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I think that everyone wants to know how to be successful because success is something that everyone dreams about from childhood.

I used to believe that being successful meant having a lot of money in the bank and being in a better financial position than most of the world. Growing up has changed my view on that a little bit…

Success doesn’t necessarily mean to have money, or fast cars, or expensive houses. Success doesn’t have to mean having fame, or being part of the top 1% of the world.

Success simply means achieving your dreams and living a fulfilled life, whatever those dreams of yours may be.

Your dream may be to travel the world and set foot in every country in the world. Maybe you want to build up a fortune 500 company. Maybe you want to write books that will positively impact the lives of tens of thousands of people. Maybe you do want to be filthy rich and have a different color Ferrari for every day of the week.

It doesn’t matter what your definition of success is as long as that definition is something that you know you want from deep in your heart and not because it’s deemed the norm by society. If you’re going to spend your years chasing a form of success defined by others (like millions of dollars) then you may find yourself feeling rather empty and disappointed when you achieve your success because it doesn’t give you the joy that you thought it would. When you choose to spend your years pursuing success that you know in your heart is right (click here to learn how to follow your heart), then not only will you really enjoy the process of becoming successful, you’ll also really enjoy the success once you achieve it.

The video below from Alan Watts describes perfectly what I wrote in the above paragraph:

(click here if you can’t see the video in your email inbox)

Let’s move on from the philosophical side to a more practical side and let’s learn how to be successful with whatever you set out to do.

How To Be Successful

If you want to learn how to be successful with whatever you do in life, read the following section very carefully. Being successful is made up of various aspects and you need to master all those aspects should you wish to achieve your success.

How To Be Successful Aspect #1 – Attitude

“You don’t try to build a wall. You don’t set out and say ‘I’m gonna build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that has ever been built’. You say ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid’. You do this every single day, and soon you have a wall.” – Will Smith

“The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is that I’m not afraid to DIE on a treadmill. You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, but if we get on a treadmill together, there are two things:
1- You’re getting off first
OR
2- I’m gonna DIE
It’s really that simple” – Will Smith

Your attitude plays a big role in being successful.

Firstly, you need to have a positive attitude. You need to believe in yourself, you need to believe in the possibility that your success is achievable and you need to be able to see as many opportunities as possible. This is only possible when you have a positive attitude.

Secondly, you need to realize that success does not happen overnight. You need to have the attitude that you’re going to work as hard as you have to for as long as it takes until you are successful. Don’t worry about the date of your success, just take things day by day. Give your full 100% towards achieving your success every single day and then it’s only a matter of time before you eventually achieve your success.

Be open-minded. Listen to others and don’t be too quick to dismiss something as a bad idea. This attitude will help you greatly while you’re on your journey to success.

How To Be Successful Aspect #2 – Vizualization

“Ordinary people believe only in the possible. Extraordinary people visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible. And by visualizing the impossible, they begin to see it as possible.” – Cherie Carter-Scott

If you ask almost any successful person about their journey to success they will tell you that they had a vision of what they wanted to achieve and where they wanted to end up. Successful people often had tangible things to remind them of where they wanted to be and what they wanted to achieve, whether it be a picture, a souvenir or some sort of role model.

While you may not know exactly which turns, ups and downs lie in the path to success ahead of you, you don’t need to know the specifics in order to be successful. All you need to know is where you want to end up and you’ll be able to manoeuvre your way around the obstacles and get to where you want to be.

Create some sort of vision board or spend 10 minutes a day visualizing your success. Not only will this program your subconscious mind and tell it what you want to obtain in life, it’ll help to keep you focused on working towards your success. It’s way too easy to get distracted from your main goals by life and other petty little things. The daily habit of visualizing your goals and success will make it easier to avoid distractions and temptations.

How To Be Successful Aspect #3 – Strategy

“He who fails to plan, plans to fail” – Proverb

You can be as ambitious, positive and energetic as possible but if you’re not working according to a plan or strategy then you may just end up running circles so to speak.

We all know that life is unpredictable and that things rarely go exactly as you plan them too. However, if you have no plan at all then you’re wasting your energy and resources. It’s essential to always have a plan or strategy that you’re going to follow in order to achieve your success. That plan might change at any moment, and just because you have a plan does not mean you need to stick to it if circumstances change or if better opportunities present themselves.

I’m a big fan of following a strategy or plan that has already been proven to be successful by other people in your field or industry. Why try to re-invent the wheel if you can just copy the blueprint?

Always try to find examples of people or people’s strategies that have been proven successful and that you could possibly apply to your own journey towards the success you want to achieve. This could end up saving you a lot of time, energy and resources and result in you achieving your success much faster than you would if you were to try and figure it out on your own.

How To Be Successful Aspect #4 – Sacrifice

“Sweat plus sacrifice equals success” – Charles O. Gikely

As I mentioned before, success doesn’t come easy and it doesn’t happen overnight. Usually you have to work really hard for a really long time before you achieve the success you want to have.

This means that 50% input is likely not going to make you successful. If you think you can put in a little bit of work and effort every day while still keeping your social schedule, partying, entertaining your friends, playing video games etc. and achieve the success you want, then you’re mistaken.

If you really want to learn how to be successful you’re going to need to make sacrifices. You’re going to have to say no to certain things that you enjoy doing in order to work harder on achieving the success you want. You may have to stop partying, have less time for friends, forget about buying luxury items for a while etc.

There’s an amazingly inspiring video about how to be successful that I watch from time to time. I’ve included it below:

(click here if you can’t see the video in your email inbox)

How To Be Successful Aspect #5 – Persistence

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

Even if you master the other 4 aspects of how to be successful that I listed above, without persistence you’re likely not going to be successful. The truth is that in order to be successful you’re going to fail many times. You’re going to experience obstacles and setbacks, possibly for weeks or months or years on end.

If you want to be successful you have to see failure as a learning opportunity. You cannot give up when things are difficult or when you fail. You have to pick yourself up when you fall, dust yourself off and carry on going with unlimited energy.

If you want to be successful you have to try, over and over and over again, until you finally succeed. Take a look at the quote above by Michael Jordan. He’s arguably the best basketball player in the world, but do you think he just became that successful overnight?

Never give up on your dreams and never stop trying, that’s the secret of how to be successful!

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P.s. you may enjoy these 22 quotes on success by well-known celebrities.

FILED UNDER: HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL