It Starts Today

I want to briefly challenge the belief that success starts tomorrow. There are people who believe that getting by is good enough because they aren't where they want to be. They believe that they will start behaving differently when they attain a certain level of success. These people are wrong.

I will give you an example of what I'm talking about. A young woman is dissatisfied with her low-paying job. Because she isn't being paid what she feels she deserves, in her mind, the menial job she has isn't  good enough to merit any real effort. So she calls off when she wants to, does just enough to get by, pushes the dress code envelope with her choices and exhibits an attitude that can rarely be called professional. She doesn't understand why someone hired after her can get promoted over her.

I've seen this same lackadaisical attitude with people who don't live where they imagine they should or drive what they feel they should be driving. They treat their property badly. Their payments and rent are often late. They just don't care. 

It's sad, tragic even, because that attitude insures that nothing better will be on the horizon. If, by some miracle, they do get something better, it rarely lasts, because their attitudes and behaviors don't change.

You see people who based decisions, actions and thought patterns on what they think they deserve and imagine they should have are not living in the real world. They don't realize that current behavior sets the precedence for what is to come. I've always been amazed how often others are watching us and making judgments about us based on how they see us conduct ourselves. 

From an external perspective, you are always performing in front of an audience. You may never hear the applause, or the boos for that matter, but that doesn't mean you aren't being watched. You know this is true because you do it as well. So do I. We all do. This is why you will stick your neck out for one person and not the other. 

From an internal perspective, how you behave regularly and what you think on a consistent basis is habit-forming and habits, unlike light switches cannot easily be turned off and on. A poor outlook or work ethic will not magically change when circumstances do, without a ton of self-awareness and hard work.

Lay the groundwork for success for adopting a successful behaviors and thoughts now.