3 Secrets to Success Without Stress

Have you ever wondered why success and stress seem to be inseparable companions in the world today? Success in business means long hours, political maneuvering, and the never-ending struggle to achieve. Success in love means constantly sacrificing and working on the relationship. Success in school, art, music, science, and sports means the ever-increasing pressure to perform.

When you take a step back and look at the whole picture, it’s hard not to wonder if success today is worth the cost. Is the fear and anxiety you feel in the present moment worth the promise of some perfect moment to come?

If you look objectively at the fruit of your stressful days and the deteriorating state of the world, you begin to realize that this is not a profitable investment. Compromising yourself in the now to ensure a positive moment to come is a flawed formula for success.

Compromising yourself in the now to ensure a positive moment to come is a flawed formula for success.

—Guy Finley

Listen to Your Intuition

On the other hand, in those rare moments when you happen upon a pure moment of peace and contentment—like a glorious sunrise, holding the hand of the one you love, the clarity of an insight or epiphany—it is obvious that success itself is an integral part of life. It is in these moments that you can hear a faint voice whispering from deep inside your heart, telling you that you were born to be successful. It is your natural right to strive toward excellence and enjoy the fruits of achievement.

This is the voice of intuition telling you that striving toward success is not supposed to be a drag; it’s supposed to be light, bright, happy, and fun.

Intuition is trying to reveal the beautiful truth that success without stress is possible. The only problem is that you have ceased to listen to its wise counsel because you have been conditioned by society to place your attention on the objects of success, instead of on the principle of success itself. When you realize this simple misdirection that has taken place, you take the first step in learning to attract everything your heart desires.

And that’s the main point: It is possible for you to learn to attract success, instead of trying to chase it down through years of toil, disappointment, and heartache.

Doubt What Compromises You

So how do you do it? How do you learn to attract the success you want instead of letting the desire for the objects of success push you around from problem to problem?

The answer is simple: Begin to doubt what compromises you.

You begin to doubt stress when it tells you that you have to rush through your day. You begin to doubt fearful thoughts when they tell you that you need to worry. You begin to doubt feelings of greed and inadequacy that bully you around by telling you that who you are isn’t enough.

Doubting negative states is a great key along the path to gaining your heart’s true wish. It separates your true self—who you really are—from whatever dark thought or feeling happens to be passing through you in the moment. You realize that you don’t have to listen to dark thoughts and feelings; instead, you understand that you have a choice to not sacrifice happiness now for a future happy time that may never come.

Want What Is Already Happening

One specific technique you can use to begin doubting these dark states is to ask yourself this question whenever you find yourself trying to overcome any person or situation that stands in the way of winning some imagined future success: “What would happen right now if I were to want what life wants, instead of wanting what I want?”

This may sound like a strange idea at first because you are so used to trying to get hold of what you want. But, when we begin to experiment with the power contained in this question, you realize that it has the power to raise the level of your entire life.

This is what happens when you want what you want:

You are often stressed and unsettled because life may not go the way you want it to go

You are often tired because you spend your energy struggling against the natural flow of events

You are unable to sit quietly or go to sleep peacefully because your mind is always busy trying to resolve problems that stand in the way of your desires

You are easily agitated when someone or something interrupts your plans

You harbor resentment toward those who have “wronged” you in the past

You lose sight of your true nature because you mistake what you possess for who you really are

Now this is what happens when you want what life wants:

You are always on the winning side

You are free from stress, anger, and anxiety

You maintain confident self-command in any situation

You are never sad or disappointed because things didn’t go your way

You always know the right thing to do

You can never be taken advantage of

You are fluid and responsive to what the moment asks

You are free to be kind and compassionate, even in the presence of perceived “enemies”

You are never bored because you are perfectly happy just being yourself

Your mind becomes quiet, peaceful, clear, and sharp

Can you see the power in this simple idea? When you invite life, instead of resisting it, you are freed from the stress and negativity that drains the energy required to be truly successful. You are given the ability to participate more deeply in the present moment, which allows you to access the higher mental and emotional states required to be a kinder, and more creative, intelligent, and loving human being, everything your heart truly longs for.

