Success in life, business and ministry does not come easy. Success is realising God’s desire for you and responding obediently in order to reach your maximum potential. Attainment of success is determined by multiple factors, but it takes a combination of drive, patience, energy, a ‘can do’ attitude, efficiency and toughness to be successful. Slothfulness is one of the worst enemies of success. Proverbs 18:9 says:
“He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.”
Do you want to be successful in your chosen field? Be professional and avoid slothfulness. The two things that differentiate a professional from an amateur in any discipline are: thought patterns and the order of prioritisation. Though there is no single behavioural characteristic alone that can be said to lead consistently to success, there appears to be quite a consistency of behavioural patterns among successful people.

For one, all successful people are intensely interested in their ventures. They are disciplined, focused and sincere disciples of their trade. Moreover, a very successful person has a feeling of personal adequacy. They all have the attribute of “I can do it if I try hard enough”. In addition, successful people are hardworking people. A sense of direction is another secret of success. A sense of direction urges action, shapes action, allows the value of action to be assessed and allows decisions to be made more easily. All highly successful people are both effective and efficient. They do things right and manage their time and resources very efficiently. They never stand still and expect things to fall in place. It must be said also that there can be no success without the personal attribute of honesty, sincerity and integrity. All successful people are goal-setters and goal-getters. They set short term goals but more importantly, long term goals. Another important trait of successful people is that they are creative. Success comes as a result of generating ideas, seeing things differently, and mobilising profitable ideas to get results. Finally, production, enthusiasm and commitment to make things happen are critical to success. A lethargic person who is not interested in innovation and production cannot be successful. Who are you, and how prepared are you for good success? Are you a professional or an amateur?

Memorise:
And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.
1 Chronicles 12:32

Read:
1 Chronicles 11:11-25

Bible in one year:
1 Samuel 18:17-20:42
Proverbs 6:28-7:9

Action Point:
Outstanding success is of God and mediocrity is not righteousness. Pray and plan to be successful in your chosen profession.

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Culled from Open Heavens daily devotional for October 5, 2014 by Pastor E.A Adeboye.
Visit www.dailydevotionalsonline.com everyday to read a daily devotional.

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