Fourteen years ago I had the opportunity to share on stage my thoughts on what it takes to achieve success and how what I had leant and applied to fast track achieving my own financial freedom. In short, get in the pool and do the work!
Success is simple. Not easy, but simple.
The formula is a follows:
Know what you want.
Do the work i.e., pay the price.
Don't stop until your goal is your reality.
However, we often let our egos get in the way of our own success by making our goals too big. Only then give up on achieving our goals all to soon, because of some negative experiences, undermining our confidence and reinforcing our self belief, that either we don't have what it takes, don't deserve success anyway, or that it's all too hard or going to take us to long to achieve our goals.
So rather than blowing ourselves up; pissing everyone around us off, and by doing so creating and even more challenging environment for us to achieve our goals. Try achieving your goals by applying the Japanese method of Skoshi zutsu, meaning little by little, until you reach the goal.
How do you eat an elephant? Skoshi zutsu, little by little, one bite and mouthful at a time.
Secondly, get out of your head.
Try shifting your mind's all consuming laser focused need, desire and attention away from achieving your bigger long term goal; to one of focusing your attention and effort on the daily mastery of your choices and actions. Thereby unburdening yourself from the distraction of unwarranted worries and pressure.
The present is a present. Ichigo Ichie. Meaning "one life, one meeting"
Giving yourself the gift of being present, is to receive/create an environment for yourself that gives yourself the emotional and mental space to better understand you.
To know what you need to do (without the internal noise/talk of past or future), as well as giving yourself the best opportunity to do the work and as a result heighten your probability of success.
Here is a quick real life example of finding and giving oneself the gift of presence.
At 26 years old, a year into my BHAG goal of achieving financial independence (having net worth a million dollars). I was overwhelmed, frustrated and stressed out because of my emotional and competitive state of being i.e., I passionately wanted to achieve my goal sooner than the 22 years I had calculated it would take me.
However after realising simply doing the work, regardless of whether I worried about it or not, that there was still a very high probability of achieving my goal. I choose to let go of my worry and focus on my bigger goal and consciously refocused my attention on my daily and monthly choices and activities i.e., simply to be more present and mindful and save $1,000pm.
The result? Not only was I less stressed. My mind was freer and clearer to work smarter instead of harder; thereby allowing me the opportunity and ability to earn and save more. Meaning it took me 10 years less to achieve (in dollar terms) my goal of financial independence than the 22 years I had originally projected it to achieve.
Thirdly and I truly believe this is the most important instruction.
Making success/achieving your goal your final destination only serves to keep us on the hamster wheel and continuing to experience the negatives of failure. Because achieving success in itself is hollow, narcissistic and isolating.
Better and more sustaining mindset, is to find enjoyment in the activity of doing the work and to experience life i.e., ichigo ichie.
Learning, growing, enriching ourselves in our purpose and passions. Living more authentically. Doing something simply for the pleasure of doing it, deepening our personal growth, will at the same time opening new doors of opportunity for ourselves and be a beacon of inspiration and wisdom to others .
Success is not our end destination, it is simply a milestone albeit a significant one. Along with the opportunity for you to take your learnings and lessons from your past success and failures and to apply them again on your path and journey to achieving your next goal.
If you are still reading, thank you :)
Ganbare (All the best, good luck, work hard, hang in there) 🙇♂️
Pete
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