QUESTION: How do you apply ABCs (as explained in the article) in your life? (50 words)
SECRET TO SUCCESS: LIVING THE Abundant Life
Undertake a personal, diligent, significant quest for what I call the abundant life – a life filled with an abundance of success, goodness, and blessing. Just as we learn the ABC’s in school, I offer my own ABCs to help us gain the abundant life.
A refers to attitude. William James, a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher, wrote, “The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.”
So much in life depends on our attitudes. The way we chose to see things and responds to other makes all the difference. To do the best we can and then choose to be happy about circumstances, whatever they may be, can bring peace and contentment.
Charles Swindoll – author, educator, and Christian pastor – said: ”Attitude , to me, is more than the past, . . . than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, that what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.”
We can’t direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails. For maximum happiness, peace, and contentment, may we choose a positive attitude.
B is for believe – in yourself, in those around you, and in eternal principles. Be honest with yourself, with others, and with your God. One who was not honest with God until it was too late was Cardinal Wolsley who, according to Shakespeare, spent a long time in service to three sovereigns and enjoyed wealth and power. Finally, he was sworn of his power and possessions by an impatient king. Cardinal Wolsley cried:
Had I but served my God with half the seal
I served my king, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies.
Thomas Fuller, an English churchman and historian who lived in the 17th century, penned this truth:”he does not believe that does not live according to his belief.”
Don’t limit yourself and don’t let others convince you that you are limited in what you can do. Believe in yourself and then live so as to reach your possibilities. You can achieve what you believe you can. Trust and believe and have faith.
C is for courage. Courage becomes a worthwhile and meaningful virtue when it is regarded no so much as a willingness to die manfully but as a determination to live decently.
Said the American essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson: ”Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide on, there is always sometime to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.”
There will be times when you will be frightened and discouraged. You may feel that you are defeated. The odds of obtaining victory may appear overwhelming.
Courage is required to make initial thrust toward one’s coveted goal, but even greater courage is called for when one stumbles and must make a second effort to achieve.
Have the determination to make the effort, the single-mindedness to work toward a worthy goal, and the courage not only to face the challenges that inevitably come but also to make a second effort, should such be required.
QUESTION: How do you apply ABCs (as explained in the article) in your life? (50 words)
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