Most people want to be successful. Success is glorious, desirable, and brings many benefits. While this is true, most people are not willing to pay the high price tag success requires. Here are 4 items success requires. Lean and adapt them to move towards success.
1. Belief
Success requires believing in yourself and that you will be successful. Abraham Lincoln said, “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.” Your level of belief will determine where you go in life and what you achieve. Belief in yourself provides you with the self-esteem and the courage to step out and start pursuing your dreams. That is why we must raise and maintain our levels of belief. There are several things you can do if you struggle to believe in yourself and what you can achieve. Make sure you shift your words and thoughts toward the positive or good, consume growth content, and associate with people who will lift you up and encourage you.
2. Planning
If you want to be successful, you must have a clear and strategic plan of action. A good plan with action steps navigates you in the right direction and allows you to remain focused on your priorities. You must know what you want to achieve and take time to plan accordingly. Let’s look at what having a plan often looks like for someone who wants to become a successful author. This is a big picture perspective and you will need to properly plan in each of the areas.
The first part of your plan would be to start a blog, connect with like-minded people on social media and other blogs, guest post on larger websites, and grow your subscriber base. These things will allow you to increase your authority within your niche area and sharpen your writing skills. In time, you can continue to do the above while taking the steps to write, edit, publish, and market your book. You would repeat the process until you have become a successful author. Find the area you want to be successful at or in then take the time to plan, prepare, and put together a systematic plan that will take you in the direction of the success you want.
3. Initiative
Having a clear and strategic plan will not help if you don’t take initiative and get started. Ray Kroc said, “The two most important requirements for major success are: first, being in the right place at the right time, and second, doing something about it.” There are times when you will “be in the right place” and other times when you will need to blaze your own trail toward success, like in the example of becoming a successful author. Either way, for you to be successful requires taking initiative.
The Initiative is about starting and consistently working hard on a project or task until completion. It’s about seeing the opportunity or knowing what you need to do, then proactively doing it. Anyone can start something but only the successful people work on the project, product, or invention until completion. I’ve heard it been said that “The bookends of success are starting and finishing.” That requires initiative.
4. Dedication
Success requires dedication. It took 14 years of hard work to complete Mount Rushmore, a sculpture of “George Washington (1732–1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), and Abraham Lincoln” carved into the stone of Mount Rushmore. It often requires a lot of time, hard work, and energy to start a business or publish a book. Dedication will be required for you in whatever area you want to see success.
Being dedicated to what you are doing helps you to persevere through the challenging seasons you will face and drives you forward. Dedication is like glue, it holds you together and keeps you focused on your priorities when things get tough. You must dedicate yourself to the area you want to be successful at or in if you want to achieve results. It will greatly help and increase the chances of success if those areas were within your strength zones, passions, and life purpose. Dedicate yourself to be and work in those areas and you will begin to see success.
Here are some short bonus points for you to understand better the characteristics that would ultimately take you closer to your success.
- Patience: Patience in the face of overwhelming odds will save you from unpleasant outcomes.
- Hustle: Hustle until you get what you prayed for, what you cried for, and what you aim for.
- Focus: A focused mindset can achieve the impossible. It boosts your productivity and makes you conscious about life.
- Persistence: The will to not giving up even in adversity can take you to the height you could hardly dream about.
- Sacrifice: Greater result demands consistent hard work and endeavour. Sometimes to get something you need, you need to give up something you want.
- Ambition: An ambitious mind can get more than what it aims for. Because you truly get attached to win what you want.
There's no excuse but hard work and patience.
Give up the short-term mindset
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” — Mae West
Successful people set long-term goals, and they know that these aims are merely the result of short-term habits that they need to do every day.
These healthy habits shouldn’t be something you do; they should be something you embody.
There is a difference between: “Working out to get a summer body” and “Working out because that’s who you are.”
Give up on playing small
“Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone, and as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”— Marianne Williamson
If you never try and take great opportunities, or allow your dreams to become realities, you will never unleash your true potential.
And the world will never benefit from what you could have achieved.
So voice your ideas, don’t be afraid to fail, and certainly don’t be afraid to succeed.
Give up your excuses
“It’s not about the cards you’re dealt, but how you play the hand.” ―Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
Successful people know that they are responsible for their life, no matter their starting point, weaknesses, and past failures.
Realizing that you are responsible for what happens next in your life is both frightening and exciting.
And when you do, that becomes the only way you can become successful, because excuses limit and prevent us from growing personally and professionally.
Own your life; no one else will.
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