Sometimes we look at people who have achieved success in their field of trade or passion and we are envious of their achievements and wonder why we are not able to have the same. We need to remember that achievement takes effort and is rarely achieved by sheer luck.
This week I would like to share four steps to achievement that I read in “Life Lists for Women”. If you have the cards or the book, you will be able to find them there.
1. Plan purposefully. Discover and decide what you would like to achieve and make a plan on the work that you need to do to get it done. Answer the questions of WHAT needs to get done, HOW it will get done, WITH WHOM and WHEN. Set goals and objectives for your career, family, business or personal life. These are not things to be left to chance, but rather a clear purposeful plan should be designed. Luke 14:28 Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?
2. Prepare prayerfully. As believers, we have the awesome privilege of having a loving God who wants to be involved in every aspect of our lives and who created us knowing all our days. He is the master planner of our lives and knows exactly what the direction of our lives should be. Therefore, we don’t need to struggle on our own but rather commit everything to Him in prayer seeking Him for guidance in all our plans on a daily basis. Proverbs 16:3 Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans.
3. Proceed positively. We live in a fallen world alone and because of that alone, life is not going to be easy. You will face obstacles, rejection, negativity and all manner of things that will push you to quit, but rather maintain a positive attitude that things will work out. Trust that God brought you this far and will see you through to the end. Philippians 1:6 …being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus
4. Pursue persistently. We all like to get things easy, to avoid the struggle, to have our dreams unfold exactly as we planned but this rarely happens. We often have to change our strategy, sometimes things will take much longer than we expected, people will disappoint us but we must keep on pursuing our goals and dreams and we will eventually see them come to fruition. Proverbs 14:23 All hard work brings a profit but mere talk leads to poverty.