THE SURE RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

Most times when we hear or see the word recipe, the first thing that comes to our mind is ‘recipe’ in terms of ingredients and instructions for cooking. The recipe (ingredients) being discussed here refers to a plan, procedure or guideline to achieve a desired result which is ‘Success’ in this case and it should be noted that success does not necessarily connote ‘money’ as we can achieve success in several areas of our lives i.e. academic success, marital success, career success, financial success, etc. Success can be defined as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. Achieving success is not a day’s job and it requires lot of planning, commitment as well as the conscious effort of whoever aspires to be successful and with the right combination of ingredients, the sky will be our starting point towards achieving success. There are 4 key 'ingredients' which if appropriately combined will go a long way in helping us achieve success. They are:

1) Hope: As simple as this word seems, it is so powerful because it is the 1^st major step in our quest to be successful. Hope can be defined as the belief or expectation that something wished for can or will happen. Success starts from the mind and it usually begins with the dream that whatever we want can come true and this is the place of hope. As students, career builders, academicians, etc. we hope to succeed in our respective fields and this starts with believing that it can happen.

2) Faith: This is the next phase after hope. While hope is an aspiration, Faith is a conviction. Faith can be defined as a feeling or belief that something is true, real or possible, without necessarily having any evidence of its occurrence. It is biblically defined as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Faith takes you a step closer to success from where hope leaves us. While hope helps us see the possibility of certain things happening to us i.e. success, faith makes us acknowledge ourselves as beneficiaries of that which we hope to achieve.

3) Work: If we limit ourselves to the first 2 steps, we would just be building castles in the air as it is even confirmed by the holy book that faith without work is dead. Work can be defined as the effort expended on a particular task. It should be noted that this effort refers to a fusion of physical, mental and spiritual efforts.

The physical effort refers to the conscious action in terms of hard work devoted to carrying out a task.

The mental effort refers to the creative thinking about ways to improve one’s self in order to accomplish a goal.

The spiritual effort refers to the place of God in terms of our relationship with him.

            The need for a thorough understanding of the place of work  in our lives as humans cannot be over emphasized.

4. Diligence: This last step is very important and most people tend to ignore it thinking the first, second and third concepts are more than enough to achieve success. It is never just enough to work and expect success as the manner in which you work is highly important, this is the place of diligence. Diligence can be defined as earnest and persistent application of effort to a task, it refers to not just what you do but also the manner and devotion which you put into doing what you do. Our level of diligence determines how far we will go.

            In summary, as important as each ingredient listed above is, they cannot function effectively individually as a proper fusion of the 4 of them will be required in our quest to be successful.

 

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