mm20110131

We've been talking a bit about following a path to get to success. This week, we're going to look at making the first step.

There's a quote that says "leap, and the net will appear." I think for most of us, a net isn't what we're looking for. We're looking for a path to find our destiny. That path begins with the first step, and oddly enough, for many of us, that path will not appear until we make that first step.

The first step in any journey is a manifestation of a belief that will will achieve a destination. It exhibits our hope, our dreams, our desires, and in doing so, it gives us power and authority to make the remainder of the steps down life's highways.

Why is the first step so important? Because it's the one that most people will never take. Most never budge from their safe position, humiliating or lonely as that may be. They never make the first step because they lack faith in themselves.

Well, here's the thing -- you will never gain faith in yourself until you challenge yourself -- and follow through with that challenge. After childhood, faith in ourselves is not something that can be bestowed upon us, drilled into us, or given us from a parent, a loved one, or a boss. We can only generate faith in our own abilities by challenging ourselves, taking that first step, and learning that even after that first step, we still survive -- and excel.

Life is a series of first steps -- from the first halting steps we take as a child, to school, marriage, parenthood, new jobs, new careers, new opportunities, new learning, and new faith. The greatest people among us have learned to take that step, even when the path wasn't quite clear -- even when the way before them was still dark and foreboding.

If you had never taken those first steps, you would never achieve anything good in life -- because our success in life depends on having enough faith and hope to take the first step toward a greater life.

Copyright, 2011, by Daryl R. Gibson. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the non-commercial redistribution of this document as long as it remains intact with this copyright and all other lines. This license does not extend to the use of this material in a compilation, whether for profit or non-profit use. Join us at http://www.Weekdaywisdom.com.