7 Secrets of Success That Will Elevate Your Life
Hundreds of thousands of people every day seek out ways to be a success in life. They seek, and seek, and seek for the secret of success. They seek promotions, praise, lots of money, early retirement, and freedom, but they never find it.
Want To Find More Success in Life?
One reason people never discover the success they’re looking for, is because they give up to soon. They throw in the towel just before discovering the greatest secret of success.
A great many people also come across this secret of success unknowingly, yet, they don’t realize it when they see it. The secret looks them in the face, but they turn away from it because it looks different than what they hoped it would be.
Then there are those who learn about this simple little secret, but day after day fail to apply it. They allow little things to deter their application of this secret, little things like a lack of self-discipline, fear, or sufficient motivation.
Easy Come Easy Go
Astonishingly, most of the greatest books on success include this secret I speak of. The answer is always there, waiting to be discovered and applied. Mysteriously though, the authors of these great success books never make their secrets easy to find. In fact, they typically bury it deep within their texts.
Why so secretive?
Perhaps it’s because they wish to weed out the uninitiated. Or, perhaps it’s because they know, that anything obtained easily is likely to disappear easily.
In other words, things that are earned are likely to last, while things that are given are forgotten fast.
So, What’s This Great Secret of Success?
If you’re a reader of The STRIVE, you probably already know what this great secret of success is that I am alluding to. In fact, the answer is embedded within the name. But, you may be new here, so I’ve got some explaining to do.
Before I fill you in on this secret though, and before I share with you the way to become a success in just about any area of your life, there are a few things you must first know.
Some Not So Inconvenient Truths
The first thing you must know and be aware of, is the truth, the truth about our world and the truth about your nature.
So here it is, here is the truth. We live in a world of mediocrity. The majority of people across the world embrace the mediocre, the average, the commonplace.
The great majority of the world likes things to be easy. They like things to be handed to them.
In fact, it’s our nature to search for the simple, the easy, the convenient. Think about it, how often do you automatically think about doing the bare minimum on a task…whether it’s putting in the least amount of effort on a project, clocking out of work as soon as you can, or looking for the shortest and fastest route to your destinations?
I’d put money on it, that for most of us, seeking the path of least resistance is something we always do, every day, every minute, every second. We are hard-wired for ease and the conservation of energy. It’s our nature.
No doubt, thousands and thousands of years ago, finding the shortest path, conserving the most energy, and seeking out the easiest way to do something lended to our survival, but those cave dwelling days are over friend.
Operating on Minimums
Sadly, too many of us still operate on these types of minimums. We think that by putting in minimal effort, we are maximizing our returns.
We still think that if we can get away with putting in the fewest amount time on a project, while getting rewarded the same paycheck as everyone else, we are somehow coming out ahead.
We still believe that if we can discover how to work a four-hour work week, and then spend the rest of our days surfing the net, taking it easy, and getting to do whatever we want, we’ve won. But, that ain’t so.
We’ve been duped. On the daily we are being sold on the falsehoods of ease and shortcuts.
Our less-than-ideal nature is being taking advantage of.
In fact, they take advantage of our nature when they say…
“Buy this fitness program and you’ll have the best-looking abs in only 5 minutes a day.”
“Buy this book and you’ll be able to learn how to live the life of your dreams while only working 4 Hours a Day.”
“Take this supplement and you’ll be able to look amazing in just a few short weeks.”
But these promises are not promises at all. In fact, they are a part of one big fat lie. And it’s a lie that too many people get sold on. It is the lie of ease.
“Ease is The Hallmark of The Mediocre.”
Yes, the mediocre love their ease, their conveniences, and their shortcuts. Fortunately, there are smart people like you, who know these truths, AND are willing to act in contrast to them.
Truly, it is the people with an anti-mediocrity mindset who consistently find what they seek. It is they, the few masters of their own mediocrity that discover success time and time again in every endeavor they choose.
So, are you ready for your secret? I hope so. Before I give it to you, know this; if you will embrace this secret, if you will live it, breathe it, and indefinitely believe it…in the long run there’s no way you can lose. Behold:
The Greatest Secret to Finding Success in Life Is…
In other words, be a person who strives! Strive to be and do more than average, strive to make extra a part of you! Strive to always go the extra mile. Strive to be Extraordinary!
