Step Up To Succeed

Achieving success in life is not something one gets by fluke or luck but is something for which a combination of skills, timing, hard work and luck is needed.  Successful people share many common habits with each other and this is enough to prove that success may have a certain recipe and path.

Some of the habits of highly successful people include tracking progress,learning from mistakes, thinking of long term goals, being humble, taking risks while maintaining balance in life, being organizational, embracing changes and handling problems well.

On the other hand, some habits which are common among unsuccessful people are wasting time, getting distracted easily, blaming others, not setting goals, fearing change, holding grudges and wanting others to fail, negative thoughts and thinking that they know everything.

It is a fact that those who think that they have achieved success tend to be 100% successful in the future whereas those who think that they can achieve it have only 80% chance of being successful. Similarly, those who doubt themselves and think that they might achieve it have only a 60% chance whereas those who think that they definitely won’t have a 0% chance!.

Secrets for Success in Life

Do you ever question if some people were born with a silver spoon in their mouth? Why are some people very successful and others trying to catch the drift of life? Well, it is all about working hard, having a passion, and being smart about it.

Here are some secrets for being successful in life

1. Positive Thinking

There is no shortcut to success unless you embrace positive thinking. Whether you are going through good or bad times, people should practice seeing the positive side of everything. Think of being successful in everything you do. Entertaining failure and doubting your beliefs is the first step of failing. However, surrounding yourself with positive minded people is a great ingredient to success.

2. Set your Goals

Before you achieve anything, you need to set a target of what you hope to achieve. Goals are best set with a timeline to challenge you towards achieving them within a time limit. Goals push you towards success, because your work is aimed at achieving certain targets. Having goals can be a short or long term commitment. Remind yourself of your goals often to act as a motivation to working hard in achieving them.

3. Never stop Learning

For successful people, every day is a learning day. You see, learning does not necessarily have to be in a class room set up with a lecturer. There is a lot that can be learnt at the work place by getting out of your comfort zone. The more you expose yourself to activities outside your cocoon, the more you will learn a lot.

4. Communicate Effectively

To be successful, you have to be a confident and effective communicator. Confidence will make people pay attention when you are passing a point. Effectiveness on the other hand, is using available communication tools to the best of your abilities. Communication skills make you a people person, because of your ability to deal with people appropriately.

5. Work Hard

They say hard work never goes unrewarded. People who commit to their work, put in more hours and make sacrifices, always enjoy the fruits of their hard work. The secret to being hard working is not only what you do when everybody is watching you, but also what you do when you are alone.

6. Take Risks

Some of the best decisions successful people ever made were as a result of taking risks. Whether they are calculated or not, if you don’t try you can never know the outcome. Business for instance, always involves taking risks. If you take a risk and fail, you can still learn from your failures and do better next time.

7. Be Proactive

What good is setting goals that sound great on paper when you will not work on implementing them? Talk is cheap but action is expensive. If you want to be successful, talk less and focus your energy on action. Actions do not have to be grand gestures, you can start with baby steps and build on gradually.

8. Be Analytical

You see before any successful people make any decisions, they have to weigh both sides of the coin. You have to get all your facts right before making any move. Being analytical will not make you beat yourself up should things fail, because you gave the details the airtime they needed.

9. Take Control of your Emotions

The worst thing that some people do is make decisions based on emotions. Emotions fluctuate a lot, hence not the best consideration for decision making. Whether you are angry or happy, your decisions should be based on facts. Emotions influence people to making haste decisions, which they regret once the emotions subside. Learning to take control of emotions places you in a great position for success.

10. Be Honest

Honesty is always the best policy. This is not just a cliché but a fact. If you want success, you must be honest in your ways. When you are honest, the lying bug will not bite you where you will be forced to cover up one lie with another. Honesty makes you dependable and draws people to trust you.

Successful people are who they are because they earned it. Unfortunately, many people want to be successful, but a few of them are wishing to give success what it takes. Whoever said the best things in life are free was not really referring to success. Successful people are no better or less than others. They just do things a little or more different from others.

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-Kushal

Appreciation of Hard Work

One young academically excellent person went to apply for a managerial position in a big company. He passed the first interview, the director did the last interview, made the last decision. The director discovered from the CV that the youth’s academic achievements were excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the postgraduate research, Never had a year when he did not score.

The director asked, “Did you obtain any scholarships in school?” The youth answered “none”.

The director asked,  “Was it your father who paid for your school fees?” The youth answered, “My father passed away when I was one year old, it was my mother who paid for my school fees”.

The director asked,  “Where did your mother work?” The youth answered, “My mother worked as clothes cleaner. The director requested the youth to show his hands. The youth showed a pair of hands that were smooth and perfect”.

The director asked,  “Have you ever helped your mother wash the clothes before?” The youth answered, “Never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books. Furthermore, my mother can wash clothes faster than me”.

The director said, “I have a request. When you go back today, go and clean your mother’s hands, and then see me tomorrow morning”.

The youth felt that his chance of landing the job was high. When he went back, he happily requested his mother to let him clean her hands. His mother felt strange, happy but with mixed feelings, she showed her hands to the kid. The youth cleaned his mother’s hands slowly. His tear fell as he did that. It was the first time he noticed that his mother’s hands were so wrinkled, and there were so many bruises in her hands. Some bruises were so painful that his mother shivered when they were cleaned with water.

This was the first time the youth realized that it was this pair of hands that washed the clothes everyday to enable him to pay the school fee. The bruises in the mother’s hands were the price that the mother had to pay for his graduation, academic excellence and his future. After finishing the cleaning of his mother’s hands, the youth quietly washed all the remaining clothes for his mother. That night, mother and son talked for a very long time. Next morning, the youth went to the director’s office.

The Director noticed the tears in the youth’s eyes, asked:  “Can you tell me what have you done and learned yesterday in your house?” The youth answered,  “I cleaned my mother’s hand, and also finished cleaning all the remaining clothes”.

The Director asked,  “please tell me your feelings”. The youth said, “Number 1, I know now what is appreciation. Without my mother, there would not the successful me today. Number 2, By working together and helping my mother, only I now realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done. Number 3, I have come to appreciate the importance and value of family relationship”.

The director said,  “This is what I am looking for to be my manager. I want to recruit a person who can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the sufferings of others to get things done, and a person who would not put money as his only goal in life. You are hired”. Later on, this young person worked very hard, and received the respect of his subordinates. Every employee worked diligently and as a team. The company’s performance improved tremendously.

Something to learn :   If one doesn’t understand and experience the difficulty it takes to earn the comfort provided by their loved ones, than they will never value it.  The most important thing is to experience the difficulty and learn to value hard work behind all the given comfort.