The accomplishment of anything in life begins with the desire to do something that has personal meaning and that has heart felt value. Success is an expression of love, service, and a commitment to excellence. True success often has little to do with money, political power, fast cars or fame. Success is what you feel as you try to make a positive difference in your corner of the world. It's a light that shines brightly against the backdrop of darkness, greed, personal advantage and manipulation.

As you adopt powerful principles of greatness, you will find your life is rewarding personally and the good you can accomplish is unlimited. You may even find that you do well economically, which is a great blessing. I believe that money and personal benefit should not be allowed to overshadow your positive ambitions. In order to have the strength you need to do great things, your focus must remain at a higher level. Once you focus on yourself you become weaker and your leadership (especially in your own eyes) becomes suspect. After all, as a leader your first mission is to lead yourself.

Pick A Personal Mission Greater Than Self

I can pick goals for myself because there are things that mean a lot to me and that are powerful motivators for me. However, I could never pick goals for you or even my own children. We are meant to be individuals, thinking for ourselves, reaching for the stars and helping others to do the same. Growth is a personal expression of life and the decisions we make for ourselves are the only things for which we can truly take credit. Truth and it's benefits are already there and as we seek them we'll find them. Force might provide 'guidance' but never provides for personal growth. Choose to make your life better, and ...grow!

Human beings need each other. We build communities and social systems to provide for the expression of community and social order that is part of our internal makeup. A society of self reliant, and contributing individuals each committed to doing their best to be the best they can be is undefeatable. Such a system of order requires no outside enforcement of values. Positive values and order are automatic as individuals express their individual pursuit of excellence and selfless drive toward what is best for all.

Obviously, we have a long way to go before we reach this kind of Utopian vista. However, the closer we can get to actualizing this kind of vision of human potential, the better life can be for all of us.

Ideas Have Consequences, Pick The Greatest

Too many of us these days are totally dependent on the government for crisis management in all it's forms. The more we shirk our personal duties for controlling our lives and destinies the more subject we become to negative consequences. When we take a weak approach to life and fail to set goals and get to work on achieving them, we become weak and selfish, driven by our own empty self indulgent physical appetites. The mind darkens, suspicion and self doubt take over. Failure follows along with guilt, misery, and sorrow. Faith flees and we become negative through and through.

Thankfully, this does not have to be. All we need to do is find something that we care about, that blesses the lives of others and turn our lives towards the light. We can take the wheel and start driving towards goals worth achieving. We didn't come into this life to fail. The genius of success is with us, but we need to get moving. Achieving makes us stronger which becomes a reinforcing circle of upward growth.

So much sorrow in the world is the result of those that pursue ideas that are selfish, intolerant, and self destructive. In fact, one of the defining characteristics of evil men is their false notion that they are somehow endowed with greater knowledge and that they have the right to deny the individual rights and liberties of people 'for their own good". Rights must be limited in any society (which is a huge topic beyond the scope of this article), but when any individual forces his personal views on others, misery follows. The answer to collective responsibility is not force but teaching truth and a positive attitude. When people understand the truth and are positive and active participants force is not required.

We all come into this world given an internal compass and a personality that is unique. By harnessing our uniqueness and working to benefit the world in which we live, we can be powerful instruments of change. Working together well with others becomes automatic and the world becomes a better and happier place.

Financial Rewards

Just because you're on a mission to make the world a better place does not imply you are destined for poverty. In fact, by focusing on benefiting others and the world in general, financial opportunities will almost undoubtedly come your way. Life has a way of returning good to those that are dedicated to providing good. Selfless acts are often rewarded, even though you're not seeking personal benefit!

The key idea here as I mentioned before, is to seek to do good and surround yourself with others that share the same frame of mind. I like a poster I saw a few years ago, it said "It's hard to soar with eagles, when you have to work with turkeys!". There's some real truth in that humour. Avoid the critics of the world. They live like cowards surrounded by a giant bulwarks of excuses. They justify their inactivity and shallow self serving lives by undermining everybody else.

There would be more successful people in the world if people would focus on what they're going to do that would be worth a million dollars, instead of focusing on how to spend a million dollars. So even if becoming a millionaire is your goal, start thinking about service instead of the rewards. The rewards will come, and the most valuable rewards will not be in the form of money. That I guarantee.

Realistic Thinking

We've been considering the ideal but part of seeking the truth is to look at what can be accomplished realistically. Keep in mind that you can do great things and never win the race. The fact is that greatness and personal achievement are not necessarily the same thing. Greatness is an approach to life, not an end in itself. You may never win a Nobel prize or have any of your accomplishments noted in the local paper. Great is what you can be. Greatness is a powerful and rewarding way to live.

The world is not an even playground where we all have an equal shot at first place. We are a mix of weakness and great potential. I will never make the olympic team, but I could train as if I were going to make the team and end up in great physical condition! What have I lost? The naysayers might think "What an idiot", but who cares? I'd be in better physical condition and operating at my best. Growing and achieving ...that's greatness.

Nothing drives a negative person over the edge quicker than a person with a positive view on life. They have accepted their awful fate and when you insist on trying to do great things they feel convicted. Try to encourage them to join you on the positive side of life but don't let them slow you down. Your best shot at helping them is to stay positive. Avoid negative people.

Bad things can happen to good people so even when you are being great, things can and will happen that are unfair, unjust, hurtful, and physically disastrous. However, no matter what happens to you, your lot in life will be better by adopting a positive attitude to life and it's challenges.

Any philosophy of life in order to be empowering, must be built on a foundation of true principles. Deception or outright lies no matter how devoutly believed are still lies and have negative consequences. If we all took a vote and devoutly believed that gravity did not exist, we would still be in it's grasp and subject to it's very real influence. However, acknowledging gravity gives us the ability to harness it's power as a force for good. Truth empowers. Lies leave us subject to all the negative consequences of error.

Prepare For Change, Be a Leader!

Who motivates the motivator? We've all heard motivational talks or read things that were really exciting. What did you do afterward? Did you act on the new found knowledge or did you just go back to what you were doing before. We need to find ways to motivate ourselves to do the things that we want to do but never seem to get done...post it notes, diaries, tapes, books, anything that lights our fires and gets us going. In the end, we need to get going and keep going towards our worthy goals. Who will follow us when we won't even follow ourselves?

When life is going okay, prepare for when it's not going well. When life is tough, prepare to make your life better in the future.

Look for truth, live truth, activate your life, be something worth being.

Embrace change and be ready. Make a better life. Drive the car, don't just ride in the back seat. Be a leader, not a victim. Change what needs to be changed.

Go for it!