Success begins inside yourself

Many people talk about success.   Some people offer step-by-step models and invite you to follow their lead.  Other people offer courses, podcasts, CD-Roms and DVDs to give you insight into their personal triumphs. You can find books about people who have achieved their goals and call this success.  What does all this mean to you? Maybe it gets you excited about doing something new.  Maybe it makes you feel you're not yet where you wish to be. Maybe you don't have a plan to develop or distinguish yourself.

Its important to recognize that if you don't yet have a clear idea what success would mean to you, the only person who could change how you perceive and understand success is you.  For you, perhaps success relates less to the idea of finishing a task than to the process and what you learn about yourself as you prioritize the plans to get there.  As you convert the goal into steps, you would also benefit from listing obstacles that you think hold you back.   Consider mentors or other people who could potentially assist you to overcome these obstacles. You may also have your own revelations. 

Once you create a vision of what you seek, you need to find ways to motivate yourself to make it happen.  Psychology suggests that you are most likely to be motivated by a) feelings of yearning b) fear of loss and c) the desire to love and be loved.  As you clarify your notions of success, and begin to identify how you could measure results, focus on what you will gain and how this will enrich your life.

Superachiever Steven K. Scott has come to expect criticism, problems and failures.  Rather than become defensive, make excuses or rationalize failures, he accepts responsibility for results of his efforts, he retraces his steps to recognize what he could do differently, and he takes a new approach based on wisdom.  He reminds us that no worthwhile success in any endeavour is ever achieved without encountering adveristy.

"The success of love is in the loving - it is not in the result of loving. Of course it is natural in love to want the best for the other person, but whether it turns out that way or not does not determine the value of what we have done." -Mother Teresa