How to succeed in life how to succeed
How to succeed in life how to succeed
How to succeed in life: 7 motivational tips
Do you want to become successful? Read 7 recommendations from successful people and keep them in mind!
Welcome to our useful website – Motivational tips! 😛
Due to numerous reasons many people encounter difficulties, trying to deduce the formula of success.
I would like to acquaint you with the most effective recommendations in order to prevent you from joining this group of people with low spirits. When you finish reading these pieces of advice, you will immediately start making efforts in order to succeed!
Tip 1: How to succeed in life — stop being lazy!
It’s hard to believe, but actually there are not so many people who want to change their lives completely!
They like to play a role of a consumer, live quietly and inconspicuously, go to work and cry over their small salaries! Moreover, they are ready to do it every day!
They always find a number of excuses, which prevent them from changing their lives.
However, there is only one reason for this: Changes presuppose acting, thinking and working, WORKINg, WORKING beyond your abilities!
Tip 2: If you want to succeed, you have to start acting!
Often people do nothing, not trying to apply their knowledge in real life!
For example, many people like to read different business books and think: “Tomorrow I will start acting; I will follow the rules I’ve learned from the books and apply them in practice!”
What happens in real life
People finish reading one business book, and automatically start reading another one.
They don’t try to consolidate the knowledge they have acquired, and they do not analyze the book to the fullest!
When we finish the theoretical part of the book and come across the headline “Practical Work”, most of us think: “Oh, come on!
This is so difficult; it’s definitely not my cup of tea! I’ll find something easier! I’d better search happiness somewhere else!”
So why do most people think so?
Because something Will haVe to be done, because somebody Will haVe to make some efforts!
Later people encounter similar words in similar books and start thinking: “I already know that, try and teach me something new!”
Tip 3: Unmotivated people do not reach success!
What does it mean?
Probably, you are already acquainted with the usual scheme of human existence:
Parents usually dictate their children what they have to do in life.
You have to study well; you have to receive excellent marks if you want to enter the university! Then you have to graduate from the university in order to get a well-paid job, and afterwards you have to make a successful career!
What is the purpose of all these?
Parents know the purpose of such words.
They want to be proud of their child, praise him/her in front of their friends and acquaintances, raising their own self-esteem!
But why does a child need to listen to their words?
Why does nobody think about the child?
Those are the words of the parents, not the child himself/herself.
Parents always use such argument: “Everybody lives so. You just have to do it, that’s all”.
Why do they try to impose this “pathetic scheme of success” on their children? Why do parents prevent children from making their own decisions, taking responsibility for their actions and choosing their own way in life?
If you want to help your child, listen to him/her, encourage, help, but never impose something on him/her!
Tip 4: If you want to succeed, sort out your life!
Nowadays most people don’t even know what they want from life, but they can speak about undesired stuff for hours!
They have been brought up by stereotypes, poor education, different TV programs, got stuck with a standard scheme of “success”, but nobody has ever taught them how to listen and understand their own desires and dreams, which is the most important thing!
That’s why I advise you, my dear readers, to read another motivational article – How to Find Yourself in order to get rid of unnecessary thoughts.
Tip 5: If you want to succeed, you need a strong desire and readiness for actions!
«Don’t be afraid of making mistakes, don’t be afraid of experimenting, and don’t be afraid of working hard…
As soon as you start acting, you can expect only two possible outcomes: you will either succeed, or not.
If you do nothing, there is only one possible outcome, that’s why you shouldn’t be afraid!
Act! Try! Work! Study!
Communicate with people who can help you in your undertakings! And work, work, work!»
What can we see instead of that?
We can see people with low spirits and poor energy.
Routine work and monotonous life exhaust people so much that they do not have strength and desire for something else! People become so devastated after day at work, that when they come home, they dream only about lying on the couch and relaxing!
How can they achieve their goals and succeed?
You should reconsider your habits!
If you are ready to do this, read the article “How to Become Rich?” and start following the rules of wealthy people. You will not recognize yourself in a few weeks, I promise! 😉
Tip 6: If you want to succeed, fight your fears!
Various stereotypes, restrictions, complexes and cliché lead to the appearance of different fears: fear of acting, fear of taking risks, fear of making some efforts…
A person, suppressed by such fears, usually doesn’t deduce the formula of success! Ever!
