Today a colleague shared  a picture which he called “my special flower”.  Not his wife, daughter or grand child, no it was really his special flower.

Special because it survived and thrived against all odds.  Arising from a crack in the paving stones of his home driveway the flower is both health and colorful.

And this growth was without nurturing or support , no water or fertilizer, my colleague just let his little flower make it on her own.

What does it take to succeed against all odds?

Despite any outside help this little flower succeeded because it aspired to.  That is, building on a theme from yesterday’s post, the flower practiced the belief that  “If I believe I can, than I can!”

The takeaway here is not the sense of pride my colleague feels for “his little flower” but rather the fact she did it without him.

We do not live and thrive in isolation, we do need support; however, I postulate one of the most important personal value we can practice (if not the most important) is personal accountability.  Regardless of the need for support of others (and most times you really do) the foundation where it all starts is the individual.  You need to believe in yourself, take responsibility for your actions and use this as the springboard for success – bring the other flowers along with you for the ride.

For the greatest success couple your personal accountability with the aspiration to set personal goals and then achieve them (it is you who makes greatness happen not others).

What am I aspiring for?

This is of course a very personal question.  That being said there is a basic methodology you can employ to answer it.

Begin with high level statement of personal purpose, that is a life philosophy.  For example (and I freely admit I borrowed mine from an ancient greek philosopher):

I will live my life to maximize personal pleasure as long as I don’t impede on the personal pleasure of others.

Using this simple statement as a foundation I craft my life around achieving things that make me feel good.  I don’t have or need a bucket list, day by day I live mine.

And so little flower, grow – live long and prosper.