7 Life Changing Keys to Success

Written by Mr.SelfDevelopment - 21 Comments
Categories: self improvement, success

Success does not belong to a select few; success belongs to “you,” if you’re willing to go after it.

Success is never handed out, you must take it, but you don’t take it by force.  You take success by becoming a successful person internally.  When you succeed on the inside, by taking on the thoughts of a successful person, the results will show on the outside.

Today I want to talk about seven life changing keys to success; these concepts will alter your life if you implement them.

Seven Life Changing Keys to Success:

1. Do and Dare

“The person who gets the farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The ‘sure-thing’ boat never gets far from shore.”
–Dale Carnegie

Are you daring to do the impossible?  There should never be a time in your life when you’re not attempting something impossible.  It is the impossible that stretches you and shows you what you can become.

Do and dare, get out of your comfort zone and stretch yourself.  Stretch the amount of work you do, stretch your expectations, and stretch your imagination.

2. Double Your Failure Rate

“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.”
–Thomas J. Watson

If you want to succeed, you need to fail.  No one succeeds with just a handful of failures.  You won’t be the first person to succeed, after only failing three times.  You need to fail, and fail, and fail; failure is the path to success.  You stumble until you walk.  It is through stumbling that you learn how to succeed.  Your stumbles prepare you for success.

3. Use Your Will
“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.”

–Vincent T. Lombardi

Another word for “will” would be “desire.”  To succeed you must desire to succeed more than you desire anything else.  Successful people aren’t stronger than others, and they aren’t necessarily anymore intelligent than others, but they have more desire than others.  They have a burning desire to see their goal realized.  Do you have that same burning desire?  Without desire, you won’t have the motivation to accomplish the goal.

4. You need Determination and Commitment

Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek.”

–Mario Andretti

Are you determined, one person determined will accomplish more than a thousand people who are just interested.  You have to have the determination of a bull dog.  You have to latch on, and refuse to let go.  Desire, determination and commitment will strategically position you to succeed.

5. Excellence is Required
“No one ever attains very eminent success by simply doing what is required of him; it is the amount and excellence of what is over and above the required that determines the greatness of ultimate distinction.”

–Charles Kendall Adams

Are you providing excellent service?  To be the best, you must provide the best service.  You must give your customers what they can’t get from anywhere else.

How good is your service?  Can it be duplicated?  Is it excellent?

6. Vision is Necessary

“The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart – this you will build your life by, and this you will become.”
–James Allen

To succeed, you must ponder success.  Only through pondering success will you create the desire to make success a reality.  You must have a clear vision of what you are about to achieve.  This desire must consume you.  If the desire consumes you, it will one day be realized.

7. Go To Success

“Success doesn’t come to you, you go to it.”

–Marva Collins

Success won’t fall in your lap; you have to go after it.  You have to chase it down.  You have to want it more than anything else.  A lazy person won’t succeed, only those who are willing to work; those who are willing to “go to it.”

Are you willing to go to success?  Do you have a clear vision, do you have a burning desire, are you willing to fail, if you are, you are well on your way to success.

Thank you for reading and be sure to pass this article along!

Mr. Self Development is an author who teaches a motivational and practical guide to success.
Please visit him at Mr. Self Development.com.

Don’t Forget To Follow PickTheBrain On Twitter!

Related Articles:

How To Increase Self Discipline

How To Motivate Yourself

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  • http://www.3smartcubes.com/ Tasneem R

    Thank you for telling us the ways and means to achieve success . I particularly liked point 1 and 7 . Many times we hesitate before doing the impossible , we forget that it is only the impossible which will help us grow our potential from within.Doing things in our comfort zone is no challenge faced.
    How motivated are you?- The test finds out how inspired you really are.
    http://www.3smartcubes.com/pages/tests/motivation/motivation_instructions.asp

  • Roman

    Very nice.
    Love the post and deffinately will take the collection of quotes into facebook or my personal collection.

  • http://www.streets2success.com ben blanch

    I agree with your steps, for me I found the one thing missing was my focus on the past and negativity. I have some insight to share to the other readers. I am not just a person with an opinion, I have published my first book on the subject and I think with your steps and what I call “my happy place” (korny I know) the forum readers could find huge action and success.

    Like most of the things in 1977 most have been forgotten or are a distant memory for most of us. I did not even know most of the things listed earlier until I did a Google Search of what happened in that year. Sadly, I realized that my birth was on that list and like the other things, feel that I too had been forgotten.