Human is the cleverest being; however, fears prevent people from taking steps forward, paralyzing their will, lowering the person’s productivity and increasing the number of human mistakes.
Tip 7: To succeed in life — stop talking, start acting!
People always look for the easiest ways of achieving their goals!
They dream about a magic pill, which will make them happy, which will help them to own a 20-storeyed house, a car, a case full of money, and get rid of their problems.
Try and remember, have you seen such “magic products” on the shop counters?
For example, there are special shorts for weight loss. You oil yourself with an expensive lotion, wear these shorts, and ENJOY YOURSELF!
You can lie on the couch with a sandwich in your hands, do nothing and expect a huge drop of weight! Unbelievable!
Perfect body will throw itself into your arms.
My dear readers! Do something! Start acting! Leave your couches and start making efforts if you want to succeed in life!
You have to do it for your future, for your children and for yourself!
We’ve got only one life, and we cannot go back in time!
If you want to succeed in life, to achieve your goals (even if your deadline is in a few years), you shouldn’t look for easy ways, you shouldn’t look for a magic pill.
You should start acting and proving yourself and others that you are a professional at everything what you are doing!
How to Succeed in Life
No matter where you live or how old you are, you know that it is hard to succeed in life. Regardless of age or social status, we all want to succeed. Even though we all want to succeed, our definition of success is different. If you just started a new job, success to you might be recognition among your coworkers. If you lost your job, success is finding a job fast. If you are in school, success might be an early graduation.
There are no universal standards for success. Success is different for all people. We all define success in our own ways. Money, power, and recognition are some of the most revered signs of success. Success might be different for you. The most important step toward success is to define success for yourself.
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” Henry David Thoreau
Before we go further, I want you to acknowledge that in many ways, you are already successful. If you assume that you are a failure until you reach your goals, you will never be truly successful. You will never be truly happy unless you accept the fact that you are already successful in many ways. Recognize and appreciate everything that you have accomplished in your life.
Ask yourself:
One more thing about success.
Success is less about reaching goals and more about the journey. You will never fail if you enjoy the journey toward your goals.
What success means for you?
The most important thing about success is that if you don’t define it for yourself, someone else will define it for you.
What is success for you? Money? Recognition? More time to travel? Take an honest assessment of where you are in life today. What would make you happy? What would it look like to live a fulfilled life?
When I was younger, I believed that more money equals more happiness. Today I know that it is important to have money to pay my bills, but there is a point where more money doesn’t result in greater happiness.
To me, success is about happiness. You know what makes you happy. You know what the perfect day looks like for you. Make a list of what the perfect life looks like to you.
Answer the following questions about success:
Here is how successful people define success:
“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” – Maya Angelou
“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” – Socrates
“I measure success by how many people love me.” – Warren Buffett
“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.” – Confucius
“Success is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.” – Thomas Edison
“If you carefully consider what you want to be said of you in the funeral experience,” he writes in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, “you will find your definition of success.” – Stephen Covey
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
“Success isn’t how much money you have. Success is not what your position is. Success is how well you do what you do when nobody else is looking.” – John Paul DeJoria
Learn about success
How did other people succeed before you? When you look at other people who succeeded, don’t ask: “Why them and not me?” It is better to say: “If they succeeded, I can succeed too.”
You can learn from successful people in several ways:
Success requires planning
“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell
Success is no accident. Those who plan succeed. When you look at successful people, almost always, there is a plan to succeed. They know what they want. They know where they are now, and they are willing to take the necessary steps to succeed.
It is important to make a plan that is right for you. For example, if you are forgetful, set yourself reminders to take action. If you need encouragement, create a support group to help you succeed. Know your personality. Create a plan that fits your personality best.
Set realistic goals
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney
Goals are important for several reasons:
Don’t confuse thinking big with unrealistic goals. It is good to think big, but you have to act small. If you want to be fluent in Spanish, you can’t start by speaking fluently after the first lesson. You have to start learning words. Then, you can start putting sentences together. Think big, but set goals you can reach.
Have the courage to succeed
Successful people have courage. Dr. Seuss had his first book rejected by 27 different publishers. If you are going to succeed, you have to have to courage to be rejected.
Increase your self-confidence by the following:
Imagine success
“What the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill
If you want to succeed, you have to be able to imagine success. I think that there is a big difference between imagination daydreaming. Visualizing is a tool that will help you succeed. Daydreaming is an activity that will not get you closer to success. Daydreaming is an impulse. Imagining is strategic.
