Achieving your own personal success story

It’s no secret that humans are creatures of habit. We find it easier to do the same thing over and over again before we’ll make a change in our lives. Because we allow ourselves to fall into this habitual cycle, we miss out on real living and the freedom to do better.

Do you ever wonder “How can I make myself better?” If you want to improve your life and practice healthy, self-motivating steps to personal success on a daily basis, this article is for you.

How many of us actually have a good grasp on who we are and what we want out of life? You might think that you know your desires, needs, passions, etc. The best way to find out is to ask yourself, ‘are you happy’? It’s a question that must be answered honestly. If the answer is ‘no’, then you need to re-examine your life and re-introduce yourself to who you are. Find out why you aren’t happy. It’s not an easy thing to do and includes a lot of soul searching, but it can be done. This is something that you have to do throughout your life. Your desires and needs will change constantly and you need to aware of them.

Once you’ve discovered what it is that ‘make’s you tick’, you need to hold firmly to it. Be a leader to yourself and not a follower. You need to take charge of your life. You need to set the tone of how people will treat you and look upon you.

Fight for your rights

How many of us just go along with whatever’s happening when we really don’t want to? Why do we feel the need to do it? The next time you are asked to do something or be a part of something, look within yourself and honestly ask yourself if it’s something that you really want to do. Be wise and trust your instincts. Choose yourself, whom you know better than anyone else, and do what you want to do. You are in charge of you. Take yourself where you want to go and stay on the path that’s fit for you.

How often do you let snide remarks ‘go’? You know, those ‘harmless little teasing comments’ that people throw your way. Yes, of course, there are times when it is ‘just a joke’ but if it offends you, do you let it slip through or do you stand up for yourself? Sometimes teasing can get us when we’re feeling down or at a time when we’re feeling particularly vulnerable. You have two options: a) You can say, ‘hey, I didn’t appreciate that’ or b) you can say nothing. If you’re someone who has a hard time speaking up for himself/herself, seize the day. You deserve to be treated fairly and justly. Believe in yourself and fight for your mind, body, and soul.

Self-Talk

Ever heard of it? It’s an important part of how we care for ourselves. It involves positive feedback to our mind, heart and soul. What we tell ourselves is critical for our personal growth and development. Everything you say is adopted by your mind and stored away for future reference. If you’re constantly telling yourself you ‘can’t’ do it or you’re a loser or you’re an idiot, that’s what your mind is going to believe. And that is how you are going to live.

How you ever included the word “can’t” in a sentence? It’s a killer. ‘Can’t’ really means ‘won’t’. If you are ‘guilty’ of using this word, especially often, you need to get rid of it. It’s a freedom-stopper. It sets boundaries and borders around you and keeps you from moving on. How are you going to achieve personal success with a word like that in your vocabulary!

Another point to remember. How often do you put yourself down? When you make a mistake, do you curse yourself? If you do, you’re not being fair and you probably aren’t realizing exactly what you’re telling yourself. We all make mistakes, and we all do and say silly things at times. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be human. But is that any reason to berate oneself? I don’t think we mean to do it, it’s just one of those habits. Instead, we should be building ourselves up by using positive affirmations such as “I, (your name) made a mistake in doing ‘this’ but I will do it right next time” or other such statements. Next time you start to put yourself down, think about what your heart and mind needs to know and tell yourself that. Be positive, no matter what. It will change the way you view life and live life.

Get Over It

Mistakes are a part of life. We all make them. Sometimes we make the same one over and over again. Hopefully we learn from them after the first time, but sometimes it takes a few more ‘lessons’ for us to really get it and let it sink in. And that’s okay. We are all working on a different time clock.

