All too often when people think of success, they think that they should be the best in their field. Or they should have the biggest house or the flashiest car… or millions of dollars in their bank account.

Success in life goes beyond material possessions and the number in your bank account. Real success is about living life to the fullest and knowing that you gave it your all. To live life on your own terms, pursuing your own authentic purpose and dreams is success.

The concepts of what it takes to be successful are very simple. Anybody can understand them and most people do. Application of these concepts, however, is quite another story.

In this article, I’ll share 10 important success tips with you. While they may not be mind blowing, rest assured that if you apply them daily, success in any endeavour will be yours.

Even during those times when you do not get what you want or despite your best efforts you fail, you will still push forward and succeed in areas you never even imagined.

Don’t think – Know and act.

This is without a doubt the most important tip of the lot. Success is not a coincidence but a consequence and it’s a direct result of your actions.

The majority of people who never succeed in life invariably have one common trait. They don’t take sufficient action. They hem and they haw and never put their plan into consistent and committed action. Planning does not get results. Only doing does.

Do not keep thinking about what you’re going to do or what you will do. JUST DO! This is the key. Form a plan, do your research so that you know what you’re doing and then EXECUTE the plan. Don’t wait, just start!

Instead of taking notes about which exercises are the best for weight loss, put on your shoes and start running. Instead of hanging out in online forums reading advice from other clueless people, take action. You can learn and learn and learn, but go nowhere…

The best thing is to start doing and learn as you go. Most people are stuck in a kind of inertia where they just never get started. By consciously forcing yourself to take action, you’ll attenuate this lethargy and inertia that’s holding you back. This and only this will catapult you to success.

Define your goals clearly.

You must know what you want. If you’re undecided about your goals and have a flippant attitude about how you’re going to achieve them, you will be like a sailboat without any course that’s just tossed around by the prevailing winds.

Write your goals down in a list. Make them as specific as you can. State why you want to achieve them and how you’ll feel when you do reach your goals. You must define your why and be absolutely clear about it. Give yourself a time frame to achieve your goals.

Look at your list often so that you remember what you need to do… and then go do what you have to do so that you can see success and then be able to do what you want to do.

Don’t rest on your laurels.

This is a very common mistake that can turn a successful person into a failure. If the phrase “Resting on your laurels” could be summarized in one word, that word would be COMPLACENCY.

There are so many examples of people who did succeed at what they set out to do and once they got there, they were so happy and content that they relaxed and assumed that things would always be rosy. After a while, they realized that while they were resting, the roses wilted and the weeds took the garden.

You must always be alert. If you’ve lost all your excess fat and you have a fantastic body now, that’s great. Enjoy it and be proud of yourself… BUT… do not assume that you’ll stay lean forever.

If you let your diet slide and sneak in a doughnut here and a milkshake there, it’s only a matter of time before all those pounds come sneaking back in. Next thing you know, you’re fatter than you’ve ever been before.

The same applies to your spouse. Give them the same attention that you did before you married. If you let that slide and think you closed the deal by tying the knot, it’s just a matter of time before you’ll be signing the divorce papers.

Always keep moving. A rolling stone gathers no moss.

Continually motivate yourself.

This is of paramount importance. Everyone is excited at the beginning of the year when they’re listing their goals and resolutions because of the promise of what is to come. The truth of the matter is that it will take time to achieve your goals.

During this time, your interest will start to wane and you will lose the drive to keep going through the hard yards. This is where most people throw in the towel and fail. They’ve lost sight of the promise.

The key to staying on track with your goals and succeeding in life is motivation. Do not renounce your personal responsibility of motivating yourself. Nobody else is going to do it for you.

You could attend a seminar by some famous motivational guru and be pumped up for a week, but you can rest assured that the high you’re feeling will dissipate.

What then? Who is going to motivate you?

The answer is you because you’re all you’ve got. Write your goals down and most importantly, write down why you’re doing what you’re doing. What is the emotional reason behind it? Write it all down.

Whenever you feel like the journey is just too much effort, look at your list of goals and ask yourself why you started. This should give you the impetus to keep going.

You MUST motivate yourself regularly, and take consistent action toward your goals!