You might be daydreaming about being rich one day. Unfortunately, it will not help you get rich. Daydreaming has no connection to reality. It has no substance. It is empty. Daydreaming is the junk food of the soul.
Imagination is productive. It involves direction. Imagining is also more emotional. You are making a real connection with your goals. Imagination is moving towards your goal as opposed to daydreaming, where you are trying to get away from something.
Don’t waste your time with daydreaming.
Be likable
If you are a likable person, you will be more likely to succeed. It doesn’t matter how talented, smart, or educated you are, if people don’t like you, you will be less likely to succeed. Let’s face it; you need other people to help you succeed. If someone likes you, she will go out of her way to help you.
Here are the top reasons likable people succeed:
Manage time effectively
Time management is the key to success in everything. Successful people understand that time is limited. You only have 24-hours each day. When you manage your time effectively, you take control of your time. Your focus will enable you to accomplish more with less effort.
Better time management results in improved decision making. If you dedicate a chunk of time to complete a specific task, you won’t feel like you don’t have time to complete the task. When you control your time, you reduce stress in your life.
Network with successful people
Network with successful people. Reach out to people in your network to connect. If you are not directly connected with someone, you want to learn from asking for an introduction. Use social media to find people. Most people use at least one form of social media. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are some of the best tools to reach out to successful people.
Develop selective hearing
Successful people are selective about taking advice. They understand that they shouldn’t listen to most people. They are great at ignoring the noise. Only listen to those who will help you succeed. Everyone has an opinion, but it doesn’t mean that every opinion is valuable.
To succeed, you must take action
“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” – Thomas Jefferson
Dreamers dream. Successful people take action. Taking action is the less glamorous part of success. It is the part most of us don’t see. When you go to a concert to hear a world-class pianist, you don’t see the thousands of hours of practice hours. For the pianist, taking action is putting in the long hard hours to practice.
Instead of waiting for the perfect time, you must take action. Instead of hoping for a miracle, you must take action. Instead of expecting a shortcut to success, you have to take laser-focused action.
If you want to succeed, you have to take action in the following ways:
Enjoy the journey
Unfortunately, many people waste their lives chasing the next thing. Successful people understand that the journey is more important than the destination. Happiness is the greatest form of success. If you learn how to enjoy today, you will be more successful than most.
“Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it.” – Eckhart Tolle
As you are working toward your goals in life, make time to be grateful for what you have today. Keep a gratitude journal. Take time out of your day, every day, to be grateful. It is best to be grateful for the little things in life.
“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” – Ernest Hemingway
You will enjoy the journey more if you follow the following steps:
Follow your passion
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – Albert Schweitzer
If you live a life where you follow your passion, you are already successful. To succeed, you should love what you do.
There is nothing worse than waking up in the morning, having to do something you hate. Successful people seek activities that they are passionate about. When you allow yourself to follow your passion, you will have more fun.
Focus
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” – Bruce Lee
Successful people know the importance of focus. Life is full of distractions. There are phone calls, meetings, scheduled and unscheduled meetings, time wasted on Facebook, and many other distractions that suck time away from reaching your goals in life. Successful people minimize distractions to stay focused on their goals.
Focus will help you succeed in several ways:
Eliminate bad habits
Bad habits kill success. We all have bad habits. If we want to succeed, we have to find ways to eliminate most bad habits. The best way to break a bad habit is to replace it with a good habit. If you find yourself wasting time on Facebook, delete the app from your phone. Replace it with a language learning app like Duolingo. Learning a language might help you with a promotion, or you might make new friends in the process.
You can eliminate bad habits several ways:
Resist the urge to compare yourself to others
“Comparison is the death of joy” – Mark Twain
Successful people understand that comparing themselves to others is dangerous. Comparison could result in envy, fear, low self-confidence, uncertainty and depression in your life. People often present an image that is far from complete.
Life is a movie, but we tend to see snapshots of people. It is easy to find enviable snapshots in other people’s lives. When you overestimate the presence of positivity in someone’s life you set yourself up for failure.
Another reason you should not compare yourself to others is that it won’t help you succeed. Whining about how someone else makes more money, lives in a nicer house or drives a better car is a waste of time.
Eliminate losers from your life
Successful people don’t allow people to drag them down. Surrounding yourself with the wrong people will hurt you several ways.
