The Formula To Success

It's sad to think of the many people worldwide who deny themselves the opportunity for success and accomplishment in life, all because of their limiting beliefs. Society has influenced us to believe that in order to achieve success and prosperity in life, we first need money, and a fair amount of it too. Now I can't deny that to be true to an extent, because in order to make money, we do indeed need to invest money first, whether that be in shares, in property, in business, in managed funds, or whatever. Having said that though, money isn't how success is generated. You don't need money to create an action plan. Many will say that success comes from lots of hard work, and that is absolutely correct, it does require an extreme amount of hard work and ongoing commitment to achieve success and our goals, but even hard work won't necessarily lead us to success. We can work our butt off, and we can even be working endless hours every single day, day after day, month after month, and year after year, but success will elude us if we fail to possess the right attitude, values, and behaviors. We can work as hard as we like, 16 hours a day, if we so choose, but if our focus is completely on making money, then straight away we are adopting a poor attitude, and we will find ourselves forever chasing money, rather than earning it. Again. we can work as hard as we like, 16 hours a day, if we so choose, but if we have a selfish attitude, and we in no way have any desire to help and serve others, we will find that what goes around comes around, and life will deny us any help also. The success formula is based upon five key elements. Now we can throw in several other behaviors, traits, and characteristics if we like, such as willpower, motivation, belief, determination, maturity, passion, courage, and sacrifice, because there are several ingredients to success after all, but the below five attitudes, behaviors, and values, are the main ingredients. Without them, success and prosperity are often extremely difficult to come by.

1.- DRIVE

I mentioned motivation in that list above of other important behaviors and values to possess, but motivation isn't in this top five listing because it's an attitude that lacks solidity, and is susceptible to wavering. We can wake up in the morning all motivated about the day ahead, about the actions we are going to execute, and the fact that we are on the road to pursuing our goal, but all it takes is the influence of something externally, which negatively impacts our mindset, and shifts our focus, and motivation can quickly be lost. Let's be honest, negativity is all around us too, as it's an unfortunate fact that most people operate from a negative mindset. Therefore, we are exposing ourselves to this constant negativity, and the more this happens, the more prone we are to being influenced by it. We should be motivated by our goal, and achieving success, but how can we remain constantly focused on accomplishing them if our motivation continually wavers? How can we remain committed to the actions we need to complete if we feel motivated one moment, but someone makes us angry, or frustrated the next, or something goes against us in life? There is a behavior that is similar to motivation, but it's a step above, because it's more steadfast and reliable, and that is drive. Drive feeds off determination, as it is a characteristic that keeps us focused and committed to what we want to achieve, to the point where we won't allow failure, rejection, challenges, or nothing, to prevent us from achieving what we desire. No matter how tough the journey to achieve success gets, because we are driven by what we want to achieve, it provides us with that constant willpower and motivation to keep going. It's why it's so important that the goals we set are something that truly means everything to us, so intense is our desire to achieve it, that we have a strong internal emotional attachment to it, such as something for our family, or for personal satisfaction.

2.- RESILIENCE

So drive is that characteristic which helps us keep focused on, and committed to, what we desire to achieve in life, basically giving us that ongoing inspiration, encouragement, and push to reach those goals, even despite all the setbacks, failures, challenges, and rejections. The thing is, when we face these times of adversity, where do we go to uncover the strength and courage needed to overcome these hurdles, and to keep on going? That's where resilience comes in. Anyone who has ever been on the long, arduous, and challenging road to achieve their goals and success, would well know of the constant rejections they had to face, the constant struggles, the hardships, the criticism from others, the judgement of others, the constant failures, and the many times they were at the jaws of defeat and disbelief, throughout that journey. At the end of it all though, in accomplishing their goals and success, they look back on their journey with immense pride, knowing how much adversity they overcame in order to reach their goals, and realize it was definitely all worth it. The success wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for their resilience. They never allowed failure, rejection, and adversity, to overwhelm and defeat them, no matter how dire their circumstances became, because they had a dream, they had a vision, they had a goal, and they weren't prepared to give up on this. These adversities are often brutal, and will take us to the greatest depths of despair, but failure is never the final outcome, simply if we choose it not to be. The best way to grow and develop in life comes via those times of adversity, when we are basically forced to devise solutions, get stuck into some uncomfortable actions, make changes, and be creative. We are talking years of having to do this, time after time after being knocked down, and that takes great strength. Adversity creates experience, experience creates learning, and learning creates growth. In order to achieve something we desire so desperately, we are going to face numerous times of adversity, and it will feel like we are not making progress, so we need that strength and courage to keep going, hence the importance of resilience. Those who ever achieve success use these times of adversity to their advantage, because they understand it's part of the journey, so they embrace it, and then subsequently work hard to overcome it.

