7 secrets of success

Why is it that some people achieve more than the average lot? Why are some people more successful than others?

• Is it because they are smarter?
• Are they just too lucky?

I don’t believe either of the above are reasons to be more successful.

“Luck favors those who help themselves”

People don’t get success just because of luck, they apply a few principles consistently that lead them to success. Here are 7 important points which are crucial to achieve success:

1. Get a Burning Desire

Successful people have a deep burning desire to achieve success. They want it badly.

A young man asked Socrates the secret to Success. Socrates told the guy to meet him near the beach next morning at 4 A.M.

The young man thought to himself, – “I am asking him the secret to success and Socrates is calling me near a beach!! Man, I do not want to learn swimming, I want to know the secret of success.”

Nevertheless, next morning 4 A.M he reached near the beach. Socrates asked the man to walk with him towards the beach.

When the water got up to their necks, Socrates dunked the young guy into water. The guy tried and struggled to get his neck out of water but could not. Socrates held the young guy’s head into water for around a minute and after that he released his grip and allowed the young man to come out of water. The young boy immediately took a deep breath of air.

Socrates asked him – “What did you want the most when you were under water?”

I am sure he must have wanted to say ”the most I wanted to do was – Kick you” but he replied that he wanted ‘air’ the most when he was under water.

Socrates said – That’s the secret to success, If you want success as badly as you wanted to breathe when you were underwater, then you will succeed.

Do you want it badly enough? Do you have the burning desire?

2. Find out what you are passionate about

How do you do that? Keep reading…

3. Write down your Goals

You can make a very important contribution towards achieving success by doing a goal setting exercise.  Smart people write goals to achieve them. Setting goals makes it easier for you to plan your tasks at hand and prioritize.

Let me tell you a rewarding technique of setting your goals, just draft a table in your planner/organizer as shown below:

Let me just briefly go through the relevance of each column in organizer:

• First of All, mention the goals that you want to work towards.
• Now, mention the reason you want to work towards this Goal, (You must be wondering that why do you need to mention the reason/necessity for its completion. This will always remind you of the results that you will reap once the goals have been accomplished within deadline).
• This will keep you motivated enough to continue working towards it since it is very natural to get discouraged/demotivated while working towards long term goals if you can not see the rewards you are going to get through them.
• Assign a priority on a scale of 1-5 for every task where 1 stands for critical tasks and 5 for tasks that can wait. Arranging the goals in decreasing order of priorities will help in tracking them
• Also, do set the target date for each task since this will give you a deadline to work towards, thus also giving you a chance to get better with your time management skills .Keep reasonable time estimates for every goal so that you are not discouraged in case any failure to achieve them due to lack of time.
• Do mention the status for every goal as Pending/In Progress/Completed. Also, start shading goals in red if the target date is approaching and status is still pending. The pending task in red will always catch your eye first when you open your organizer the next time.
• You can also start shading your completed task in green since this will motivate you to continue working.

4. Work Hard

“In Life, there is no free lunch”

It means you don’t get something for free. If you want to be successful, you will need to put in efforts.

Just look at all the facilities you are currently getting – Electricity, Roads, Cars, Buses, Mobile Phones, Internet. All these are making your life so much easier. It is there because someone worked hard to invent these. Someone had the burning desire to bring these new inventions to the world.

There is no shortcut. You don’t get success by taking shortcuts.

Most underachievers start procrastinating even at the thought of working hard. They start getting stressed. Believe me, If you are passionate about your Goal, If you want it badly enough, then you will not feel as if you are working. You will enjoy your hard work because you know it will bring you closer to your Goals. Trust me, work will seem like fun if you have the burning desire in you.

5. Give your best at the task at hand

There are just two methods of doing any work in hand:

• Doing it halfheartedly
• Doing it passionately with all your heart

Which method do you think will achieve better results?

Passion can really help you a lot in achieving your dreams. Make sure that you put in best efforts for the task at hand. Working on something with full passion will give you contentment of working and trying really hard for it from your end. Also, giving your best

will encourage you to perk up on task at hand and will fill you with a sense of confidence.

“Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.”

Oprah Winfrey

6. Focus

Focus is a necessary ingredient for achieving success.

As Carl Lewis, Track and Field Star Athlete has quoted “My thoughts before a big race are usually pretty simple. I tell myself: Get out of the blocks, run your race, stay relaxed. If you run your race, you’ll win….Channel your energy. Focus.”

So, focus and work towards the ‘task in hand’ without worrying for the results since the best that you can do at that moment of time is to give your 100% towards the task in hand.

This moment is the first moment of the rest of your life.

7. Persistence

Keep trying to achieve your goals in spite of failures since this another try might be the last blow and you may succeed. Keep Going… Keep Trying……

As you keep on trying and in case you encounter failures, then look at it with a positive approach since you are just eliminating the number of options and are moving closer to your success ?.

And also, you will know the options that are not to be repeated the next time

“They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats”

B.C. Forbes

Success is possible for anyone who is willing to achieve it. I love the quote from Bible – “If ye have faith, nothing shall be impossible unto you.”  A lot of people want to be successful, there is a huge difference between wanting-to and willing-to.