If you spend time with the wrong people, they will:
If you want to succeed, you need to surround yourself with people who are more successful than you are. They will inspire you to reach new heights in your own life.
Connect with successful people
Successful people find ways to connect with other successful people. When you connect with successful people they will inspire and motivate you.
You can connect with successful people several ways:
Don’t expect others to do your push ups
Michael Jordan once said that “I have always believed that if you put in the work results will come.”
There are no shortcuts to success. Neither are there secrets to success. Success takes work. If you want to succeed, you have to be ready to put in the work.
If you want to learn to play the piano, you have to schedule a time to practice each day. If you want to lose weight, you have to eat less and exercise more. No matter how many books you read on the subject, success is the result of putting in the work.
Don’t allow negative thoughts
“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
If you allow negative thoughts, you will fail. Negative thoughts are like weights that hold you down. They hold you down, drain your energy and take away your will to succeed.
If you want to succeed, don’t allow thoughts like:
This type of thinking will result in failure. You can’t control most things in life, but you can control your thoughts. Fill your mind with positivity.
Keep yourself accountable
If you want to succeed, you have to find ways to keep yourself accountable. You can become your own manager. You can motivate and push yourself to succeed.
Keep yourself accountable the following ways:
Keep working toward success
“If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” – Steve Jobs
To the most part, success is the ability to stick to your goals. If you want to learn a new language, you have to practice every day. If you want to lose weight, you have to eat less every day and stick to your exercise regimen.
Follow these strategies to keep working toward success:
Give yourself a break
It takes time to succeed. It might take you longer than a month to lose 20 pounds. It might take you longer than a year to find your dream job. It might take you longer than a couple of years to find the best partner. As you work yourself toward success you have to give yourself a break.
As long as you are making progress toward your goals you are succeeding.
How To Succeed In Life
The absolute core fundamentals of how to be successful in life. If you follow these principles diligently, no one will be able to stop you.
Video Transcript
Hey, this is Leo for Actualized.org. I’m going to tell you how to succeed in life. This is my forte. What I love to study is success and I’m going to give you about six or seven tips that are just the fundamentals of what it takes to create a really successful life. Get ready because it’s going to be a really powerful and quick self-help segment. I go into more depth in other videos.
Discover Yourself
You have to have a deep understanding of who you really are in life to have long-term sustainable success, and both happiness and then fulfillment. For me, success is shallow if it doesn’t come with the happiness and fulfillment component. I want to get all of it – both the external success and then the lasting fulfillment and happiness that you can get with that. I don’t want just shallow, external success.
To do that, you need to really understand and discover who you are. You might be thinking, “Well, I know who I am.” No, you don’t. I would say that 99 percent of people do not really know who they are because they have not gone on the journey that it takes to discover that.
This is not some abstract notion. What I’m talking about here is that you really need to discover what your top 10 values are. You need to discover what your top five feelings are in life. You need to discover what it is that you really want out of life and what is meaningful to you.
You also have to discover what you don’t want. You might say, “Well, I know what I don’t want. I know the things that I don’t like.” There might not be as much clarity there as you think there is.
This is all about a matter of clarity and articulation. It’s one thing to know vaguely, but it’s a totally different thing to actually articulate it, write it down, and know it very consciously. That’s going to clear a lot of things up for you.
If you sit down and do this process, you’re going to quickly realize that you don’t know as much about yourself as you think you do. You probably have had moments in your life that have been epiphanies where you’ve had deep self-discovery. Maybe it was when you were traveling. Maybe it was after a breakup in a relationship. Maybe it was when you were struggling at work. You discover things about yourself. By going through these challenging experiences, we really discover what it is that we want out of life. That’s the foundation. Successful people know what they want.
Have a Life Purpose
Life purpose is a very deep topic that I cover in other videos, but here, what I’m going to say about it are the fundamentals. Life purpose is what you want to accomplish in your life.
What’s true for all successful people is that all of their actions on a day-to-day basis, a weekly basis, a monthly basis, and a yearly basis are leading towards some sort of point. They’re all converging towards something. They know what that convergent point is. For them, the convergence point is, first of all, outside of themselves. It’s not so much about them, but rather something else – something bigger than them. It’s about a sense of contribution. Again, I don’t mean contribution in the sense that you have to be super altruistic and not care about yourself. It’s contribution in the sense that you get a lot of enjoyment from contributing something positive to the world.