Don’t be afraid of failure.

Always realize that failure is not the opposite of success. It is a part of success. Far too many people never do what their heart desires because they’re stifled by fear.

The lady who loves art chooses a career in finance because of job security. She hates her job and is miserable all her life.

The man who wants to travel the world and blog about his experiences as a global wanderer ends up tying the knot at 24 and has 2 kids because all his friends are getting married and settling down. It just seems crazy and immature to do what he wants to. Years later he’ll look back and wonder, “What if”?

Don’t end up in a “What if?” situation. You’ll find success if you pursue your true calling in life and not miss life-changing opportunities just because you were trying to be practical or following the herd.

You must follow your heart and your dreams without fear of failure. That’s the only way to live a life without regret. You can’t succeed at what you don’t do.

In the event that you do pursue your dreams and fail repeatedly, don’t let these failures discourage you. Fall seven times, get up eight.

The difference between the winners and losers is that the winners failed more frequently, and kept going. Learn from each failure, correct your course and keep moving forward. This is the only way to succeed and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Don’t compare yourself to others.

This is a simple one. Stop worrying about what others are doing. It’s human nature to measure one’s self against others.

Guys at the gym look around to see who can bench press more, and who has bigger muscles.

Women tend to judge other women’s bodies very harshly just to feel better about themselves.

Businessmen compare their earnings and net worth with their peers to evaluate their own worth.

None of these is necessary and can in fact be destructive. All unhappiness starts with comparison. There will always be those who are better off than you and there will be those who are worse off. Know this from the beginning and you’ll save valuable time and energy that you can apply toward making your life better.

If you constantly measure yourself up against those better than you, you’ll be bitter, discontented and miserable. That’s no way to live life.

If you compare yourself against those who are worse off than you, you’ll not be motivated to do better for yourself since you already think that you’re a success. This will lead to complacency.

So, your personal motto should always be to better your own personal best. You are your biggest competition. Always strive to be better today than you were yesterday.

If you focus on beating your own achievements, you will reap success over and over. Your only limit is you.

Keep your calm.

We live in a world where the majority of people are very quick to react. They’re often just waiting to get offended by others or curse at their own misfortunes.

In Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If”, his very first line was “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you”, and concludes with: “Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!”

In simple words, do not be quick to anger or become overly emotional. Do not make decisions based on haste or fury. Millions of people have been to prison because they lost their minds for a split second and did something they regretted.

Extricate yourself from any unfavorable situations so that you can keep a level head. If you’re struggling to lose weight and give in to temptation and eat something you shouldn’t have, don’t curse yourself and give up on your goal. Move on, and get back on track.

In times of failure, take a deep breath and stay focused. Analyze what went wrong and remedy what you can. Don’t run around screaming and blaming everyone else. If you truly want to be successful in life, reining in your emotions and staying cool is a skill you must develop.

The same boiling water that softens potatoes hardens eggs. It’s all about what you’re made of, not your circumstances.

Eat, sleep and spend in moderation.

This may sound simple but millions fail at it. Eat clean and eat in moderation. Food is fuel, not therapy. So many people eat when they’re happy, they eat when they’re sad, they eat when they’re bored… It just doesn’t end.

Eat only when you’re hungry. It’s fine to occasionally indulge but know your limits. Obesity has reached epidemic proportions because of poor diet choices and overeating.

Sleep soundly but don’t sleep your life away. 6 to 8 hours of sleep a day is adequate for most people. Don’t sleep 14 hours a day like a baby. At the other extreme, try not to burn the candles at both ends and leave yourself in a quivering mass of exhaustion because you’re only sleeping 4 hours a day.

Spend your money wisely. One of the most common traits of successful people is that they save money and live beneath their means. Don’t spend money that you don’t have to buy things that you don’t need to impress people who don’t care.

While these 3 pointers might seem commonplace and almost inane, you’d be shocked to know that millions have ruined their lives just by not getting these three points right.

This is the real world and these are hard truths. To succeed in life, you must master yourself, and stay balanced.

Keep your promises to yourself.

When you make a promise to yourself and don’t keep it, on a subconscious level you’ll lose respect for yourself. You’ll feel like you’re not worthy of success.

