If I were to ask the question, “who wants to be successful?”, I am sure that almost everyone would raise their hands or at least nod their head yes. I don’t know anyone who starts out in this life that doesn’t want to be successful.
The word success to some people might mean having lots of money to spend when ever and where ever they choose. While to others success means having a big house in the right neighborhood.
Yet others may think of success as being famous and having name recognition. The simplest definition I have found for the word success is having a goal set and a goal met.
Nowadays the radio, television, newspapers, magazines, and social media all project an imagery designed to make you think that what people are espousing is real and all you have to do is want it bad enough and you too can achieve it.
I am by no means a dream killer, but I think people ought to know the difference between illusion and reality. I am a woman of faith and I do believe we can speak things into existence, but I also know that if you don’t put the planning and the work behind what you say you want, it won’t happen just because you wished for it.
We should realize that there is no such thing as “overnight success.” What appears to happen overnight, in our opinion, in many instances, has taken many, many years of hard work and sacrifice.
I know most of us want to feel we have made a success out of our lives and with that success we believe happiness will come and all our problems will be solved, but that is not always the case if our expectations don’t match our willingness to do the work.
First, decide if what you think of as success is what you really want
You should ask yourself how do I bridge the gap between what I think of as success versus how I feel about success? Say you’ve always wanted to own your own business.
Instead, you took a job working for someone else because it meant more security for you and your family. You might well be a great employee and very successful based on your position and possessions, but you aren’t happy or fulfilled because you didn’t achieve the goal of owning your own business.
Conversely, if you’ve always wanted to own your own business, but you have never worked in a business; taken any business classes; never worked on a business plan, etc, makes it highly unlikely that you will feel successful because you aren’t prepared to do what you say you want to do. That’s why it’s important to make sure what you say you want matches what you really want and be willing to do the work to achieve it.
The second and most important step, is to make sure you are ready to make the journey towards the success you say you want to achieve
If you want to become a famous singer, then it is important that you be able to sing and others besides your family enjoy your singing. Now I am not here to say that a tone-deaf person can’t make it as a singer, but the chances become less likely.
Unless this tone-deaf person has a great gimmick, that will over-ride the fact that they can’t sing. It doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t become a famous singer, but the person must be prepared for rejection and maybe even ridicule before their success is realized.
Consequently, you must be sure you know what you want and you are willing to see it through no matter what the outcome. The bottom line is to count up the cost because success always has a price.
If you are not feeling the success you want to feel, ask yourself the following questions so you can redefine your meaning of success:
- How do I define success?
- Am I doing the things I really want to do or am I doing what others want me to do?
- What is my real goal?
- Am I willing to do the work to become the success I want to be?
- Am I afraid of failure?
- Am I afraid of success?
- Are my feelings about myself based on fact or fiction?
- What can I do to improve my chances of success?
If you have been able to answer all the above questions, then you are well on your way to becoming the success you’ve always wanted to become.
Leave a comment or your own recommendations of things that have helped you maintain real success in your life so we can share them with others.