So, the question is – “What is the impact that you want to have?” Are you clear on that? Are you totally committed to having that impact? This could be impact in your family. This could be impact in starting the kind of business that you want to start and having that business have a certain impact on society, whether it’s helping people in Africa get more water or helping produce green energy or helping people find love through creating an online dating site. It doesn’t matter what it is.
If you’re an inventor, it’s about creating useful gadgets for people to use or useful inventions. If you’re a scientist, it’s about discovering new things about human beings and the world. If you’re a mathematician, it’s about discovering new truth within mathematics. If you’re an engineer, it’s about building amazing machines that can help people. It’s some sort of positive impact and something that you’ve really bought into. It’s something that’s very important.
If you have that, you’re going to have passion. You’re going to get motivated. You’re going to get excited. That’s going to allow you to go out there and have the external success that you want. That’s going to lead to money, prestige, recognition, and fame. All of those things come from having a point outside of yourself that you’re moving towards and being very clear about it. You have to be very clear about what you want to be moving towards.
Set Big Goals
Successful people set bit goals. In fact, they set gargantuan goals and you have to do that too. There’s a tendency to say that we want to set realistic goals. You might say, “Well, I’m not going to set too ambitious of a goal because there’s a risk that I’m going to fail. Instead, what I’m going to do is I’m going to focus on a goal that’s realistic and that I can attain.” The problem with that kind of thinking is that a lot of times, those realistic goals that we set are undervaluing what we can actually do in our lives. You’re selling yourself short. You don’t know how much potential you really have until you set a very ambitious goal.
I’m sure that at one point in your life, you have done that and you’ve actually been able to meet it or even exceed it and you’ve felt the power of that. Setting an ambitious or big goal is a great way to supercharge your motivation. Successful people are very passionate and motivated. That’s because they set big goals for themselves.
If you set a weak goal, a small goal, or a realistic goal, what’s going to happen is that you’re not going to get engaged with it. You’re not going to get excited enough to really go out there and take the action and, counter-intuitively, what might happen is that the realistic goal that you set might actually be harder to accomplish than the very ambitious goal because the ambitious goal has heart to it, whereas no one really cares if you accomplish your weak and piddly little goal or not. It’s not going to have a big impact on you and it’s not going to have a big impact on the world. So, have goals out there that are big and are not just about you, but are about other people, too.
Hard Work
You have to work hard if you’re going to be successful. Successful people work their asses of. There are no magic bullets. There are no real “get rich quick” schemes. There are no real quick shortcuts to success and to a deep fulfillment. This is something that you work towards and that you have to take a lot of action towards.
You don’t want your work to be a grind, so the secret to making this work is aligning your work with your purpose and with your values. The boundary between work and play starts to really blur. When you’re working, you’re feeling like you’re doing what you really love to do. You’re really passionate about it and the two are so blended that you no longer make a distinction between your time off and your time at work. Therefore, you can work really hard, but it doesn’t feel like you’re working really hard. You can then take a lot of action, which is necessary to accomplish big goals, and you can get your goals accomplished and you can feel great about them. So, it’s really like a win-win-win situation.
However, you have to be out there working hard. If you’re sitting on your ass all the time, at home on the couch watching TV, you’re not going to have success in your life. It’s just not going to happen. There are people out there who are really pushing themselves and you have to position yourself at a place in life where you’re pushing yourself hard too. This is where you want to be. This is being on your edge. This is living an exciting and charged kind of life. So, work hard. It’s very important.
Do Not Quit
Successful people are extremely persistent. They do not quit when it gets tough and it will get tough. I don’t care how passionate you are about what you’re doing. I don’t care how much you love it. Whether you love it or you don’t, there are going to be ups and downs in life. Whatever you’re pursuing and whatever kind of big goal you set for yourself – especially if you set those big goals – they’re going to be challenging. They’re going to require you to grow. They’re going to require you to step outside your comfort zone. That means that emotional labor will be involved. That’s okay, but to make sure that you get through that and get to your ultimate objective of success, you’re going to have to be persistent and you can’t quit when the going gets tough.
