How to Be Successful Continued

How To Be Successful

Continued

Maybe We Can’t Believe

This is a major obstacle to overcome. There could be a number of superficial reasons for unbelief. Why superficial? Because, if you are alive and breathing to read this you’re already successful. You’ve learned how to read and write, walk and talk, eat and breath, acquired skills to be able to use the Internet, probably have a number of relationships, may be married with children and a host of other successful skills you’ve learned. You probably have a job or a business and if not that’s not a sign of failure it’s only an opportunity to have time to learn a new skill. All you need to be successful in another area is to study and apply the lessons. Some of the best lessons we learn will be our failures. If you were messing around with fire and got burnt you learned not to do that anymore. Just be thankful that you’re alive to do something new. Just believe that you’ve already learned the hardest lessons and the simpler ones are ahead of you. What kind of lesson was the hardest? You learned a whole language when you had nothing to start with but the ability to smile and cry. Now you’re able to communicate with anyone who understands the language you learned from birth. You can be successful with anything you really feel that you want to do if you set your mind to it. I have a good example of a man who won through perseverance; one that I know of personally.
His name is Ray. Ray is a Native American who runs his own business in Georgia. I don’t know what tribe he’s from, I never asked. I was sitting with Ray one day and we were talking about this subject of success. He said that he felt I was a smart person. I thanked him for his sentiment but, I didn’t agree with him. I’d always admired him for the things he had. He had a beautiful wife, a good son, a fine house that had been featured in a extremely well circulated publication and a successful business that at the time had no competition. He had managed to find a niche that nobody else had filled. Talk about smart. I mentioned how I felt about his apparent success and that he was the smart one. He looked at me and told me I had it all wrong. He said that he had to take many of the courses he took in college three times before he passed. Anybody that had that much sticktoitiveness deserves to succeed. He just knew that he could do it. Most of us would have quit long before we ever got to the business stage.
You might say that I don’t understand your circumstances. Oh no? I do to. Are you out of a job, facing the possibility of being kicked to the curb? I’ve been there and done that. Life goes on. There’s always someone out there willing to give us a helping hand. Generally, if we starve to death in this country it’s because we haven’t asked for help. Do you think that you’ve burnt all of your bridges; used up all of your credits with people. Maybe the ones closest to you but, not everybody. There will always be someone to help us. I don’t advocate this as a viable option but, even prisoners get three hots and a cot. What I’m trying to show is that there are always options open, some good some not so good but, there’s always options.
I don’t mean to bring you down with this line of thinking but, I’m only trying to get you to focus on success. Part of believing comes with doing. Maybe you just need to get busy and do something if you feel like you’re facing insurmountable odds. People will boo a loser who quits but, most people cheer those who keep going. The history books are full of those people and so are our movies. Heck, even Reader’s Digest features stories about people who beat the odds.

Maybe we followed bad advice

Everybody is willing to share what they think with other people. It usually comes in the form “if I were you I’d...” or something similar. I’ve had friends that offered advice this way and the thing is sometimes they were right. Sometimes they were seriously wrong.
Someone once asked me “if you were going fishing and saw two people walking down the road and one had a stringer full of fish and the other didn’t who would you ask for advice about how to catch fish?” Well, I thought about it for a few seconds and said “the man with the fish” thinking that the one with the fish had caught them therefore he could tell me how to catch my own. Sometimes our first impression is wrong. The man carrying the fish might be carrying them because he lost the bet. I’m sure the answer behind the question was to ask the person who was most successful in the area that we want to succeed in. My point? Get to know the source before you take their advice. Do you know me? No. But, I’m not giving you anything that you probably haven’t heard before. Maybe it’s a little different in that there are a lot of ways to say the same thing and the way I say things resonates with you. Another thing is that I’m not telling you how to spend your money or patch up that shattered relationship. The advise I offer is to get the right advice from people you really know and can trust. The only way you can get to know someone is to spend time with them. That’s what you’re doing now with me.

Am I qualified to give any of this advice?

Yes, absolutely. I’ve been told many times in my life that this or that couldn’t be done and by people who were supposed to know more than I did. Sometimes we know that there has to be a way to do what we want or need to do. If we stop with the first, second, third or fourth no we’ve failed for the time being. This is where persistence pays off handsomely. I won’t brag about what I’ve done in my life except to say that I’ve accomplished enough by perseverance to know that what I’m talking about works. Here’s the big if: IF YOU BELIEVE ENOUGH IN YOUR CAUSE AND YOU DON’T EVER ACCEPT NO AS THE FINAL ANSWER YOU WILL SUCCEED. You can take this one to the bank. You just have to know that your cause is just. If you have any doubts then maybe you need to find another cause or examine the methods you’ve chosen to use to accomplish your cause.

I need you to succeed so I can succeed!

Here’s the thing. I believe that mankind is on a collective journey. We are all trying to do the same thing: THRIVE! It’s just a question of how we achieve it. It’s my belief that the only way to truly thrive is by helping others to do the same. We can’t thrive at the expense of someone else. That’s not right. Everyone has to get value for the energy they expend and that energy includes the hard earned currency they spend. That currency represents your energy. Some have to work harder than others for it but nobody gets something for nothing. Even if I offer you something for free you at least have to accept it and that takes some effort so it still cost you some energy. You at least had to consider the proposal and that takes energy.

The Final Success Formulae

First: set a goal. Know that the goal is a good one and that everybody can win by your efforts.
Second: find a mentor who you can trust. Examine them closely to know if they live up to your standards of integrity but, realize that everyone is human and has week points in their life.
Third: follow sound advice and formulate your plan. This can be a little tricky because even the best mentor might not always give the best advice. How do you know this. You might not until you’ve expended enough energy to know that those nagging little voices in your head were right.
Fourth: don’t quit. The method you’ve been employing may be wrong or wrong for you. Adjust, find another way to do the same thing. Be honest with your mentor about your doubts but, don’t give up. Giving up is the true way to failure.
I don’t know of anything else to add to this except that you have to know that you can succeed.
Working toward the Best
Katrael