truly believe Augustine’s words are true and if you look at history you know it is true. There are many people in the world with amazing talents who realize only a small percentage of their potential. We all know people who live this truth. we also know those epic stories, those modern-day legends surrounding the early failures of such supremely successful folks as Michael Jordan and Bill Gates. We can look a bit further back in time to Albert Einstein or even further back to Abraham Lincoln. what made each of these people so successful? motivation. we know this in our gut, but what can we do about it? how can we motivate ourselves? one of the most difficult aspects of achieving success is staying motivated over the long haul. motivation will almost always beat mere talent.

Motivation is not an accident or something that someone else can give you – you are the only one with the power to motivate you. motivation cannot be an external force, it must come from within as the natural product of your desire to achieve something and your belief that you are capable to succeed at your goal. positive pleasure-oriented goals are much more powerful motivators than negative fear-based ones. Although each is successful separately, the right combination of both is the most powerful motivational force known to humankind.

The first thing to remember about success is that it is a process -nothing more, nothing less. there is really no magic to it and it’s not reserved only for a select few people. as such, success really has nothing to do with luck, coincidence or fate. it really comes down to understanding the steps in the process and then executing on those steps One thing for certain though.

Success isn’t really that difficult. there is a significant portion of the population here in North America, that actually want and need success to be hard! Why? so they then have a built-in excuse when things don’t go their way! pretty sad situation, to say the least. for those of you who are serious about having more, doing more, giving more and being more, success is achievable with some understanding of what to do, some discipline around planning and execution of those plans and belief that you can achieve your desires.