10 Keys to Success 2 is our second article in the success series. In the first article on this topic, we talked about the first 5 keys to success. We explained what success is and what it means to different people. We went further by discussing extensively the word “success”, with a quote from Earl Nightingale.
We listed and elaborated on our first 5 keys to success. In this article, we would go further to discuss the last 5 keys to success with clarity. Success, in different ways and meaning to different people, is what we dream of, and aspire for in our lives. Below is the last 5 keys to success explained.
10 Keys to Success 2?
In this post, we elaborated on the last 5 keys to achieving success and getting positive results:
6. Courage
Courage precedes action. The Merriam Webster Dictionary describes courage as:
“The mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.”
The Cambridge English Dictionary describes courage as:
“ The ability to control fear and to be willing to deal with something that is dangerous, difficult, or unpleasant.”
The Collins English Dictionary describes courage as:
“The quality shown by someone who decides to do something difficult or dangerous, even though they may be afraid.”
Courage can be said to be the opposite of fear. Courage is the ability to launch, to take a leap of faith, to try something new, to face failure and rejection, to try something with a great possibility that you might fail, or be disappointing or embarrassed. It takes guts to be courageous.
In the process of achieving your goals or accomplishing success, there are 2 parts to courage:
The first part is the courage to begin, to take a chance, to explore. This courage is the hardest because many people lack the ability to start, to take actions towards their goals.
The second part of courage is determination. It is the power to keep going, the power to endure and keep pushing yourself in your journey to success no matter the obstacles. Develop the unshakable quality of determination which will guarantee your success In life. Never give up. Never quite.
There was a story of a man that had a terminal illness and was about being rolled into the theatre, the doctors and nurses knew that his chances of survival was very slim and told his friend that he will not make it out alive and their eyes was full of pity. The man being rolled into the theatre unaware of what the nurses told his friend, said cheerfully to his friend “do not worry, I would be out soon” and indeed he survived and came through to the amazement of the doctors and nurses. The doctor later told his friend that the man survived solely because of his unrelenting desire and his determination to make it out alive.
7. Build Your Faith
In achieving your goals or success, having faith in God and faith in yourself is of utmost importance. It was Ben Carson that said:
“Through hard work, perseverance and a faith in God, you can live your dreams.”
You need to have a faith that can literally move mountains. In our journey to success, there must surely be times we are financially, physically, psychology and emotionally down and worn out. At this time we become clueless, and most times lack direction and initiative. Whom do we look up to at such moments? Where does our help come from? The infinite intelligence, the divine architect, the immortal God is indeed the answer of cause. That’s why we can never achieve our goals or success without him. When we become directionless, we need to pray, believe and take a leap of faith. God loves it when we take that leap of faith believing in him. Elder Bryan Mathison said:
“When you have faith in God, you don’t have to worry about the future. You just know it’s all in His hands. You just go to and do your best.”
You really need to take risks most times. You have to make moves that you are not sure of the outcome. You need to be decisive and take action. You have to put away the fear of failure from your life because fear is nothing, it means just falling, and it is necessary in your journey to success because you learn a lot from the experiences they leave you with.
Most times, you might lack the initiative to push through or jump. Just jump! Time has proved that those who keep staring at the troubles and circumstances around them, failing to jump, instead of having faith and seeing themselves achieving success, get themselves absorbed in lack, disappointments and mediocrity. We will conclude with this quote from Brad Henry:
“Believe in yourself, and the rest will fall into place. Have faith in your own abilities, work hard, and there is nothing you cannot accomplish.”
8. Environmental Influence
It was Vladimir Lenin that said
“Show me who your friends and i’ll tell you who you are.”
Who are your friends? Who are in your circle? This question is extremely important on your journey to success. The friends and associations you keep mirrors and reflects whom you are. Are you keeping friends that are goal driven, successful, hard working, friends that encourages you, inspires you, upgrades you, supports you, teaches you or builds you? Thomas J. Watson said:
“Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to level yourself up.”