    Do we really remember the significance of those events? Has my birth really become that insignificant? Was I only this distant memory to those who were such a big part of that time in history?

    Throughout my life I have been focussed on this question. I had no answers for the people who brought me into this world all I could do was speculate. This child who once felt love, security and affection became this older boy who had nothing, no home, no family and no significance.

    Year after years passed, I still had no answers. I thought harder and harder about it, about the things I could have done wrong and the things I could have changed. Maybe if I was a better baby, a better five year old, a better ten year old, a better school kid or a better bingo player just maybe I would not be in the predicament I had been in for the past few years.
    The more I thought about it the worse I felt. I became cold, distant and uncaring to the world which gave me more and more pain as I thought of these things. Any friendship I formed or success I stumbled on was soon washed away by my own negativity. I bled enough.

    I detached from the past and only focussed on the future. I committed to focus only on the things that made me smile, laugh and feel happy. I would leave this sadness behind.

    I realized that whenever something bad happened to me all I had to do was focus on things that made me laugh and everything seemed to get better, not just how I felt but how I thought and actions I took. I called this my “Happy Place”.

    Ben Blanch http://www.streets2success.com

  • khad84

    I think no.4 (Commitment) and no.6 (Vision) are the most important.Vision is a sort of a mind-map of your goal and the path you should take to reach it.Commitment assures that you are following your Vision.

  • http://www.myspace.com/keatonmorris Bucky

    Wow. I just read another Mario Andretti quote today that I liked:
    “If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough. “

  • http://www.yourpathwaytosuccess.com Hakan Akbas

    Loved your post, especially how you mixed quotes to each of your 7 keys

  • http://thedropoutkid.com jonathanfigaro

    I think all these aspect could be found in a book. Ranging from Napoleon Hill all the way down to Jack Can field. But the point of all of this is to

    1. Find a Purpose
    2. Become Passionate about it
    3. Work relentlessly
    4. Think Pretty Big
    5. Never give up
    6 Have Fun
    7. Have some Sex too
    8. Give back to the community
    9. Run with the wolves.

  • http://www.peppervirtualassistant.com cheska

    I like this part – “you have to want it more than anything else.” I guess it’s also driven by our passion to really get what we want. we have to really, really want it inorder to get it. very, very true!

  • http://lookingtobusiness.com Daniel M. Wood

    Great article,

    I would love to add a quote by Thomas A. Edison to your second point about failure:

    “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

    His view of failure and his goals is a inspiration to all of us. He would fail and fail and fail and fail again, but at last he would find the solution and everyone called him a genius.

    What he did was fail more than everyone else, and therefore succeed once in a while.

  • http://www.thoughtful-self-improvement.com/About-Happiness.html Natalie

    I agree with all of the tips. I had problems with tips 1 & 2 for many years. Then I was told that the people who get ahead are those that make decisions, whether those decisions are good or bad is almost immaterial. Most people are afraid to be wrong and so are afraid to make decisions. It leaves things open for those who can take that step and leave the rest behind. Even if the decision is wrong, it can generally be corrected, but progress is not made by standing still.

    To not make decisions is to drift and drown in mediocrity.

  • http://robert-thompson.blogspot.com robert thompson

    Theodore Zeldin said:

    “To have a new vision of the future, it has always first been necessary to have a new vision of the past.”

    In other words, we need to spend less time Doing and more time Contemplating:

    * Doing – here we spend most of our lives being busy and occupied, but effectively in a settled equilibrium position.
    * Contemplating – here we take time out to stop being busy but reflect on the past and look forward to the future. We wonder what things would be like if we could do things differently?

    We need to take an existentialist viewpoint to find ourselves and the meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility. Take time to search, to find out who and what we are throughout life as we make choices based on our experiences, beliefs, and outlook.

    In effect when it comes to making choices in life, can’t is the wrong word.

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  • Munaf Maniyar

    Besically,whats have been written its a direction for your life,you need to look at your self,
    we dont have to look back becoz it was yesterday,lets talk about tomorrow lets take this as a direction to your path & move head.

    Thanks for showing the way
    Munaf Maniyar

  • chinanu

    I really appreciate your points which has actually given a go ahead in my writing on success.I hope you will do more great works.more inspiration!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • chinanu

    key no 4 has given more inspiration on the book I’m writing.I will also post some of my write ups so as to inspire readers.

  • chinanu

    confidence and diligence can also be numbers

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    Awesome blog very inspiring, love Double your failure rate, too many people are afraid of failure and blogs like this is an encouragement to everyone who dares to win. Thanks 

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