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The only certain means of success is to
render more and better service than is expected of you, no matter what your task
may be.
Og Mandino
Success is an ongoing process. In a broader view, success is more than the attainment of a single goal. It
is a way of life in which we continually press to be more, and this being more
has the side benefit of gaining more, more money, more social fulfillment, and
more mastery of our life. When we view success as the development of ourselves,
it becomes a continual process with new goals arising naturally. When we achieve
a goal, it is not the end but merely a moment to be savored before engaging in
the next meaningful endeavor. Our motivation does not come from a fear of
failure, poverty, or disgrace. Those concerns can be incidentally satisfied in
the general drive toward our affirmative goals of self fulfillment.
Techniques for achieving success.
 | Aspire to success in every aspect of your life. When success is
seen as the attainment of only one goal such as wealth, we can become a
workaholic who ignores other aspects of life. A broad perspective on success
includes all portions of our life, our finances, health, family, friends,
intellect, emotional satisfaction, and so on. |
| Enjoy every step toward success. |
| See the success in everything you do. We create the habit of success by
noting its occurrence whenever it happens, whether the, event is a job
promotion, or a good game of tennis, even if we didn't beat our opponent.
Success can be something as minor as successfully buying groceries. Any
achievement registers equally in our mind. Our day can be a continual stream of
attainments big and small, each of which generates a feeling of competence and
confidence that we will do well in whatever else comes our way. We learn the
principles of success in its many forms. |
| Follow your own standards of success. We feel successful only when we
reach the goals that match our values. Those values come from within ourselves,
not from external standards and images of wealth, position, influence, or
reputation. We select goals that are meaningful, and we know why they are
meaningful. When we attain an objective, we feel successful and fulfilled,
rather than relying on an external source for our fulfillment. Our values can
change from moment to moment. Last year's goal may have no meaning today, so we
need to verify that our previous goals are still important to us. |
| Prepare for the psychological demands of success. We are more likely to achieve, retain, and enjoy success if we
prepare ourselves psychologically:
 | Self esteem A person with low self esteem creates meager goals, and
then pursues the goals indecisively because he or she believes that they are
neither attainable nor deserved. If success is reached, the person feels
uncomfortable with it , or he or she tries to compensate for the low self
esteem through a display of arrogance. |
| Optimism We know that success is natural. It is to be expected. |
| Control of fear We can encounter the fear of success as our lives
increase their speed and intensity, and as we lose certain friends and
familiar routines. |
| Motivation Will our motivation dissipate when we reach a goal, or
will we continually refresh ourselves with new goals? The concern that we
will lose motivation causes some of us to deny ourselves the pleasure of
seeing ourselves as successful. |
| Flexibility Our lives change as we develop new friendships, make
bigger gambles, budget more money, and encounter other new responsibilities
and pressures especially if success comes in the form of a more complex job. |
| Get support In any endeavor, we get ahead only with the cooperation and
support of other people. Successful people help other people to meet their own
needs, because support comes to us only if we support those people. We recognize
their desires, ambitions, and emotions, and we find ways to reveal those same
things in us. People are more likely to support us if they believe we are
likeable, caring and talented. |
| Take action toward success In addition to the psychological components of
success, we need to develop goals, make specific plans for achieving those
goals, generate a high energy level and do the work that is required, directly
and vigorously. We learn and practice the essential skills: technical, social,
psychological, leadership, and so on. |
| We can learn about the design of Success On the design level, there is no
scale. We can gain complete education and satisfaction on even the smallest
scale. We can therefore, experience and cultivate the thrill of the success
design as fully when we successfully type a memo as we would do if we
successfully won the Boston Marathon. |
| We come to terms with failure Failure does not have to be viewed as a
disaster nor disgrace. It is simply an occurrence, one from which we can learn
and improve.
| Failure is a part of life. Failure is an aspect of everything that we
do, because every ending is short of perfection, though still satisfying.
Life is full of successes and failures. We can find poise and enthusiasm to
sustains us along the way. You win some and you lose some. |
| Failure is just a result. We perceive our failures caked with
emotion, disappointment, anger and frustration. Apart from the emotion, all
that remains is simply what happened. The failure is mere feedback.
In fact, we were successful. We successfully produced a certain outcome, but
we would have preferred a different one. Take responsibility for the cause
and the effect, and then move on. We can change our approach, or we can
change our goal to one that is more achievable, but still desirable. |
| In failure, sustain your self esteem. Failure doesn't make us less of
a person. It means that we are part of the human race, participating in the
usual ups and downs of life. Instead of claiming a one sided view of
ourselves as a loser or winner, we can honestly see the many parts of
ourselves, the segments in which we are successful, and the ones that need
more improvement. If other people think less of you when you falter, their
view can injure you only if you have first injured yourself by believing
that same viewpoint. Be proud of your effort and of the perseverance that
leads you to try again. |
| Learn from your failures. Failure is an element of learning. As we
try various methods, we learn which ones don't work, and we gain
understanding of the nature of our subject, what it is and what it is not.
This is also an opportunity to learn more about ourselves. Only when we see
our errors can we improve. When the small failures and successes have led us
eventually to mastery, only our new proficiency remains, while the memories
of the trials fade away. |
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Success is going from one
failure to the next without a loss of enthusiasm
Winston Churchill
Next topic: Meaning |
