Your Seat At The Table Of Success
The world has the habit of making room for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going. – Napoleon Hill
When I was a kid we lived in a house that had a room in it that we used once a week. That room was the dining room. The way the house was set up you had t walk through this room every day to get to the kitchen or the living room but the room was only used on Sundays. We would use this room for Sunday dinner each week without fail.
This room was a small room that had a round table in the middle with four chairs around it. The funning thing about it is we had 6 people in our family. The time would come for family dinner and we would pull 2 chairs from out of the backroom to make sure everyone had a seat at the table. This table also came equipped with a leaf that we would put in the table to extend it when the time came for our Sunday dinner.
This small table would transform itself from the middle of the room dust collector to the center of our family’s attention each Sunday. My mother always managed to fill this table with the most amazing meals each week for us. Then after the meal was finished we would clean up the table and shrink it back down to size for something we would walk around for the rest of the week.
This table was exactly what we needed at the time. During the week it was small and compact but when the time came it transformed to make sure everyone had a seat at the table. The table of a successful life is much like our small dining room table. No matter how small you think that table might be there is always room for you.
You may look at what you feel is success and feel there is no way you are going to get there. What you are shooting for is too hard or there is no way you will ever be able to make it happen. Like Napoleon says in his quote above. When you start to get truly clear and intentional about where you want to go with your life and family. The universe seems to make room for you at the table.
That’s the great thing about the table of success. When your words and actions are true and clear about what you want to accomplish, you will find a leaf to extend the table and we will bring the chairs from the backroom in our pervertible table of success. Here are 2 ways to get started today to get your seat at the table of success for you and your family.
isualize – There have been many studies about the positive impacts of meditation in our lives. One way to meditate is around thinking about the future. This is simply an activity where you take the time to think about what success will look like for you. You create success in your mind first so you know exactly what it is you are working for then work backward on what actions you need to take to accomplish that vision. There are many guided practices out there to get you started. You can do a simple search for visualization on Youtube to get you started. One of my favorites from an app called Insight Timer. You can use the free guided meditations or subscribe to their service but there you can search for guided meditations depending on the time you have.
Take Messy Action – I heard the term messy action the other day and I think it sums up the mindset we need to have to get started down out path to success. So many times in my life I have opted to wait, not to take action on something because I knew I would not get the perfect outcome. So rather than grow because of the fear of failure I would not do anything. I would tell myself the lie that I would work on whatever it was and come back and take action when I was in a better place.
The dirty secret is I would not come back or in most cases that chance would pass me by because I was too afraid not to be perfect. The truth is we need to take messy action. Just because we may not score a perfect 10 in the action we take does not mean if we score a 6 we won’t come out better. Progress is messy and never perfect but 4 steps forward and 2 steps back is still better than no steps forward.
Your path to success is going to be messy and if we wait around until we feel we are not going to get a bit dirty we are never going to leave the house. Don’t be afraid to get dirty. Because when you get dirty you learn new things and make your good better. Your personal best is going to change each time you take on something new. Take messy action on something you want today and make your good better.
No matter where you are in your life there is always room at the table of success for you. The first thing you need to do is get specific about what success is to you. Get specific with success in your own life and in the life of your family. Much like our Sunday dinners in that small dining room each Sunday it is all about getting everyone to the table. There is always room at the table when your words and your actions are taking messy action toward your family’s success. Even if we have to get the chairs out of the back room.