Failure
is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight. Failure
is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor
choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few
errors in judgment repeated every day.
Now why would someone make
an error in judgment and then be so foolish as to repeat it every day?
The answer is because he or she does not think that it matters.
On
their own, our daily acts do not seem that important. A minor
oversight, a poor decision or a wasted hour generally doesn't result in
an instant and measurable impact. More often than not, we escape from
any immediate consequences of our deeds.
If we have not bothered
to read a single book in the past ninety days, this lack of discipline
does not seem to have any immediate impact on our lives. And since
nothing drastic happened to us after the first ninety days, we repeat
this error in judgment for another ninety days, and on and on it goes.
Why? Because it doesn't seem to matter. And herein lies the great
danger. Far worse than not reading the books is not even realizing that
it matters!
Those who eat too many of the wrong foods are
contributing to a future health problem, but the joy of the moment
overshadows the consequence of the future. It does not seem to matter.
Those who smoke too much or drink too much go on making these poor
choices year after year after year... because it doesn't seem to matter.
But the pain and regret of these errors in judgment have only been
delayed for a future time. Consequences are seldom instant; instead,
they accumulate until the inevitable day of reckoning finally arrives
and the price must be paid for our poor choices—choices that didn't seem
to matter.
Failure's most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In
the short term those little errors don't seem to make any difference.
We do not seem to be failing. In fact, sometimes these accumulated
errors in judgment occur throughout a period of great joy and prosperity
in our lives. Since nothing terrible happens to us, since there are no
instant consequences to capture our attention, we simply drift from one
day to the next, repeating the errors, thinking the wrong thoughts,
listening to the wrong voices and making the wrong choices. The sky did
not fall in on us yesterday; therefore the act was probably harmless.
Since it seemed to have no measurable consequence, it is probably safe
to repeat.
But we must become better educated than that!
If
at the end of the day when we made our first error in judgment the sky
had fallen in on us, we undoubtedly would have taken immediate steps to
ensure that the act would never be repeated. Like the child who places
his hand on a hot burner despite his parents' warnings, we would have
had an instantaneous experience accompanying our error in judgment.
Unfortunately,
failure does not shout out its warnings as our parents once did. This
is why it is imperative to refine our philosophy in order to be able to
make better choices. With a powerful, personal philosophy guiding our
every step, we become more aware of our errors in judgment and more
aware that each error really does matter.
Now here is the great news. Just like the formula for failure, the
formula for success is easy to follow: It's a few simple disciplines
practiced every day.
Now here is an interesting question worth
pondering: How can we change the errors in the formula for failure into
the disciplines required in the formula for success? The answer is by
making the future an important part of our current philosophy.
Both
success and failure involve future consequences, namely the inevitable
rewards or unavoidable regrets resulting from past activities. If this
is true, why don't more people take time to ponder the future? The
answer is simple: They are so caught up in the current moment that it
doesn't seem to matter. The problems and the rewards of today are so
absorbing to some human beings that they never pause long enough to
think about tomorrow.
But what if we did develop a new discipline
to take just a few minutes every day to look a little further down the
road? We would then be able to foresee the impending consequences of our
current conduct. Armed with that valuable information, we would be able
to take the necessary action to change our errors into new
success-oriented disciplines. In other words, by disciplining ourselves
to see the future in advance, we would be able to change our thinking,
amend our errors and develop new habits to replace the old.
One of
the exciting things about the formula for success—a few simple
disciplines practiced every day—is that the results are almost
immediate. As we voluntarily change daily errors into daily disciplines,
we experience positive results in a very short period of time. When we
change our diet, our health improves noticeably in just a few weeks.
When we start exercising, we feel a new vitality almost immediately.
When we begin reading, we experience a growing awareness and a new level
of self-confidence. Whatever new discipline we begin to practice daily
will produce exciting results that will drive us to become even better
at developing new disciplines.
The real magic of new disciplines
is that they will cause us to amend our thinking. If we were to start
today to read the books, keep a journal, attend the classes, listen more
and observe more, then today would be the first day of a new life
leading to a better future. If we were to start today to try harder, and
in every way make a conscious and consistent effort to change subtle
and deadly errors into constructive and rewarding disciplines, we would
never again settle for a life of existence—not once we have tasted the
fruits of a life of substance!