And there you have it, this is the greatest secret of success. Now applying it is 100% up to you.
Applying The Greatest Secret in The World
Without a doubt an average person would have ended this post with that last sentence. Why? Because it would have been easy to do so.
But I won’t leave you there. You deserve some actionable steps that you can implement now to distance yourself from the cult of the average today. May they help you find more success in life, may they help you become extraordinary. Here you go:
7 Ways to Be Extraordinary and Find Success in Life
1. Decide to BE/DO/HAVE More
The first and most important thing anyone can do to find more success in any area of their life is to decide to have more than average and be more than average. Passively desiring to have more, to be more, and to do more in life is not good enough. You must decide to have it.
Once you are ready to get what you want, to make a change, to improve your life; a determined decision to get what you want must be made. As soon as your mind has been made up and a decision has been made, action will follow.
And the first and best action you can take is this…
2. Plan Your Success
The average person does not set goals. Most people dream of a better and brighter future, but they fail to put those dreams down onto a piece of paper. Most people don’t realize how powerful the simple act of putting pen to paper to commit to their goals can be.
So, one of the best things you can do to set yourself apart from the rest, is to start planning your life. One of the best ways of doing this, is to create a goal setting system where you map out your goals for the week, month, quarter, and year ahead. Believe it or not, when you do this, you are consciously mapping out your life. By setting goals, you are in fact giving yourself way points to strive for and direction in your quest for life improvement.
If you want to increase your chances of improving your life, make a plan for it to happen. If you want to start finding more success in life start setting goals today!
3. Think Big Go Big
You’ve heard the saying, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” Well, it’s a powerful message about expectations. Surely, we don’t always get what we expect, unless we expect nothing. Expect nothing, get nothing.
By going big and aiming high, you give yourself a better shot of achieving something big. Sure, you may miss your mark, but if you never go big, there’s no way you’ll ever achieve big.
Leave the small uninspiring aims for the mediocre. If you want to be and have more than the average, think big, go big, and eventually you’ll receive big!
4. Embrace What The Mediocre Won’t
One of the easiest ways to set yourself up for success is to do what others won’t do. If “the competition” won’t stay late, stay late, if they won’t focus on quality, focus on quality, if they won’t be positive, be positive, if they want to coast, you soar, if they want to go slow, you go fast.
You get the picture, never shy away from what others are unwilling to do. In fact, run towards what others run away from, and you’ve got it made.
So, be willing to embrace what others won’t (the discomfort, the difficult, the dirty job, the extra mile…the hard things) and you will win by default.
Those who will embrace the hard, will find it easy to win.
5. Study The Successful
There’s a well known adage in the world of self-development that states, “What you focus on expands.” Therefore, if you want to find more success in life, it will do you good to fill your mind with what you are after. And, studying the lives of the successful will help you do just that.
When you study the lives of the successful, not just observe them for entertainment purposes, you will learn the mindset, the strategies, and the trials the successful had to overcome to reach their success. Knowing these details will give you the insights that can help you make better decisions on your journey to success.
In addition to this, when yo study the successful, you subconsciously program your mind to pursue the prosperity, achievements, and success that those high achievers have obtained. And this is a good thing, because looking up, will pull you up. So, actively study the stories of the successful if you wish to find success.
6. Don’t Fear Failure
As you strive for success there will be times when you fail, because failure is a part of the process. There are very few people who have set out to achieve something greater for themselves who hit the mark on their first attempt. So, be cognizant of the possibility and likelihood for some failures along the way. Then, be brave, get your mind right about the failure that may occur, and push forward relentlessly.
In short, seek out failure. Fail early and often, and get it over with, and you will inch closer to your eventual success. Guaranteed!
7. Never Settle
Average people settle. They settle for what they can get. They settle for what everyone else is doing. They take the easy way out in every area of their lives. But you are not average, you are extraordinary. And if you want to remain extraordinary and continue to reap the extraordinary, you must ensure you never settle.
