“Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.”- Napoleon Hill
I have heard many people play lip service to the concept of having a desire. They tell you they desire an education, a better life, a better relationship, a better job, a better salary… and the list goes on. They say they desire, but is it really desire? How do you know that someone truly desires a thing? What differentiates desires from wishes, wants and needs? Is there anything you desire? What are you doing about it?
“The proof of desire is pursuit” – Mike Murdock
The real proof that something is a desire is pursuit. Desire is the starting point of all achievement, and if what you have is truly a desire, you will get yourself compelled to do something about it. Desire transcends wishes, wants or needs. The fact that you wish or want something doesn’t mean you’ll get it, the fact that something is a need doesn’t guarantee it, either. If however you have been able to move your want into a desire, you are on the road that leads inevitably to achievement.
There are long strings of quotes on the reality of desires being guaranteed. If you truly desire you will acquire. Desire is the legal tender for exchange between the seen and the unseen, except you aspire and desire, your achievement will not be entire. Napoleon Hills in his detailed 20yrs study of the secret of success unraveled that when your desires are strong enough you will appear to have superhuman powers. Desire is like drug, once you are high on it, achievement becomes natural. If you are not confident you will achieve it, it’s not yet a desire.
Now, you must be wondering, “if desiring something is so good, how do I get myself into a state where I truly desire what I thought I desired?” How do I convert my wants into desires, burning desires. How do I rank with those who possess superhuman powers. How do I move beyond the 99% perspiration into the 1% inspiration? How do I fire myself to achieve?
As you guessed, it can’t be easy, else many people should have been cultivating burning desires and achieving their goals. Here are however a few things you can do that will guarantee you a burning desire that will ultimately get you what you wanted.
1. Set clear goals – Clear goals stimulate the desire to achieve them. The clearer your goal the more compelling it is. Your goals need to be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound. If your goals meet every one of these criteria it will be easy to know when you are on track and when you are not. The fuels the desire to achieve.
2. Surround yourself with high spirited people – The greatest motivator or demotivator you will ever have are the people you surround yourself with. If you surround yourself with negative people, you already have a leak in your tank. If all your friends tell you it can be done, you can do it and they believe in you. Can you imagine how that will feel?
3. Get the pictures – Whatever it is you desire, get a picture of it, and surround yourself with it. Let it be on your desktop, let it be in your room, keep it in your daily journal, place it where you’ll see it. There is something about vision that stimulates desire. I remember Jim Carey’s story, he supposedly wrote himself a big check and carried it around with him, this fueled his desire, and he surpassed it. One of the sure ways of expanding your dream and fueling your desire is to see it regularly.
4. Take action – Talk is cheap, particularly when you are not into public speaking. Don’t just talk about it, take immediate action. Find out what the next physical step to take is, and take it. Motivation follows action! Don’t engage in analysis that paralyzes, do the immediate next step and go on from there. Many people don’t act at all because they want to see it all conclusively before they start.
5. Burn your ships and bridges – Clear out all your alternatives. Close your back doors. Make the consequences of your inaction huge. Set a date for quiting your job. Make a vow to a friend to give him/her something you cherish if you do not act. Your resolve to move forward will remain stifled for as long has you have escape routes. Find the escape routes you have created for yourself and close them one by one. I know of many wannabe entrepreneurs that quit their jobs, only to pick it up again later. The temptation to do this gets real at times, I have been there. To succeed however, everything must depend on it.
6. Read Positive and Developmental information daily – One of the best things you can do to yourself is to change. The key drivers of change are people and new information. Look for articles, books, seminars, audios e.t.c. that cover the areas you are interested in. A wise man once said that seriousness about a topic means haven read as many books as your age about that topic.
17 thoughts on “The Proof of Desire”
This actually is waht someone tagged “Grandmother of words”. Desire is a strong spirit, when a man is possesed by ‘it’, he knows no limit and everything becomes possible.
Hello Deolu,
This portal has become a daily RECHARGE station for me. Thanks for this good piece on ‘the proof desire’. Last year, I came across something that really struck me. I learnt that
-a wish changes nothing
-a decision changes something
-an action changes everything
‘Desire’ makes it possible to move smoothly from ‘wish’ to ‘decision’ then to ‘action’. In this planet, its action that eventually counts. Your article has just fixed a puzzle for me. Thanks.
I beleive until a gola become so intense that it wakes up very early in the morning for its pursuit and keeps up late still pursuing it,then it cant be called a deire and the chance of achieving it will be remore if not impossible.
