Chapter 1
Getting Started
The fact that you are reading this book leads me to imagine many things about you. I’m guessing the title Yes—Anyone Can! caught your eye because you want to achieve goals in life. But perhaps you have already tried and failed, or your results weren’t as good as you would have liked them to be, or you think you’re too old and life has passed you by.
You may be thinking, Others have succeeded, so why not me? Maybe you think you’re not good enough or smart enough or that you don’t have the right background or education. Well, you are good enough and have the ability to accomplish anything if you really want it badly enough. In this book, you will learn to think more highly of yourself and gain skills, techniques, and tips to be happy and successful. You will also learn the Three Big C Principles.
Through our heavenly Creator, you can become a creator who gains creativeness and is thereby able to create whatever you want. This is all possible by taking some simple steps to acquire these principles.
I can attest to this because I have gained much through trial and error, positive attitude, determination, and the help of our God. All my efforts to achieve my goals were difficult because I was a foreigner to the United States adjusting to a new environment. However, with the help of my husband, I was able to understand and adapt to the American culture. I knew if I was going to live in the United States, I would have to do some adapting.
It was a little strange at first, but in time, I became comfortable in my new country and fell in love with it. While negotiating my way through this season of life, I grew personally a great deal. I was determined not to let anything get the best of me, and I kept my positive attitude with everything I encountered. The journey was very enlightening and liberating.
If I can do it, you can too! The chapters ahead will let you know how I found success in many areas. I have been very blessed with success and want to share all I have learned with you.
Keep in mind that our successes are not based just on the final products or accomplishments of our goals. Our successes come from many elements, foremost from within us. Being kind, honest, and loving individuals makes a huge difference. However, we must learn to love ourselves before we can show our love to others. How many times have you heard that? But it’s true. One of the benefits of loving yourself is that you gain high self-esteem and are therefore more likely to treat others with kindness and respect.
What we put out there will come back to bite us or bless us. I prefer the blessing. Treat others as you would like to be treated—that’s another saying with the ring of truth. If we want to be treated with kindness, we must treat others kindly. Remember this and practice it with everyone who crosses your path because it will pay off in more ways than you can imagine. You can be remembered as kind, friendly, and helpful, or rude, hostile, and mean. Most of us want to be remembered the pleasant way, don’t we?
Success doesn’t happen overnight. There are many steps involved, and they start with baby steps. The mistake many of us make is trying to skip these initial steps or at least as many as we think we can to speed up the process. That rarely works; we must learn to crawl before we can walk (well, in most cases). We must go through infancy, early childhood, later childhood, and adolescence before becoming an adult—those are the steps we all have to take to maturity, and most things in life require steps to reach. This is actually a very good thing as we acquire more skills along the way and become more knowledgeable.
What is success? It’s the feeling of happiness after accomplishing something that required enormous effort. It’s the accomplishment of dreams and goals. Some measure success in terms of wealth, respect, and perhaps fame, but consider the Bible’s recipe for success.
Observe the requirements of the Lord your God and follow all His ways. Keep each of the laws, commands, regulations, and stipulations written in the law of Moses so that you will be successful in all you do and wherever you go. (1 Kings 2:3 NLT)
Following God’s Commandments has played a major role in my success.
There are a million and one books out there that will offer you guidelines for success, but keep in mind that the most complicated solutions are not necessarily more effective than others. Keep it simple; you’ll need to make hundreds of small decisions, you’ll need to take hundreds of small steps to achieve success. While you’re taking those steps, focus on honesty, simplicity, love, and kindness; that will make reaching your goals much easier and more joyful.
We all have reasons for wanting success. Each of us defines success in different ways. Some of us want financial freedom, some of us want to make names for ourselves, and some of us just want to feel a sense of accomplishment. Whatever your reason, get ready to discover how you too can become successful!