Memo to myself, 20130530

Success requires the persistent pursuit of a consistent intention. Circumstances change. When they do, the intention must remain consistent - and the pursuit of it, persistent.

Persist. Persist.

Persisting in a consistent intention in changing circumstances will require changing behaviors - i.e., adapting.

DO THIS: Create a list of changes you need to make in order to act more effectively in your life environment. Develop the will to adapt, and let the intention to adapt as necessary undergird your other intentions: I will change what I must within myself to bring these intentions to pass.

More simply: I will change myself as needed to make these things happen.

The better you get at adapting while maintaining consistent intentions, the more inevitable your success.

Also: the better you get at adapting while maintaining consistent intentions, the more likely it is that when success (inevitably) comes, someone will accuse you of manipulating circumstances - someone who has no idea how often, to what degree, or at what cost you have adapted to circumstances.

Let them. There's no preventing a loser from saying that a winner has cheated. 

Success tip #47a - make like a broken record.

It just occurred to me that one reason I have not achieved more is because I get tired of my own voice, especially when it's saying the same thing over and over.

As a result of being tired of hearing myself say the same thing over and over, I sometimes stop saying that thing. That weakens me because sometimes achievement depends on saying the same thing over and over. The power of persistence and of consistency largely lies in saying the same thing over and over.

What brought all of this to mind was reading about the primary election that wrapped up a few hours ago, in which Bill Peduto won the Democratic nomination for mayor. In Facebook comments, Homewood Children's Village president and CEO Derrick Lopez noted that the voter turnout was an abysmal 22 %.

That made me think that perhaps I should have used Homewood Nation to urge people to vote in this election. And if I ask myself why I didn't, the immediate answer is, "Because I've said that before, to the point that I got tired of hearing myself say it.. So I stopped."

But people still need to vote. And if I had kept saying that, then maybe by now I would have sparked some action, some collaboration, something that would get more people voting.

There was a period, a few years ago, when I said with some regularity to whomever would listen long enough to let me, "Buy a house in Homewood while you can still afford it." I got tired of hearing myself say it, and I stopped.

There are still people who would benefit from buying a house in Homewood.

Those examples highlight ways in which my persistence in saying the same things over and over might benefit others. But that persistence could also benefit me, directly, by helping me to do things I need to do, when I am not inclined to do them. Or even before that, by simply reminding myself of what I trying to accomplish during my remaining time on Earth.

Lord, let me love the sound of my own voice speaking truth. Let me never tire of hearing myself speak truth.