Saturday, December 11, 2010

THE VISION




“The vision that you glorify in your mind,” says James Allen, “the ideal that you enthrone in your heart—this you will build your life by, this you will become. Every man becomes like his ideal, realizes the vision which dominates his life, and towards which he constantly struggles". So the vision we hold in our mind is the determining factor of our life. Without vision nothing worthwhile can be achieved in our life. Orison Swett Marden explains eloquently why one fails while other one succeeds and the role of vision in success and failure. Read these thoughtful lines and think.....

- N.Ganeshan


THE VISION



We rise with our vision. All elevation, all progress, is first mental. It is based on faith in a visualized ideal. Everything starts with a vision, and the result always corresponds to the nature of the vision and our faithfulness to it. Buddha became what he did because he gravitated towards his vision. George Washington concentrated upon a vision of liberty and a grand democracy which would be a model for the whole world, and he never ceased to struggle until the vision became a reality. Andrew Carnegie became the great iron master because he gravitated towards his vision; because of his struggles to realize that dominant vision. John Wanamaker is what he is because he concentrated upon his vision, by always reaching out toward it, always striving to match with reality his dream of a mammoth business.

“The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the indolent, seeing only the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves, talk of luck, of fortune and chance. Seeing a man grow rich, they say ‘How lucky he is!’ Observing another become intellectual, they exclaim ‘How highly favored he is!’ And noting the saintly character and wide influence of another, they remark, ‘How chance aids him at every turn!’ They do not see the trials and failures and struggles which these men have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their experience; have no knowledge of the sacrifice they have made, of the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised, that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable, and realize the vision of their heart.”

The reason why so many people fail to realize their ideals is that they are not willing to do their part to make it real. Remember that the longing, the desire to do a certain thing, is merely sowing the seed of your ambition. If you stop at this you will get about as much harvest as the farmer would get if he put his seed in the ground without preparing the soil, without fertilizing it and keeping the weeds down.

No one gets very far in this world, or expresses great power, until he catches a glimpse of his higher self—until he feels that the divinity which is stirring within him, and which impels him on the way of his ambition, in the line of his aspiration, is an indication, a prophecy of his ability to reach the ideal which haunts him. The Creator has not put desires in our hearts without giving us the ability and the opportunity for realizing them. There are a thousand proofs in the very formation of our body and brain that we were planned and adapted in every detail of our marvelous structure to achieve grand, glorious things, that we were created and fitted for success and happiness.

No matter how unfortunate your environment, or how unpromising your present condition, if you cling to your vision and keep struggling toward its realization, you are mentally building, enlarging your ideal, increasing the power of your mental magnet to attract your own.

Never mind opposition, never mind criticism, never mind if others call you a fool or a crank—they called the Christ the same—be true to the mysterious message within, the divine voice which bids you up and on. No matter what other things you have to give up, no matter what sacrifices you have to make, let everything else go if necessary, but cling to the ideal which haunts your dreams, for it points to the star of your destiny, and if you follow it you will come out of the darkness into beauty and brightness. Your highest ideal, the vision of your life work which you long to make real, is your best friend. Keep as close to it as you can, stick to it, and it will lead you to your goal. You may not understand why the star has been put so high above you and why so many mountains of obstacles and difficulties intervene, but if you keep your eye on the star and listen to the voice of your soul which bids you climb on, you will reach it.

- Orison Swett Marden

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