Succeed (By SooDoneWithYou)

Introduction:

In our lives, we've all gone up against obstacles and trials, or had to make big changes in our lives for whatever reason. Sure, depending on the person, the severity of these things might be vastly different, but to some extent, we've all faced these things. We've all been successful, and we've all failed.

A question that people always ask is, "how do I become successful?" Well, this isn't a question with a one dimensional answer. It's very complex, and that's why today's thread will be addressing many of the answers to such a short question.

The Four Branches:

My first bit of advice is to master the, "four branches of success", as I call it. These branches are: discipline, intelligence, attitude, and luck.

Discipline: This is a key factor to becoming to successful at whatever you're doing. Whether it's becoming healthy, raising your job performance, or just becoming a better person, discipline is one of the most important things you can have. If you don't discipline yourself, you'll never commit to anything for long enough to succeed. Now, do not confuse discipline with motivation. The two are vastly different. Motivation is a fleeting feeling of drive to do something, but that's all it is; a feeling. It's an emotion that comes and goes like anything else. Discipline is a lifestyle choice. It's something that stays with you for the rest of your life. Forcing yourself to do things even if they're painful, boring, or tedious is how you become disciplined.

Intelligence: The second trait to being successful is intelligence. Intelligence is something that obviously can't be overlooked. No matter what you're doing, you can succeed much more efficiently if you're intelligent about it. For example, if your goal is to start a business, you could have all the dedication and discipline in the world, but if you're not making smart business decisions, then chances are, you're going to fail. This applies to simple things like exercising too. Focusing more on compound exercises and balancing out your nutrition are huge ways to boost your health besides just randomly doing lifts and jogging. It doesn't take a genius to do something intelligently. It just takes a little extra time in the beginning, but it'll save you time in the end.

Attitude: One of the biggest things standing in the way of achieving what you want is your attitude. One of the worst things I've seen in modern society is the complacency. The constant cries of victim-hood. "I can't do it because I'm disadvantaged". I have one thing to say about this: Get over it. I've seen deaf people sing better than most pop stars, and I've seen a blind professional chef. Everyone has their own hurdles to leap over, and yes, your hurdle might be larger than the next guy's, but it's not impossible, and it's what you were dealt. So either you can sit here and complain about it for the rest of your life and achieve nothing, or overcome it and feel good about what you've done through the odds. Life isn't fair, and you're no exception to this rule.

Luck: The final thing you have on this list is luck. Luck is something that doesn't actually exist, but rather is a word to express our lack of understanding on what's going to happen. However, let's not get into all that right now and just focus on what matters. It's true, even if you make smart decisions and discipline yourself to work hard, there's still the possibility that you fail sometimes. It's unfortunate, but it does happen. This is why sometimes you just have to accept failure and move on. The most successful people are those who have failed more times than most people have tried.

Take Advice Lightly:

This is very ironic advice, considering that this whole thread is about how to succeed, yet I'm telling you to take advice on how to succeed lightly. Why is this? Now, I'm not someone who's accomplished amazing feats, and I'm not even somebody who has huge goals to begin with. You might ask, "How would you know how to be successful if you aren't that successful yourself?" The answer is that there is a difference between knowing something and performing it. Now, these things do often overlap, but they are not synonymous.

A mistake that people often make is listening only to the advice of people who are already successful, but what you're listening to is only the people who got lucky. Yes, they worked hard, they made smart decisions, and yes, they had good attitudes (most of the time), but in the end, they also got lucky. Just like a scientist doesn't understand everything about science, one successful person only knows their own side of the story. They can only give their own perspective, and that's why you should take it with a grain of salt.

Conclusion & Questions:

In the end, whether or not you succeed comes down to yourself and your luck. If you want to be successful then you have to do your own research and put in the effort to succeed. If you do that, then no matter what, you can accept the result.

1.) What things have you succeeded at in life (small or large)?

2.) What goals do you have right now?

3.) What are you going to do to achieve them?