No Accidental Tourists

I spent a good part of this year jogging, and getting up to respectable mileage in the hopes that I could run the NYC marathon (which was yesterday.) In the end I was not selected to run (120,000 applicants for 38,000 spots.) But I learned alot about life :
1) No one ever accidentally ran the marathon. One doesn't decide the morning or the night before the marathon to run 26 miles. Its not an impulse decision that can have completion as a result. You must train with deliberate purpose.
2) Along the same line of thought, no one ever accidentally succeeds in life. If someone by luck wins the lottery, there's a chance they will end up broke within 5 years of winning. Its happened to a lot of lottery winners. You can't just accidentally build an empire, or accidentally find love and a great marriage, or accidentally raise great kids, or accidentally start a business that grows leaps and bounds. You must purposefully acheive these things in life.
3) No one accidentally becomes a billionaire....And ....no one does it by themselves. No single person became a billionaire by themselves. There's usually hundreds if not thousands of people working for the same purpose......But one person gets the title. But its takes many to help him or her get that title.
4) I was shocked recently to learn that a lot of successful people do not affiliate with their friends from their past. Now I know why. Your friends from your past will often say "help me out." Everyone will be looking for a little help when you make it big. No one will regard your success as only yours, they will say they helped you along the way. Whether they did or didn't doesn't matter, you will need a new set of people to hang out with.

I often think of myself as a poor kid from Astoria, Queens. Thats not how I think of myself anymore. These days I see myself as an up and coming New Yorker. Its sounds better, and it feels better, and perception will always be realty.
Change how you see yourself if you really want change in your life.