So, maybe you’re working on a project and something’s not working out the way you want or something slips or something fails and you’re really tempted to quit and throw in the towel. Maybe there’s a relationship and you’re trying to work it out, but it’s not working and you’re tempted to drop it and you’re tempted to quit there. Whatever part of your life you really want to quit or drop right now, if you’re in that kind of point, you have to push through it if it’s really aligned with your values and your purpose. If it’s not aligned, you can drop it. In fact, you should. However, otherwise, you have to be very persistent.
If you read biographies of the most successful people throughout human history, like business leaders, social leaders, politicians, celebrities, and actors, you know that the underlying theme of all of those biographies and all their histories is that they were very persistent and they were okay with failure. In fact, most of these people were so successful because they failed so much that their success was inevitable. After you fail thousands of times, you start to learn your lessons and you start to get good. The human brain is really stubborn and it doesn’t tend to learn from success as much as it does from failure.
So, when you’re failing a lot,don’t get discouraged. Push on. Persevere. Go through your hardest moments because the hardest moments that you go through are the ones in which you learn your biggest lessons. Those are what grow you to be able to handle bigger challenges to accomplish more and more and get that kind of success that you want. These are also, coincidentally, the proudest moments of your life. They’re the moments of your life that you will never regret. So, never quit when you’re doing something that’s important to you.
Master Your Thoughts and Emotions
The next point is to master your thoughts and emotions. This is a more subtle point, but it’s very important. If you can’t master your thoughts and you’re always swayed by your emotions, you’re thinking pessimistically, negatively, and uncritically. If your emotions have the better of you and you’re always stressed, anxious, and overwhelmed and you can’t focus, then what are you going to accomplish? How can you accomplish anything in your life?
Not only are you not going to be externally successful because you’re not going to be able to run a business, hold down a job, study, or be able to be in a good relationship (because no one’s going to want to be in a relationship when you’re like that), but you’re also going to feel miserable, too. You don’t want to be swayed by all these negative emotions. You don’t want to be worrying all the time. You don’t want to be stressed all the time. Nobody likes to feel that and you don’t want your thoughts going in a million different places. You want to be able to concentrate and focus your thoughts.
This is called “emotional mastery.” You have to master your emotions. You have to master your thoughts. That means that you have to do some introspection once in a while. How about taking up some habits like journaling, meditation, reading books, or talking with mentors or having a coach? These are great ways to start to develop mastery over your emotions or your thoughts. If you’re all over the place, you’re going to be so concerned about just fixing problems in your own life that you’re not going to be able to go out there and take the action that you need to take and make the contribution that you need to make in order to generate really big success.
Study Success
The last point is one of my favorites and this is one that people really miss out on. It’s “Study success.” Successful people study success. Success is not what we naively think is just something that happens naturally to some people and doesn’t happen to other people. Success is a very deliberate and conscious endeavor that you undertake. Success is built over months and years and it’s done consciously. The more you understand the principles of success and the concepts of success and the more you study people who have been successful, the more you see what it really takes. That process of success – the principles – are not always what they seem.
For me, something that I’ve really committed my life to is studying these principles and I really love it. It’s exciting for me and I really encourage you to get involved with that. So, that means attending some seminars, reading some books, watching these videos, learning about it, joining a group of friends who are successful, or joining a mastermind group. Be around successful people. Learn how the success process works and learn about the psychology of success. We’re not talking about the externals of success. We’re talking about the psychology.
So, I’m going to wrap it up here. This is “How to Be Successful in Life.” Please post your comments for me. I love reading them. Of course, “like” this and share it, if you would. Check out Actualize.org where we have advanced personal development videos just like this one. We go into a lot more depth about what it really takes to be successful and happy in life. We specifically cover these last two points about how to master your thoughts and your emotions and how to study success and what are the principles of success.
How to Succeed in Life on Your Own Terms: 7 Essential Steps
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There is a great deal of advice in the world telling us how to succeed in life, but often we are given advice that isn’t tailored to our needs, desires and priorities. Success means different things to each of us, and living a life that feels genuinely successful to me might be very different to your idea of a successful life.
Naturally, when we follow the advice of someone else, which is tailored to their life goals and personality, we can end up with something that doesn’t deliver on the promise. We don’t get rewarded with our vision of success: we get theirs.
This is why I’m a proponent of self-discovery, introspection and personal sovereignty. So how to succeed on your own terms?
These 7 essential steps are not going to tell you exactly what to do, but they will provide you with the tools and the questions to ask so that you can discover your own path and know how to succeed in life on your own terms.
