Often just one self-help principle can increase your power to achieve your goals and can help your life take off. This article is about one such principle - success breeds success. I once suggested that, if you don't feel like going shopping, just go and sit in your car with your car keys and some money! Once you are there, you will almost always take the next step and drive to the shops. If you find drinking 8 glasses of water a day difficult, drink just one glass a day. I drink one glass a night. I am then more likely to drink more water later in the day. The key in both the examples above is to achieve a small success like just sitting in your car or drinking one glass of water. Each success will usually lead on to another and so on. Judith Wright gave a similar piece of advice to a man who had failed to use his expensive work out equipment. He was planning to ride his mountain bike 3 times a week. She told him he would fail. Instead he should plan only to sit on his bike in the garage three times a week. He resisted this advice for a while as being less than macho but in the end followed it. As Judith wisely predicted he not only sat on the bike, he went for a little ride. Pretty soon he was working out regularly. One success breeds another. He had given himself the gift of success. I too have an exercise bike I have barely used. It is set up in front of a TV set so that I could be entertained or even educated as I worked out. In spite of this inviting arrangement I have seldom used it. Judith Wright's bicycle remedy would solve my problem. In fact I tried it today and it worked. I also have a stretching machine in my bedroom which I only rarely use. It is often covered with clothes and parcels etc. However, when I do actually make the effort to sit on it, I usually do some stretching. Lower your expectations until you achieve a very small success and then start raising your expectations. If you start with high expectations and fail, you are less likely to continue. Success on the other hand, as is well known, breeds success. If you can't bear to sit on your exercise bike at least go and stand by it! The principle of success breeds success can be applied to almost anything. If you are delaying reading a book, just put it on the desk in front of you. Big deal! But if you go on and read a life changing book, it will be a big deal. If you don't feel like doing the tasks on your to do list, just look at the list for a minute or so or rewrite it. This may sow the seed of action in your subconscious mind and even if you don't take action immediately, you may do so later. If you are slimming, stay out of the kitchen for another five minutes. In the mean time you may well get interested in something other than food or may even get some work done. By the time you have finished you may actually be hungry rather than just bored. Just this one principle of success breeding success can change lives! Give yourself the gift of success and expect the miracle of a life transformed. |