Want what life wants, and harvest the fruits of true and lasting success for yourself.

The Three Secrets of Successful Organizations

Editor’s note: The TLNT Radio Show is a weekly podcast where we talk to the top minds in HR and talent management. New episodes are posted here every week. Make sure you subscribe to TLNT and get our daily newsletter for the latest, or subscribe to our podcast in iTunes to automatically get updates.

Why does one company go bankrupt while another one succeeds beyond all measure? It’s incredibly easy to see the successes or failures after the fact but how do you try to line up your organization for success in the here and now?

That’s the question that has an easy answer but a much more clouded path.

What are the traits of successful organizations?

On this week’s episode of TLNT Radio, I talked with Joyce Maroney, the director of The Workforce Institute at Kronos, about some of the major traits of successful organizations. She compiled lessons from dozens of the top minds in talent management (including TLNT’s own John Hollon) into the Institute’s second book, Elements of Successful Organizations. And from that book, there was a trend in successful organizations that centered around three distinct elements.

Strong Leadership – The ability to change and look ahead to the future was a huge differentiator. Those who were proactive or who were on the leading edge of reacting to coming trends almost always do better. Developing employees and being a place where employees can move up is also a key trait in this category. Smart Management – Executing, on in the day-to-day and the long term, makes a huge difference in results. Those who relied on great talent management processes, analytics, and also addressing employee needs such as continued training and lean business practices are something that sets companies apart. Engaged Employees – This has been a hot topic on TLNT but it is also one of the key drivers of successful organizations. Whether it be flexible time for hourly workers, better scheduling or illuminating the meaning in your employee’s work, organizations that have engaged workers are more successful than their peers.

One of the more fascinating parts about the book was its emphasis on hourly workers. So much of our conversation about successful organizations seems to assume that our most important employees are the folks in corporate in white collar positions. And while white collar employees are certainly important, the disparate emphasis given to them in discussing these three issues is problematic.

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From our conversation and from reading the book, the emphasis is about getting your entire workforce on track. Whether you’re mostly hourly or not, you can gain lessons from better leadership, management and engagement. Good strategy isn’t dependent on an all white collar workforce nor is a flexible schedule exclusive of the cube and office dweller.

Listen to the rest of our conversation for more information on how successful organizations excel.

[buzzsprout episode=”39256″ player=”true”]

3 Biggest Mistakes and the 3 Secrets of Success -

To get a good grasp of what these mistakes and secrets to success imply, I recommend watching the Lex Mundi video below, in which I provide a few helpful examples. You want to avoid these mistakes and I suggest that you try to take advantage of the secrets to success that I have learned over the years from helping many innovation teams and entrepreneurs.

Secure buy-in from all stakeholders

The importance of buy-in from all stakeholders is a recurring theme in all my research. Large samples or small case studies, it does not matter. Getting buy-in from all stakeholders, including your team members and seniors in the organizations comes out as a critical success factor each and every time.

Maintain momentum

I became aware of the importance of momentum when we started to closely track the teams in our T4 program, like the 10 law firm innovation teams that we closely tracked over a period of 6 months last year. Successful teams accelerated their pace and got energy out working on their projects. It is not that these successful projects did not hit roadblocks or did not face challenging times. However, with sufficient momentum, roadblocks and other hurdles are much easier to take. Not surprisingly, for teams that lacked momentum when hitting a roadblock, their innovation project quickly became an energy drain. I don't know about you, but I don't want to waste time on energy-draining projects. I therefore strongly recommend that you only invest your time in innovation projects that make you thrive.

Focus on the benefits

Lastly, focussing on the benefits is something I learned from sitting in many ICAP sessions taught by dear friend and mentor Bob Smith from The George Washington University. It is all too easy to confuse features and benefits. It is also all too easy to assume that your clients need something, while in reality, they are happily thriving without.