Relax Focus Succeed (R) -- Newsletter for A Successful Life

We've talked about your Foundation -- The core set of values and beliefs upon which your vision of the future is built.

You have a foundation whether you've created it consciously or not. Your foundation is probably much less meaningful if you have not created it through conscious effort, but it still exists.

Your foundation lets you know what's important about where you are and where you want to go.

So what's your base?

Your base is your most fundamental support level. In other words, if you were to have a disaster and "fail" as bad as you could fail, you would never drop below your base.

This might sound a little depressing, but it's not. It's actually a very positive thing to contemplate. Think about this:

If you fell, how far could you fall?

You might lose your job and your money. But what about your education? No one can take that away. And your experiences. You have those forever. And your faith. You'll keep that as long as you want it.

Henry Ford said:

You can't build up a reputation on what you are going to do.

Henry's point was: Go do something. Go build your reputation.

My point is: you've already built something. And what you've built will always be there to support you as needed.

Here is a common example: quitting a job.

From time to time we all become fed up with our jobs and consider quitting. If your job makes you miserable (and that's not a temporary condition), then I believe you should quit.

Stuck to your job? In most cases, you know you should quit. But you worry about quitting a job and being without a job. And you worry about whether you'll be able to get another job.

You're focusing on the negative and the unknown.

I encourage you to focus on the positive and the known. What's known about your future? You've built a great base on which your future will be built!

You can know that you have a circle of friends. You have talents and experience. You've made a living for yourself with your skills and abilities.

Focus on your base -- on all the positive elements of your life. Recall all your "victories" in school, on the job, and in your personal life. Take stock of all the people who are standing with you, willing to help you succeed.

As you examine and define your "base" you'll discover that you really can't fall very far at all. And the older you are, the more experiences you have. Therefore, the older you are, the higher your base.

We tend to focus way too much on material things that we could "lose." But, it turns out, the more we have to lose, the less likely we are to lose it. This is because we've built more than a collection things.

We've built a life filled with friends and experiences that will always be there to help us.

Launch your success! Don't look at your base as the lowest point to which you might fall. Quite the opposite. Consider it the solid launching pad that will allow you to catapult to the next level.

Remember: You have forces in your life that bring you down. You have forces in your life that lift you up. And you have forces in your life that push you into the future.

But there are no forces that push you backward. Time marches on. You have to go forward. Will you go forward gladly, focused on the promises of the future, or will you resist the future and cling to the past?

The first is a completely positive adventure.

The second cannot succeed because time will not allow it.

Take stock. Evaluate the base you've built for yourself. Picture it in your mind as a launching pad. Where do you want to go?