The reason why most people will never succeed is because they are lazy and because they do not want to put in the hard work and effort to get to where they dream of being. Now that I gave you the (basic) answer, you don’t need to read the rest of the article anymore.

For those of you who are interested in discovering the psychology behind why most people will never succeed, I continued writing the entire article and you may now read on.

Water As A Roadmap To Success

Let’s take a few seconds to analyze water. No, I am not talking about its chemical composition or its mineral content. Water always takes the path of the least resistance. When-ever you drop water or pour it onto a surface, it will flow to the point where it needs to use the least amount of energy to stay in position.

Gravity is the force that water must obey and thus water will always flow to the lowest point. However, it flows to the lowest point through the path of the least resistance. Have you ever seen water flowing uphill to get to a lower point that is on the other side of the mountain?

The reason why I took the analogy of water is that I believe most people are like water. They all aspire to be somewhere better and they want to be successful but they take the path of the least resistance. This means that as soon as most people encounter a mountain they will not flow uphill to continue their journey towards success and instead stay at their current position until some external force causes them to move (to speak in terms of the water analogy).

When it comes to success and self improvement, hard work and persistence are key. The only way to get really good at something and become successful is by not giving up when you encounter resistance.

With everything that you do there comes a point when you will get that ‘aha’ moment – a moment when everything just clicks and makes perfect sense. The mist is lifted and you have a crystal clear vision and understanding of what you are doing. From that moment onwards, your level of competency has jumped tenfold. You now know what you are doing and can really focus your efforts into perfecting your skill and becoming a master at your craft.

However, that moment can sometimes take months or years of trying before it finally arrives.

Sometimes Things Seem Impossible

When you set out to learn something new, it can often seem impossible to master or to understand. This is a strange realisation because when you watch experts do it they make it seem so easy and effortless.

Most people will give up after a few attempts. The amount of people who persist in the face of seeming incompetence become less and less as time counts on from the moment when those people decided to start getting better at X (replace X with whatever skill or activity they want to get good at).

Sometimes You Will Feel Stupid

Sometimes you will feel stupid and incompetent that you cannot accomplish whatever it is that you are trying to do. You invest time, money and effort and yet you still can’t get it right. Does that mean that there is something wrong with you?

No!

As soon as you start feeling stupid and embarrassed you will want to give up. Do not think that there is something wrong with you. Never give up. Persist and be determined to succeed. You may have to quit your current method how you are doing something and approach it from a new or different angle, but you should never give up on your dreams.

As Will Smith says:

“Don’t let success go to your head and don’t let failure go to your heart.”

Never Give Up

The following is one of the best examples I can give about that ‘aha’ moment and why you should not give up before you get it.

I have had this moment in various sports and activities like learning to snowboard, wake board, ice-skate and ride a bicycle. Initially when I observed experts doing it, it seems super easy and effortless to do.

When I set out to try it for myself, I could not for the life of me get it right.

Let’s take snowboarding for example. It was something I really wanted to learn so I spent three days on the little kiddie slopes falling on my ass. It was so incredibly difficult for me to understand because both my feet were stuck on one board, and the concept of getting the board to turn was a mystery to me. I could have quit after the first two days, but since I so badly wanted to learn how to snowboard, I didn’t. On the third day after about 2 hours of falling in the snow while trying to learn, I got up this one time on the board and managed to turn the board without falling. To my surprise I could do it again, and again. All of a sudden I understood how to do it. From that point on I had a good understanding of how to snowboard. The troubles of learning it were well worth the fun and enjoyment I got from being able to go up on normal slopes and enjoy being able to snowboard down them.

I had the same thing with wake boarding. I thought that since I could snowboard, it would be easy to get up on the wake board and enjoy gliding on the water behind the speedboat. Wrong! It is similar but oh so different. Once again, I spent two days falling in the water, never making it further than 30 meters from the jetty. The embarrassing thing was that there was always a queue of 20 odd people waiting for their turn, so I would constantly be falling in the water and everyone was just staring.

Somewhere on the second or the third day (I can’t remember), I tried again to stand up on the wake board and all of a sudden I could stand. Just like with snowboarding, I had that ‘aha’ moment and understood how to do it. Once I knew how to do it, it was so easy and from that moment on I was able to stand up on the wake board every time. If I had given up then I would never have experienced the fun of being towed behind the speedboat over the open ocean. I even learnt how to jump off the wake (a little bit).

The ‘aha’ moment applies to everything!

I have given personal examples of the ‘aha’ moment relating to sport, but the concept applies to anything and everything. Whether it is learning a new language, building up a business, having a good relationship, making money or making friends, it will all be difficult initially.

For some people certain things will be easy and they may get it right within the first few attempts. Others may find the same thing more difficult and not get it right after 100 attempts. Success and skill take a lot time to build up and usually only come after overcoming many obstacles and difficulties.

What do you think happens when you take the easy way out as soon as obstacles present themselves and things get difficult? The chances are pretty big that you will not grow (physically or mentally) and you will not be successful.

You Are Not ‘Most’ People

While most people will not succeed, you are not ‘most’ people. The fact that you are reading this article (and hopefully you are a subscriber of Upgradereality) means that you have interest in making your life better. This alone separates you from the majority of people who just let life pass them by.

If you can accept the fact that it will take hard work, effort and time to reach your goals, then you have the recipe for being successful and achieving things that most people never will. All you need to do now is stop thinking and start doing.

Take action, day by day, step by step and you will reach your goals!