bulb works, but you flick on a switch with absolute confidence that the room will immediately be filled with light. It doesn't matter to you how that electricity is being made, where it's traveling from or how a light bulb works, you have a rough idea but you trust it'll work, just like it has every other time you flicked on a switch. Now of course, there were days when you hit the switch and nothing happened. What went wrong? Do you despair that you'll live the rest of your life in the dark? No! Of course not. You try another bulb. If that doesn't work, try the fuse, or maybe call an electrician. You always remain confident an answer will soon be found. But when it comes to our hopes and dreams, one set back is often enough to derail us.

We need to constantly remind ourselves that our aspirations are already promised to us. That we need to just be patient, persistent, positive, walk in prayer and maintain the proper perspective.

If you haven't reached your goal yet, do not grieve that it is continuing to elude you, be grateful that you are one day closer to achieving it. Hold on to the Promise.