One common example is people who struggle to lose weight. They have the same weight loss resolutions every year and they never succeed. They try a hundred different programs and thousand different slimming pills and whatever they do, weight loss eludes them.

The reason for this is that they break their promises to themselves. If you say that you’ll not drink soda today, then you don’t. Do NOT make an exception and tell yourself, “It’s ok. I’ll work it off tomorrow”.

Yes, you can work it off but you broke a promise to yourself. The next time you tell yourself, I’ll restrict my carbohydrate intake today, on a subconscious level your mind will tell you, “No, you won’t. You always give in”.

And guess what? By noon you’ll give in and have 2 slices of pizza. Your resolve was already weakened by earlier broken promises.

When this process is repeated over and over, it becomes a habit. You tell yourself one thing and you do another. Your self-esteem and confidence in achieving the goals you set is diminished in this way.

You decide that the ideal body weight is just not possible for you. You tell yourself that you have poor genes, no discipline, etc. There is one thing you are succeeding at when this happens, and that is FAILURE. Many people are very successful at failing.

Always remember. Do not make exceptions when you commit to a goal. Do not skip the workouts. Do not indulge in foods that you said you wouldn’t. Stay focused and exercise self-discipline. Keep promises to yourself above all else!

Believe and have faith in yourself.

In order to succeed in life or business, you must believe that you can do it. If you didn’t, you’d never begin. You must believe that whatever you desire is within reach. After all, if it wasn’t, why bother?

Start believing it, and you’ll be on your way to seeing it. Have faith in yourself. There may be times when you’re dogged by failure and nothing seems to work. It’s during these times that it’s imperative that you do NOT give up.

It is always darkest before the dawn. If you stay on track and keep at it, success can be yours. You must stay the course, believe in yourself and your vision, and never stop working toward it until you have achieved the success you desire.

Conclusion

These 10 tips are simple to understand and you’ve most probably heard them before. Yet, you’re still reading because on some level, you know it helps to see them again.

Keep these tips in mind at all times and apply them over and over. Initially, it may be difficult and you’re bound to fumble and flounder a bit, but with practice and repetition, it will become second nature and you will be a living embodiment of success.

When you think about someone who is successful, what comes to mind? Most people would think of the end result of being successful – the luxury cars, first-class airline travel, the financial freedom to see the world and the ability to buy anything they wanted.

But if you look closer at the successful person, you will see that behind all the money, beyond the expensive suit and underneath the power they have a successful mindset. In fact, their mindset is the most important contributing factor to the success they have achieved and if you choose, you can have a mindset that is exactly the same, opening you up for success in the very same way.

What is a Successful Mindset?

Your first step to developing a successful mindset is to know what one is. When you define a mindset for success, it seems simpler than it actually is. For example, the definition of a successful mindset is someone who is willing to accept success and take advantage of opportunities.

Many of you might be thinking, “Well, that’s me! I’m willing to accept success. I’ll take advantage of an opportunity if it comes along.” But don’t let the simplicity of the definition fool you because there is much more to it than the literality behind these words.

For example, you might think that you are willing to accept success, but most people aren’t. Some people want success, but they don’t think that they deserve it, they don’t think they are smart enough to achieve it, and they lack confidence in themselves as a successful person.

In addition, those same people who think that they would take advantage of an opportunity if it came along have already passed by dozens of opportunities that might have resulted in their success if they were willing to put in the work. What they really meant was – I’ll take advantage of an opportunity if I don’t have to do a lot of work.

The Successful Mindset Difference

The difference between a successful mindset and one that just wants success is how much work they are willing to put into the effort to get success. It all comes down to how much you believe in what you are doing and how passionate you are about it.

For example, someone who is passionate about their business and believes that they will be able to be successful at it may spend hours working on it that other people might spend watching television, going out on the town or hanging out with their friends.

Some successful entrepreneurs have been able to build their business while still working a full-time job to support their family. This means that they had to work on their business or income streams while everyone else was enjoying leisure time. This is very common in the case of a novelist who suddenly makes it big. Odds are, they were slaving away at the computer for years while so-called aspiring writers were watching The Bachelor.

