Personal success is determined in and by your own mind. No other mind on the face of the planet can tell you what success is or what it means. You are responsible to decide what success means to you -- and to go after it with all you have.
Who ever sits down and writes out what success means to them? Very few. Which speaks to why so many seem to be stagnant in their personal lives.
Without a gleaming vision of success in front or you, why not sit in front of the TV and let your mind turn to mush? Why not hang around the bar and drink your life away? Why not get stoned and feel no pain? This condition has a name. It is called 'homeostasis'. From the cellular level all the way up through the mental - emotional level, when an organism finds a place that is comfortable it doesn't want to change, grow, or improve. Why change what isn't broken. If it seems to be working it doesn't need to be changed does it? Well, yes it does.
Personal success means a holistic success. You must succeed in all important areas of your life. If you have made it to the top of your field, but your family life is a wreck - you do not have personal success.
You graduated at the top of your class but you stepped all over your friends to get there -- you are not a success.
Personal success is both a journey and a goal. One characteristic of successful people is that they never sit on their hands they are always moving. From one goal to the next... they never consider themselves to have arrived.
So how do you get to personal success from where you are? Here are some well thought out guidelines for you...
The Greek proverb 'Know yourself' was inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.
When the seeker after personal success knows themselves, they will by extension gained an understanding of human behaviour, morals, and thought.
Knowing yourself seems to be an easy thing to do but few are the individuals who can assess themselves accurately. Knowing yourself fully is an ideal and not a practical goal -- no one can ever have a true comprehension of the human psyche...
The goal then is not quite so ambitious -- get to know and understand your own habits (thought habits), morals, temperament, and other issues that we all deal with on a daily basis.
There are several places online that can help you to really understand yourself. One of the most useful is the Jungian Type personality test. Once you do this test you will have a four letter 'type' that you can use to discover your traits.
You can use this knowledge of yourself to change how you deal with all the issues you will have to face on your journey to personal success.
Knowing success means being intimate with what success means to you. Whatever your ideal is, whatever your goal is -- know it intimately. Make the effort to learn what it takes to get there.
People who know where they are going in life and what success means have a crystal clear vision of what that means.
Consider the young man who wants to be an NBA star -- he knows everything there is to know about his goal...
He can tell you the names of coaches, the stars, what colleges they attended their scoring stats, the dimensions of the court the dimensions of the basket and the ball and so on... you know the type -- obsessed.
Become obsessed with your personal success and you will achieve it.
Finding true north is about your internal compass rather than the geographic world around you. True north is what real success is for you. You have just read that you need to know success...
But what if you don't know what real success is. Are you confused? Aimless? Don't really know where you're going? When you find true north you can navigate your way through life.
You will be authentic and others will want to come along with you because you know where you are going.
So where is your true north? Only you can discover that. Once you know yourself and understand your motivations, take a look at your values -- what is important to you?
Put all of these things together and you will have a very good idea of where true north is.
Loving yourself is something that may not be that easy for you. It means that you will have the character traits of confidence, and self esteem. Without a decent regard for yourself ...
You will find it hard to reach personal success. So how can you learn to love yourself? Here are some tips:
Remember that love is not a feeling -- it is an action. It is a choice so choose to love yourself and take actions accordingly.
Consider the people in your life. Those you associate with most often.
Now think about the most positive and influential people in your life. Those you admire the most -- the ones you respect. The ones who you admire and would like to be like.
What is it that you really like about them? What is it that you find attractive about them?
Now consider who the positive and influential people associate with. Do they socialize with other positive, powerful, generous and happy people? Or do they spend time with negative, pessimistic, complainers?
The failure to know and believe that 'birds of a feather flock together' will work against your personal success program.
This is a difficult principle to understand -- we don't just want to end relationships because we suddenly realize they are toxic. So what are we to do?
Well, read this and believe it: like attracts like. The more you associate with negative unsuccessful people the more you will become negative and unsuccessful yourself.
Now -- introduce yourself to successful positive people and develop relationships with them. The old negative ones will fall away as naturally as autumn leaves.
The easiest way to get rid of negative people is to attract positive people into your life. Negative people can't stand being in a positive environment for very long.
Get busy being successful. When you are busy doing positive things you won't have time for negativity and complaining. The more time you commit to positive people the less time you will have for the toxic people who drain your emotional batteries.
Which is more important to you? Your relationships with negative unsuccessful people or personal success? If your greatest desire is personal success, you'll have no problem moving on.
Really, why would you let anyone stop you from achieving your dreams?
The idea that work and fun are polar opposites isn't true. Observe successful people and you'll see that they love what they do.
It is kind of sad that by the time the average person is out of school and old enough to seriously think about what they are going to do with their lives they've been completely hypnotized into the belief that work is a drag and a chore and no fun.
If you separate the idea of work from the concept of making a living the big question then is not how to make money but what to work on.
Goals are important and essential to personal success. In fact goals are so important there is a whole page dedicated to goals for personal success.
Once you have determined what personal success means to you and how you plan to get there, the most powerful tool you can use to accelerate your personal success program is affirmations with entrainment.