| A Zen story goes something like this: | | | | the job done. |
| A student was having a meal with his Master. When | | | | A good analogy to illustrate these points is to think |
| they were finished eating, the student asked his | | | | of your life as having a checking account. Every time |
| Master, "What should I do now?" | | | | you set yourself to do something and you attain |
| The Master replied, "Clean your bowl." | | | | your goal, then you deposit money into your account. |
| At that moment the student was enlightened. | | | | You become richer. You're life becomes fuller. You |
| This story illustrates one of the most important ideas | | | | have bettered yourself. When you leave something |
| that we all should take to heart: whatever we start, | | | | incomplete, when you quit before you've attained |
| we must complete. Leaving a task undone, | | | | your goal, then money is removed from your |
| unfinished, or incomplete is the surest path to failure. | | | | account. You are a little less than you were before |
| Success in life can be summarized in a sentence: | | | | you started. You've attained nothing, but lost the |
| Show up and complete the job. | | | | time you put into whatever little efforts you made. |
| It's amazing how few people fail to do those two | | | | A friend of mine made it his goal to become a |
| seemingly simple things. That is what separates the | | | | master parachutist. (Please excuse me, but I do not |
| winners from the losers. | | | | know the proper term for someone who completes |
| In Week Four of The Master Key System, Charles F. | | | | one hundred parachute jumps. "Master parachutist" |
| Haanel held no punches when he wrote: | | | | will serve the purpose for this illustration, though.) He |
| Unless you do this, you had better not start at all, | | | | went through months of training and finally went on |
| because modern Psychology tells us that when we | | | | his first jump. After the jump, someone asked him |
| start something and do not complete it, or make a | | | | how he liked it. My friend said that it was "the worst |
| resolution and do not keep it, we are forming the | | | | thing he ever did" and that he "couldn't wait until it |
| habit of failure - absolute, ignominious failure. If you | | | | was all over." He was then asked why he would |
| do not intend to do a thing, do not start. If you do | | | | keep on jumping if he hated it so much. He answered |
| start, see it through even if the heavens fall; if you | | | | that he had to complete what he set his mind to. |
| make up your mind to do something, do it; let | | | | Once he made his one hundredth jump, he quit |
| nothing, no one interfere; the "I" in you has | | | | jumping and has never done it since. He had attained |
| determined, the thing is settled; the die is cast, there | | | | his goal and in the process set himself up for future |
| is no longer any argument. | | | | success. (He currently owns his own company and is |
| As Haanel stated, not completing something forms | | | | very successful.) |
| within a person the habit of failure. Once a person | | | | Life, when all is said and done, is about the things |
| begins to quit the things he endeavors to do, he | | | | we've done and the things we've accomplished and |
| finds that it becomes easier and easier to quit the | | | | attained. Even something as little as buying |
| task at hand rather than complete it. In the end, | | | | something, if left incomplete, would leave us lacking in |
| then, what does he have? Nothing. | | | | some way or other. Imagine needing a television, but |
| If man had stopped at the launch pad rather than | | | | never leaving the house to buy one or never |
| launching and landing on the Moon, would we have | | | | committing to a particular model. You'd be |
| that amazing accomplishment to inspire us? | | | | inconvenienced for a very long while. |
| If Jonas Salk never completed his investigations into | | | | Complete your tasks; complete your goals; attain all |
| disease, we would still be suffering with polio (and | | | | that you can. Life might be a race, but it is a race of |
| probably other illnesses) to this day. | | | | endurance, not speed. It matters not how we finish |
| When the going gets tough, we are often told, then | | | | something nor how quickly. The fact that we finish is |
| the tough get going. They don't "get going" the other | | | | all that a person needs to be on the path to success. |
| way, though; they go toward the trouble and get | | | | |