Why Haven't I Won?

Prosperity is sought by many, found by a few and yet we all wonder why it is that some achieve it while others fail. We all seek the same thing, maybe not enough of us are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve success. Someone once said blood, sweat, tears and many years is what it takes to get there. In the end it is usually about how we utilise our blessings and overcome our adversities, for both are sure to appear, not always in equal amounts but both nonetheless . My advice to those who struggle to succeed who face adversity and obstacles in what may seem as greater amounts than opportunity and favour, never give up. Once you give up you have already lost and cannot win. No matter what, for once you do you are guaranteed to fail without fail, so the first thing you should never do or come back from is giving up. I cannot address every possible scenario upon which people do not or have not found success but I hope to address common mistakes in perception and approach that people make that are a hindrance to their success or progress. What I hope to highlight are general principles that in general have universal application to give some improvement in how one works or how one views their particular circumstance. Do not let obstacles blind you from the blessing that come and/or are under your nose that you may not be utilising to their full extent. Very often in the face of difficulty we end up with tunnel vision. This of itself is not a bad thing because this mechanism is one that is inbuilt in us as humans to allow us to focus and discard irrelevant matters and distractions or things that fall into a lower priority than what we re trying to achieve. However being in that mode for so long it impedes our scope of the whole. The whole being all the resources big and small that are available to us. I was once told that the truth stands in the middle. My interpretation of that is in life we should try to always seek balance. In the instant case Tunnel vision will help you discard distractions and focus on the task at hand with all the skills and ability that God gave you, on the other hand we need to frequently come up for air and take a look around ourselves around our chosen path, paths not taken and those not yet taken in order to get a better picture of ourself in time and space with regard to what we want to achieve and most of all how we will go about achieving that goal or

goals. Learn from the past, plan for the future, understand the present. Learning from the past is a clear cut principle but not always easily applied. This is because we often look at the past subjectively, either unrealistically favourable to ourselves or overly harsh. Both of which prevent us from seeing the lessons that lie in our past mistakes. A bad decision is only a failure if you do not learn from it. Don't let the past bring you down, don't hold on to the feelings of sadness and failure, we all fail but the truth is failure is falling down but not getting up once you fall down. Learn from what you have done and seen, you are who you choose to be not what you were. Planning for the future; failure to plan is planning to fail, Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance there are adages in plenty to address this area. In most cases it is our complacency as people that allows to fall victim to failure to plan. This can be from the extreme of no plan at all and operating on basis of things will work out to not having contingency plans in case your initial plans fail or does not go as expected. In war they say no plan survives first contact and as such they train to adapt but have Plans A through E and further sub plans for variations as opposed to complete failures of the said plans. I don't suggest splitting hairs, that is to say planning for unrealistic eventualities. But rather be realistic, things will not always go the way we plan or hope, in fact they will probably not more often than they do. Most people who win don't necessarily win more but rather survive better, adapt better, plan better. At the same time I do not believe that the two are mutually exclusive. One who survives, adapts and plans better will by default win more. Hope for the best plan for the worst. Understanding the present is more difficult than we might think. It requires a lot of harsh and honest self assessment of our weaknesses and where we are with regard to where we want to be and how we can move forward toward where we want to be. Only in the true assessment and acknowledgement of our weaknesses and strengths can we improve ourselves and do better at what we are trying to achieve. Honesty with regard to ourselves can be one of the hardest things that we can do because it usually requires us to accept that we are petty, insecure, made many a grievous decision, did not think through what we did, did not plan and many

many other errors of varying nature. This doesn't mean we are failures or worse yet cannot succeed, quite the opposite, it means we are now armed with the knowledge of the areas that we need to fortify within ourself. If you were in a battle wouldn't you want to know the areas of your defence that were weak? The answer to that would invariably be yes , but when it comes to ourselves we aren't so quick to hear, seek or acknowledge these weaknesses. Knowledge of your weaknesses is a strength, whether it be in ourselves as individuals, in our plans or in our decisions. Seek an objective opinion with regard to yourself, your plans and your decisions but choose someone who will give constructive criticism and not someone who will criticise with out logical backing to their argument and suggestions on improvement. Secondly choose people related to the particular areas do not exclusively choose one person to answer all your questions with regard to all areas of your life or business. They may be an honest and good friend but lack the correct expertise to address particular areas. That being said you never know what someone knows until you ask trained in that field or not. Lay things out for yourself, look at all the options with regard to your business or your life both the good and the bad. We tend to ignore the bad or very hard decisions from being choices because they are hard but I was once told we do what we have to do so that we can do what we want to do. This is to say sacrifice in the short term for the long term. Laying things out for yourself written usually is best gives you a clearer picture of what your options are what they will lead to how bad or hard decisions can be mitigated, how good options can be secured against failure as a result of anomalous variables and the odds that each decision presents. All this should be written since writing things out forces the mind to rationalise and realise all the above as opposed to them being abstract in our mind and falling victim to the congestion that very often happens in our minds due to emotions and trying render very numerous abstract and complicated concepts, choices and consequences with our minds eye. Nosce te ipsum(Latin)- Know thyself Innovation, where things are not working it is often a good idea to innovate. In science it is generally accepted that we cannot do the same thing in the same way with the same surrounding circumstances and expect a different result(all other things being constant). Look for new ways to improve the way you are doing whatever you are doing, whether successful or not. It was once said that you must go hungry to stay hungry the point I am extracting from that adage is the aspect of staying hungry. Essentially our determination and hunger for success should not be inversely proportional to the level of success. Stay at the top of your game.

Seek as many sources of knowledge as possible, those we favour, those we do not know(new sources) and those we would rather not seek knowledge from. There are those who would ridicule, those who would try to put us down, yet in the middle of their barrage of negative comment and statements you would be surprised to find a few principles that we should probably apply since they have an external view that we probably do not have. So we must be able to filter the useful principles from their derisive verbiage. I won't claim that all the above will fix all your difficulties or guarantee your success but they are tools that should be added to whatever arsenal you possess whether big or small in pursuit of your success and in pursuit of happiness in whatever area you choose to apply them. We are all great and can achieve great things, all we need is the will and mindset to do what it takes. A last word to all those who continue to struggle; Illegitimi non carborundum(Latin) - Don't let the bastards grind you down