Success is defined a few different ways. If you Google it, one of those definitions reads, “a person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains prosperity.”I believe people define success differently. The one thing that I can assure you everyone wants is to be happy. Part of most everyone’s definition of success is to be happy. Success is an important ingredient to a happy life. If you want to have a happy life (however that is defined for you), you need success in all areas of your life. Success is the key that unlocks a happy life.

Don’t Wait For All The Lights To Be Green, They Never Will Be

You can’t wait around for success to happen to you because that’s not how it works. Success comes to you when you take action towards it. The more action you take, the more potential you have for greater success. I believe that success is won in little battles throughout each day in all area’s of your life. You have to have the attitude that success is your duty. Now, having great success in your career but sacrificing your family life does no good if your family life is important to you, and you value it. For most of us, we have MANY different parts of our life we want to be successful in. These are all the things that make up who we are and what we are all about. Therefore, it truly is a duty, and obligation to yourself, family, company you own or work for, community and your future to be as successful as you can be in life.

Start by making a commitment to do your best in all area’s of your life each day. Start right now just focusing on doing your very best. It really is that simple. You have to see success as the only option. This doesn’t mean all of a sudden you won’t fail ever again. Or that you won’t make any mistakes in life from now on. That’s not how God made you. You will fail, but you will learn from failure how to be better next time. In essence, you never really fail unless you give up. Seeing success as your ethical duty in life keeps you in the game, and never quitting on your life.

Are You Looking For A Career Or Just A Job?

This is especially true in your sales career. You have to develop a career mentality, not just think of it as just a job. What’s the difference? Here’s an example I’ll use to explain my thinking on it. You have two guys or two gals it doesn’t matter, they are just starting out working for a well known fast food store. Both are flipping burgers and doing the required job-related tasks. One of them is trading time for money, just waiting for the shift to be over, doing what is required to get the job done and not get fired or catch any hassle. This isn’t a bad employee, it’s just not an outstanding one either. It’s the average person.

Now the other guy or gal is doing his job as well, but they are also looking for ways to help others do theirs better. This person is also looking for ways to learn other responsibilities, not worrying how much more it will pay them now because that’s not the ultimate goal of this person. This person wants success. This person sees themselves running one of these stores someday, or maybe many of them. This person is thinking about a career. See the difference? Now, we aren’t all born to run fast food stores I get that. However, you were designed with the ability to do great things with your life if you see that as the only option. This will mean different things to everyone, but this mentality will allow you to see your potential. So whether you want to run a McDonald’s franchise, or write a book, you need to see success as the only option!

J O B  Stands For “Just Over Broke”

Remember, a job is just that, a JOB or Just Over Broke. I think I heard Grant Cardone say that in a podcast one time and it really sunk in for me. If you have a job, find a way to turn it into a career. If you can’t, then go do something, find something that you can. You need to be all in no matter what it is you’re doing. This way you are more likely to keep your commitment to yourself and do your best every day. This world is LOADED with information, and people willing to give it to you. Often times for FREE. How much success you have in any area of your life is dependent on the degree to which you’re willing to do what is required to attain it.

Financial well being is also vital to your happiness. We live on an economic planet. It takes money to do just about everything in life. While I do NOT think money is the most important thing in life, it’s right up there with God, Family, and Oxygen. If you want true FREEDOM in life, you need money as well as many other things. I am not super motivated by money, however, I am motivated by what you can do with it. The people you can reach. The people you can help. Whether it is family or friends. Maybe your community. Money allows you to make a difference in the lives of others. Yes, you always have your time to donate, I get that. But if you can write a check that keeps a program running for a year doing cancer research locally, for instance, that’s impact! Success is the key.

The Harder You Work, The Luckier You’ll Get

Successful people seem lucky to others, but this is because their actions create successful results which compound and create more success. If they changed their actions and started making bad choices, like everyone else they would pay the consequences of those poor choices. Therefore, successful people take massive action daily, and they make the best choices they know how each time. You must demand this of yourself in all area’s of your life. Don’t fall into the victim role and blame something or someone else for your lack of success in life. It doesn’t matter what it is when you claim responsibility for it and take positive action towards it you have more success.

