“Success is a journey, not a destination” ~ Ben Sweetland. This is one of my favourite quotes.
Indeed, success isn’t a destination where you can say, “Now I have arrived at success”; it’s a journey. It is a daily way of living. There is no quick fix or formula for success.
We’ve all asked why some people are more successful than others.
I have been researching this question and have come to believe that the following key principles are common among successful people.
Many other factors have helped people succeed, but they all revolve around these 7 principles.
There are many ways to measure success. Some people measure it by the wealth they have accumulated, while others measure it by what they have achieved.
Whatever metrics you choose, the principles mentioned in this article will be useful to you.
Success is directly linked to Personal development. You cannot be successful without growing as an individual. Personal development is the pathway to success in any pursuit.
The difference between successful and unsuccessful people is their attitude towards what they want to achieve.
People who pursue success are usually persistent, highly motivated, and highly focused on what they are trying to achieve.
Set Your Goals
“If one advances confidently in the direction of their goals and endeavours to live the life that they have imagined, they will meet with success unexpected in common hours” ~ Henry David Thoreau.
The principle of goal setting cannot be over-emphasised. You cannot call yourself successful if you have no target to aim for.
Therefore, it’s important to write down your intended life purpose before you set out to fulfil it.
All human beings have a God-given task to achieve in their lives.
Most of us have abandoned or have no idea what that purpose is. Man was not created to live an aimless life. God created you to contribute positively to the human race.
Dr Myles Munroe says, “The richest place on earth is the graveyard.” This is because the graveyard holds ideas that were never actualised, songs that were never sung, and inventions that were never born.
Imagine if you and I played our part in making this world a better place. The world would be different and beaming with goodness.
Goal setting is the first step to take before venturing out to fulfil your God-given purpose. Have something that is directing your life.
When you write down your goals and read them frequently, they act as a stimulus and motivation to help you move towards achieving them.
Targets act as reminders. They are meant to be used as a gauge. Most successful people are goal-oriented.
If you have no goals in life, you are just flowing with the wind, and you can rest assured you will not achieve much.
Forget About Failure
“Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently” ~ Henry Ford.
We fail because we accept failure. Many great stories show how successful people never gave up, even when they faced the prospect of failure.
Treat failure as an opportunity to perfect your act. Yes, in everything that you set out to do, you shall encounter challenges.
Challenges are there to teach you and make you adjust your approach to achieving your plans. It shows you that this is not the right path to success.
A word of encouragement to everyone: there is no success without failure. Every successful person has failed at some point. The difference is perseverance.
When you are starting with your plans, “DO NOT PLAN FOR FAILURE.” Don’t even think about failure; erase it from your mind. When you face failure, treat it as a challenge and take it head-on.
Failure results from wrong thinking and a lack of persistence. Put on your positive thoughts, and failure will run out through the window.
Personal success does not necessarily mean you will not face challenges, nor does it mean the absence of failure.
If you think the journey to success is plain and easy, you are absolutely mistaken. The journey to success requires persistence, smart hard work, diligence, and perseverance.
If you cultivate the habit of persistence, you will certainly enjoy the insurance against failure.
“Mastery of the Law of Success philosophy is the equivalent of an insurance policy against failure” ~ Samuel Gompers.
One of the most common causes of failure is the bad habit of quitting when you face temporary defeat.
Most of us have made this mistake before. At some point in life, we have quit.
Take One Step at a Time
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step” ~ Chinese Proverb.
Often, when we start a new project, we try to do too many things at once. There is nothing wrong with multitasking, but the danger is that you may lose focus on your main objective(s).
So it’s important to take one step at a time. Remember, you are not in a race with anyone. It is your personal achievement program. You set the pace and tone for your progress.
Your plans may not be clear at the beginning, but as you take one step and one day at a time, a much clearer picture of what you want to achieve will begin to emerge.
The beauty of setting out your life’s purpose is that you do something that you enjoy doing for the rest of your life.
