Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast.

Special thank you to our newest monthly patrons, Afia Gabriel, Miss Kira, Emmanuel. By becoming patrons, Afia Gabriel, Ms. Kira, and Manuel. By becoming patrons, they now get

access to over 250 podcasts in our private archive, podcasts such as the one we are featuring

today. This podcast was requested from one of our listeners in India, so we are making it publicly

available again. This podcast was recorded back in 2016. It was edited and adapted from a lecture

by Shami Bibi Kanando, published in 1901.

One of the greatest lessons I have learned in my life

is to pay as much attention to the means of work as to its end.

It was from a great person that I learned this principle, and their own

life was a practical demonstration of it. I have been always learning great lessons from that one

principle, and it appears to me that all the secret of success is there, to pay as much attention to the means as

to the end.

Our great defect in life is that we are so much drawn to the ideal, the goal is so much more

enchanting, so much more alluring, so much bigger in our mental horizon, that we lose

sight of the details altogether.

But whenever failure comes, if we analyze it critically, in 99% of the cases, we shall find

that it was because we did not pay attention to the means.

Proper attention to the finishing, strengthening of the means is what we need. With the means

all right, the end must come. We forget that it is the cause that produces the effect. The effect cannot come by

itself, and unless the causes are exact, proper, and powerful, the effect will not be produced.

Once the ideal is chosen and the means determined, we may almost

let go of the ideal because we are sure it will be there when the means are perfected.

...