How to Develop a Successful Mindset

So, how do you actually develop this successful mindset? Well, it involves a process with many steps and if you are like most people, you are going to have to start at the bottom. You’ll start with step one and when you have mastered it, you’ll move onto the next step.

However, keep in mind that it takes time to completely change your mindset. You have had the same basic mindset for success for many years and it can be difficult to change at first. That’s why using daily habits to change your mindset is the number one strategy used in the business world.

Here are the steps for creating a mindset for success:

Give yourself permission to succeed: Many people just don’t believe that they should have the success that they desire, so their own mind actually keeps them from getting there. Maybe they feel guilty because of past mistakes, or do not think that their religious or moral beliefs will permit them to have a great deal of money. Whatever the reason, you first need to give yourself permission to succeed or else you won’t even be able to start the journey.

Believe in your ability to succeed: Just as important as giving yourself permission to succeed is the belief that you have what it takes to be successful. Everyone has something that they are good at, and some of the people you would never think could have made a success of themselves because of physical health, mental illness, financial difficulties, lack of education or other circumstances, have become some of the most well-known success stories of our time.

Take care of Yourself: Research conducted into the personal habits of some of the richest and most powerful people in the world who have achieved success on their own show certain trends that are far too common to be coincidence. Successful people take better care of themselves than the average person does. They sleep better at night, with most getting between 6 to 10 hours, they exercise regularly and stay in shape, and they eat healthy most of the time.

Set Goals for Yourself: So, you want to be successful. How are you going to achieve it? Setting goals and creating a plan for success is often what separates the average person from the very successful one. The average person might know that they want to be successful, but they have no plan to get there. Just as ineffective as having no goals at all is something that many people do – setting goals that have no clear path to achievement. For example, one of these goals might be: I want to be rich in 10 years.

Keep Track of Your Progress: You should also be tracking your progress every day or week to determine how you are coming with your plans for success. Even if you aren’t doing as well as you should be, you still want to write down what you have achieved. There are a couple of reasons for this: first of all, you will be able to look back and see how much success you have achieved and be motivated to continue reaching for your goals. Second, you can easily see where you need to make adjustments in your plan when you have tracked it over a period of time.

Concentrate on the Things That Matter: If you want to be successful then you don’t want to waste your time on things that aren’t going to give you success or are not working out the way you had intended. Successful people know when to fold their hand and leave the table to try a different game and you should avoid continuing futile efforts when you are fairly certain that you aren’t going to reap any benefits from them. Of course, that doesn’t mean to jump ship at the first sign of trouble, but it does mean being aware when you have reached the point when you just need to move on.

Be all you can be: If you aren’t going to give 100% of your effort to the task of being successful then one of two things are going to happen: one, you aren’t going to achieve the level of success that you want at all, or two, you are going to take a lot longer getting there than you should have. If you are going to write a book, start a business or work in the ever growing internet marketing industry, make sure that you are giving it your best effort and don’t hold back.

Be Flexible: One thing that you will learn as you start the journey towards success is that things are almost never going to go according to plan. If you create a set-in-stone goal and milestone list and then try to achieve them, you are always going to fail unless you are able to be flexible. Anything might happen that could derail your efforts and you need to be able to roll with the punches and continue the journey even when your original plan didn’t work out. For example, suppose that you planned to train for a marathon this summer, but ended up breaking your leg. You need to change your plan and figure out some other way that you can work towards your success, and then come back to the marathon training at a later date when you are healed up.

Develop Daily Habits That Stick: When you want to be successful, you need to understand up front that it is a long journey. Everyone proceeds at a different pace, but the number one thing that you can do to speed things up is to develop habits for success and make them stick. Habits like getting up early, getting enough sleep, putting all of your efforts into your work, saving money and learning as much as you can will help you shape your future and make your success come much quicker.

Don’t Remove Bad Habits, Replace Them: If you have bad habits that you are trying to get rid of, keep in mind that you will have a much better chance of doing that if you replace them with good habits instead. For example, if you are trying to change a bad habit of eating fast food for lunch on a daily basis, you will have much better results if you try to make eating healthy a daily habit rather than attempting to get rid of eating poorly.

