“All men who have achieved great things have been dreamers, and what they have accomplished has been just in proportion to the vividness, the energy and persistency with which they visualized their ideals; held to their dreams and struggled to make them come true.”
O.S. Marden
An individual achieving great things in life has rarely been accomplished without them first having firmly expected to achieve their goals.
Planning and optimistic aspiration has always been the chemical makeup of hope. The one who wishes to achieve a goal but has no optimism will find himself weighed down by his own self doubt and negativity.
Having a vision, a dream of that which you wish to achieve and accomplish in your life is essential to achieving it. Unspecific goals do not give you a finishing line, nor do they provide any idea of how to progress towards your goal. This is the first step towards pessimism.
Here Marden mentions that all the great people of the past who accomplished their great goals had been people who manifested their optimistic desires through their actions and deeds. You will hardly find any notable person who achieved great things unwillingly. Each of them put effort and work in only after the deep rooted desire and dream to achieve their goal was rooted in their every thought.
If you wish to achieve something, the first step is to have the firm, optimistic, determined outlook necessary to reach your goal. This immaterial, yet pervasive force will push you through the mud of difficulty and lack of confidence when you need it most.
Optimism is the root.