The Seed that Grows Good

Where honour ceaseth, there knowledge decreaseth. The natural question is, what has respect got to do with success? Respect is a virtue that most people see as either really modest or out of place when compared with values like integrity, hard work, honesty etcetera. Respect is a seed, it’s one of the most basic and sometimes most overlooked values that can be developed and applied. It is an essential ingredient for a pleasing personality. Have you ever wondered how some people get to see what most other persons can’t? There are three categories of people, few who see things before they happen, many who realize it when it happens and the overwhelming majority who have no idea of what happened.

Respect as an attitude when rightly applied creates a consciousness, which tends to see beyond the superficial, whether it’s dealing with people things or ideas. The cure as I see it, said Herbert Hall is to be found in the cultivation of the faculty that finds some good in everything and everybody. The ability to see good is a function of respect. A plunge begins when one starts failing to recognize because they have refused by failure to observe and regard the good in anything. Who is as blind as the one who refuses to see? The ability to see good has long characterized some of the finest minds.

Like many other virtues, respect is not bestowed. Cultivating a faculty that finds good in everybody and everything begins by developing an attitude of respect for everybody and everything for what they do or are. You may not respect a dog for being a dog and you a human but you can give its due regard for what it does. Why bark when you have a dog? One who develops the capacity for respect creates the capacity to see good. Respect is a reward anyone can receive who practices their highest virtues.

How to Develop Ability

Ability – the power to carry out a task, the strength to see through a goal; the want of it owes to much why most people fail in their endeavors, not really for want of will or skill. Underachievement especially now days don’t really owe to want in knowledge, information surplus abounds as well as the opportunity to achieve whatsoever one may earnestly desire. We usually know what we want; hence the predominant question of this age is not what but why.

The little I know declared Sacha Guitry I owe to my ignorance. The ignorance these days take more of a willful shape than otherwise. Ignorance has never been a good enough answer for failure even less in these times where information flows at ones command.

It has never ceased to amaze me man’s dynamism, I say this with positive disposition, the potential that lies within and the wonder he can make out of himself, how he can change his situation and inspire the life of others. Ability, competence and skill that tend to excellence form a progression of development any progress minded person would strive to experience. Situations exist where what is required of one is beyond what their ability can make happen, that is understandable. Then one must depend on higher powers – God.

I learned from kindergarten about first aid, its first cuts across all aspects of human endeavor and education. The first help you can get principally comes from you; the best help comes from God.

Strength can be developed through effort and practice, one begins to exert oneself by applying this knowledge carefully. Adding effort to effort, patience to patience and strength to strength then one will not cease to develop in their endeavor.

As a man perfects himself in his calling even so does his ability to earn increase. Ability can only be recognized by their fruits in words or deeds. Most people are naturally born with special abilities, indeed every one has their unique area of specialty whether by default or development.

Anyone would increase in ability who shows a willing desire to perfect in their calling. If one wishes to enjoy the fruits of excellence they must cultivate the seeds thereof. The secrete behind perfection is much like an open one hidden under plain view because people willfully choose not to see it – practice. Any outstanding athlete or performer would tell you how they work out their nose to sharpen their ability. Practice at its principal level I think adds backbone to the frame of perfection. It’s your surest way to exert yourself but by far the least enjoyable thing to do.

Everything means many things to different people. Like practice could mean the best thing to one seeks perfection, pleasure on the other hand means the world to any fool. It is estimated that it would require 10 years or an equivalent 10 thousand hours of effort to attain excellence, especially in sports/performance related fields.

You Don’t Motivate a Goat to Fly

Can a goat fly? Well it’s possible. It is difficult rather than impossible. Motivation is very important in actualizing anything but its not the ultimate.

The reason most people fail in achieving their goals is not for lack of motivation, motivation you can get in abundance. It is rather an issue of ability. The horse before the cart, ability comes before motivation. Great things only happen when that principle is adhered to, first things first. You cannot motivate a goat to fly because originally it lacks the ability to do effectively do such.

This however doesn’t rule out ultimately the idea that it cannot do it, but until it first develops the ability to. Anything is possible and anyone can achieve whatsoever reasonable they desire if they set their mind to it and go about it in the right manner.

We all face diverse problems and challenges; these sometimes dampen the hopes of achieving set goals. A goal can be as far or near achievement as one can muster the motivation to get one’s members to work towards it. Ability comes before motivation. This is evident in daily affairs. You cannot be helped when there is nothing to help you with. Nature doesn’t permit vacuum. When you say I am here then someone can say you are there.

Most people seek motivation to overcome challenges without developing the ability to handle the problem. Such motivations are futile. Motivate a goat all you can, it cannot yet fly until you develop its ability to. The eagle that was raised with the chickens thought itself to be a chicken and indeed it was, because it could not fly any farther than them, though it had the potential ability to soar. In cases like this, motivation can work. On the contrary, motivate an ostrich then drop it from the heights and you will watch it drop to the earth like a loaded sack dropped from a plane in flight.

If a man must overcome the many obstacles that hamper him from reaching his goal, he must first learn to develop his ability to; not necessarily skill, for ability comes before skill as well as motivation. A man once said "Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth." He was not lying when he said that. Motivation can only be effective when it's preceded by ability. \opportunity is nothing without the ability to utilize it.