Success is not an accident. Sadly, failure is not an accident either. You succeed when you do what other successful people do, over and over, until these behaviors become a habit. Likewise, you fail if you don’t do what successful people do. In either case, nature is neutral. Nature does not take sides.
Nature doesn’t care. What happens to you is simply a matter of law—the law of cause and effect.
You can look at yourself as a machine with a default mechanism. Your default mechanism is the almost irresistible attraction of the expediency factor and the path of least resistance. In the absence of self-discipline, your default mechanism goes off automatically.
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This is the main cause of underachievement and the failure to realize your true potential.
When you are not working deliberately, consciously, and continuously to do, be, and have those things that constitute success for you, your default mechanism is at work. You end up doing those fun,easy, and low-value things in the short term that lead to frustration, financial worries, and failure in the long term.
Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar says, “The elevator to success is out of order, but the stairs are always open.”
There is an interesting point about the price of success: It must always be paid in full—and in
advance. Success, however you define it, is not like a restaurant where you pay after you have
enjoyed your meal. Instead it is like a cafeteria, where you can choose whatever you want, but you must pay for it before you eat it.