Are you keeping friends that are enmeshed in mediocrity?, friends without ambition or goals?, friends that are stagnant in life?, friends that undermines or ridicule your vision? Plutarch said:
“I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.”
We earlier mentioned that to become successful, you have to become a new person with a new attitude and a new way of life. For you to achieve success, you have to leave friends that are pulling you down instead of pushing you to soar and applauding you to success. Choose friends with similar or higher energy, mindset, interest and passion for growth that you have or aspire for.
Another key part of influence that is most times underrated by people is in the your surroundings or environment. The environment which we inhabit in is made up of your surroundings, the neighborhood you live in. Your physical environment plays a vital role on what and whom you become.
If your environment is dirty or full of hoodlums, street urchins and largely insecure, do you think it’s going to help your productivity and growth towards success?
It’s glaring the environment we settle in affects and influences us in our daily living.
The influences of our surroundings and environment on us cannot be over emphasized.
The way you eat, the way you dress, the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you act and react, the way you live, the way you think, the way you view the world and your life will all largely be influenced by your environment and surroundings.
Does these environmental traits have anything to do with your achievement of success? Yes, everything!
Successful people simple associate with other successful and positive minded people. We will conclude this with a quote from Mark Twight. He said:
“You become what you do. How and what you become depends on environmental influence so you become who you hang around. Raise the standard your peers must meet and you’ll raise your expectations of yourself. If your environment is not making you better, change it.”
9. Change Your Thoughts
The Britanica.com explains thought in this way:
Thought, covert symbolic responses to stimuli that are either intrinsic (arising from within) or extrinsic (arising from the environment). Thought, or thinking, is considered to mediate between inner activity and external stimuli.
In everyday language, the word thinking covers several distinct psychological activities. It is sometimes a synonym for “tending to believe,” especially with less than full confidence (“I think that it will rain, but I am not sure”). At other times it denotes the degree of attentiveness (“I did it without thinking”) or whatever is in consciousness, especially if it refers to something outside the immediate environment (“It made me think of my grandmother”). Psychologists have concentrated on thinking as an intellectual exertion aimed at finding an answer to a question or the solution of a practical problem.
What is your thought pattern? What do you think about most of the time? What is your burning desire? How do you see yourself?
Your thinking determines your future. It shapes every move, every decision you make, every step you take. It affects every action and reaction you take. Marcus Aurelius said:
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.”
The great doctor and Nobel peace prize winner Albert Schweitzer was asked a question in london by a reporter. The question goes thus: Doctor what is wrong with men these days? The great doctor was silent for a minute and the answered: men simply don’t think!
Did the above answer from Dr Albert Schweitzer ring a bell to you? Yes we are really in a world where men are ignorant of the powers adorned in their thoughts. We live in a world where people imitate others, wants to be like others, waits for others to make decisions for them. With these, people underrate and undermine their ability to think, their power to live the lives they want to and achieve their goals.
We live in a world of conformity, where people try to act like everyone else without knowing why and without knowing where they are going.
We might ask, if this is the simple truth, why don’t people make use of their thought? The answer is that we actually take the human mind for granted. We use it for little Jobs than for big jobs or important ones.
Secondly most of our thought patterns have been damaged through our upbringing and environment. If you observe babies and growing infants, they have no fear of anything, they are adventurous and daring, they try out anything.
They are independent minded. But as they grow up, their parents or guardians takes control of their minds with spelt out rules. They tell them things to be afraid of, they decide schools they go to, they decide the courses they study, they decide their way of life, and most times, even their career line without trying to know their hidden potentials, the gifts lying inside of them waiting to be projected.
The society, the environment and friends are not left out in these events, they also begins to influence them too.
By this time, the grownup child loses his identity, his courage, his initiative, his drive, his adventurousness He loses his power over his thoughts and thought patterns. He loses his power to think for himself. He begins to imitate others and copy whatever they do and see these things as normal.
You really need to change your mindset and your thoughts, repair the damages, wake up that sleeping power locked in your mind, believe, explore, break barriers and become that which you want to be. God will then, surely work in your favour and the universe will do it’s part too!
