When somebody achieves a goal, he or she usually tends to get a good feeling and starts to think about himself or herself as an unstoppable person who is constantly successful and that his or her success yesterday might be sufficient for him or her today. There is a great quote that might serve as a proper counterargument against that opinion.
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” ― Christopher McDougall
Here you can substitute the gazelle with yourself and the lion with the failure or the obstacles that might hit you every day you wake up. Just because you have been able to achieve a goal in the past, it does not necessarily mean that you are able to accomplish every other one because you used to run in the past; there might come the same lion that run towards you that might catch you today, or maybe a faster one.
You might have been a straight-A student and never got an average grade in the past. Still, you must learn for the other exam that is coming, because your past As would not help you if you do not help yourself by learning and preparing for that exam.
Though you used to be a rich person in the past, you should try to expand and grow your business because failure might be knocking at your door. If you do not believe me, just remember the example of Blackberry.
I am not saying that you should not try to use your past as part of your resume, but what I am trying to emphasize here is that you should not make your past successes as excuses of not doing your best now. Your past successes should serve as a guideline of orientation that should lead you towards your new goals. The lion could have caught a gazelle yesterday, but it might not be sufficient for it today, because today it is hungry and commits catching another gazelle, because that is how it lives.
