10 Rules for Success

Over the past year, as I’ve been on a personal development and health journey, I’ve noticed a set of rules (commandments, life mottos, whatever you want to call them) that successful people seem to be living by and that are, essentially, the foundation to their success. These rules can be applied to any aspect of your life if you want to achieve success; whatever shape success takes in your life: career, relationships, working out etc.

I can tell you these rules, but if you just read them and don’t apply them, they’re no good. Read them, believe them, apply them.

Rule 1. Think positive. What you put out into the world is what you’ll get in return.

You’ve probably heard the saying ‘negativity attracts negativity’ well, the same goes for positivity. Do some reading on manifestation if you want to go deeper into this topic, but at a very high level, just remember as you go about your day, that the energy you put out into the universe is what you will receive; if you have a positive mindset, you will attract positive things.

Rule 2. Be confident in your abilities.

Whether you are still developing skills, you’re a recent graduate, or are completely competent in whatever it is that you are doing, be confident in what you know and what you can do. If you’re not confident, doubt starts to creep in and that’s when failure can present itself or when your self-limiting beliefs will show themselves. Let your confidence take up so much space in your mind that the self-limiting beliefs have no room to live. Another way to be more confident is to focus on your self worth. When you know your worth, your confidence levels will match this so spend time each day building your self image. This can be through affirmations, self care practices, visualisation, whatever helps you recognise your own self worth.

Rule 3. Make sure it’s possible.

Now, let me be clear, I’m not saying only set out to do things that seem possible to do right then and there. It’s perfectly ok to not know how you’re going to do something, you just need to set goals to be able to attain it. If that means setting small goals to learn a new skill, buy a piece of equipment, or achieve one life goal before being able to achieve another, then that’s what you need to do. You don’t have to know how to achieve everything, sometimes you have to let the Universe work its magic as well, but make sure that the goals you’re setting for yourself have some way of being achieved.

Rule 4. Be open-minded, honest, flexible and fair with others.

Someone that is closed off to accepting help, advice or opinions from others, is unlikely to have a positive personal development journey. In order to be successful, you have to be able to maintain relationships with the people around you and be open-minded to the things those people teach or advise you on. How will you ever grow (in business or as a person) if you are not accepting of new possibilities, advice, criticism etc?

Rule 5. Pace your ambitions (nothing happens overnight).

You do not plant a flower and hope it grows overnight. Like a flower, you must understand that growth takes time, regardless of what you are growing towards. Find a way to track your progress, it could be progress photos or journalling as an example, but find a way to document what you are doing so when you are feeling like you’re not making any progress (or it’s not happening fast enough). You can look back at that and appreciate how far you’ve come.

Rule 6. Manage your time efficiently and be organised.

This one is more of a practical rule but is still as important as the mindset rules. Without being organised and managing your time, you will constantly feel rushed, panicked and behind with your workload. Organisation will look different for everyone; for me, it’s an organised chaos full of post it notes, ongoing lists in Google Drive and a half attempt at a diary. Find your method of organisation and stick to it.

Rule 7. Write things down and follow them through.

You have to follow through with the promises you make to yourself—they’re the most important promises. If you follow through with those, you’re more likely to follow through with the promises you make in business and in life. If you say you’re going to do something, make sure you do it! Even if it makes you uncomfortable or scared—that’s when you need to follow through the most.

Rule 8. Set small goals and set out to achieve them.

If you have one big goal, don’t rip it to shreds just yet! It’s important and I’m sure it’s still achievable! What this rule is about is breaking down your big goals into smaller goals and then start going about achieving those smaller goals. If you need a new piece of equipment to achieve a goal, one of your small goals could actually be to go out and buy that new piece of equipment! Each small goal you achieve is getting you closer to your overall goal. Things don’t seem so intimidating when it’s a series of smaller tasks instead of one huge one!

Rule 9. Don’t get distressed over small things (everything comes to pass).

This one may take a bit more time to implement; it’s not easy to teach yourself to change your mindset, but it’s worth it and it is possible! If you’re allowing the small issues of day to day life fill your mind, it’s taking up crucial space for ideas to flow. It’s also stopping you from channelling your energy where it really needs to go: towards your goals. One way to change this pattern of thinking is to ask yourself: “Can I change whatever is bothering me?” If the answer is yes, then do what you need to do so you stop worrying about it. If the answer is no, then you don’t need to worry about it because you can’t change it anyway. Practice doing that regularly and you’ll slowly start to see changes in what you do or don’t worry about.

Rule 10. Congratulate yourself for small achievements (not just the big ones).

I love this one because so often we forget how far we’ve come. We get so caught up on the end goal that we don’t stop to celebrate anything along the way. Do you know what happens when you stop celebrating things? It’s not fun anymore. And then what happens? The end goal becomes a chore. You stop enjoying the process and it becomes so much harder to keep doing it. Whatever your small wins are, stop and acknowledge them, and celebrate them like they're a big win.

These 10 rules have two common themes: mindset and actions. Changing your mindset is possibly the most important step in achieving success but believing these rules to be true is one thing, the other part is actually doing it. Change your mindset and put in the work.