Success and Who You Are

Sometimes circumstances give us an opportunity to reflect on where we are and to choose once again how we want to live.
Having run a very large business, employing close to a hundred people and turning over many millions, I found myself in a situation where the business no longer existed and my job as I had known it no longer existed. I had received many accolades in terms of what I had done, but the business failed.
I needed to earn some income and so I opened a video rental store. It was a complete change from what I had done in the previous years and it certainly didn’t have the heights of television appearances, newspaper articles and all the other furniture of the world of a high-profile, successful company.
One day while working in the store a guy came in to return the newly released James Bond movie. This was long before downloading or the world of high tech so the release of a James Bond movie was hugely significant in terms of the video rental business.
When I saw what he was returning, just to make conversation, I asked if it was any good, to which he replied, ‘it was, but it was very hard to believe in places.’
I was about to explain that the film wasn’t actually portraying a true story, nor was it a documentary, when I realised that this was more a reflection of where I was than where he was. It was a great illustration to me that it was about time that I moved on and made the decision to change my circumstances.
We all have the freedom to choose so we shouldn’t restrict ourselves in situations where we get glaring illustrations of how we’re compromising, undervaluing or limiting ourselves.
That’s the time to take the opportunity to look again at where you are and to make some decisions in right-minded-fullness of what you want to do and more importantly, who you want to be.
If you can understand that your natural instinct is to be far more Self-critical than is really necessary then that gives you a foundation to start the reconstruction of your mindset for personal achievement and more successful living.
Most of us assume the worst without ever asking ourselves why because we instinctively take ownership of Self-doubt and shortcomings within any situation.
The focus of understanding how to change this instinctive behaviour starts by learning to see the journey as one step at a time, as opposed to wanting a huge instantaneous shift, subsequently failing and then ending back at the beginning laboured with doubt one more time.
Be gentle with your Self but remain focused in the awareness that there is another way, a way of positive truth and Self-fulfilment.
Life’s journey is not about avoidance. It’s about engagement and abundant reward. As you see it, you live it.
By starting to see the inner perfection you automatically experience a better world around you