1. Know Thyself
One of Socrates’ most well-known quotes is,
An unexamined life is not worth living.
I argue that an unexamined life is not a successful one. Self-knowledge is something we could dedicate our lives to, but I’m not suggesting you sit around and navel-gaze in order to find happiness and meaning.
Thankfully, there are people who have created techniques and systems that less us fast-forward through a lot of personal philosophizing, and quickly identify some key aspects of what makes us, us.
You might want to find out what your ideal daily schedule is, [1] and you can take tests that reveal just that. Or you might want to figure out what you need to get things done – and yes, there’s a quiz for that too.
None of these tests are infallible, and some are more scientific than others, but the process of asking yourself questions about your behaviors and traits is invaluable when it comes to determining your path to succeed in life.
For example, if you know you are an introvert and are unhappy in your current workplace, it might be worth considering why that is (an open plan office space perhaps) and what you would prefer.
It’s these little questions that will provoke answers in you that can guide the decisions that truly improve your life now and in the future.
2. Figure out What Matters to You
What lights you up? This is a question that often gets forgotten as we age. A fortunate child will be given the stimulation they desire in the form of bright toys, affection and entertainment. Little by little, the things that bring a child joy get replaced by what society demands on their behalf.
When we return to that question, and ask ourselves what really matters and what brings us joy, we can move closer towards a successful life. It can help to think back to your childhood, and the times in your life when you were in what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls a flow state. [2]
In a state of flow, time slows and our focus is directed like a laser. We are fully present.
Whilst not everything in life that matters to you will conjure up a flow state, it’s a good indication of the kind of activities and experiences you can try to incorporate into your life on a regular basis.
A successful life is made up of moments like this, and when you know what matters to you and brings you a sense of joy and purpose, you can go about creating more of that.
3. Play to Your Strengths
Why spend your time only on mitigating your weaknesses, only to feel average? Instead, playing to your strengths and amplifying those skills and qualities you already have will help you go from average to extraordinary.
If you’re great at big picture thinking and love dreaming up new ideas, but often lack attention to detail, acknowledge that. Then instead of trying to improve your analytical skills, focus instead on developing your existing skills of imagination and insight. When you need someone with a keen eye for detail, you can collaborate with those people.
Jackson Pollock was an extreme introvert, with no real desire to get his artwork in front of people. Fortunately, he had Clement Greenberg, who was much further towards the extrovert end of the spectrum, to popularize his work and get Pollock the publicity he needed. [3]
Start by identifying your strengths and what comes naturally to you. Then work on developing those and becoming known for those strengths. You can always find someone who will help you in fill in the gaps.
4. Listen to Yourself
It isn’t always clear to us that we’re on a path that leads us to failure or to success. People can spends decades in a job that is unfulfilling and slowly breaking their spirit, without even realizing it – until it’s too late. This is usually because they haven’t learned how to truly listen to themselves.
The challenge we face is that we’re listening to so many other sources of information; whether it’s the news, television, social media, family, friends or colleagues. Many may want to help, but that doesn’t mean they know what’s best for us. Only you know what success means for you, and working this out begins with listening to yourself.
Listening to yourself requires practice. It’s a daily effort, which over time, does get easier. That inner voice of wisdom will get clearer, and the decisions you make will feel more convincing.
To start, you could try to set aside 10 to 15 minutes when you first wake up, in silence. Rather than look at your phone, checking emails or social media, simply sit in silence, listening.
Ask yourself a simple question like, what am I feeling right now, in this moment? Notice the answer that bubbles up, without getting lost in the story. Starting an inner dialogue, without judgment is one of the key tools you can use to start making better decisions in your life.
Learn more about listening to your true self in this guide: How to Listen to Your Inner Voice for Greater Fulfillment
5. Listen to Others (But Not Everyone)
Listening to yourself is one thing, but listening to others is crucial in order to learn, empathize and be of benefit to your community.
Truly listening to others is not just waiting patiently until it’s your turn to speak. Active listening requires focused attention, and the intention to understand where the other person is coming from.
When you do this, you can ask better questions and discover more about the world and everyone in it, as well as learn how to interact with others in order to succeed in life on your own terms.
However, this doesn’t mean you have to listen to everyone you come across. Trolls on the internet may come into the category of people not to listen to. Some people’s opinions will do more harm than good, as not everyone has your best interest in mind.
