Ninety percent of success or achievement comes from desire. Talent and clarity of objectives account for the other 10%. Talent is important but it accounts for only a small portion of success. It is the wanting, the desire, that really counts. Great men are men of great desires. After that we can set targets, plan, implement the plan, evaluate the results, and plan again. Checking the results as compared to the target is important which we often ignore. The variance of the results from target has to be analyzed. If the results are beyond target there is need to see if we set the targets too low. If it is not this, then the success has to be examined so that it can be repeated. What was it that accounted for surpassing the target? If the results fall short of target then the causes of this shortage have to be analyzed.

Our targets have different levels: The spiritual, the community, the income, and the personal level, etc. On the spiritual level what is it that we really want? Our ultimate goal is union with the Creator in perfect happiness for all eternity. Our faith says that the purpose God created man (me) is to share His happiness. Accordingly all that God asks of us is to reciprocate that love. In our gratitude we want to adore, reverence, and serve the Creator. Adoring God we can do directly but serving Him is often done indirectly by serving our neighbor who He also loves. Our target in the spiritual level is to please Him with our reciprocal love. Why He loves us is a mystery which we accept as incomprehensible till we get to see Him.

On the community level the obvious target is a community living in peace, safety, mutual help, and prosperity. This can become blurred or forgotten. In the hustle of daily life we forget that each one, not only the leaders, has to contribute towards this prosperous community. The present poverty level of 49% in our country is an improvement over the past but certainly not acceptable. Our poverty seems a mystery that in a country so blessed with abundant natural and human resources. Perhaps, we are not setting a target, or not implementing what we planned, or not checking results with targets. We may be good planners but poor implementers and even poorer checkers of obtained results.

On a personal level we need targets that challenge us to draw out the best in us. We may at times be afraid to set targets because we really have no desire even though we know we are capable and logically should make that target. We are afraid of possible consequences. The spiritual teachers ask us to pray for the desire to desire what is fitting for us to do. In the Philippines a big reason we are not rich is because we do not want to be rich. We want to be poor. It is an honor to be poor. Or do we just fail to challenge ourselves and prefer an easy life? Are we imitating the saints who wanted to be poor and humble like Our Lord Jesus Christ? We are all called to be saints. But we must make a distinction between the heroic the saints on our altars and ourselves. We want to imitate the poverty of Jesus but His poverty was not the poverty of beggars but one of sufficiency. Jesus did not beg but earned His food by working. He had decent clothes and dwelling from His work. He was willing to share with others.

If He were alive today would He be at ease with the poverty we have in this country? May be we have not desired enough to eradicate poverty. We expect others to do it but not us. Once in while we give alms but do we want to get rid of food poverty? May be we must pray to desire to desire to get rid of poverty. Our culture may have misinterpreted the poverty of Jesus. Like Him we want a poverty that shares with the neighbor. And we do not want to ignore the abject poverty of our brothers in this country not to mention the poverty in other countries. <emeterio_barcelon@yahoo.com>