It is said that the biggest fear man has is fear of change. This leads to complacency. Nothing changes until you change it. Unfortunately, we get 'set in our ways' - which simply means that we develop habits that imprison us in jails of our own making. And there we remain until forced by outside circumstance to reach for higher ground and to develop the required new habits that will keep us there or move us even higher.
Here's a little story about someone who started on the right path and then allowed himself to be immobilized by the sometimes very subtle fear of change.
Photographer: Rick Mortimer
The Secret to All Success
I sat in my room and I studied about success and all that it means
I read book after book on successful folks, and how they attained their dreams.
I spent a fortune in book stores; I listened to CD’s and tapes
I spent countless hours upon my bed, just pondering what it would take.
I read interviews with the rich folk, and the ranting of the poor
I studied until I was cross-eyed; and then reached for ‘just one more.’
One more book to help me, just one more tape or two
One more dose of the truth I need to be successful too.
As I stayed at home and studied, and time slowly slipped away
I saw other folks attain the success that I read about each day.
And as the time went passing by and my knowledge of principles grew
The more successful the other folks got – the ones that went out to do.
I quote these words of a very wise man, who’s wisdom I hoped to attain:
“The living is in the doing, and the knowing is in the pain.”
And although I have read that often, and memorized it too,
I never did apply it – nor make myself go out and do.
I never did go act upon the knowledge that I’d gleaned
I never did apply it and so wrest from life my dreams.
And now that I am old and poor, with eyesight growing dim
I’ve found the key to success at last: You simply just begin!
©
Rick Mortimer
May 2010
New Westminster
British Columbia
