Your Greatest Resources

When people think about pursuing something, the first thing they normally do is look at their resources to determine whether or not it can be done, which is always a wise thing to do. But where most people fail in this process is, when they’re taking stock of their resources, taking stock of the wrong things.

Most people immediately look at money. “How much money do I have?” they ask. Sure, we need to know how much money we have, but money is not the greatest resource. In fact, there are a few other resources that are more important, and that certainly have more of an effect on your goals than money.

• Desire. Everything that comes from life comes from wanting it. Really wanting it. Do you have desire in you for something? This is not a wish or something you would take if it came along. This is something deep in your heart. Something you long for. In many ways, it is what you feel you were created for. Your destiny. It is buried within you and cannot be taken away. Do you have this kind of desire for what you seek? If so, you will accomplish it. “Very few persons, comparatively, know how to Desire with sufficient intensity. They do not know what it is to feel and manifest that intense, eager, longing, craving, insistent, demanding, ravenous Desire which is akin to the persistent, insistent, ardent, overwhelming desire of the drowning man for a breath of air; of the shipwrecked or desert-lost man for a drink of water; of the famished man for bread and meat.” —Robert Collier

• Vision. Robert Schuller once said, “You never have a money problem, only a vision problem.” Well said. If you have vision for something, you will attract the money needed. Vision is that grand, spectacular plan that sees the big picture, paints it for others and draws them along.Do you have a vision for what you want to accomplish? Can you see it, even if it isn’t here yet? Can you hear it? Smell it?How big is your vision? Is it a little thing that lacks a compelling nature? Or, is it something so big that it acts like a giant magnet that attracts everything around it? If you have an enormous vision to see your plan come to fruition, it will, no matter how much money you may or may not have.
• Persistence. It’s true that most people who achieve something others don’t do so simply because they tried longer. Not necessarily harder, just longer. So often, the prize is lost because we do not persevere. Wealth, talent, genius and education are good, but they cannot and will not take the place of someone who is tenaciously persistent. “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” —Calvin CoolidgeDo you persist when the going gets tough? When it looks like the goal will be a little further off and a little longer in arriving, do you quit and go elsewhere, or do you buckle down and attack with even more diligence? If you persist, you will achieve your dream, whether you have money or not.
• Guts. Courage. Bravery. Nerve. Valor. Do you have them? Can you look risk in the eye and not blink? The men and women who have accomplished tremendous things were not handed those things. I have found that every one of them had moments of pure, unadulterated fear – a fear of loss, a fear of humiliation, a fear of failure. But what separated them from the rest is that they had the guts to go forward anyway. When others slunk off into the distance, they forged ahead. It didn’t matter how much money they had. They had a dream – a big dream – and the courage to go for it, no matter the cost.

If you have these resources, then you have all the resources you will ever need to live the life you have always dreamed of!

Chris Widener is a businessman, author, speaker and television host. A prolific writer and producer of CDs and DVDs, his most recent book is The Art of Influence. Widener is the host of the national interview show, Made For Success, and co-host of True Performance with Zig Ziglar. The Chris Widener newsletter is one of the most widely distributed on personal and professional development. Visit his website for more information.

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