We have had four parts to deal with self, which is the number one threat for our progress. It may be appropriate to flip the title and rewrite the script to say: winning self is the gateway towards success. If self is the trouble maker that deters our progress, winning it should be the very first assignment in line for any dummy person like me. I cannot believe if I am the only dummy and you don’t need this approach Are not you sick and tired of, like I do, how uphill it is to conquer this little self that messes us up?

Though he never made the title of his declaration of war against us, devil must have in his black box a motto that read the same us our today’s title. He believes and is committed to win oneself, which in turn will open a gateway for his successful mischief and demise. If in case you might not yet known, the issue at hand is as old as our human history but most of us have been denied of this truth while we are busy conquering others, the world, and the devil where we forgot to focus on self or given it inadequate time. Philosophers throughout history have been dealing with this issue and it is not something new. Plato said, “The first and best victory is to conquer self.”

Plato’s statement is loaded with so much information and truth about how much critical it is to win self before one ever tries to extend its territory of victory or point to blame anyone for any misfortunes. I don’t think that there will be a single champion who enjoyed any victory in his field of competition before first winning the best battle, self discipline and self training. It was not by chance those pioneers on various professions found a new gateway of celebration without fighting the most important war, convincing self that it is possible to find ground breaking new territory while others self defeated thinking that everything is exhausted, exploited, and thought no room for discovery.

By the way, from the Bible, we see that Jesus was making clear that the first fight is with self. He was suggesting to cut off our eyes and hands if they lead us into temptations (Matthew 5:27-30). Though the context Jesus was teaching is not directly related to what we are now discussing, the point is no excuses for our sinning, failure, and stumbling. He was reassuring that we should pay the price it takes to win the battle of salivation and the first place to focus and conquer is our own parts (self).

The devil may not stop temptations till his time comes. Our responsibility is rather than praying temptation should never show up or cursing the devil who is any ways already cursed, conquering our parts that interface us with the temptations is the prime attention we should give if we are looking for a gateway towards success. Those parts are the gateways for the devil to conquer us and claim victory over our body. Thus, we should either conquer them and march forward to claim more victory some where else or cut them off before they cause ultimate suicidal death by allowing temptation overrule and then sin decay us.

What do you think?

Remain tune for the next part……