The constant inquiries of how one can make it into the world of success is never-ending.
This is due to the fact that, we as human beings, desire a life that is visually appealing to those on the outside looking in. This lustful on look of attention fills us with a sense of accomplishment.
Notice that I included that there is a need for most people to appeal to those on the outside looking in. This need to produce external improvement is what drives many people to seek the glory of success. Therefore, their sense of pride is based off of outside validation instead of internal happiness.
This speaks to the bigger issue at hand. People have no idea of what success really means within their life. When thinking and speaking of success, all thoughts are based off of opinion within mainstream society, rather than their own internal views. Such thinking sets many people up for failure who are seeking the path towards success dependent on thoughts of others, rather than their own.
Let me tell you 4 reasons why this occurs:
1. Not knowing yourself
You would be amazed to know how many people who are living in this world who have no real sense of self identity. Their identity and operating mindset within the world is programmed by outside societal influence. Therefore, they are a clone of a system with many other identical clones.
This leads to group think and no one can be successful who operates under the constrains of group think because they cannot perceive the world around them for themselves. Success is allergic to people who do not possess the ability to think for themselves; nor can form their own way of doing rather than being told what to do by others.
Their life is controlled by:
- Media
- Parents
- Friends
- Spouse
- Government
- Job
People allow these different entities to dictate how their life is structured, causing them to misinterpret what actually brings value to their existence within the world. The greatest danger to a person is not knowing who they actually are when no one else is around to tell them so.
Action steps:
- Take a day or two of alone time to be by yourself, away from everything and everybody, to only be with yourself and your own thoughts
- Perform a self analysis of yourself , identifying your strengths and weaknesses
- List out your dreams and identify the fears you have which will make your dreams difficult to achieve
- After this time of self evaluation, devise a plan that positions you as the leader of your own life, living life by your set of standards
2. Inability to recognize false images
People see the person driving the Mercedes Benz S550 and think success. What they do not see is that the person driving the Benz is in a panic because that car note is due, the mortgage is behind and other high priced expense are due; which have them drowning in debt.
People easily get aroused by visual stimulation, without knowing the truth behind the publicized facade of many who fake success. When your internal being is miserable, you are not successful. Real success produces the ability to think freely and do as you wish on your own terms.
False images blinds an easily influenced person’s ability to see what truly matters beyond public opinion. Therefore, they fill their life with junk that constricts their ability to live a life of freedom and success.
Action steps:
- Learn to see life beyond material possessions and the need for outside validation. People and things are not constant, they change and disappear as time goes on
- Live below your means until you can comfortably live well. This is accomplished when money can be utilized as a resourceful tool, rather than a desperate need
- Develop your emotional intelligence skills. This skill helps you gauge people beyond what they publicly display in order to see them for who they truly are
3. Unwillingness to pay dues
It is quite scary to realize how many people want the rewards of success without putting in the hard work to produce success. We live in a world of instant gratification, which means people feel they have a right to get what they want immediately. This can also be classified as unwarranted entitlement behavior.
People don’t understand that when climbing the ladder of success, they actually have to start at the bottom of the ladder and proceed upwards. There is no such thing as beginning one to two steps from the top.
Reaching the point of success means a series of actions were performed, that built upon one another to produce the desired results. This is not just done with a snap of a finger and a wishful dream of becoming successful. Real, consistent work is required on the path towards success.
Action steps:
- Seek mentorship from those who have the success you want. Wise council of experience helps avoid costly mistakes produced from arrogance and ignorance
- Never make excuses nor put off until “tomorrow”. Doing so only increases entitled behavior
- Look beyond where you are today in favor of where you are positioning yourself to be tomorrow so you don’t become impatient and lose faith in yourself
“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” – Pablo Picasso
4. No goals in which to measure success
Success is a planned destination and not a spurt of random thoughts and actions put together on the whim of sporadic thoughts. Success is produced when a person can envision the end game in mind and set out to develop the most effective actions which make it conceivable.
Without goals used to measure actions against and chart progression, a person operates without any real direction. It is imperative to know where one is currently, where they are going and how they are getting there.
Goals hold a person accountable to themselves and sets the standards for their ensuing actions. Goals create discipline and focus, which are key ingredients for success. No Goals = No Success
Action steps:
- Set a clear vision of what you want for your life. Many people merely exist, you want to produce a desired lifestyle
- Create goals which must be accomplished in order to stay working within your designated vision, leading to continued progression
- Review your vision everyday and rate your daily actions in order to ensure they are consistent with making your vision attainable
People fail to succeed due to various issues but it all boils down to themselves being the culprit of their failure.
The one thing that is certain is that they really do not understand success nor its process. They hear the word and visualize what they believe it to be but they never truly internalize the meaning of success.
Great article. It speaks so much of the realities we are always shunning.
I sincerely believe this post is really inspiring; many people fail to become successful in life because they follow the wrong track. They never planned for their future, most people want to achieve quick success and fall into the hands of hungry fraudster who dupe them of their valuables. I believe success is a concentrated effort, determination, dedication, focus, hard working, and more importantly patience. When one has all this qualities, they is no way he or she will not succeed in life.
Hi,
I read this post and believe me you inspired me to the core, you give me a reason to dream again and make it achievable it’s true I’m unsuccessful struggling from many years but I’ve learned so much from bad time I didn’t know where to go what I wanted to do with my life and here in India at new Delhi I’ve tryed to work in hr executive profile but left ,I’ve tryed in BPO’s but failed but still finding where I’ve to go you know I used social media but I don’t what really is and how powerful it is and few years back I created my twitter account just to get a reply from johncena which he did replied to me but I did’t know what’s the use and slowly-slowly I found there are lot of brands who do marketing and run campaigns to promote there brands so I got to know digital marketing and it’s for those who love to be a social media freak which I’m now the problem I’m facing I don’t have money to pursue this course which I want to do badly but I’m trying to find a job so that I can learn this course to become a digital marketing professional and I also love IT sector so I’m trying to be successful ASAP and one last thing I find myself who I want to be ,what gives me happiness and thank you for the post.
Regards
Sumit
Nabin,
We all go through life blinded by the influence others have over us, therefore forming our opinions and thoughts based off of others rather than first hand knowledge. Truth seeking for yourself can be uncomfortable because it causes you to challenge what you thought to be right, to see what it actually is in reality.
Exactly Lawrence,
Mastering yourself is the ultimate challenge in life. Since birth we are controlled by outside factors: parents, school, friends, media; and we never truly learn to think for ourselves without outside influence. Knowing yourself means having the ability to cut away from everybody and everything else, to see the world from truly your own perspective. That means gaining experiences on your own, which translate into you forming your own opinions and actions based upon what you come to know for yourself.
I relate it with myself. Really written with deep thought over the matter
People fail to succeed more in their life because, like you said, they don’t know who they are and because they don’t know who they are, they don’t know what they want. They let external factors and other people expectations influence their decisions, getting into a career field or something they are not passionate. They may have slight success, but they will never be as successful as they could be until they find out who they really are. Finding out who you are takes time. You really have to be in tune with yourself and your emotions in different situations.
I appreciate the comment Successful Tribe.
Unfortunately many people do not realize they lack success due to the fact that they are a barrier against welcoming it’s presence.
Great article.
I agree…