Other Ways to Develop a Successful Mindset

If you want to develop the kind of mindset that you need for financial success or any other type of success that you are trying to create in your life, then you should start by learning as much as you can about certain aspects of psychological development that pertains to successful mindsets such as cultivating productive habits, creative problem-solving, setting goals, working with others, etc.

One of the things that you can do that will help you a great deal is to study what other successful people that you admire are doing, and how they were able to get to where they are today. This is called modeling and it’s one of the fastest ways to accelerate your own success. Many successful people have biographies or autobiographies that will give you lots of good information as to how they were able to achieve their success and how you can model your own efforts and mindset after theirs.

You also need to decide what is most important to you and have a clear picture of it in your mind. Success comes in many different forms. For example, some people seek after financial success while others want their work to be recognized and consumed by the masses. Whether you are starting the next dotcom revolution or you are writing the Great American Novel, you want to have your end goal first and foremost in your mind.

A successful mindset is only the first step in achieving success. This is also something that you need to bear in mind. The hard work actually comes after you prepare yourself and set your goals – the part where you put forth the effort that will be required in order to achieve those goals.

The most important thing to remember is that you need to believe in yourself and in your ability to be successful. There are people out there who have more education than you; people who have more money to invest into a business than you do and people who have plenty more free time than you do to work on their success.

That doesn’t mean you can’t have the things you desire. Your current circumstances have little to do with how much success you will be able to achieve. Instead, how motivated and willing you are to put forth enough effort will determine how far you get.

Advantages of having more money and time can certainly be a big help on the road to achievement, but the most important factor in determining if you will be successful is how bad you want it, and your commitment to take consistent action until you get it.

Success, like happiness, is an individual pursuit.

Many people are taught that success equals making a lot of money. For example, you may never have heard your parents speak about “success”, but it is possible that you were encouraged to think about becoming a lawyer or a doctor (or a professional athlete or actor) long before you were old enough to know what you were really even good at?

Why do you think that is? The prominence associated with these career paths may only be part of the reasons that children are subtly pushed in their direction.

But in many cases, it’s money that the world’s children are being taught to gain before anything else. Even when a young person demonstrates pleasure or promise in an area of pursuit which may be art, self-employment and other “unproven” paths to financial well-being, parents often lead their children away from happiness — and toward income.

The result of this kind of money-first thinking is societies of people who are unhappy, depressed or underachieving because they are stuck in a career or lifestyle they hate because they are pursuing a line of work which is likely not what they were born to do.

While being stable or even very well off financially is often the result of great determination and hard work, it is not the only true measure of success. There is likely to be little satisfaction from being wealthy if you do not also enjoy what you do to create your riches.

Of course, if you are struggling to make ends meet, it is only natural to want a better life for yourself and your family. But when your happiness and even the approval you feel toward your children is motivated largely by their wealth or material possessions, it may be worth re-assessing your definition of success to make room for other possibilities.

That said, it is impossible to become successful by just doing enough to get by. Anyone can be average. If your aim is to be successful, you must cultivate a burning desire to achieve larger than self goals which compel you to wake up early and stay up late pursuing your highest vision until you have achieved it. No matter what obstacles present themselves along the way to your success (and they will), you must always keep pushing yourself forward and denying the apathy virus to make it’s claim on your mind and heart.

A burning desire for success combined with relentless action toward your goals is ultimately all the motivation you need to unlock the full potential of who you are. As you act in this very special and certain way, new resources and inspiration will awaken from within you that can only be unlocked by the passionate pursuit of excellence in your chosen field. It is impossible to have this kind of drive and motivation if you do not truly love what you do and if you are not confident enough to think you are able to do it well.

This is why it is necessary for you to define success on your own terms. Which achievements do you truly believe are worth pursuing? Which accomplishments do you yearn to share with your children and grandchildren?

When you tap into the emotional drivers of your soul and pursue your dreams with fervor, success will no longer be something that you are searching for. Rather, success will be a lifelong friend who greets you with a smile in the morning light, walks beside you hand-in-hand throughout every waking day, and whispers her stories of glory, pride and achievement into your ears at night as you drift into the world of dreams. Remember…