The Shocking Truth About Success

Three stepping stones on your journey to success

Not everyone is a success.

Yes, you read that correctly! Maybe if they were aware of some simple fundamentals, they could attain more personal success. After all, everyone, at some stage of their life wants to be a success.

Success could mean getting married and having kids or it could be the desire to win a gold medal, to be rich or famous, or even just the desire to do something good and make a positive impact in the world.

Regardless of the reason, this undying need to achieve success at some point of our lives, is what propels us to choose the paths we take.

When I think about success, the analogy of a politician propagating about how he is going to change the world, comes to mind.

Just like a politician, many people strive for success and make promises to move towards this goal, but with each twist and turn, they fail to plan for or make excuses about why they can’t attain what they so desperately want.

The sad part is that many who try will never reach their goal, and this sadness can often be soul-crushing.

However, everyone has the ability to shape the circumstances to support a journey towards success, by utilising three elements: courage, communication and confidence.

Courage – are you prepared to fail?

Failure can feel absolutely devastating.

But, before you throw in the towel, you need to understand what the pathway to success truly looks like.

Many assume that failure means giving up and retreating to a lesser, easier goal, but that could not be further from the truth.

Failure is part of the journey towards success.

While we will never be rewarded for our failures, the lessons they teach are often the stepping stone to our later success.

We only need to look at those who have taken that route before: Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, J.K. Rowling and Oprah Winfrey.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”

– Winston Churchill

Confidence – only you can limit your success

We can’t be successful if we can’t push through our self-limiting beliefs. We all need to believe we can be successful.

In fact, one of the brain’s most amazing powers is the power of belief. Self-belief works to expand the sense of what is possible.

Unfortunately, we are hampered by the limiting beliefs imposed upon us by others: coaches, parents, employers and society at large. Yes, we are all guilty of this.

One example is that of the trained elephants we see on most Asian holidays. As babies, the elephants are chained up tightly to ensure that they can’t run away. The baby elephant is constantly pulling on that chain, testing it to see if it can break free.

After a while, it gives up and stops pulling, accepting that it is trapped and can’t get away. If you look at the size of the chain on the larger elephants, you will notice that they could easily be broken if the elephant tried.

What has happened in these larger and older elephants is that their spirit has been broken, they don’t believe they can escape.

Communication – Talk your way to success

It is often the language we use on ourselves when those curve balls are thrown our way that bring us down; seeing us fall in a heap and never reach our objectives.

The extent to which we believe our own negative self-talk can cause a downfall in our ability to move forward and commit to our goals.

The late Muhammad Ali can teach us many lessons. He had to push through and work hard to create firm convictions to overcome his many hardships.

When I was younger, I loved the lines that Muhammad Ali would sprout before matches. I didn’t realise it at the time, but he was the master of using positive self-talk.

He would use affirmations to keep himself positive and propel greater performance, and used negative sayings towards his opponents to gain a psychological advantage.

Like Muhammad Ali, the one thing common to successful people is the power of positive self-talk. These repeatedly used words increase confidence and help the propulsion towards success.

They inspire self-belief, and promote our ability to tolerate the most adverse situations in life. So often, when faced with stress, the body’s reaction is dictated by the mind, so if we can control the mind we control those sweaty palms, increased muscle tension, dry mouth, nausea or even palpitations.