Think big and achieve great things. For example, the same mind, time and strength that you will use to dream and think about owning a Volkswagen beetle is the same mind , time and mind you would use to dream and think about owning a Lamborghini.
In our bible, Mark 9:23 says: ”Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.”
All successful people from ages are great thinkers. Have a look at the richest men in the world, they are all great thinkers.
Think about Jeff Bezos, he saw the future of e-commerce stores and started Amazon. He also owns The Washington Post and Blue Origin.
Think about Elon Musk, he believed we can travel to space and possibility inhabit it and founded SpaceX, he also believed in the possibility of electric cars and founded Tesla, Neuralink and The Boring Company.
Think about Bill Gates, he founded Microsoft and made computer systems and software more affordable and accessible, he is also a founder and chairman of other companies like BEN, Cascade Investment, bgC3, and TerraPower.
Think about Warren Buffett, he is a successful stock investor and owns Berkshire Hathaway which owns more than 60 companies including Insurer Geico, battery maker Duracell, restaurant chain Dairy Queen and much more.
Think about Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple. He believed that his products were great and went on to revolutionize the phone and tablets industry, He is also the owner of Pixar.
Think about Jack Ma, a former English teacher, co-founded of Alibaba Group, one of the world’s largest e-commerce businesses. He has major stakes in Huayi Brothers and Ant Group.
Think about Mark Zuckerberg, he founded Facebook, which has become the biggest go-to communications tool.
All the above named wealthy individuals started from nothing but with positive thinking, a burning desire within them, a spirit of faith and persistence, they where able to achieve massive success. If they can, you can too. It all depends on you!
All successful people are optimistic. They believe that they would succeed and achieve greatness, even in the midst of difficulties. They think big and think positively always. This finally aids them to achieving success.
Please read the audacity of your thought for a more elaborate discussion of your thoughts and how to make the best of it.
Think and believe you can achieve and you surely will. We will conclude with this inspiring quote from Napoleon Hill in “Think and Grow Rich”:
“The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat.”
10. Gratitude and Service
You must find a way to serve. Martin Luther King said:
“Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service.”
We live in a world where everybody wants to be famous. We think being known brings us value but the truth is that service brings us value. The service and the significance you bring to what you do produces lasting effect and values in peoples mind and to the universe.
Whatever your talent, your job or your work is, what they all do have in common, is service. Look at all the most successful people in the world, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jack Ma, they all are service oriented. They bring solutions to peoples needs. They donate to charities and are involve in charity works. They all make our world a better place to live in. Woodrow Wilson said:
“There is no higher religion than human service. To work for the common good is the greatest creed.”
When you shift the model or the paradigm of your work to service, selfless service, I assure you, success will be yours. Service open doors. Service and significance equals success. Ralph Waldo Emerson said:
“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”
Everything in creation was created with a gift. God created nothing without a gift in it. You were sent to planet earth by a greater power to deliver something that this generation needs You owe the earth this gift. You are obligated to this earth to manifest your gift. Myles Munroe said that:
“You came to planet earth with your future inside of you”
Serve with a difference, at every possible time, give your gift in service for free. Manifest your gift. Don’t pursue money too early, Give your gift away freely especially when you are just starting out a business or venture. When you give your service away for free, it gets exposed. You attract goodness to you. You must be serving you gift. Volunteer for service and serve with all your heart. True service opens doors of abundance for you.
Gratitude to God almighty is extremely important in your life. Without a life of gratitude, you can never live a life of abundance. Everyday you wake up, be grateful for life, be grateful for health, be grateful for family and be grateful for shelter. Be grateful for all the things the almighty God has given you freely. Be grateful for what you have achieved. Be grateful for your vision. Eckhart Tolle said:
“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”
Have a spiritual practice of gratitude. You can get a gratitude journal and every morning write what you are grateful for. Everyday write and read them, affirm them through your words. In Oprah Winfrey words:
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”
A life of gratitude brings peace and joy to your mind and life. Be grateful to the creator of the universe. Live a life of appreciation of the earth, the universe and the abundance all around us. Let’s end with this quote from William Arthur Ward:
“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.”
