If these seven suggestions really could bring great success, why would I be writing this post instead of sipping Pimm’s Cup on a sail boat in the Mediterranean? Just in case you make better use of these suggestions, send me an email describing your success.
This will be a brief post just to let you know my mind is still active. Shortly, I will resume my regular posts on the theme of hope. Honestly, I had to take a break from blogging until I convinced myself that hope still offered power and promise in my life.
With that, here is my list of seven suggestions for success. Enjoy. Please let me know if they help at all. I am quite certain my list and your list will be different.
- Develop and implement a plan for your life identifying 1, 3 and 5 year goals. Celebrate your successes and be thankful for your failures. Both success and failure help you maintain your perspective and both keep you humble. Find someone who will hold you accountable for reaching your goals. Write down your goals and put them in a place where they will jump out at you each morning. Bathroom mirrors work well as places for a rendezvous with reality.
- Once you figure out what you really want to do with your life, stay with it until you are recognized as an authority/a “go to” person for that thing. Once you are acknowledged as a master of your craft, you will never go hungry again. For example, there are lots of good artists but very few masters. What about life as a food stylist? Or a car detailer? For inspiration, Google “unusual occupations” before you settle into a 9-5 job for the next 45 years. One regret, I always wanted to work in Williamsburg, VA as a cooper. I never even attempted to complete an application for the apprenticeship program. I am still fascinated by the thought of building a curved barrel out of materials that begin as straight pieces of wood and metal.
- Find an apprentice with whom you can share what you are learning. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a child of yours, just someone who understands, values and is inspired by passions similar to those you have found in life. COROLLARY – find a mentor from whom you can learn new life lessons, who will share with you the joy of their accomplishments. Your mentor will appear if you are seriously looking for a guide. Find someone who will be honest with you, someone you can respect and trust. Oh, your mentor (or apprentice) should be someone who respects and trusts you as well.
- Mind, body, spirit – how well are you nurturing each of these? What habits and disciplines help or hinder you as you bring wholeness to your life?
- At least once a year, identify and overcome one of your fears. It can be a big fear such as overcoming a fear of heights or something a bit more tame, such as a fear of handling spiders or cockroaches. Of what are you afraid? Do you know why?
- At least four times a year read a best selling book of fiction written for a genre you generally shy away from. I’m not a science fiction guy but I am eternally grateful that I was introduced to the writing of Kurt Vonnegut and H.G.Wells. If you are really courageous, read a best selling non-fiction book every three months. Biographies can be very inspiring. Memoirs can be life changing. Real life and real issues raise all sorts of questions to consider.
- When the urge hits you to buy something you think you can’t live without, wait a week before you do anything. If you still need it/want it/can pay for it after that week, then consider if your life will ever be able to continue without that purchase. If after all of that you still have the urge or desire to covet that item, consider that tonight thousands of folks in the USA alone will go to bed hungry.
What good is buying “stuff” if others are suffering? That prompts a greater question.
Figure out the question I was going to ask you to consider.
Your answer will say a great deal about your chances of finding success in life, no matter how many suggestions other folks offer you.