The challenges you will face every day will be more exciting as you overcome them. You will look back with pride and joy at how far you have come.
In this part of the world I come from, we tend to do things for the interim. We are not long-term oriented. People tend to want instant gratification.
Even our local businesspeople start businesses for daily sustenance; most of them have no succession plan, and they want to live for the now.
When the owner of the business dies, they die with it. Very few well-established businesses have flourished long after the original owners have passed on.
I do not want to be in the bracket of those that die with the ideas. I want to create ideas that will live on long after I am gone.
Avoid Negativity
Watch out for the negative people in your life. Avoid them and always hang around with positive-minded people.
Find people who will encourage and compliment what you are doing. You cannot entertain negative thoughts and expect to have a positive outcome.
Positive thoughts will destroy negative thoughts as certainly as light destroys darkness, and the results will be just as effective.
Negativity is the mother of failure. I challenge you to think of a successful person with a negative-minded personality.
One major difference between success and failure is positivity. The more you lean toward positivity, the more success you will achieve, and the opposite is true.
But then you may ask, “How can I avoid negativity?” See 4 tips to help stay positive. You will find some useful tips and information that you can use.
Like I said before, negativity is the beginning of all failure. The Bible says you will reap what you sow. If you sow negativity, you will definitely get negative results; equally, if you are positive, you will reap positive results.
There are very few instances where you reap negative results when you are very optimistic. Avoiding all the negative things in life can help change and enhance your personal success.
Clarify Your Goals
The goals you set will not be clear at first. If you wait for them to be clear, you will never start on your journey, and I can assure you they will never be clear from the outset.
When I first set out to pursue my life’s purpose, it was very hazy, and it only started becoming clearer as I worked through the process.
Every time I visualise what the end product will be, it gets more and more clearer. It is important, though, to be specific at the very beginning about what you want to achieve; for example, you may have a target to raise, say, US$5 million in five years.
This is a more specific and measurable target than saying, “I want to raise a lot of money in 5 years.”
What won’t be clear is how you’ll raise the US$5 million.
Clarifying your goals as you go is important because it keeps your mind in tune with what you are doing. Keep an open mind, and focus more on the journey than the goal.
Remember, only with unbounded confidence can you reach the goal.
Embrace Obstacles
Big ideas tend to eliminate smaller ideas, so it is best to hold ideas large enough to counteract and destroy all small or undesirable tendencies.
Big ideas will remove innumerable petty and annoying obstacles from your path. You also become conscious of a larger world of thought, increasing your mental capacity and placing you in a position to accomplish something of value.
Embrace obstacles; they are part of the journey to success. Obstacles tell us to change something in our plans. They simply show us that this is not the way you are looking for.
However, through attention, you will finally be able to overcome obstacles of any kind that appear in your path onward and upward, and the only way to gain this wonderful power is through practice.
Remember, practice makes perfect. Difficulties, harmonies, and obstacles indicate that we are either refusing to let go of what we no longer need or refusing to accept what we require.
Difficulties and obstacles will keep coming until we absorb their wisdom and gather the essentials for further growth.
You are Not an Island
No man is an island. We are all part of one big family: the universe. God always gives us people to be surrounded by for a reason.
You should not be ashamed or feel inferior to ask for help. In fact, help is everywhere. Seek help where you need it.
Man is part of one huge universe, and each of us has a different role to play, just as the human body consists of various parts performing different but coordinated functions.
Support can come through various different forms; if you are in business, it could come through employing people and/or delegating some of your duties.
You should always endeavour not to live life in isolation. Also, try to surround yourself with helpful people. That is, those that you can learn something from.
Conclusion
“Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving they make mistakes but they do not quit” ~ Conrad Hilton.
There is no known secret to success, but believe me, he who thinks big and acts on his thoughts has every chance to succeed more than he who thinks small and does not act on his thoughts.
I would like to end by encouraging you to try these principles; they may be what you have been missing in your life.