Corner Cutting

“You do not pay the price of success, you enjoy the price of success.”
– Zig Ziglar

Again, the inner you is your conscience while your connection to it is your consciousness. While you can act in accordance with or in opposition to your conscience, you can’t betray your conscience for it is the wisdom of the highest that’s within. Therefore, if your goals ignore your conscience, they will unconsciously bring unnecessary turmoil in your life. But if your goals follow your conscience, you are then consciously purposeful.

If you’re like most people, you have certain needs and aspirations at this moment. You probably want to reach higher goals, get promoted, make more money, spend more time with your family, find a better job, lose 10 pounds or so, take that vacation in the Caribbean, start a business, etc. In other words, you want to improve your quality of life right now and not at some point in the future.

I’m not saying that those things are not important. You may truly value their attainment and you have every right to want more out of life. However, if you are focusing on goals alone, you are blinding yourself from that which makes you truly successful right now. You are ignoring the highest that’s within you and, in the end, will achieve nothing that’s of any real significance.

For instance, urgencies will crop up from time to time and they can take you away from what really matters in your life right now. When they appear, what do you usually do? If you’re like most people, you will cut corners (i.e., you will act in opposition to your conscience or, in other words, act unconsciously).

Thereafter, you may have reached the goal but failed in some other way. Although you can be successful by cutting corners, your success will not materialize without somehow being at the expense of other goals or, more important, of other people (including yourself). Cutting corners can only cut you down. They can also rip you off.

Remember, there is a price for everything. Whatever you choose to focus on carries with it a price. But what’s important is not to avoid paying the price but to ensure that you are getting a return on your investment. Instead of cutting corners, you should find out what you truly value in your life right now and focus on it.

Billionaire H.L. Hunt once said, “All my life I have learned that there are only two keys to success. The first key is to find out what you really want and the price you must pay to get it, and the second one is to resolve yourself to pay that price.”

You might think that the area in which most people fail is Mr. Hunt’s second key. While it may seem that way, the problem actually originates with the first and not the second. In other words, if you knew what you wanted (I mean, if you really knew), you would have paid the price (i.e., had the patience, took the time, made the effort, etc.) to get it, wouldn’t you?

As Jim Rohn said, “When the promise is clear, the price gets easy.” Wayne Dyer also said, “When you are certain of what you want, patience comes easy.” So, think of connecting with your successfulness as a form of investment. You’re like an intelligent consumer looking for best value for your investment and not the best price.

Having a clear purpose will make your journey more cost-effective, so to speak. If you have a clear understanding of the essence of what you want, then you will get a better return on your investment of time and energy.

If you either focus on or ignore your innermost values, you’ll always end up getting what you pay for. As Michael Angier, the president of SuccessNet, once said, “There is a price for success but there is also a price for failure. Given the choice, the price of success clearly has the best return on investment.”

So, the crux of life management is doing what is important and not urgent, or to change your perspective on that which you consider as important and to make it urgent. It is to focus on your priorities and to give them a sense of urgency. Consequently, when you stick to your priorities you will be taking shortcuts rather than taking cornercuts.