Champions do regularly what ordinary men are only willing to do occasionally.
At the beginning of a new year, so much is said and written about goals and resolutions. Some people even go as far as writing long lists that they take to prayer meetings for special anointing services and special prophetic prayers and declarations. Yet, many resolutions get broken less than one month after they were made. At the end of the year when the count is taken, many goals would have gone unattained. The result? A sense of frustration.
For this reason, many people lapse into church-hopping; changing churches several times a year and attending every conceivable miracle rally where some “POWERFUL Man of God” would be ministering. Still, the frustration refuses to go away. As the Bible puts it, delayed expectations make the heart grow weary.
Why do many people keep experiencing cycles of failure and non-achievement year after year? The answer is simple but profound. If you want a change of result, you need a change of routine! Every status quo is sustained by a certain lifestyle characterized by specific disciplines which manifest in what we know as routine. More than a state of achievement, success or failure is first a behaviour!
From my study of successful people, I have found out one thing that characterizes them all. Each one of them has a power routine consisting of some things they do religiously EVERYDAY, that has made them consistently successful.
Mary Kay Ash once stated that she endeavoured to accomplish only 6 priority things every day. The giant cosmetic company by her name is eloquent testimony of her success. Samurai Wizard, bestselling author, and former copywriter for Donald Trump, Ken Hayashi carries a small pocket-size notebook where he routinely jots the vital issues and possibilities that crop up along his path daily. He retired at age 26 (yes, you read it right, TWENTY-SIX!) after building a multi-million-dollar business empire.
Any successful actor will tell you that beyond the obvious talent on display on the stage or on the set of a movie, are grueling hours of rehearsals and memorizing your lines until you fully assume the role you are playing. For hours, days and weeks, you keep going over the same lines; talking to yourself many times over as if you had lost your mind. Sometimes, the only audience you have is you entertaining yourself in front of your mirror.
In those private moments, not many people would publicly want to be identified as your friend. However, those private hours of consistent practice manifest themselves in the sterling performance that the audience gives a high rating or standing ovation for – after the show!
In the eyes of the world, the 100-metre dash Olympic gold medalist runs the winning race in under 10 seconds. But if you asked him, he would tell you that he started the race many years before the Olympics, even when no one gave him a chance to compete in the local community championships! But he kept a daily routine of running!
Champions are never made in the ring. They are only celebrated there. Medals are hung on the necks of those who were champions before they ever competed. The heavyweight boxing champion does not win by height or weight but by the quality of his history with punching bags!
A few years ago, while teaching at a seminar in the USA that had in attendance many professionals and ‘wannabe’ investors, I asked them a question: “If you want to change your life, what are the things you do now that need to change? What would you substitute for them?” Everyone had a list, some very long!
One year later, I discovered through my feedback system that a great number of them had done NOTHING about that list that could guarantee any significant changes in their lives! Statistics show that less than 10% of the world’s more than seven billion people actually control about 90% of the world’s resources and consequently, its power base!
According to Thomas A. Buckner, “To bring oneself to a frame of mind and to the proper energy to accomplish things that require plain hard work CONTINUOUSLY is the one big battle that everyone has. When this battle is won for all time, then everything is achieved”
True success is never accidental. Even if you stumble ACCIDENTALLY into success without mastering the ropes, you are sure to INCIDENTALLY fumble out of it! Success follows a pattern of practice of certain principles. You may know the principles. They may even appear quite simple and obvious, but you cannot profit from them until they are MASTERED through regular application.
Simply put, truly successful people follow a routine of success or power habits that make them succeed NATURALLY. If you really want to succeed and achieve your goals, you need to develop your own power routine. Permit me to quote myself by referring to my book THE 60-SECOND MOTIVATOR.
“I hated routine with a passion because I used to believe that it was the short cut to a boring life. That is, until I knew the real meaning of routine. Routine speaks about a regularity of procedure. It is predicated on the premise that you only do well what you do REPEATEDLY. Habits are nothing but the product of routine. The essential things of life follow a pattern that is almost predictable in regularity. Examples of such are breathing, your heartbeat, the transition between night and day and the various seasons of the year. When I came to see that, it dawned on me that true success follows a routine.
Perfection only comes through consistent practice. The virtuoso pianist becomes so by spending several hours every day pounding away at the same notes he has played several times before. Great writers did not hit it with their first attempt at putting pen to paper. Even if a writer’s first published work becomes a bestseller, suffice it to say that it could not possibly be his first attempt at writing.
David in the Bible had been a practicing slinger well before Goliath showed up. I cannot begin to imagine how many lizards and rats as well as birds in flight had been unfortunate casualties of David’s target practice. And because he had learnt to shoot smaller creatures without missing, Goliath was too big to miss!
When you do the right things repeatedly, you will be left with no time to do the wrong things.”
Consistency is what attracts attention. If you faithfully do something long enough, someone who is relevant to the activity will someday notice.
For most of us, starting is not so much a problem. The real challenge is the required ‘stick-to-itiveness’ that turns an act into an art and an art into a science! Here’s how it works: What you do repeatedly is what you do well. What you do well is what you are known for. What you are known for is what announces you! What you are recognized for is what determines what you are celebrated for. And what you are celebrated for determines what you are rewarded for! … continued.
Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!
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