Success in life entails discovering your potential to do certain things. This calls for setting up of individual plans and goals and working hard towards achieving those goals and plans (Knowledgebase 1). The difference between those who succeed in life and those who do not is that successful people make it their mission to pursue their goals and objectives in life.
Before one embarks on pursuing success in life, it is important first to be fully aware of the issues that have thus far hindered your potential to succeed. One of the key hindrances to success in life is false beliefs. This prevents you from achieving your true potential and by extension, your success.
It is important therefore to get rid of such false beliefs. Another hindrance to success in life is lack of persistence. All too often, we lose focus of what we want to achieve simply because we have failed on one or several occasions (Harford 25). However, those of us who are persistent enough always succeed in the long run. In his book, ‘Adapt: Why success always starts with failure”, Harford (26) reckons that most business did become successful instantly; rather, it happened after several failed attempts.
Those businesses that did not persist perished, while those that ‘hang in there’ succeeded. The fundamental lesson that we can borrow from Harford is that we need to design our own lives in order to gain the most from our failures. Lack of proper planning is also a hindrance to succeeding in life. For example, you must have clear plans and goals about what you want to achieve, and how you intend to achieve it.
One of the key steps of succeeding in life is being proactive. What this means is that we should always endeavor to create our own destiny, instead of waiting for others to do so. In other words, deciding on whether to pursue success in life is our choice to make. Successful people always make SMART goals in life.
Such goals are specific in nature, can be quantified, are attainable, and can be realized within a given time-frame (Boyle and Tymchuk 71). In order to succeed in life, start by setting goals and plans that you would want to achieve in life. In addition, ensure that you have a roadmap that will enable you to achieve this goal.
Another importance thing to do in order to succeed in life is to take immediate and decisive action. Sadly, not many people have the self-drive needed to take decisive action. No matter how good your plan or an idea can look on paper, it is useless if you cannot implement it. In this respect, successful people recognize the need to actualize their plans and getting things done. Another character trait of successful people that is worth emulating is that they are more focused on being productive, as opposed to being busy.
Successful people strive to work smarter, as opposed to working harder. Similar sentiments have also been echoed by Ferris (18) who observes that being busy is characterized by indiscriminate action and lazy thinking. Being busy does not mean you are doing the right things. Successful people know this, which is why they opt to work smart, and not work hard.
In order to be successful in life, it is important to ensure that you are constantly evaluating your weaknesses or areas where you have fallen short of your expectations in life (Dureke 89). This way, you will be able to avoid many of the pitfalls that could have prevented you from achieving your set goals and objectives.
Above all, succeeding in life is a journey that you must be prepared to make and as such, you should be ready to deal with the many challenges and pitfalls that you are likely to encounter along the way. If you are patient, prepared, focused, and are quick to make decisive action, then you are on your way to attaining success in life.
Works Cited
Boyle, Gert and Tymchuk, Kerry. One Tough Mother: Success in Life, Business and AP. Westwinds Press, 2005. Print.
Dureke, Margaret. How to Succeed Against All Odds: Make Adversities Your Foot Mat. New York: Jahs Publishing Group, 2000. Print.
Ferris, Tim. The 4-Hour Worksheet: escape 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich. London: Ebury Publishing, 2011. Print.
Harford, Tim. Adapt: Why success always starts with failure. London: Little, Brown Young, 2011. Print.
Knowledgebase n. d., Self Improvement – How To Succeed in Life? PDF file. Web.