The problems arise when we allow guilt to invade our thoughts. Rarely do we allow ourselves to get over a mistake that we’ve made without first persecuting ourselves with guilt for a time. But what is the point to that? It hurts no one but yourself. Now I’m not saying you don’t have to feel sorry for hurting someone else if that happens, but wouldn’t it be better to learn from what you’ve done, store it away for future reference and get out there and try again? Become a better person through your mistakes – people will respect you more for moving through it rather than by wallowing in it. Stop condemning yourself for something that happened in the past and move on into your future, smarter and better prepared for the next hurdle.

Guilt does absolutely nothing for us. It provides us with a loss of confidence, a loss of self-respect, and stops us from moving forward. Releasing guilt can be achieved when you can forgive yourself for whatever it is that is causing the guilty feelings. Remember that you are human and you will make mistakes. Achieve personal success by forgiving yourself and moving on. That is successful and freeing.

The Goal-Setter

Goals are key to achieving personal gain or success. They provide a focal point for getting what you want or need. Goals help you map out what you want, how to get it, and when you will get it. They make you accountable to yourself (and to others if you share these goals with them).

If you have no goals at this time, you need to take some time to decide on one or two. Ask yourself what you want to achieve in the next day, week, month, or year? What can you do to make it happen? Include when you will have this goal achieved by, what it is, why you have it, and how will it benefit you. It’s important to be realistic when setting your goals or you’ll only end up discouraging yourself. Setting goals is a very important tool in achieving personal success.

“No.”

Do you find it difficult to say ‘no’? Are you afraid that if you say ‘no’, that the person will be angry with you or think less of you? We all do it at some point in our lives but is this healthy? No. When you agree to do something because you feel ‘guilty’ if you don’t, you are condemning yourself to do something that you don’t want to do. The world isn’t going to fall apart if you say ‘no’. It will continue on its twirling axis and people will move on and find someone else to do it. Not only that, but they’ll most likely respect your decision because you are taking care of yourself.

If you know yourself and your limits/boundaries, then you’ll know when it’s smart to say ‘no’ to something. There’s nothing wrong with saying ‘no’ to something, but it is wrong to say ‘yes’ to something that you have no desire to do or be a part of. It’s not fair to those involved and it’s not fair to you. You are doing yourself in injustice to take on something that you don’t want to do. From now on, strive to be honest with yourself and with the person asking. You’ll both benefit from it. It will give you better direction, help you maintain your focus, and increase your confidence in yourself.

Be open to new experiences

New experiences are a beautiful thing. They make life exciting and adventurous. New experiences bring new insights, ideas, feelings, understanding, and motivation to live life in a fresh way. To some, the unknown is a scary place but if you can realize what it can offer you and muster up to the courage to step forward, it will carry you to new places and expand your life-borders. Avoid closing yourself off from new ways of thinking or experiencing new and different sensations, events, etc. It increases your knowledge. It leads to new opportunities. Life is changing all the time, and the best way to keep up is to be open to trying new things and pressing onward.

Don’t waste your time

It is said that ‘Time is of the essence’, but I don’t think we grasp what that really means. We only have so much time here on Earth but we don’t seem to live life that way. That’s not to say that we should all be rushing around, trying to experience everything in a heartbeat, only that it is important to realize that we may not have tomorrow. We need to live today. Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

Something else of importance in achieving personal success is to take time out. This is where and how we can shape our passions. Do the things that you want to do. Make time for those precious experiences that you love but rarely give yourself time for. It’s important to, not only our physical health, but our mental and emotional health as well. And don’t forget to rest. Be aware of the signals your body sends you. If you’re yawning or your muscles are tired/tightened, give yourself time to rest. If you’ve been sick often in the past few months, you aren’t doing a very good job in seeing to your needs. Illness is a sure sign that you are emotionally and mentally unwell. You need to rest. Taking time to do this will benefit you in the long run. It gives you the strength and peace to use all the other tools you need to achieve personal success.

Achieving personal success can be done and it will make all the difference in the world for living. This is your chance to make yourself the person you want to be. ‘Don’t put off to tomorrow what you can do today’. Make your life a successful one today.