Yours to fulfil
Extraordinary achievements come from the consistent application of very ordinary and available qualities. Success is within the reach of anyone who can find sufficient desire to succeed. The fundamental tools of success and achievement are not locked away in secret, or hidden in some unattainable place. Those tools are readily available to all who wish to use them.
What does it take to be disciplined and focused, persistent and committed to making whatever effort may be required? It takes nothing more than a strong, compelling and meaningful reason. When the reason is there, when the desire is strong, the qualities necessary for achievement will be ready for work. You are just as capable and deserving of success as anyone who has ever lived.
So make use of the powerful tools which you've been given. Tap into the ordinary qualities of discipline, of commitment, of sincerity, humility, integrity and effort. They are yours to use, yours with which to build, to achieve, to excel, and to fulfil the special purpose with which you've been blessed.
Starting point
Regardless of how far behind you may be, you always can choose to move forward. Though people and events and circumstances may conspire against you, you can decide to move ahead anyway.
Success depends on your direction, not on your position. No matter where you may be, it is always within your reach, and you can always begin to work for your own special success.
It's perfectly okay to be where you are. Because from where you are, you can move steadily to wherever you desire to be. Sure, it's probably not the ideal situation, and yet it is a starting point. It's the starting point you have, and one from which you most certainly can move forward.
It will happen because you decide to make it happen. It will happen because you'll do what's necessary to make it happen. This day, this place, this situation is your starting point. Now is your moment to reach as high as you care to reach. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it. Decide for yourself and start moving yourself positively there.
The next step
The most important step for you to take is the next step. The next step forms a crucial connection between your past actions and your future results. If you fail to take the next step, all the steps you've taken before will be wasted. If you do not take the next step, all the steps you've so carefully planned to take cannot be reached.
Success is achieved by those who are always willing to take the next step, whatever that step may be. Life's greatest accomplishments are never magically created all at once, but are built one step at a time.
Entrepreneurs who build successful businesses do so by always being ready to take the next step. People who create positive and lasting relationships do so by always being there to take the next step.
Right now there is an all-important next step for you to take. You've come a long way, and now is your opportunity to keep the momentum going, or to get it going again if it has slowed. Now is the moment to do what comes next. Take the next step, and connect yourself with the best of your possibilities.
Fabric of your life
Where has the time gone? It has not gone but has been going, and continues to go into making you who you are. The moments and hours, months and years seem to pass by at an ever-quickening pace. But they are filling you up, not passing you by.
For you are busy becoming who you will become, and expressing who you are. As time moves past it is never lost, but woven forever into the fabric of your life.
It is never too early and it is never too late to fully live the moment that is here right now. And the more you make of it, the more valuable it will always be to you.
The clock just keeps on ticking, and what it measures is not what you are losing but what you are continuing to gain. You always have the opportunity to make this moment, this day, this year even better than the last, better in fact than ever before.
Time is yours in which to live, to grow, to love and to experience. The more of it you've known, the richer you become.
Ralph Marston