I Was Just Thinking

by Pastor Vincent Imwensi

When you mention “Dos and Don’ts” many people are immediately turned off. Many want to succeed but not many are ready to give it what it takes.

If you want to rise to the top, you need to realise that there are things to do and things to avoid. There are habits to cultivate and habits to kick out of your life. There are relationships to nurture and relationships to avoid, there are personal disciplines to develop and weaknesses to overcome, etc – there are dos and don’ts!

The secret of the successful
I have come to find out that really successful people have dos and don’ts because success has its rules. You can’t just live anyhow and end up a success. Yes, those who succeed have rules of conduct. In fact, in almost anything, they have some sort of rules at the back of their minds.

They have rules concerning when they sleep and wake up, how much work they must put into each day, what they eat and what they don’t, where they go, how they spend, what company they keep, etc.

And yet the average person doesn’t like dos and don’ts. They are considered to be too restrictive because they seem to infringe upon the liberty to do whatever you want, whenever you want and however you want.

If you must know the truth, successful people don’t lend themselves to that kind of liberty.

Is it any wonder then that so many people dream of success but only few achieve it?

Even “celebs” have to learn dos and don’ts
Many of the celebrities that so many people flock after and sing about, have dos and don’ts for themselves. For instance, do you think they eat whatever comes their way to maintain their slender figures?

I am not saying that successful people don’t enjoy liberty and freedom. No – on the contrary, success brings a lot of freedom and liberty.
In fact, I was listening to one successful business tycoon not long ago and he said: ‘one of the benefits of success is that it gives you liberty to do the things that you would normally not have been able to do’. That is a lot of freedom.
But while that is true, it is easy to see from their lives that such liberty is guarded by rules.

I recently discovered that one of the major realities with which celebrities who end up in rehabilitation centres are confronted, is the simple lesson that success has rules.

Even if you become successful by chance (which happens sometimes), you cannot remain successful by chance.
You can’t live anyhow and stay at the top – otherwise, before you know it, you will come down crashing. Read the newspaper headlines and it won’t be long before you confirm that this is indeed true.

I am not talking of being legalistic
Let’s understand however that there are some dos and don’ts that are nothing more than blind and meaningless rituals. Those are not the ones I am talking about. There is nothing to these other than empty and unprofitable traditions and legalism that lead no where.

Here, I am talking about informed and educated dos and don’ts based on truths and principles that have been proven again and again to produce results and take people to the top. When you have come to discover what works and what doesn’t, it will be your wisdom to erect some dos and don’ts based on such insight. That is what successful people do.

Life is too short – so be smart
The irony however is that if you wait to find out by your own experience, what works and what doesn’t, you are not likely to make it to the top because life is too short for that. In most cases, just about the time you have gathered enough personal experience to make it to the top, you may find that you don’t have much time left to live.

It means therefore that we need to learn from those who have walked the walk, discovered the secrets of success and have actually succeeded by applying such principles. We must find authentic and unfailing source(s) of reliable information and insights to inform our dos and don’ts.

There are things you can’t copy
But there is a problem here. It is possible to learn and try to adopt the principles of those who have succeeded and still not be successful or as successful. Why? Because there are a lot of other variables that are involved in their success equation, which we may not be able to copy.

For instance, the individual’s inner drive, his propelling circumstances, his personal disciplines, his connections, his temperamental dispositions, etc, all play a part.

Sometimes the dark and negative circumstances that batter some individuals and the cruel pains inflicted by such circumstances, become the intoxicating liquor that move them to stop at nothing until they succeed. This is why not all mentorees are as successful as their mentors (and why in some cases, some succeed more than their mentors).

A hidden gold mine
If you want to look around (and you should), there are quite a few sources out there from which one may glean some wisdom for success but the most authentic and reliable that I have found and which I can recommend  to any one is the Holy Bible – the word of God!

What a lot of people do not realize is that the Bible is indeed a gold mine of success principles and keys. Out of ignorance, many keep snubbing what they are supposed to embrace and treasure. Ignorance is not good!

But there is a big difference however between the Bible source and other sources of success keys. The difference is that not only does the Bible give you the principles, it also empowers you to apply them.

How is that possible?, you may ask. It’s simple – get to know the author. God is the author of His word and when you enter into a living relationship with Him, He changes your entire personality and then gives you what is called “grace” – the ability to do what you wouldn’t have been able to do in your own strength and power. (To find out how to enter this relationship, click here).

In addition, the Bible provides us with honest, real-life accounts of various individuals from all walks of life, how they lived and how they ended up. From their mistakes, you will gather vital raw materials for your DON’Ts and from their triumphs and successes, you will glean wisdom for your DOs.

Find out for yourself
Forget all the negative stories you’ve heard about the Bible. Get yourself a copy and read through with an open mind. Begin with the New Testament. You will be amazed at the  difference it will make to your life.

If you want a day-by-day reading plan that will enable you to read through the entire Bible in one year, click here to download a FREE reading plan OR click here to read online.

Yes, success has its rules and successful people have dos and don’ts – don’t let anybody fool you.
Don’t live your life any how. Aim for the top and have the guideposts that will take you there. Determine what dos and don’ts are necessary to take you to the heights that you dream of.

But realize that knowing what to do to succeed is one thing but having the ability to do them is another. The answer to both sides of the equation is having a meaningful relationship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Click here to find out how.

See you at the top!

Visit our websites for more useful and helpful stuff viz:

http://www.livingwordlive.net/; http://www.lwrm.org.uk/ and http://www.youthsarena.net/

This entry was posted on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 at 12:53 am and is filed under Inspirational. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.