Define Success to properly set your compass

I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair. In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.
- Bertrand Russell

“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure. ”
― Mark Twain

 
"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins
- not by strength but by perseverance."
- H. Jackson Brown 

 “Don't mistake activity with achievement.”
― John Wooden

 “Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
― Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

 

“Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it”

― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

“I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.”
― Amelia Earhart

“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, "Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody." ... [My dark side says,] I am no good... I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved." Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.”

― Henri J.M. Nouwen

Napoleon Hill on Sobriety

Napoleon Hill  was a speech writer for U.S. President Harry Truman in the last Depression. He wrote some famous motivational books and is considered one of the founders of Positive Psychology. This type of thinking has many detractors but "foul water will quench fire", in other words, I look to efficacy as my metric. *

He has a 3 step process to achieve your goals:

1. Write a clear description of your one major desire, i.e., Sobriety
2. Write a precise statement of what you intend to give for your sobriety, i.e., strict adherence to the 12 steps of A.A.
3. Memorize both statements and begin repeating them to yourself hourly.

Whatever your mind feeds upon, your mind attracts to you. You need definiteness of purpose and a clear picture of what you want from life. Sobriety is number one because without it, all else fails.

This may look like brainwashing yourself and that's probably what you are doing to undo all the negative messages you have given yourself over the years.

He has a prayer of thankfulness you say a few times a day:

"Divine Providence, I ask not for more riches but for more wisdom with which to accept and use wisely the riches I was given at birth in the form of the ability to direct my mind to ends of my own choice."

The riches you can enjoy if you take possession of your own mind and direct it to ends of your own choice include:

• Sound health
• Peace of mind
• A labor of love of your choosing
• Freedom from fear and worry
• A positive mental attitude
• Material riches of your choice in the quantity you desire.

On the other hand, the penalties if you do not take possession of your mind are:

• Ill health
• Fear and worry
• Indecision and doubt
• Frustration and discouragement
• Poverty and want
• And a litany of evils like envy greed jealousy, anger, hatred and superstition.

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