Last week I embarked on one of the biggest challenges of my life, which is to cure myself of chronic illness. Thanks to Addicted2Success, I now have all the knowledge I need from the interviews I have been posting on this site.

While I am going through this journey of fasting, cleansing, juicing and detoxifying, I wanted to share with you lessons that could change your perspective. When we attempt to embark on a road less travelled, we know there are going to be challenges ahead.

It’s in these difficult times that the people around you will support you and your beliefs will be required to get your mind through the mental barriers. Whether it’s doing your first startup, healing yourself from sickness or attempting an expedition to Antarctica, don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t be successful!

Don’t ever let anyone stop you from following your passion and achieving your goals. Only you know what motivates you and only you have the power to bring change to the world. Stand up! Get inspired! Focus! Breathe! You have the power! Anything is possible!

To help you along your life journey, here are the ten lessons that have made me successful and I want you to have them.

1. Always be humble

There are going to be times when you get what everyone else wants. It’s during these times that you need to stay humble and never forget where you came from. I have achieved financial goals and career goals that most people have only dreamt of. I don’t tell you this to impress you; I tell you because I want you to understand how important being humble is.

Instead of being cocky when you reach a goal, use the result to inspire or teach someone else to do the same. It will feel much better than any amount of money and it will give you fulfilment. There is nothing more ugly in a person than arrogance and that’s not you – that’s not me either.

As quick as you can make a million dollars you can lose it too. Those who are humble are able to fail and still get back up and start again. Those who are arrogant have a much harder time because the people around them remember how they were when they had the million dollars.

It’s for this reason that I write these posts, rather than keep what I know to myself. I want you to do the same from now on – plain and simple.

2. Keep An Open Mind At All Times

If I could only teach you one lesson and nothing else then it would be this; the number one attribute that successful people have is an open mind. They are open to change and to think differently. This is why they see opportunities that normal people do not.

Remember that everything you know is only true if you believe it is. Question everything you have ever known and remember that there is no one answer to any question. People that fail do so because they think they have all the answers and they do not have an open mind.

You’re not a failure and that’s why you’re here. If there is someone who has totally different views to you then take them out to lunch, you might learn something. The greatest life lessons are learnt from your foes, not from people that just agree with everything you say.

3. Don’t be in love with yourself

Let’s face it, some people just love themselves. Have you ever met the person that has what sounds like a very polished script about their life and what they have been up to? Have you ever seen someone’s Instagram account that is full of photos of themselves?

Again, this is not you. Of course, it’s okay to have some photos of yourself, but don’t make everything all about you. If you want to attract amazing people into your life then do the reverse and focus on other people – it’s much more powerful and you know it.

4. The season will always change

I am sure you have heard of this by now, but if you haven’t, then I will introduce you to this concept; life is made up of seasons. There are times when you are in winter and everything is not going your way. Everything that can go wrong does.

Then there are other times where everything goes right and you can’t believe how much you have grown (summer). As long as you tell yourself that the season will change and your struggle won’t last forever, the universe will work in your favour.

Remember that during the winter moments of your life, the greatest lessons are being learnt and your personal resilience is being built. You’ll look back someday and be grateful for all those cold blizzards because it will have shaped who you are and what you can do for others.

Also, keep in mind that while some may be complaining about the cold weather, people like you will decide to go skiing instead – it’s all a matter of perspective.

5. People have their own reasons for their decisions

A lot of people spend their valuable time on this earth trying to figure out what people’s reasons are for making certain decisions. The life lesson I want you to get from these situations is that people have their own reasons for doing things.

Humans are not logical and no matter how hard you try you will never really know why someone did something. For example, your startup might be turned down for a major business deal and you automatically think that it’s because of your product or your experience.

In reality, you might have been turned down for something stupid like you may resemble a character from a horror film and the person making the decision is reminded of this every time they meet you. My point is that there could be lots of reasons that a decision is made but all of your focus should not be on why they made the decision, but how you can learn from it and continue with your vision.

6. Give value as much as you take value

A rule of the universe that always works (I have seen this in my own life a lot) is that you need to give as much value as you take. In a relationship, if all you do is take and you never give anything in return, it’s guaranteed that the relationship will eventually fail.