It’s worth identifying a shortlist of people whose opinions you will listen to. Brené Brown, author of the New York Times best-seller Daring Greatly, recommends taking a 1-inch x 1-inch square of paper and make a list of people whose opinions matter to you. These are the people who love you and will genuinely support and help you. According to Brown,
“If you need more paper, you need to edit.”
6. Make Time for Reflection
It’s easy to go through life without taking inventory of what you’re actually accomplishing. Missing this crucial step means we end up jumping from one goal to the next, without feeling like we’re getting anywhere.
Make time, ideally each day to reflect. You might keep a paper journal, or an online document. Either way, jot down:
Doing this can have measurable benefits to our overall sense of well-being, as well as keeping us focused for more success in the future. [4]
It also helps combat feelings of lack and doubt, that arise when we compare ourselves to others. When we look at someone who appears to be more successful than us in an area of life, we can forget how far we’ve come and how much we have to be grateful for.
Making time to reflect on what you have accomplished is critical to keep you on track, and just not looking at what others are doing.
7. Don’t Be Afraid to Change Your Mind
Arguably the most important step of all:
Remember that there’s nothing wrong in changing your mind and correcting course.
The path to a successful life is not straight and narrow. It meanders and there’s no harm in going back and picking a different (and better) route.
“I think our life is a journey, and we make mistakes, and it’s how we learn from those mistakes and rebound from those mistakes that sets us on the path that we’re meant to be on.” — Jay Ellis
Be willing to make mistakes, learn from them and change your mind. Ultimately, there’s no better way to succeed in life on your own terms.
5 Tips on How to Succeed in Life
Hopefully, after reading this article, you will change your attitude towards yourself and the world. Here is some advice on how to succeed in life.
How to Succeed in Life? Try These 5 Tips
1. Determine the goals that are most important for you
You should understand one undeniable fact that you must build your life by yourself. Otherwise, the circumstances will do it for you. Maybe you will have to work long and hard in order to achieve your goal. Maybe you will have to sacrifice something, make an effort, and invest money. But remember that everything depends on you.
Are there people around you who have already achieved the results you want? If so, use their experience as it will be useful for you. If not, do not worry about it, the point is to believe in you and be confident, regardless of possible failures and problems. It is very important to remind yourself of the goal you want to achieve every day.
2. Constantly work on improving yourself
Every day, ask yourself what to do in order to achieve better results than yesterday. Try to work more efficiently. And it is not only about your job but all spheres of your life. Work on yourself every day. Success comes to those who never stop learning and growing.
Do not stop at the achievement of a result that looks “good enough”. Go on, keep improving your skills. Take a look at each of your goals and think of what you can do to improve the means of achieving it. Success is a long thorny path full of mistakes and obstacles, but it is worth it.
3. Each new day should be significant
Every morning dedicate a few minutes to thinking about how your yesterday was, what you want to do today, and what is important to do. How will today differ from any other ordinary boring day? Plan something and complete it. It will bring you satisfaction and will make you proud of yourself.
Set a goal you need to reach during this day. Unsuccessful and unhappy people often have a feeling that their days are all alike. All people have the same hours of the day. So how will you spend your 24 hours? What will you do today to make your tomorrow better?
4. Be positive
A positive attitude is a result of a balanced life plan, supported by a daily willingness to self-improvement (see the first two tips). You are a kind and hardworking person. You are independent and reliable. Be sure that you can control your own future.
Protect yourself from those people who bring only negative emotions and thoughts into your life. You can not even imagine how much influence their words have on you at a subconscious level. Do not gossip and do not discuss other people. Believe me, it will not help you become successful.
Optimism is a wonderful feeling. Optimism supports your willpower, helps you overcome failures, and pushes you for success. Optimistic energy will attract new opportunities and interesting people.
5. Hard work is the key to prosperity
A truly successful person works much and hard. Good luck comes to those who are working hard and diligently. From time to time, work seems too heavy and not encouraging enough. You feel that what you are doing will not bring fruit and is just a waste of energy. But do not give up.
Do not look for easy ways and do not fool yourself. Enjoy the sense of joy of the completed work. If you work hard, you will never be hungry or depressed. And you will get rewarded with your future achievements.
From the above recommendations on how to succeed in life, you understand that you need to set a goal and work hard. You should strive to achieve your goals with optimism. In the end, you will be rewarded far more than you have given.
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