In the first and second articles on success, we said that neither the pursuit of money nor greatness was sufficient to sustain the necessary tenacious perseverance to be successful. We said that if one pursues success based on a drive for money or even greatness that eventually the obstacles, challenges, and reasons to quit will cause you to stop your pursuit. It takes something more and that is a moral obligation to pursue success. It takes an obligation, a sense that you have to do it, that you cannot NOT do it.
Why Most People Are Not Successful
Most people will never experience success. Most people do not feel obligated and thus will not persevere to achieve a goal. Most people feel they can stop pursuing a goal when it is no longer worth it, or is inconvenient now for them, or because circumstances have changed, or because it has become too difficult, or some other reason. Most people do not feel obligated to set and achieve a goal. Therefore, most don’t. And that is why most people are not successful.
Don’t lose hope though. You can be successful. You can persevere. There is a way to be “obligated,” which we’ll clarify further. Also, we will tell you what success factors you need to be successful and strategies of how to get there.
How Obligation Can Help You Succeed
To be “obligated” is to feel you have to do something. It means that you feel that, because of who you are, it would not be you if you didn’t do something. You have either decided or have lived that way and you feel compelled, driven, obligated to do it. You cannot just stop. It’s who you are, what you do, it’s how you think, it’s the right thing to do, and you wouldn’t feel right with yourself if you didn’t do it.
Take exercising and being “in shape” for example. How is it that some people seem to make themselves go to the gym or get up and run each day, or find time to exercise and eat the right foods? What drives them to sustain consistent exercise activity and to persevere even when business travel, or weather, or other activities pull on them to stop? The best underlying reason, driver, is they feel they have to. They feel that it is who they are. They think in ways that seem to obligate them to keep at it, no matter what. They would feel guilty if they stopped. In fact, they may even unconsciously do it, out of habit!
We all know people like this. We would say, when it comes to exercise goals and being in shape, that “these” people are successful. We may not understand what keeps them going or how they do it, but when know success when we see it. But, the fact is, there is no “magic” here. It is doable by you if you feel obligated and include a few success factors and strategies. For example, if a doctor told you that to continue living you had to lose 30 pounds and change your diet, you could do it, but only if you indeed felt obligated. Some might not. Some might feel obligated to follow doctors orders if they had a young child to raise, for example. The key is to feel obligated.
In our next article, we will elaborate on the ways to create obligation for yourself to achieve your goals. We will eventually discuss five ways in which you can create and feel obligation to be successful. Then we’ll discuss success factors and strategies to be successful. But, first things first. Obligation!