Be sure to get the people in your life on board with this mindset as well. It does no good to commit to success and then have the people closest to you working the opposite way. Opposites DO NOT attract. Likes ATTRACT! Successful, positive minded, motivated people want to be around other people like that, not the opposite. Negativity brings positive people down, it actually repels positive minded people in many ways. I believe I can actually feel someone’s negative energy just by getting close to them. Usually, when I feel this way, I am right. Just a few interactions with the person and I can see they are negative. Sometimes positive people get into a negative funk, but when success is your duty you bounce out of it almost immediately because it leaves a bad feeling in your gut. You want to think of success as an ethical issue. When you give less than your best in an area of your life, you should feel bad about it. It should bother you. Every day that you don’t live up to your potential is time wasted that you can never get back.

Don’t Waste Your Most Valuable Asset, And The Only One You Can’t Get More Of, Time!

The one thing we cannot get more of in life is TIME. You need to make the most of it every day. You never know how much of it you have left. This is why there is no one area of life where you need to be more successful than any other. If I was going to choose one, I would choose my relationship with God, and his son Jesus Christ. But we truly need success in every aspect of our lives for true happiness, and in abundance. We deserve the best life possible and since we only get one why wouldn’t we want that anyway? God wants us to have a wonderful life, that’s why he has given us everything we need to do just that.

A great story that illustrates perfectly the mentality you have to have in order to reach your true potential, and an inspiring story of faith, is the story of Sylvester Stallone and his Rocky screenplay. Stallone went through a lot, he was so broke he lost his relationship, and his dog. He had to literally sell his best friend (the dog) for money to get by one more day. Stallone came up against failure after failure on his way to making himself a success. He was given a few opportunities to make some quick money, more than he had ever seen at that time, upwards of $400K. But, he knew his potential and he turned down several offers before making a deal to make the movie and star as the main character, Rocky Balboa. Well, he and everyone else involved is glad it turned out the way it did. As we all know the rest is history and he is one of the most successful and well-known people to ever live. Rocky Balboa is almost like a living person to some of us who grew up watching the movies and love the character. But it was almost just another movie. Stallone only saw one option, he was all in. That’s why he was able to succeed.

Where Are You In Life Right Now?

You may be in a place right now where you feel successful in your life. That’s awesome! However, we are human beings. We are the most intelligent species on the planet. If we are not growing, we are dying. Eventually, you will want more from life. Remember, you were designed to do great things. So even if you define yourself as successful, you need to keep pushing every day putting your best out there and continue to grow and get better.

If you wouldn’t call yourself successful right now but want to be able to, then consider my advice here on this. I have years of experience and so far what I have learned is you cannot replace hard work with anything else. Success is a mindset and it requires HARD WORK! In order to work hard day in and day out, to get the success you deserve, you need to commit and have no other option on the table for yourself. This post was not only inspired by my life experience but also from the chapter Success Is Your Duty in the book The 10X Rule. I highly recommend this book to you if you find yourself in this place.

It’s like the great Zig Ziglar used to say and I’ll never forget, “You go as far as you can see, and when you get there, you’ll always be able to see further.” Start now. With every area of your life that you want more success to start making better choices, putting in more effort and taking more action. Decide what your definition of success is in each area of your life, and base this off your potential. So really give your potential some serious thought! In the end, you should be able to tell someone exactly what you want to accomplish in your life at the moment.

Because we are always growing and changing throughout our lives, you may find that some things you thought were very important to you no longer are. It doesn’t matter. What is important to you right now is what matters. There are certain things like financial success or marriage that are a lifetime commitment. However, if you are in sales now and you’re selling cars let’s say, then be the best car salesperson you can be! You might not want to sell cars for the rest of your sales career, but until you figure out what it is you’re passionate about, be passionate about success no matter what!

Wrapping it all up!

You will go much further in life a lot faster with this mindset. You will find that even when things aren’t going exactly your way, you have the capability to persevere and grind it out with this mindset! Keep your focus on success, allow no alternate option. With this mindset, a new season is awaiting. No matter the challenge life presents you will dominate it with positive, massive action.