3.- PERSEVERANCE

Drive helps us to remain focused and inspired about what we desire, resilience helps us to overcome the challenges along the journey, but perseverance is the key component behind the action side of things. Perseverance is again another "never give up" attitude and characteristic. It's about maintaining the belief that we will succeed in reaching our goals, if we simply continue to work hard, make changes to actions that aren't working, remain positive minded, remain committed to working on our actions, remain patient, and if we maintain belief in our own abilities. Along the journey to success, we will constantly have people that will withdraw their support for us, that will doubt us, that will be certain we are destined for failure, and that will criticize us for our decisions and actions, which ultimately will make us feel a sense of guilt, selfishness, and even increase our own doubts. We will often find these people will be our own loved ones, friends, and associates, and they won't hold back in giving their advice for us to quit our pursuit, and follow what they do, and what society does, because our decisions and actions aren't what most people would class as normal. Hearing this constant criticism and advice, especially from those we love, trust, and value, makes it increasingly hard to remain focused on what we want to achieve, whilst even making us look foolish as we continually face failures, rejections, and challenges, by following our heart and going against their advice. It's why we need that characteristic of perseverance. We need to resist the temptation of succumbing to failure, and giving in to the advice of what others suggest, because success in achieving what we desire then evaporates. Perseverance is about keeping on going, no matter the obstacles and opposition.

4.- PATIENCE

Impatience is undoubtedly one of the biggest flaws that people have when it comes to pursuing their goals and success in life. Let's face it, we all want success, we all want to achieve our goals, we all want to be happy in life, we all want to be satisfied, and most of us also want to live a prosperous life, the problem is though, we also all want it now. We know full well that we can't have it now, but it still doesn't change the fact that we still want it now. Many people even try to gain success and wealth through quick wins, such as trying to win the lottery, even despite the ridiculous odds being stacked against them, and they do so because they couldn't be bothered working hard to earn success and wealth by themselves. Many people actually do embark on the journey towards achieving their goals, but once again, there is a distinct problem with this group of people. The problem here is they set expectations that success will be apparent and evident, in a short space of time. When I talk about a short space of time, I am talking of just a few weeks, even a few months, in which they expect things to happen. Success doesn't work like that however, not normally anyway. When the success doesn't eventuate in these few weeks or months that they had hoped, and the journey continues to get tougher, this is where most people will quit. As much as people don't want to hear these words, success takes years. The amount of time it takes to achieve success usually depends on the value of the goal. What that means is, the greater the reward in achieving the goal, the longer it often takes. Now the success and goals I'm referring to here aren't just your everyday, run of the mill type goals, I'm talking about life transforming, life changing goals. It could be like going from working a petty little 9 to 5 job today, to owning a million dollar company, that you have a great passion for, in 5 years time. A complete game changer basically. Again, success usually takes considerable time, and that means years of hard work, failures, struggles, rejections, setbacks, sacrifices, and challenges, not to mention all the time, money, commitment, and effort, that is invested into it also. It's that good old cliché, that you have to endure short term pain for long term gain, but that short term is normally anywhere between 3 to 10 years. It highlights the importance of being driven by our goals, the need to remain resilient to all setbacks, failures, and challenges, and maintaining the strength and courage to keep persevering, because you will also need to exercise a great deal of patience before the success you desire is manifested.

5. - GRATITUDE

This one may baffle a few people as to why I have ranked gratitude to be such an important component to the success formula, let alone at all. How can being grateful and appreciative be of any contribution to helping us achieve success? Take a moment to think of some of the conversations that you have had with friends or work colleagues, and try to remember those interactions where they started complaining and whinging about not having something in life. It could be complaining about how much they hate their job, or how they never have enough money, or how they never get to go on holidays, or how they don't live in a fancy new home, or how they never get to buy a brand new car, or how their neighbors have something that they are envious about not having, or anything along these lines. Maybe it is you that's doing the whinging and complaining, in these conversations? We too often focus on all the things we don't have in life, that we completely forget to appreciate all the things we do have in life. Some of the things we possess, and see them as trash, can often be other people's treasure. We are envious of what others have, while all the time there are others envious of what we have. Life isn't about living in luxury, and living the high life, where we sit and sunbake on the balcony of our mansion, that overlooks the ocean, as we sip cocktails all day, every day. When we have the attitude of constantly focusing on wanting more in life, we can never achieve satisfaction. We may think we would be satisfied, but guaranteed, once we hit that target, we will then be wanting more again. It's like if we wanted to have $1 million dollars, and we received it, we would likely start to burn through it, buy some luxuries for ourselves, and then be seeking some more money. Let's be honest, we are possessed by greed, at least the majority of people worldwide are anyway, because they worship money. You cannot succeed in life if you are never satisfied, and constantly wanting more. Take a look around at what you're already blessed with, all those things you take for granted every day. From eye sight, to functioning limbs, to clean running water, to a warm bed, to a roof over your head, to having a car, to having loving parents, you name it. The list of what you are blessed with is actually endless, but rather than be thankful for what you have, you're too focused on what you don't have, and that's the reason behind why you're never happy and satisfied in life. It's why we should never base our goals on money, because money entices greed, and greed leads to destruction. Our focus should be on helping others in life, and being appreciative of what we have, because it's here where our purpose in life can be found, and within our purpose lies success. When we genuinely help others from the heart, and truly appreciate the blessings we already have, that's where we generate results.

The success formula isn't about money, working hard, or working long hours, it's all about our attitude, behaviors, and values. We need to be driven by our goals, we need to be resilient in overcoming all the failures, setbacks, and challenges we face on the journey to success, we need to persevere no matter how difficult the journey becomes, we need to remain extremely patient as we work hard and sacrifice for a handful of years, and we need to dedicate time each and every day to appreciate all the blessings we already have in life. We definitely need to work hard, remain committed to the actions, and maintain the willpower and motivation to get off our butt to complete these actions, but it's drive, resilience, perseverance, patience, and gratitude, that form the nucleus of the success formula. Are you prepared to change your attitude, behaviors, and values, so you too can succeed in life?

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