By Bayo Ogunmupe
Understanding success principles underlying life is critical to living the life of your dreams. Persistence is one of those success principles. How persistent are you in pursuing what you really want? A great secret of success is learning to keep moving despite your doubts. There is no better example of persistence than the story of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. He failed in business at21, lost a legislative race at age 22, failed in business again at 24 and lost a Parliamentary election when he was 34. At 45 he lost a senatorial race. He failed to become Vice President at 47. But he was finally elected President of the United States at 52 years of age.
Lincoln never quit. Every failure was a stepping stone until he finally assumed the highest office in America. This learns you not to give up too soon. As long as you are actively trying after every failure, you have not failed. Another principle of success is giving up the desire to be liked or accepted. A famous writer and man of letters Erich Hoffer once said: "A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business." Wanting to be accepted is human, hence the insane pursuit of conformity. Make a conscious effort of not giving a damn. Set yourself free. This is a skill that needs to be acquired and practised. Once you truly learn how to let go; you will see the world from an entirely different perspective.
The key to the good life you are after is giving a damn about what is important to your growth, career and total well being. Stopping to give a damn about what other people think, boosts your self confidence to the rooftops than you ever imagine. You start believing in yourself and what you can offer the world. Then, you stop outside influences from meddling with your decisions. Also, never panic when your plans fail; life isn't linear, not everything goes as planned. You cannot achieve goal. You just reshuffle your goal and move on. Your best strategy when planning is making contingency or alternative plans. Your plans for the week or next month may not unfold as expected. Never attach yourself to any particular plan, adapt when necessary.
Stop worrying about what you cannot control. You can do nothing about the past, the future and the perception of others. When you spend time wishing things had been different; you stop making progress. You only need to prepare yourself for what's ahead. You only have control over your thoughts, decisions, attitude and reactions. When you limit yourself to what's within your control, life becomes easier for you to handle. You can influence people and circumstances but you cannot for change in others. Instead of worrying about things you cannot change, focus on making impact and bigger difference in areas with mutual agreement.
If however, you what to achieve in six months what takes most people 10 years to achieve, you need to cut the learning curve. To cut the learning curve and minimize your mistakes, you need to do one thing: You need to read a lot. Reading books and articles from people who have done what you are looking for, will cut the learning curve by decades for you. Following the long conventional path in achieving your goals is the result of your not being someone who actively seeks out new ideas. This happens when you fail to read about successful people in your field who are decades down your same path. Save yourself time and effort by following what the Greek philosopher, Socrates once said, "Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for."
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