When I was 13 years old, my family built a house in the mountains of Idaho. My father always referred to it as my mother’s “dream house” (which was her way of saying that she cost a damn fortune!).
I remember watching the big yellow backhoe dig a hole in the hillside where the house would stand. Just inside the entire outer edge of the excavation was an even deeper trench, three feet.
I asked my father, “Why is there a deep ditch around where the house will stand?” He explained that any structure is only as strong and stable as the foundation and foundation on which it rests. “Into that trench,” he said, “a reinforced concrete pad will be poured. The concrete foundation walls of the house will be sealed to that pad,” he continued, “and this will firmly anchor the house to the hillside.”
He added a little metaphor that the foundation of marriage is true love, and that on those foundations are the foundations to build a strong family. This simple fact stuck with me.
To build and maintain a successful life, in all walks of life, we must lay a deep foundation. The cement of this base are our motives, our motivation, which are anchored in our convictions and internal desires.
These motivations must be strong enough to be solid and unbreakable, always driving us towards our goals and dreams. These are the values that make us who we are and who we will become over time.
When we understand our motivation, what always drives us forward, we will have laid a good foundation. An indestructible foundation is placed on this trot: Mental preparation!
This is where I have failed so many times in my life, and where I think many of us put “cracks in the foundation.” Mental preparation means “putting your head in order” so that we can achieve our goals; it means emotional stability; it means clearing those intangible obstacles that stand in our way; it means eradicating anything in our minds that might sabotage our success.
Half of this preparation is recognizing mental conflicts, emotional problems, and character flaws, and half of this is figuring out how to repair these mental/emotional elements so that you are fully prepared to do so. Once again, mental preparation is sealed to the foundation of our motivation.
Some of us automatically know when it’s time to take action to build a successful and abundant life, while for others (like me) it takes longer.
However, when the foundation is reinforced, poured, settled and leveled, then it is possible to become the architect of our personal success and build the life of our dreams.
