Earl Nightingale once said that “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.”
It is quite obvious that, if we accept Nightingale’s definition, no success can be created without first having or establishing “worthy” goals or ideals.
What is ‘worthy’ is, of course, defined by each person. It is not up to me to judge the worthiness of your goals or ideals.
I can, however, assert that a person who has no defined set of ideals or specific, identified goals cannot ever create success. Simply put, if you have not decided upon a destination, how can you ever know if you are travelling in the right direction. And, of course, it is impossible to arrive if you do not know where you are going. No goal = no win.
Multiple studies have shown that the majority of people who have clearly defined ideals and specific written goals achieve those goals and thus, create success for themselves ; and the majority of people who do not have clearly defined ideals and specific written goals do not create a successful life.
It is patently obvious then that choosing not to have clearly defined ideals and specific goals is choosing to not create success. If you desire to create success, then you need to choose your ideals and goals consciously and carefully.
When many people hear the word success, they tend to think mostly in terms of material success. But we all know that true success is more than the accumulation of riches or a trophy room full of accomplishments.
There are five aspects that all people who live above the basic struggle for survival mode have, whether they acknowledge them or not. If you have a roof over your head, a bed to sleep in and food to eat, then you also have these five aspects to your full being; and true success is the holistic blend of progressive realization of well-being in all five areas.
These five aspects of human beings are: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and material.
So, in order to create the fullness of success available to you (if you choose), you first need to identify your physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and material ideals and then set specific time related goals in each area of your beingness.
Having a set of ideals which one strives to enact and uphold also provides meaning and purpose to one’s life. And of course, no one really wants to live a purposeless and meaningless life. A life of meaning and purpose is the beginning of a successful life.
So the first step to creating a truly successful life is to establish your personal ideals and then to set specific goals to work towards achieving in order to enact those ideas.
That great student and elucidator of the principles of success, Napoleon Hill, told us, “There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.”
That brings us to the next step, which is to embody that burning desire (or passion) that Hill references.
Passion is the fire that lights your path and fuels your commitment as you walk into a future of your own creation. Passionate people are charismatic. Passionate people are attractive. Passionate people inspire others. Passionate people have Purpose with a capital P.
Passion also enables you to feel more alive. In fact, you are more alive when you are passionate about something, such as those ideals you have envisioned for yourself. A life without passion is not a life, it is merely an existence.
Envision that ideal. Become passionate about it. If the ideal you have set for yourself does not engender your profound passion, it is not the right ideal. Choose or create another one that does kindle your passion to ignite and burn bright.
Setting ideals and holding them in mind is a mental exercise. Being passionate is an emotional exercise. Both are forms of energy. When combined, they are very powerful causal forces that work to bring success into your life.
And, as I have written before in my post Clichés of Success, “Success comes from having clearly defined ideals combined with a fervent desire defined by clear, written, time-defined, goals that are worked towards every day and persisted in until they are made manifest.”
And that brings us to the third step needed to be taken to create success… persistence or commitment.
Thomas Edison‘s teachers said he was “too stupid to learn anything.” He was fired from his first two jobs for being “non-productive.” As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”
Upon winning the Nobel Prize in Physics, Carlo Rubbia said, ”I don’t believe I have special talents, I have persistence … After the first failure, second failure, third failure, I kept trying.”
And from Calvin Coolidge, we get this, “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
I am not going to expound any more upon the importance of persistence here. Instead, I will point you to an earlier post I wrote about it entitled Determined to Win.
Purpose + Passion + Persistence = Prosperity.
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