“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where there should be. Now, put foundations under them.”
– Henry David Thoreau

“When you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”
– Jim Rohn

A question people often ask me in my seminars is, “Why are there so many people who succeed, have everything a person can ever wish for, yet still feel unhappy, unsatisfied, or unfulfilled?” Why, in other words, do so many people successfully fail? You might wonder what this question has to do with self-esteem. To explain, let me draw on an analogy.

You see, life is like a building. And whatever we need, want, or do in our lives, there is one thing in this world that we will absolutely need and can never ignore, no matter what kind of “house” we dream of building for ourselves. Obviously, it is the foundation.

A foundation needs to be solid, reliable, and consistent with the size and type of building you want to build. In other words, a foundation must be “true” to your building. The bigger and greater the building, the more solid the foundation should be. Therefore, if you want a life that is richly rewarding, it is commonsensical that you will need a stronger foundation to work from.

For instance, did you know that towers have foundations as deep as the height of the tower itself in order to prevent it from shifting or vacillating? Likewise, being true to yourself means working from a foundation that is as strong as the life you are capable of building. But if you vacillate from your values, your life will have a tendency to vacillate as well.

Without support or a proper one for that matter, then regardless of how great the goal you want to reach your building just won’t stand up. Likewise, your achievements won’t stand up to your expectations when they’re built on a poor foundation. In addition, you can not add to your building with a foundation that was meant for a smaller or a different kind of building.

Therefore, doing as much as possible is like building too hastily, using poor materials and shoddy construction work. And reaching goals that are not consistent with your uppermost values is like a life that is built a foundation of sand; it may stand up but it won’t stay up — at least, not for long.

That is why you must ensure that you are building upon a reliable foundation that is consistent with the life you dream of building. The only thing that will keep your building standing through the challenges of time and the storms of life that come sweeping by is to start from a foundation that is made of solid concrete.

Your foundation is thus made up of your personal set of innermost values. Brian Tracy, author of The Science Of Self-confidence, says that the foundation of a fulfilling life is “to recognize, respect, and reach that which we are capable of in consistency with our uppermost values.” Therefore, the size and the strength of your foundation must be consistent with the size and the weight of your success.

Remember that clearly defining your values is the foundation of success. How can you stick to your priorities when you don’t know what they are or what they mean?

Our lives are, more often than not, cluttered with pressing needs and urgencies, other people’s needs as well as their priorities, or goals that do not correspond to any of our values. In order to manage your life effectively, you must first define your values. Then, when you align yourself with your values, you will have greater peace of mind.

Remember that if the foundation upon which you live your life is the wrong one, or in this case a weak one, you will either fall short of your expectations or never feel fulfilled. Your success, in other words, won’t stand up. You must be organized from the onset by clarifying exactly where you stand before deciding where you want to go. How can you reach any goal if you don’t know why for? In other words, how do you get to where you want to go when you don’t know where we are to start with?

So before you start reaching any goal, you must first manage your life. In other words, you must begin by clearly defining your deepest values. If not, you might produce some results and reach some goals, but ignoring your true priorities will cause you to never be able to reach that which you are truly capable of.

The key to effective personal management is absolute clarity. Clarity increases self-esteem while clutter decreases it. If your mind is cluttered, your life will be cluttered as well.

If you do not have a clear sense of your personal values, that is if you don’t know what’s important to you and your life right now, then regardless of how great the goal, how productive the day, or how effective the system, you will never be truly happy let alone successful.

If your deepest values are not clearly defined, you are probably following someone else’s values instead. Think about it. Have you ever worked on some of your goals but saw your successes as part of someone else’s plan? Have you ever reached some of your goals but somehow got deviated along the way? Have you ever worked so hard but felt you were going nowhere?

When I was in school, I remember my 6th grade teacher who once said, “Looking inside your lockers will tell me a great deal about who you are.” This applies to every dimension of life, as it is true that a person will become a high achiever to the degree to which he is organized.

In this context, how one is organized on the inside will determine how well one will do on the outside. To paraphrase my teacher, “If I could look inside your mind, it will tell me great deal about who you are.” In essence, you first need to put your life in order before you attempt to make something of it.

About the Author

Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, author, speaker, consultant, and CEO of The Success Doctor, Inc. Visit his blog and signup free to get tested conversion strategies and response-boosting tips by email, along with blog updates, news, and more! Go now to http://www.michelfortin.com.

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