Three "E's" To Some Serious Success

I have yet to ever meet anyone who said, "I think I would like to prepare myself to become unsuccessful." I've never heard any one place on the list of their projected goals for life the word "failure." To be honest I believe bravely beating in the soul of every human being, though sometimes obscured by the circumstances of life, is an inner desire to succeed, to win, to achieve. Success is defined differently by different people. I think we all basically have a working understanding of what it is and, equally, what it is not. To be sure, I much prefer to live in a place of favor and productivity moving ever closer to my "success zone" than to live in the barrenness of defeat and regret. In my mind that is just not an option.

Having established the undeniable fact that we want to be successful, let us take a closer look at the three "E's" that will help take us there.

1. Explore - As a little girl, I used to love to go home with my friends after church on Sunday.One of the things we would do is to "go exploring." We would look for hidden treasures, see if we could locate Tarzan, attempt to find clues that would lead us to recover and retrieve our pretend arch-enemies to bring them to swift justice. Did I have a vivid imagination as a child, or what? Actually, I don't think I outgrew it. Exploration is a significant piece of the success puzzle. In order to be successful you've got to be willing to explore all your options, your resources for relevant information, the value of what you're intending to do, the way you intend to reach your goals. As one searches for a lost coin or a valuable piece of jewelry, so we must be willing to explore and seek information that will empower us to be achievers. Don't rush this process as it is critical to your success. It will enable you to lay a solid foundation that will be strong enough to sustain the second phase of your journey toward success.
2. Engage - After you've taken the time to explore and seek relevant information that will propel you toward your goals, you need to engage others who have been there, done that and gotten the t-shirt. You need to seek out experts that would be willing to mentor you and share their knowledge and their experiences with you. Have engaging conversations with them that will challenge your thought processes and help you to chart your course with excellence. Ask questions and then attentively listen and learn. Ask them about how they got to where they are today and even ask about their mistakes and wrong choices. By all means, learn from those mistakes and choose not to go down that same road.
3. Exceed- Now it's time to take the knowledge you've attained from both the exploring and engaging phases of your success and apply it. Exceed your own expectations (including those demonstrated by those people in your life who thought you wouldn't make it this far.) Exceed the limitations you've placed on yourself. You are more than your past. You are greater than the negative words of others who don't understand your assignment. Push beyond the obstacles and road-blocks that life itself has placed in front of you in order to slow down your progress and potentially abort your dreams. Don't limit yourself with "small thinking." Take the information gleaned, the lessons learned and exceed.

My friend, you can be what God intended you to be, you can have what He promised that you can have and, without a doubt, you can do what He told you that you can do. Really the choice now is up to you. Why don't you start working on those Three E's of Some Serious Success and begin today? Why wait another day on moving ever closer to that wonderful place called success. It's yours for the taking so explore, engage and exceed. As Zig Zieglar says, "See you at the top."