My dearest readers,
in this discourse I want to go back to the very first blog I wrote, to
Langston Hughes, to holding fast to dreams, and to dreams deferred. Do you know
after a great achievement the pleasure you feel, the deep satisfaction, you are
at ease and peace with yourself? Everything seems perfect, and then…all of a
sudden it vanishes; you intended to suck confidence out of your achievement(s)
and move on to higher heights…but you find yourself facing grit in the gears, stagnation,
deferment; do not bow down, be encouraged to stand up, head held high, and move
on.
When all of a sudden the drive, the momentum stops, when success and
dreams are deferred, do not be discouraged. Especially when you come out of
achieving something great it is common, almost natural to feel that way. The
achievement as a result of long and hard work is the counterpiece to all the
effort you have put into it, see it as the final piece to the puzzle, the
concluding segment to close the circle; when you now start something new you
begin a new phase, a new task, you begin a new journey…on a new path! Give it
time to develop, don’t expect it to be easy from the start; but out of prior
achievements you should have learned something: to be confident that you can
master this next step as you mastered the one before.
The Irish scholar C.S. Lewis once said that “[w]hen things go wrong, you'll find they usually go on getting worse for
some time; but when things once start going right they often go on getting better
and better.” It may take a while, but if you stay focused, ready and inspired
for a next step, a new goal, you will get momentum (back) in no time, you will
rise again, will ride again, and drive again. If things don’t work good in the
beginning, be inspired to make them work, stay on it, show how much heart you
can put into it as an act of defiance, act, act in spite of deferred success,
for “[s]uccess seems to be connected with action. Successful
people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit” (Conrad Hilton)—and
neither shall you!
You know your strengths and weaknesses best; and you know how to
diminish your weaknesses and have your strengths prevail...be confident and
remain strong in will...and never yield. When your day or week starts weak,
weary, and whacky, be aware that a new beginning, here to a new goal, may
always be a little rusty, success may be deferred for the moment, but with a
strong heart you keep up your effort regardless of anything, you keep driving
despite of development hiccups, you accept the fact that beginnings aren’t
meant to be easy as you have to get something going and moving first, that, as
Mark Twain said, “[t]here is no security in life, only opportunity”; and that
opportunity is one provided to you...an opportunity for you to rise again, to
ride again, and drive again; and why do I put so much emphasis on the word again? Because you’ve done it before,
because you know how to get momentum, how to make things work, how to make
use of your perseverant heart in order to achieve something, to stay on the
path to success, and to finish—and further you know another thing of utmost and ultimate significance: never to yield!
