Success In Life And How To Achieve It

By William R. Givens


First things first. What is YOUR definition of "success"? What determines whether or not someone is successful in your eyes? For some people it is having a lot of money, for others it may be having the time freedom to play golf once a week, and for others it may be raising their children to be "good people" or having a large group of close friends. For every one of us, there is a different definition of what success is for others, and what success is for ourselves in our own lives. The more important of the two is how we measure success for ourselves, not for others. In order to have success in our own lives we must first define, within ourselves, what it IS to be successful and then set our hearts and minds on achieving it. The basic foundation to attaining success is setting goals and when you achieve those goals, you have success.

The goals that we set for ourselves can come in all shapes and sizes. Some may seem small and some may seem outrageously ambitious in the eyes and minds of others. Whatever the size of the goal or whatever the goal is, when we accomplish it, it will equate to success no matter how big or small. If you feel that making tiny little steps is more of your nature, then set small goals for yourself in your life. A bucket full of small incremental successes is just as valid as reaching a long-term goal in larger steps. As a matter of fact, every long-term goal requires smaller short-term goals for them to ultimately come to fruition. That's just the way it works. We've all heard of the concept of the "overnight success", right?

There is no substitute for diligence. You can attend multitudes of conferences and listen to all the subject matter experts you want to, but if you persist to be lazy, you don't have what it takes to become a success in life (sorry about being so brutally honest). You may be a person of faith and you can pray to God for success all night long, but if you have lazy hands, you are destined for failure.

Be it far from me to suggest that prayer does not work. But remember, the verse I quoted is from the Word of God. He is the one who says that lazy hands make a man or woman poor. All the praying in the world won't compensate for laziness.

Well, I will guarantee that each one of those overnight successes have been achieving other quieter, less public, subtler successes along the way before "getting their big break". Nobody becomes an overnight success overnight. The bottom line is that in order to succeed in life we must have goals, whether big or small. You can still be a big thinker and a very successful person by accomplishing bite-sized goals and succeeding at them one at a time.

The journey towards your ultimate goals is an exciting one when we have incremental successes along the way. And when we achieve those successes along the way, it's important to celebrate them and to be inspired by them, so that we are motivated to achieve the ultimate goals in our lives as well.




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