So, what’s the best way to never settle?
One of the best ways to ensure you stay hungry is to immediately create new goals for yourself as soon as you have achieved the initial goals you set out to hit. When you update your goals and plans, you keep things fresh and give yourself renewed energy for continual action and extra effort in all of your undertakings.
So, if you wish to continually find more and more success in your life, be sure you are always giving new life to your striving with new goals. Why?
Because when you’re striving you’re thriving.
Bonus Secret of Success
If you’ve made it to this point in the post, you deserve this last secret of success. No doubt, if you aim to be above average, and live an above average life, you WILL eventually create one for yourself by following the steps above along with greatest secret that was just shared with you.
But if you consider yourself truly ambitious, and if you’re truly ready to experience staggering success, the likes by which you’ve only dreamed of until this point, you’ll only be able to find it, by heeding the strangest secret of success that was discovered by this man: Earl Nightingale.
This is The Beginning, Not the End
My friend, much of what I’ve just revealed in this post are things you probably already knew. Most people are actually aware of this stuff already, I know that.
However, most people just have a surface understanding of these success secrets. They don’t truly KNOW this truth. They don’t know it in their bones. If they did, I wouldn’t feel compelled to write this stuff. Here’s one last recap, so that it sticks….
Shun Mediocrity – Aim To Be Above Average
Decide to Become More
Plan Your Success
Think Big
Embrace The Difficult
Study/Model The Successful
Don’t Fear Failure
Never Settle
Study The Strangest Secret of Success
Fortunately for you, if you’ve gotten this far, if you’re reading these words, you now have a serious advantage over others. Fortunately for you, with this new and deeper understanding of the greatest secret in the world, you know what it takes to become a true success in life.
Now, this may be the end of the post, but, it’s just the beginning of your success story.
Till next time,
STRIVE
PS – This book is required reading – ‘The Greatest Secret in The World‘
PPS – So is this book – ‘The Strangest Secret’
PPPS – If these words rang true for you, don’t hesitate to share them with the world…
10 Must-Read Books To Help You Build a Success Mindset in 2022
Over the years, there have been numerous authors who have written powerful and inspiring books. These have pushed people to new heights in the development of their mindset. Both young and older alike.
But because there are so many books to choose from, I want to provide you with a comprehensive list of books. These are books that I find powerful and have shaped my life over the years. And I believe they can do the same for you.
Below are some of my top picks for books to consider. They're not in any particular order so pick the ones that strike your fancy.
1. The Power Of Habit
The first I want to cover is The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Duhigg argues in the book that 40% of our daily activities stem from the habits that we form. In order to prove this theory, Duhigg worked with neurological researchers and conducted studies where people broke several bad habits and tested to see if brain activity changed as a result.
What they found was interesting and led to one clear message:
No matter how many bad habits that you have, you can change them all if you focus on breaking one of them.
Duhigg then translates that into practical uses people can use in business and society.
2. Search Inside Yourself
A book written by Chade-Meng Tan, Tan works at Google to this day. He started off as a software engineer but changed roles later on. He's now a personal growth coach with a focus on mindfulness.
Search Inside Yourself focuses a lot on the subject. Specifically, he focuses on emotional intelligence. To Tan, mastering this intelligence is the key to higher productivity, health, and peace.
3. Don't Sweat The Small Stuff
Written by Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff is an older book but still a great one. In many cases of mindset books, it sometimes pays to have books serve as reminders for things we already know.
In this case, this book reminds us that the small challenges and frustrations do build up.
And the best way to remove them is to not worry so much about the small stuff.
4. Prisons We Choose To Live Inside
Written by Doris Lessing, Prisons We Choose To Live Inside is a book published in the 80's that is still relevant today. It's not so much a book but rather a series of essays based on what Lessing gave back then.
This book goes into explaining how societal groups shape our own perception of reality. From church to politics and government, these groups teach us to define who is good and bad.
From those beliefs, we insist that we are right and that our actions are justified whenever we try to "fix" people or treat others poorly. All in all this book challenges our own perceptions of the world.
