The Morning Ascent
Don’t wait for extraordinary opportunities.
Seize common opportunities and make them great. Weak men wait for opportunities; strong men make them.
Here is a good way to look at life: Picture yourself walking through a maze. You’ll test all sorts of doors, some of which might take you to new and interesting avenues, some of which might dead-en. If you just keep opening doors and moving forward, eventually you will arrive someplace worthwhile.
The open doors of opportunity are all around you, but they won’t do you much good unless you learn to see them and recognize when to walk through them.
Keep walking. On your journey, you won’t find lights illuminating your path or signs stating that your destination nears. You could be on the verge of success and not even know it. Push forward! Perseverance pays. Most people don’t get to the open door because they don’t walk far enough. As Norman Vincent Peale said, “It’s always too early to quit!”
Keep searching. It is easy to miss an opportunity if you don’t know what you are looking for. The most successful people wake up each morning with a clear sense of what they want to create in their lives. That clarity of purpose makes it easy to identify a good opportunity.
Keep working. As Thomas Edison said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Nothing in worthwhile in life comes easy. If you want bigger and better things, you have to be willing to work for them.
Keep opening. Too many people get to one door, go through it and say, “Whew!” They don’t realize that taste of success is really just a nibble. The only advantage of going through the first door is that it leads to a second door. A dozen doors later you are really starting to experience success.
Once you conquer the maze, you can turn around and guide others. To me, that is the highest form of success.
Start opening doors and never stop. Life is full of opportunity for those who are willing to look for it.
Make today your day to shine!