ACTION - “Think the Things You Want”

Those who reach the port are men and women of action!

On the great clock of time there is but one word— NOW! To attain successful achievement you must be a man or woman of Action! There is no other way. When your goal is made, when your sail is set, you must act at once. Do it now! To do otherwise would be but drifting upon the waters. Turn on the steam and move forward and do it now!

Purpose must be followed by action. Great men never wait for opportunities; they make them. Nor do they wait for facilities or favoring circumstances; they seize upon whatever is at hand, work out their problem, and master the situation. A great action is always preceded by a great purpose. History and daily life are full of examples to show us that the measure of human achievements has always been proportional to the amount of human daring and doing.

You can have the noblest goal in the world together with a foolproof plan for its attainment, but they won't be worth the paper they are written on unless you back them up with action. By that, of course, is meant the following through—the persistent driving—the constant labor necessary to execute the plans or alternate plans. Each expended effort should bring you one step closer to the realization of your goal or goals.

Faith in self, or self confidence, is the starting point of all achievement. Next on the road to self improvement and successful achievement is desire. Unless we want to improve our life—unless we have a desire to grow, to become larger and share more abundantly in the fruits of life, to make our mark on the world, we have reached the end of the road. If, on the other hand, we have unfulfilled desires, wants and wishes which we earnestly seek to achieve, they can be ours. In this chapter we learned the three-step formula for the attainment of these earnest desires.

Let me repeat the three necessary steps: ( 1 ) Goals, both short and long range, (2) The formulation of a workable plan for the attainment of these goals, and (3) The necessity for backing up your plan or plans with action. In a nutshell, this is the secret of success. If it were possible for one to grasp the full significance of this procedure, I could now conclude this writing.

Experience over the centuries has proven that as you journey down life's highway, executing the given formula, many guide posts and travel aids are needed to make your journey more pleasant. These are contained in the chapters that follow. With them, may your journey be "clear sailing."