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TIME FOR YOUR AUTHENTIC READING LESSON!
You wake up one day and start to think over your life and create different plans for your future … It happened to me a few days ago and I strongly believe it happened to you at least once too, if it doesn’t even every day! And you keep asking yourself: Am I successful? How can I become successful? When you start to discuss it with your friends you face complete misunderstanding … Some of you think of the most important things in their lives, others of their associations with the word SUCCESS only. And even those associations appear completely different from each other: family, life goals, love, home, dreams and, of course, job, career, money. And have you already decided what SUCCESS is for you? Go through John Watson’s text and make up your mind!
READ, READ, READ!
What is Success and How Do We Achieve It?
By John Watson
To be clear about what success is must be the first step to achieving success.
So far, the best definition I have come across is: "Success is the completion of anything intended." In other words success is finishing what you planned to do. Even robbing a bank is a kind of success if that is what you wished to do. However, you probably did not intend to end up in prison!
This may seem very obvious but it is amazing that only about 85% of the human race end up doing what they intended. I asked several people what they thought success was. One person said that "Success is making loads of money." Another said that success is "Achieving your goals". Someone else said that success is "Fulfilling your potential". An interesting answer was that success is "Making others jealous". Brian Tracy agrees with the connection between success and goals. He has said "Success is goals, and all else is commentary." Tracy believes that people with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them. Maria Nemeth gives this definition of success: "Doing what you said you would do, with ease"."Doing what you said you would do" is currently not achieved by the majority of the human race especially politicians! Doing it with ease is achieved by even fewer and requires making the most of the subconscious mind. The writer who writes every day has written well over 300 pages by the end of the year. If he or she does not write every day they lose momentum and inspiration. If they keep up the writing (even just a few words a day) a magnet for relevant thoughts develops. Recently a Liverpool student of American media studies applied for 600 jobs and received only one interview which he failed. He decided to write a novel. He determined to complete ten pages a day. He worked in the evenings at a dead end job to make money and then wrote until about 5 in the morning at his novel which has now become famous. It also looks like becoming a Hollywood blockbuster film. He points out that if you write only one page a day for 100 days you can write a screen play. He wrote his novel by studying the structure of two other novels and noticing how they were structured and wrote his screenplay after studying video of films and noticing how long each scene lasted before there was a change.
I can't remember his name or the name of his book as I just happened to hear part of his interview on television.
The practice of daily disciplines alone can change our lives totally. Another benefit of daily disciplines is that they quickly create habits and habits create character. A great quote by Jim Ryun, the American Athlete, is as follows". “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going" Another brilliant quote is:"Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value."Albert Einstein The next quote says more or less the same thing:"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it." Henry David Thoreau Many would argue that success is not about making money but about developing oneself into a person who is valuable to others. However, this quite often will lead to making money because people will pay for value. Anyone who is very good at their job can usually command whatever pay they wish. "To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and appreciation of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived; this is to have succeeded."
"The biggest secret of success in life is: You don't have to get it right; you just have to get it going. Perfectionism can kill success. We never get going because we are always waiting to get everything just right. Instead, let's get going."
Success is a key goal for most people but it helps to have a clear idea of what success means to you. I hope this article will have shed some light on possible definitions of success and provided some ideas about how you can achieve your kind of success.
Make sure you understand the article. Go through Your Help Guide and read again.
Your Help Guide:
achieving success - getting what is success for you
completion of anything intended - finishing the things you wanted to do
obvious - easy to notice, evident
achieve your goals - realize your aims
accomplish - complete, manage to do
with ease - easily
currently - in progress, most recently
subconscious mind - existing and working without your awareness
relevant thoughts - proper, important thoughts
determine - decide
dead end job - job in which further progress is impossible
blockbuster film - successful film
benefit - advantage
habit - tendency to act in a particular way
value - here: code of behavior, ethics
command - order, require
affection - a feeling of fondness, positive emotion
appreciation - thanks or gratitude
redeemed social condition - recovered, obtained social state
key goal - the most important aim
Reading Task
Even if you don’t understand all the words in the text still, don’t lose any sleep over it. Answer the following questions. If you can do it, your reading comprehension level is good really good!
According to the text’s author …
a) Do all people get what they intended?
b) Are the politicians examples of successful people?
c) What is the condition for developing relevant thoughts for the writer’s work?
d) How are habits beneficial for us?
e) What’s the purpose of the article?
f) Can you choose your favourite definition of success in the essay?
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