Why isn’t success easy?

‘Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.’- Orison Swett Marden

Do you feel drained when you face problems after problems in your life?

Do you think you were born to fail?

Do you think god has singled you out to show his wrath?

Do you also feel that everyone is having the best in their lives whereas you have to struggle to make both ends meet?

I had these pessimistic feelings when I was undergoing many harrowing experiences in my life. My financial debacle, the loss of my husband and the heavy debts I had made me anxious with worry. I thought I would never recover from my distress and agony.

Was there any hope for me? I asked myself an umpteenth time.

Yes, there was one ray of hope in my life. That was my resilient nature. I never gave up fighting against odds that easily. I struggled but I always kept trying. I fought against my problems and swam ashore to safety with confidence as my paddle.

Life is never easy and often you wonder why you have to struggle so much to achieve your success.

Why can’t you have success just like that?

Why does it take so long to see the ray of victory in your life?

You never know the true value of success if you achieve it with a click of your fingers. It needs your sustained work to make you climb the ladder of success.

Let us suppose gold can be dug within a few feet, anywhere and everywhere. Will you value it? You value gold because it is hard to get and is a rare commodity.

You have to dig deep for gold!

So also you have to work hard for your success.

When success is had easily you also lose it easily!

In India there was a film star who achieved great success at a very young age. His films were great box office hits and his easy success made think that he was destined to succeed. He threw tantrums and behaved rudely as if everyone was at his beck and call.

But when his films began to flop he was thrown out of the film industry as a nonentity. I saw his interview a few days back and he said that he did not know the value of success as it came very easily to him. ‘If I was to relive my life again I would ask for defeat as it would have made me fight for my success and I would have still been in the film industry.’ He had a point there!

You learn more from your failures than from your success. Failures make you see your mistakes clearly and motivate you to do things intelligently. Success needs many ingredients before it alights on your shoulders.

What are the ingredients of success?

• Hard and untiring work
• Intelligent approach
• Allocation of work
• People’s skill
• Alertness to see a new opportunity
• The willingness to improvise
• Smart way of working
• Humility
• Confidence and assertiveness
• Helping tendency

These qualities are the essential ingredients to success.

Instant success is like driving in a road where you are about to reach a dead end.

Hardly earned success needs the deftness of driving with control in hairpin bends and speed breakers with pencil sharp focus before you reach your victorious destination.

When you fail again and again, your mind feels drained of energy and you want to just let go your efforts. ‘What is the use of trying when I am not succeeding’ you feel completely put off, don’t you? Do you think all successful people achieved success very easily?

You just see their affluent facade and feel overawed by their fame and social status. But you turn a blind eye to their struggle and hard work before they achieved their success. You should not compare your success with others as this makes you feel incompetent and ineffectual.

Your competitor is you! You should gather your energy and keep improvising your work. You should keep yourself updated and modernized. You fall short of success only when you do not try! Do you know that success is within your reach? Just give a final leap to touch the winning post.