Regardless of how old you are, where you live, or what
your career goals are, everybody's ultimate goal in life is to be happy and
successful. Read this article to learn how to achieve success in both your
external life (i.e. your circumstances) and internal life (i.e. emotional wellbeing).
Identify
your passions. Before
you can achieve success, you will have to define what success means to you.
While it may take years to realize what you want to do with your life,
identifying your passions, interests, and values will help you set goals and
give your life a sense of meaning. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What do you want your legacy
to be?
- How would you like to be
remembered by others?
- How do you want to make your
community a better place?
- What are your subjects of
interest in your life?
Make a
list of your goals, and what you might do to achieve them. Be sure to address both
short-term and long-term goals; try to think beyond financial/career goals.
- Consider which subjects you
enjoyed studying in school, and why. This can help give you an idea of
what you may be best at or more interested in.
Live
purposefully. In order
to achieve your dreams and be the person you want to be, you will have to start
paying attention to your actions. Ask yourself, is what I'm doing going to lead
me to where I want to be in life?
- If you find yourself
constantly bored, daydreaming about the future or past or counting down
the minutes until the day ends, it is probably because you feel
disconnected from what you're doing. Consider changing careers or majors
to a field that you care about but remember that it could mean changes you
are not thinking of. Does that job pay enough to support yourself? Is it
something you might get bored of eventually? Do I really want to commit to
that job?
- Cherish your time. Try to
spend your free time doing things that you enjoy doing, rather than
wasting time. For example, rather than spending your weekends watching
television, spend them partaking in your hobbies or spending time with
loved ones.
- Remember that the concept of
"wasted time" is relative. Not everything you do has to be
productive in the conventional sense, but it should be engaging and
enjoyable.
Be
educated.
Education gives you the knowledge, skills, and credibility to achieve your
maximum potential. In terms of financial success, statistics have shown that
the more education you have (i.e. the higher degree you achieve), the more
money you are likely to make.
- In 2011, the median weekly
earnings for high school graduates was $638 while those with bachelor's
degrees made $1053. That same year, those with masters or doctoral degrees
made $1263 and $1551.
- Not all education has to be
formal. Apprenticeships and long-term training programs are also
positively correlated with higher incomes.
Manage
your finances. Learning
how to manage your money will help ensure your financial stability over time,
regardless of your income.
- Keep track of your expenses.
Review your bank statements often and notice where you spend your money.
If you do your banking online, be sure to keep personal records as well.
This will help you prevent over-spending and ensure that your bank
statements are correct.
- Understand your income. When
calculating your income, be sure to take into account the federal, state,
and social security taxes that will be deducted from your gross pay. The
resulting number is your net pay, which is what you end up taking home
with you.
- Prioritize spending. Your
first priority should be spending money on basic necessities like food, shelter,
and clothing. Don't spend money on luxuries like expensive clothes, cars,
or vacations until you have first satisfied your basic necessities. Be
honest with yourself and differentiate between your basic needs and your
luxuries.
- Save money. Every month, you
should deposit some of your money into a savings account. Consider asking
your employer to directly deposit a portion of your income into your
savings account.
Manage
your time. Putting
off important tasks until the last minute can cause you unnecessary stress, and
increases the likelihood of errors. Manage your time so that you have enough
time to complete a task effectively.
- Use a paper or electronic
planner to help keep you organized throughout the day, week, and month.
- Make a list of all the things
you need to do in a given day, and check off each task as you complete it.
This will help you stay organized and motivated.
Enjoy the
present moment. If you
are constantly dwelling on the past or daydreaming about the future, you are
missing out on the present moment. Remember that the past and the future are
simply illusions, and that real life takes place here and now.
- Start paying attention to
negative thoughts so that you can learn to silence them and enjoy the
present moment. If a negative thought arises in your head, then
acknowledge it, label it a negative thought, and then let it fade away.
- Get in the habit of paying
attention to the small details around you. Appreciate the feeling of the
sun on your skin, the sensation of your feet walking on the ground, or the
artwork in the restaurant you are eating in. Noticing things like these
will help you silence a rambling mind and appreciate every moment.
Don't
compare your own life to other peoples' lives. Unfortunately, many people
measure their own success by comparing it to the success of those around them.
If you want to feel accomplished and happy, you will have to stop comparing
your life to other peoples' lives.
- Many people have the
tendency to compare the low points of their own lives with the high points
of other peoples' lives. Remember that no matter how perfect somebody's
life may seem, behind closed doors everybody deals with tragedy,
insecurity, and other difficulties.
- Rather than comparing
yourself with people who are "better off" than you, think about
all of the people who are homeless, chronically ill, or living in poverty.
This will help you appreciate what you have rather than feeling sorry for
yourself.
Count your blessings. No
matter how much you achieve in life, you will always feel unhappy if you
constantly focus on what you don't have. Instead, devote time every day to
appreciating the things you do have. Think beyond material items; appreciate
your loved ones, and remember happy memories.
Look after your health. A
healthy body supports a healthy mind. Eat a balanced diet and ensure that you
aren't lacking in any necessary nutrients. Establish the cause of any problems
you may experience, such as a lack of energy or a lack of concentration and
deal with them by discussing with a doctor, nutritionist and related health
professionals. Get plenty of exercise too but align it with what you love to do
rather than what you feel you have to do but dislike.
Put yourself in Right Environment
Environment. The environment around us has a
huge impact on us on all levels of conscious(subconscious and unconscious) .
This includes the place we live in, friends we have, things we read, people we
see and the list goes on. Environment is contagious. Thomas A Edison said he
was able to become a successful inventor because he placed himself in the
company of people who were much smarter than him and then he was able to learn
from them. We offer most of our thoughts in response to the environment we are
subjected to.
- Try this experiment. Put
yourself in company of people who are into gambling, or anything in
particular they are interested in, for some time and then monitor your
thoughts and emotions. Most likely your thoughts will be correspondent to
the environment you subjected yourself to. Have you noticed that you feel
serene and calm when you go to a beautiful lake or some beautiful natural
environment?
Macro-Environment. The
entities with which we spend most of our time lie in Macro environment. The
place you live, the place you work, the colleagues, friends with whom you spend
most of the time etc. All these are part of macro environment. It’s very important
that you put yourself in a macro environment which motivates you constantly to
become successful. This also includes You, if you spend a lot of time
with yourself (you are the environment in this case) and you have a reactive
brain then most likely you will have reactive thoughts unless you change your
environment.
Micro-Environment.
These are entities with which we don't spend much time with, for example coffee
shop, people you say hello to, grocery store, new people you meet at bars etc.
This usually don't have a long term impact on you unless you change it into
macro environment.
- Keep yourself inspired by
anything that inspires you: music, photography, fashion etc. Nothing else
ignites a flame in you but a great source of inspiration.
- Having
positive role models in your life can help keep you motivated and lead you
in the right direction. Your role model may or may not be somebody you
know personally. Learn about your role model's life story and try to adopt
his or her work ethic.