5. The Myth of More
In The Myth of More, Joseph Novello challenges the belief that happiness brings us pleasure. When we buy a new home, get a promotion or a new car, we are happier.
Novello spends his time digging into these ideas and why these things will never make us happy. Instead, he pushes us to find pleasure in seeking.
This book may come off a bit dry, but there are strong stories, good humour and enough poignancy to keep peoples attention.
6. The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People
As I suggested above, a shift in habits can change your life around. While it's smart to replace those bad habits with something better, there are other habits that we could adopt. My suggestion is the habits that are outlined in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Written by Stephen R Covey, this book takes the habits from the best leaders around and stuffed them into a single book. But what's nice about this is that Covey spends time in the book talking about mindset too.
He challenges the reader to change their approach to productivity, time management, and positive thinking. All aspects that fuel a mindset.
7. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
The premise of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience is to challenge your thought process on experiences.
For many of us, our fondest memories are vacation trips we took or a memorable dinner with family. What this book does is shakes those memories and challenges us to have a fondness for other things. Like times we put in more effort at work to achieve a goal.
The book expands on those points and shows us how we can bring flow into our life and use that to achieve great things.
8. Thinking Fast And Slow
Another solid pick is Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Kahneman digs into psychology to help us unlock the code of how we come to the decisions that we make.
He starts by breaking down our thought process into two systems and highlighting how each system influences our decision-making.
Regardless of what industry your in or how complicated your decisions have to be, this book will provide help in understanding how we think. This can lead to us making better and smarter decisions.
9. Awaken the Giant Within
This one is written by the famous self-improvement guru, Tony Robbins. For Awaken the Giant Within, Robbins provides actionable steps and strategies to help us regain control of our emotional self.
The theory of this book is that when we have control internally, we'll be able to steer ourselves externally. It's an interesting read and it challenges you about your own perception of yourself.
10. The Full Life Framework - The Essential Guide
The final book I'll cover is my own book The Full Life Framework - The Essential Guide. In the book, I'm sharing my journey to living the life I desire, including my ups and downs. You'll learn how to succeed without sacrificing other aspects of your life that matter with a progress mindset.
Bottom Line
Just because I've read plenty of books doesn't mean others are going to get the exact same experience as myself. While every person's experience in reading a book is different, every book has a base value for people. Not only are we improving our reading and comprehension skills, but these books provide extensive knowledge. And based on the fact that many of these authors have spent years through self-experimentation and/or research, they're providing great advice!
Leon Ho is the Founder and CEO of Lifehack – a productivity blog he started in 2005. He was listed as Business Week’s #4 “Top 24 Young Asian Entrepreneurs” and has grown Lifehack into one of the most read self-improvement websites in the world – with over 12 million monthly readers. You can check out his book The Full Life Essential Guide, and take a look at his self-improvement mastercourses here or join one of his free classes here.
This article originally appeared on Lifehack.
8 Empowering Mindset Books That Will Lead You To Success
Sometimes you need a quick inspiration to adjust your mindset. Here is the list of 8 mindset books which can do just that – change and adjust your mindset to focus on success.
You can read them in a day or two because most of them are little tiny books – Though all of them carry a very strong message. They are all like bombs packed in the tiny package of a box matches – no, they won’t harm you but they will blow your mind.
Some concepts of the books might even contradict each other. And such a selection was made on purpose: to see different aspects of success and then to find out what works best for you.
1. Screw It, Let’s Do It
If you feel you are sometimes overcautious and you have hard times to make quick decisions then that’s a book for you. The author is Sir Richard Branson, the CEO of Virgin Group also known as ‘Dr. Yes’. And this ‘Yes’ thing is the whole philosophy of the book: no matter how big the task is, how impossible it looks in the beginning just say ‘yes’ and go for it! Once you start doing it you will figure it out somehow.
We live in a society where being overcautious is regarded as a sign of wisdom. This book will teach you that trying to find reasons for doing things is much better way than trying to find reasons for not doing it.
Check out the book here!
