Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers
Having goals in life is a prerequisite to success; a person with no ambitions cannot aspire to get very far in life. That said, having a roadmap is no guarantee in itself that one will make it big in life.
A person with no clarity on where they want to be in life will, in all likelihood, not make it far. Sure, a stroke of fate here and there may bring them some success in the short run, but without any planning to back it all up, they are unlikely to capitalize on such lucky breaks. That said, just an ambitious attitude isn’t enough to be successful, either.
You can make all the plans you want for the future, but without adequate action and hard work, they will remain just that – plans. If simply having goals were a shortcut to success, there probably would be no failures around us. If planning were everything there was to do, then most people wouldn’t have faltered on their New Year’s resolutions year after year. What ultimately sets a successful man from a not-so-successful one is the former’s commitment to those plans.
At the same time, just progress isn’t enough, either. Even if you have a clear roadmap and you are working on it, the speed at which you motor along is no less important. Forget the slow-and-steady-wins-the-race cliché for a moment and ask yourself if it really is possible to succeed in this competitive society at a snail’s pace. Obviously, this isn’t the same as acting hastily and messing everything up. What this rather means is to try and outdo yourself every day. After all, a slow train running on the right track is as likely to have an accident as a fast one on the wrong track.
William Penn Adair Rogers, popularly known as Will Rogers, was an American vaudeville performer and actor. Also renowned for his social commentary, Rogers once remarked: “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”