Hi Deolu,
I can’t help letting you know that this site has helped change my perspective of things.
Hi Deolu,
Pls keep up this ‘good work’.This really goes a long way to help in this society where so many ‘demotivators’ abound.
I ve been greatly encouraged and educated by this piece.
Its like u hear something often, but then one day, u hear that same thing n then it hits u …’bam’ n u just know,… u just cannot let urself go on living without ‘really living’….
Chairman!
Let me comment about the “Read Positive and Developmental information daily” part of this article.
Pat Utomi said something sometimes ago, “My problem with the youths of this days is that they don’t read”.
Likewise, one of my MBA facilitators,a prof. from northern Nigeria was talking about a popular saying in class last week, that the only way to keep facts away from Africans is to write in books.
Somehow I strongly agree with this unfortunate truth.
You see, we find it difficult to read and most times when we do, we preoccupy ourselves with things that might not really inspire us, positively, at least.
Few minutes ago I was at a British Council Information Centre, despite the the notice boldly displayed in the multimedia facility, all a young boy seated beside me was doing was surfing through porn sites.Thank God the customer service officer was close by to usher him out.
Like Chidi Okocha said, this site has become a daily recharge station for me too. Putting the article in perspective, dont you think that is also the reason why so many things have not happened for our nation? A friend’s response to a mail I sent to him on the state of the nation was – let’s continue to pray for Nigeria to which I said, we have been in the place of prayer for too long that God is only waiting for us to act out our desires. I guess, because individuals make up a family and families make up a nation, when you have a nation with so many people who can only express desires but not take positive steps and actions towards converting the desires to achievement, you get the kind of situation we have in Nigeria. Preach this from the rooftop as we get closer to the next general elections that the desire to have a change requires that everybody take positive steps and act in every little way.
Ride on brother!
Hallo! I’ve really missed my daily dose o! I’ve been quite tied up lately but it’s good 2 read this now, food for thought.
I believe the ultimate value of desire is sacrifice. What you are willing to let go of in order to get that which you desire determines the value you place on that which you desire.
Many people wish for a better tomorrow but are not ready to sacrifice their money and or time to get it. What you are willing to sacrifice shows the extent of how bad you want that thing.
When you really desire something, you go all out to get it. You really have to put some effort into your desire to make it become a reality.
And one thing have noticed is that God really blesses our efforts.
Thanks very much for this master piece
Godspeed!!
Deolu, i quite agree with you that one MUST have clear cut goals, to make anything of life and to burn the bridges and ships.
With goals one knows where one is headed and having destroyed all means of retreat the odds are that one figths on with the passion to succeed as there is no means to going back.
Deolu, ain’t you a blessing to this generation?
Desires are the mothers of miracles, you will be “lucky” if your desires are really red hot.
@ Ibikunle: On a lighter note, what were you doing beside the young guy before he was ushered out? Don’t you think it would have been better if you took cover before then?
Such information make you weak and depreciates your desire resolve.
I am new to this site.. was directed here by a very near and dear friend to my heart.. i havent had much time in reading .. but what i have seen i enjoy..I thank you Adeolu for the easy understandable reading.. Intelligently put using layman terms.. so all can understand and enjoy your work.. May God bless u and yours..
@ Debra,
It’s great to have you around here, I’m so glad you find the content easy to read and understand. I hope that you’ll find a lot more helpful information here. Looking forward to seeing you again and again.
@ All
Where are Chidi? Stephen? Ify? It’s been quite a while we heard from you. I’m missing you oh 🙂 Thanks for the comments and thumbs up… I believe we are on the verge of something really big and great.
Desire, hmmmmm i have desired many things in my life at one point in time that desire was very powerful, was it a healthy desire ? or the human lust wanting something from this world that can never give u satisfaction.. my greatest desire now due to = life’s little learning lessons has become one of the greatest things any human can have at their side and its called “WISDOM” …. to know the difference…
what happened to this website ??? why cant i get to anything but the page that i bookmarked.. ??
desire is very vital in the pursuit of success. it has no substitute.Napoleon Hill said no great success comes without a burning desire to succeed. desire must consume you to the point that you start acting on it.that is why the proof of desire is to take action.e.g, if you have a desire to become rich, you must learn principles of wealth creation and management, learn and model from those who have become rich and finally, take action. what differentiates desire from mere dreaming and fantasy is the ability to go after that which you have dreamt of.