2. The Lazy Way To Success: How to Do Nothing and Accomplish Everything
The title of this book might mislead you that’s just one of the books promoting the hype. But that’s not the case. It is highly inspirational, very revolutionary book and definitely worth reading especially if you are a workaholic.
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The author Fred Gratzon, once long-haired hippie, describes his specific way of success. He actually managed to established two highly successful businesses (an ice-cream company and a telecommunication company with over 1100 employees and $400 million in annual sales). Both of them, he started from the stretch, with no money, no business experience but with a different logic.
The book describes:
that changing the paradigm is the most efficient way to success
the laziness: it is not about doing nothing but doing what you love to do
that hard work is not the only option
Check out the book here!
3. Rhinoceros Success : the Secret to Charging Full Speed Toward Every Opportunity
This book written by Scott Alexander is all about charging: charging at a full speed towards your goal. It is a complete opposite of the previously mentioned book The Lazy Way To Success. Read both of them and then find out what works best for you.
Rhinoceros Success highly promotes taking actions and being consistent. According to the author rhinos are synonyms for highly energetic entrepreneurs, while cows and sheep are mediocre folks who let the life just pass by.
After reading this book, you will feel like you are a big, thick-skinned rhino charging at full speed through all the obstacles on your way to success.
Check out the book here!
4. The American Millionaires Have Spoken
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The book was actually written by non-American author, Petra Skarja, a young entrepreneur from Slovenia (where on Earth is that?!? – okay, it’s a small country on the border with Italy – got it? – and it happened to be my country, too)
Again this is one of the books written in a light tone but with a strong message you can apply straight away: be entrepreneurial even if you haven’t got your own business yet!
Start applying entrepreneurial ideas in your daily life, think, breath and move like an entrepreneur and you are not far away from your first (or second, or third,…) business. Yes, you might fail a few times and that is the second good thing you will learn from the book: failing is part of succeeding.
Check out the book here!
5. The Science Of Getting Rich
CAUTION: This is one of the books which can drastically change your life!
This all-time classic was written more than 100 years ago by Wallace D. Wattles but while reading it you think it was written just recently – the ideas there are so fresh!
This is one of the books which I have read in one go (with no eating and drinking in between) and I still read it regularly because I just can’t get it enough. No wonder it was the basis for the well-known book The Secret.
It will teach you that everything, every success starts with your mind and you taking actions. You change your mind and you change your destiny. So the question is how to change your mind…
Well, I won’t tell you… Because you just have to read it!
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Check out the book here!
6. Don’t Eat the Marshmallow Yet!
This book, written by Joachim de Posada is based on a simple experiment which was done on children: They were offered sweets and were told that if they wait some time they will get even more sweets. Some decided to go for it, some ate all their sweets straight away.
Years later, their lives were tracked down and the experiment showed… hmm, you know me, I won’t tell you that.
Take a book and find out what an interesting result came out of the experiment.
The book is all about self-control. It tells you what is the difference between success and failure and that small things can make a big difference.
Check out the book here!
7. The Richest Man In Babylon
Another classic of the books on this list written by George Samuel Clason.
If you are struggling meeting ends of the month then that’s the books for you. It will teach you some essential secrets every successful entrepreneur follows, like:
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keep your expenditures down even when you experience the boost in your business
make money work for you (not the other way around)
invest hardly in yourself and only then in your business
Read it and you will learn many more success principles.
Check out the book here!
8. Delivering Happiness
Deliberately, I placed this book at the end of the list. Because at the end of the day, what we all strive for? Isn’t that happiness? We all want to be happy!
The book tells you just that. If we all want to be happy it is quite obvious that delivering happiness is the best business on Earth. Being focused on making your customers happy will make your business flourish as nothing else. It is all about giving massive value first and the money will come as a bypass product.
The book was written by business wizard Tony Hsieh, the founder and CEO of Zappos, a company well-known for its ever-evolving business system and constantly delivering happiness.
Check out the book here!
Bottom Line
NOW, TAKE ONE OF THESE BOOKS from the list in your hands and expect:
Changing your paradigm, expanding your mind, going through obstacles like a rhino, achieving success and yes, happiness!
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More Inspiring Books to Shift Your Paradigm
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