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Start Where You Are
"People are always blaming
their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances.
The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for
the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them."
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Today there are altogether
too many people who expect success and happiness for a small price
or nothing at all. So many seem to think that the "good life" is
every person's birthright. So few seem to understand that God meant
the good things of life to be earned by the "sweat of your brow."
Most people today lack a deep-down desire to achieve a worthwhile
life by their own efforts, through the full development and use of
their own abilities. And so, glibly and thoughtlessly, they alibi
their own mediocrity by blaming others, or circumstances, for lack
of opportunity to reveal and utilize their talents. |
George Bernard Shaw, the
playwright, put it this way: "People are always blaming their
circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The
people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the
circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them."
Others whine: "If only I liked my work, then I would be successful!" Well,
that is self-deceit at its very worst. Only the self-indulgent fool can
believe that work must be "play" to bring success. The lives of countless
men and women bear witness to the truth that man can be master of his
circumstances.
On February 8, 1957, for example, Judge Simon Ross left the First District
Court of Appeals in Cincinnati after almost twenty-eight years of
distinguished service on the bench, confiding that he would rather have
been an electrical engineer than a judge. "I never really enjoyed law
practice," he said. "As a judge, you're not actually a participant in
anything; you're just a referee. I've always envied those men who are
constructive, building and erecting things. I always tried to be
conscientious and do my best though."
Success is achieved by doing the best you can with "what you've got," and
how well the 73-year-old jurist — dean of Ohio's thirty Appellate Court
judges — succeeded was shown by a stack of letters from colleagues all
over Ohio. They congratulated him on his long career and wished him well
in retirement. One associate, Judge Arthur A. Doyle of Akron, wrote:
"You're the most respected judge in the state."
Work is work! And there isn't a vocation in the world that is entirely
free of at least a few distasteful tasks. The judge must "referee." The
dairy farmer must clean his barn. The salesman must keep his records, and
so on ad infinitum. The disagreeable must be taken along with the pleasant
— that is part of living a realistic and rewarding life. And when you take
the bad with the good, lo and behold, the work that seemed so tedious and
uninspiring becomes endurable, often stimulating and satisfying.
To make a go-of-it where you are — even if today you think your job is the
most boring occupation in the world and unworthy of your talents — is the
first and foremost challenge in the pursuit of a successful and a happy
life.
And then — if perchance you are in truth outrageously miscast — there will
follow, as day follows night, un-dreamed-of opportunities to graduate into
other and more enticing fields of enterprise.
In further pursuance of this vital problem of job satisfaction, careful
investigation revealed this inspiring fact, that the attainment of success
in one's work — assuming, of course, that it is honorable work — almost
without exception means satisfaction with the job itself. Acknowledgement
was well-nigh unanimous that success, even if only in a modest measure,
dissipates most if not all serious gripes, which are usually nothing more
or less than face-saving alibis for lack of commendable achievement.
It is failure to achieve a reasonable measure of success that creates, in
most instances, dislike for the work one is doing, and consequently so
often ends in mediocrity, sometimes in utter failure.
It is true, however, that work is easier and more satisfying if it is work
for which one has a natural inclination. But the fact remains that you can
succeed, at least for a while, in your present work, no matter how boring
and distasteful it may be, if you will resolutely make up your mind to do
it, pull yourself together mightily, buckle down to hard work, and utilize
every one of your God-given talents to the fullest. Resolute action works
miracles!
During the terrible depression of the early thirties many courageous men
and women accepted whatever jobs were available — no matter how little
natural talent they seemed to have for the work, and often despite utter
aversion and personal humiliation — in order to provide for the simplest
needs of their loved ones, and to get a new start in life. Men who had
been top executives — several of whom had lost fortunes in the stock
market crash of 1929 —who came into the life insurance business in order
to make a livelihood for their families. And though these men had never
before sold anything and frankly admitted dislike of selling as a
vocation, they studied and trained earnestly, worked day and night, and
achieved commendable success in the life insurance business.
Artists dug ditches, and cultured women cleaned offices, during those
difficult times, and they did their work gallantly and well.
Better days with better opportunities came eventually to these people, as
they always do come to those who are willing to do their very best and
persevere under the most trying circumstances.
Self Improvement Article
Copyright Empirical Publishing
Contact: admin @ topbusinessresources . com |