Top 10 Principles of Success

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#1 Success Starts Within

“If you want to change the world, first change your heart.”

Confucius

Success comes from the way you act. The way you act comes from the way you think and feel. Therefore, to become more successful, you must first change something within yourself.

#2 Success is a Habit

“Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.”

Aristotle

The little things that you do every day build on top of one another. Make a little progress towards your goals every day.

#3 Success is Only Obtainable in the Now

“The present moment is the only moment available to us and it is the door to all moments.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

We can’t experience the past or the future. So the only time a person is truly able to experience success is when they’re appreciating success in the present moment. Take time to enjoy the success of the present or you’ll never know the true meaning of the word.

There’s another reason why the present is so important, as Mahatma Gandhi points out: “The future depends on what we do in the present.”

#4 Success is in Motion

“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.”

Steve Jobs

Have a sip of success and it’s easy to get intoxicated. When you get so pleased with your success that all you want to do is reflect on it fondly, you’re guaranteeing that your success will be short-lived.

The only way to have permanent success is to always be moving forward. This anonymous quotation says it better than I can: “A successful man continues to look for work after he has found a job.”

#5 Success Requires Faith

“Leap and the net will appear.”

Zen saying

Pursuing success is challenging and risky, but your chances increase greatly when you simply believe you will succeed.

#6 Success Means Helping Others

“It’s not that successful people are givers; it is that givers are successful people.”

Patti Thor

While it’s enjoyable to help yourself, there’s nothing more satisfying than helping others. Any true definition of success involves giving back as much as you get.

#7 Success is a Choice

“The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.”

Mark Caine

Your life is in your hands. So if you don’t like your situation, change it.

Each of us has the resources and the opportunity to create a better life. But we each must make the decision to do this. As an old Swedish proverb says, “God gives every bird a worm, but he does not throw it into the nest.”

#8 Perseverance is Required

“Life’s real failure is when you do not realize how close you were to success when you gave up.”

Anonymous

Colonel Harlan Sanders made 1008 sales call before a restaurant agreed to buy his recipe for fried chicken. If Sanders hadn’t persisted through over 1000 rejections, then KFC (a restaurant franchise with that earns about a half-billion dollars in revenue per year) wouldn’t exist.

Success is a long-term game. Be ready for the long haul.

#9 Visualization is Key

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up some place else.”

Yogi Berra

When teaching my class to shoot basketball, our gym teacher told us to imagine the basketball going through the hoop. Surprisingly, the trick worked: visualizing a successful shot actually helped us achieve it.

It’s not magic. Visualization makes our goals more real and reminds us of the beauty of our dreams.

#10 Success Starts Today

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.”

Robert Louis Stevenson

No matter what your situation is, you can become a successful person today. You may not be able to reap the rewards yet, but you can start planting the seeds.