BY Bill Reagan
Every success, great or small, is three dimensional.
The first dimension is desire. You have to want it. Most of your success or failure in any endeavor revolves around desire. We are emotional creatures. The stronger our emotional connection to a goal, the more likely we are to succeed.
The next dimension is determination. Success is about change – a change in personal habits or ideas, a change in circumstances, or a change in the conditions we live in. Change does not happen just because we desire it. Change happens when the desire (feeling) is coupled with determination (the mental commitment). If you really want something you will find a way, if not you will find an excuse.
The third dimension is discipline. Discipline is both the hardest and easiest part of success. Absent desire and determination discipline is just about impossible. When the desire and determination are present discipline becomes the natural way of living. Discipline means making a plan and committing to it.
Successful marriages are three dimensional. They begin with desire, the attraction two people have for one another. But desire without determination and discipline is only an affair. It cannot last. At some point two people make a success out of their relationship because they determine to see it through and do what they have to do to accomplish it.
With few exceptions we all do what we really want to do. We succeed or fail because we want to. We choose one activity or life style over another because that is what we want.
You may want to see some kind of change in your life and have not found the way to accomplish your goal. Find the right emotion (desire), decide what outcome you want on the basis of that desire (determination) and use desire and determination daily to accomplish your goal (discipline).
Bill Reagan is executive director of Loaves & Fishes of the Rio Grande Valley.