I know what you’re thinking, “but Tim how do I know what to give someone else?”

The answer is you don’t, you just give them something that you think is valuable to them and do so with all of yourself. Even if your act creates no value for the other person, they will be so humbled that you tried and you will get a great outcome.

In a business context, for a partnership to work there has to be value exchanged on both sides. Instead of thinking about how much profit you are making and how you can extract more money from the other side, reframe your thinking to “how can I give more value?”

I guarantee you that if you give the other side of a business partnership more value than they expect, they will try and outdo you any way they can. This process creates disruption, innovation and a great people culture.

7. Be optimistic at all times (the universe is in your favour)

If you look at people who achieve the impossible, you will notice that they all seem to have an unwavering sense of optimism. The reality is that negative people end up nowhere, buying lottery tickets and hoping that someone is going to knock on their door with a pile of cash.

You wouldn’t be on this site if you believed that myth and so I want you to know that the best thing you can do for your mental toughness is work on being more optimistic. Every time someones says something that is overly negative and not constructive, be bold, and call it out.

Don’t let other people bring you down with them. If you find that these negative people are having this affect on you all the time, then change your environment. Work somewhere else, start your own business, find a new group of friends, etc.

“By working on the art that is optimism, you will reconstruct your neural pathways to point yourself in the direction of greatness and global success” – Tim Denning

8. Take a break from your passion

Some of you on here are dedicated and work on your passion every single day. While I applaud you for your hard work, I want you to take a break once in a while. It’s on these breaks that your moments of clarity will come.

It’s on these breaks that you will pivot your vision and expand it further than it was before. Being in the same environment every day will limit your knowledge and block you from innovating. My suggestion would be to go as far away from your passion as possible, at least every 3-6 months for a couple of days.

Unwind, take a break and relax. Life is an adventure and it’s meant to be fun. Yes, you need to do some hard work to achieve your goals but heck, just smell the roses once in a while and let yourself be grateful for who you are and what you’re becoming.

In the not so distant future, you are going to achieve amazing things with your passion and all the hard work will pay off – trust me.

9. Reevaluate where you are at regularly

Nothing stays the same ever! I tell you this because it means that you need to constantly reevaluate yourself and the direction you are heading. To be on an optimal path to greatness you should be checking your major goals monthly if not weekly.

Ensure that your time is not being wasted and that the small steps you are taking are leading you down the path you want to go. There will be times when you will veer off a little bit but that’s okay. If you don’t check your human GPS once in a while, you could end up on the other side of the planet thousands of miles away from your destination.

How do you revaluate things? You take a simple approach. Life is already complicated enough so keep this part of your life simple. Ask yourself:

Am I on track to achieving some or all of my goal?
Am I happy each day doing what I am doing?
What small changes could I make to better my results if any?
Have I asked other people who have achieved a similar goal, how I am tracking?

If you answer these questions on a regular basis, you will compound your results beyond what you thought was possible. Other people will be left scratching their head while you will be off in the distance doing the impossible.

10. Don’t be afraid to do the opposite of what people expect

I’m not sure what it is but I have always loved doing the opposite of what other people expect. By following other people’s expectations all you will ever do is achieve mediocre results that don’t align with what drives you and fulfils you.

Veering off track and doing your own thing requires you to be bold. When you don’t conform to how others want you to be and what others want you to achieve, you could get some negative feedback. That’s okay and if anything it usually proves to me that I am on the right track.

Even if you meet people that do what others expect, don’t judge them, it just means they haven’t found themselves yet or haven’t discovered their true passion and that’s okay – you were like that once before too.

***Final Thought***

I hope you learnt something from my mad rant and that you never forget these lessons. This advice has taken me many years to realise and I value it greatly. These truths have been echoed by many greats that I have been fortunate to meet. By sharing them with you I get immense fulfilment and I thank you for spending your time to read them.

Wish me luck with my life-changing journey to cure myself of chronic illness. Never settle for second best and always remember how important your energy is, without it you have nothing and can’t motivate others.

What life lessons have I forgotten? What can you share with me and teach me? Hit me up in the comments section below or on Facebook.