Expand Your Capacity
I have often heard the statement that it takes twenty years to become an overnight success. Having lived for more than twenty years myself, and as I look at the lives of those who are successful around about me, I have come to believe this statement more and more and more.
Most successful men don’t hit their straps until their fifties. I know for certain that that was the case for the famous French artist Monet. I know it from the example of my friends who own one of the fastest growing coffee franchises on the planet. And there are many other examples that I could cite.
That doesn’t mean that you can’t experience success at an earlier age, but it does seem to me, that those whom I know, who have developed long lasting success; that is both sustained and exponential, have spent many years being developed in the darkroom of their lives. They have spent that time being prepared for future outstanding success, and throughout that preparation they have been expanded greatly on the inside. Because of that process they can handle the expansion of their lives that is now openly visible for all to see.
This is why I spent many years reading and studying. I knew for a fact that if I was going to do anything of great significance in this life, I was going to have to prepare myself. I recall spending many hours locked away in the basement of the Newcastle University, many years ago, reading the original works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The books were so old that the pages were beginning to crumble in my hands. But all I knew was this - my mind was being expanded by the power of the thoughts that Emerson had written onto the page, and even though I didn’t understand much of what he wrote in the English language of the 19th century, I knew for one thing that I was eating liquid gold that was expanding me on the inside.
And that is why I mostly read books written by some of the greatest philosophers who have ever lived. I also love to read the biographies of great men and women - where I can get inside their minds and study them.
Just the other day I was fortunate enough to purchase the complete works of Abraham Lincoln - The War Years by Carl Sandburg and The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln - 13 volumes in total. I recently acquired the complete works of Winston Churchill’s The Second World War. My most treasured volume though is still the Bible.
By reading these classics I continue to associate with great men and women, while at the same time expanding my mind, and in doing so expanding my capacity. I know that I can now step forward into the future with confidence that I will be able to fulfill the dreams that have been in my heart for decades.
You too can do the same.
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