“Success is a journey, not a destination” ~ Ben Sweetland. This is one of my favourite quotes.
Indeed success is not a destination that you can say now I have arrived at destination success, no it’s a journey. It is a daily way of living.
I have come to understand that there is no quick formula to success. We all have asked questions about why are other people are more successful than others.
I have been doing some research on this question and have come to an understanding and believe that the following key principles have common ground among successful people.
There are a lot of other factors that have made different people succeed but all of them have revolved around these 7 principles.
There are many different ways of measuring success. Some people measure it by the wealth they have accumulated others by what they have achieved.
Whatever, measurement you choose to use I believe that the 7 principles mentioned in this article will definitely be of use to you.
Success is directly linked to Personal development. You cannot be successful without growing as an individual. That is why I love the subject of personal development and self-improvement.
I believe that personal development is the pathway to your success at whatever you are doing.
The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is the attitude towards what they want to achieve.
Those who men and women who walk the journey of success are usually persistent and are more motivated and focussed on what they are trying to achieve.
And now I present to you the 7 principles of success;-
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 achieve.
It is, therefore, very important that you write down what your intended life’s purpose is before you set out fulfilling it.
I believe that 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. A man was not created to live an aimless life. God created you to contribute positively to the human race.
Dr. Myles Monroe says “the richest place on earth is the graveyard” this is because at the graveyard lies ideas that have never been; songs that have never been sung; inventions that have never been born.
Imagine if you and I play our part in making this world a better place.
Setting goals is the first thing that should be done before venturing out to fulfilling your God-given purpose.
I know that when you write down your goals and read them frequently, they act as a stimulus and motivation to helping you move towards achieving them.
Targets act as reminders. They are meant to be used as a gauge. I have never come across a successful person who has no goals.
If you have no goals in life then you are just flowing with the wind. I can assure you that if you do not set targets for yourself you will never achieve much.
Forget About Failure
“Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently” ~ Henry Ford.
We fail because we accept failure. There are many great stories about how people never gave up even when they were faced with the prospect of failing.
Failure should be treated as an opportunity to perfect our act. Yes in everything that you set out to do you shall encounter challenges.
A challenge is merely there to teach and tell you to adjust your approach to your achieving your plans.
A word of encouragement to everyone is that there is no success without failure. There is no successful person that has never failed at some point. The difference is perseverance.
When you are starting out with your plans “DO NOT PLAN FOR FAILURE.”
Don’t even think about failure; erase it from your mind. When you are faced with failure take it as a challenge face it head-on.
Failure is a result of wrong thinking and a lack of persistence. Put on your positive thoughts and failure will run out through the window.
Please understand me very well, personal success does not necessarily mean that you will not encounter challenges.
If you think that the journey of success is a plain and easy one then you are absolutely mistaken. Walking the journey of success requires persistence; 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 Gomers.
I have come to realise that one of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is confronted by temporary defeat.
Most of us are guilty of this mistake at one time or another. We have all quit at some point in life.
Take One Step at a Time
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step” ~ Chinese Proverb.
Often times when we set out on a project we have a tendency of doing too many things at a time.
I find that there is nothing wrong with multi-tasking but the danger with multi-tasking is that you may lose your focus on your main objective(s).
It is, therefore, very important that you take one step at a time. Put in mind that you are not in a race with anyone. It is your personal achievement program.
Your plans will not be very clear as at the beginning but as you take one step at a time the clear picture of what you want to achieve will begin to illuminate.
The beauty about setting out your life’s purpose is that you do something that you enjoying doing for the rest of your life.
The challenges you will face every day will be more exciting as you overcome them. You will be able to look back with pride and joy at how far you have come.
In this part of the world, I come from, we have a tendency of doing things for the interim.
Even our own local businessmen start their businesses just for daily sustenance, we have no succession plan we want to live for the now.
When the owner of the business dies they die with it. There are very few well-established businesses that have flourished long after the original owners have passed on.
I do not want to be in the bracket of them that dies with the ideas. I want to create ideas that will live on long after 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.
The positive thought will destroy the negative as certainly as light destroys darkness, and the results will be just as effectual.
Negativity is the mother of failure. I can challenge you to think of a successful person who has a negative-minded personality.
One of the major differences between success and failure is positivity. The more you lean towards positivity the more success you will accomplish or achieve and the opposite is true.
But then you may ask how can I avoid negativity? See 4 tips to help stay positive. In this article, 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 meet with negative results, if you are positive you will as well reap positive results.
There are very few instances that 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 in the first instance. 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 onset.
When I first set out my life’s purpose it was very hazy and it only started becoming clearer as I started working on the process.
Every day I visualise what the end product will be and it gets more and more clearer. It is important though at the very beginning to be specific on what you want to achieve, example you may have a target to raise say US$5 million in five years.
This is a more specific and measurable target than to just say I want to raise a lot of money in 5 years.
What won’t be very clear is how and what you are going to do to raise the US$5 million.
Clarifying your goals as you go along is very important as it sets your mind in tune with what you are doing. Have an open mind, be more interested in the journey rather than the goal.
Remember it is only with unbounded confidence that the goal is reached.
Embrace Obstacles
Large ideas have a tendency to eliminate all smaller ideas so that it is well to hold ideas large enough to counteract and destroy all small or undesirable tendencies.
This will remove innumerable petty and annoying obstacles from your path. You also become conscious of a larger world of thought, thereby increasing your mental capacity as well as placing yourself in a position to accomplish something of value.
Obstacles must be embraced; they are part of the journey to success. Obstacles are a way of telling us to change something in our plans.
It is, however, through attention that you will finally be able to overcome obstacles of any kind that appear in your path onward and upward, and the only way to acquire this wonderful power is by practice.
Remember practice makes perfect. Difficulties, in harmonies, and obstacles, indicate that we are either refusing to give out what we no longer need, or refusing to accept what we require.
Difficulties and obstacles will continue to come until we absorb their wisdom and gather from them the essentials of further growth.
You are Not an Island
No man is an island. We are all part of one big family and that is the universe. There is a reason why God gives us people to be surrounded with.
You should not be ashamed or feel inferior to ask for help. In fact, help is everywhere. Solicit for help in areas that you require it.
Man is part of one huge universe and each and every one 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 and 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 than he who thinks small and does not act on his thoughts.
I would like to end by encouraging you to try out these principles they could just be what you have been missing in your life above all “standout tall and be counted.”