Why you might not want to be successful

Many people fear success. It's true. These people will unconsciously do all they can to escape success. Let me explain.

Anyone who embarks on a journey to success will meet obstruction. Many will meet danger. The journey to success is risky and it is this inherent risk that people fear. People want certainty. The last thing they want is to exchange their current conditions with something uncertain. However they know that if they do nothing, they will eventually fail. If they do something, they at least have a chance of succeeding. In other words, they fear success more than they fear failure.

If you are to be successful you need to come out of your comfort zone. This is why I suggest you, when you are writing your goals, to make goals that seem impossible. This will force you out of your comfort zone. As you keep on pushing the limits of your comfort zone, your comfort zone will gradually grow larger and encompass more experiences. Eventually your 'impossible' goals will become possible.

One of the biggest obstacles to success is the fear of disapproval. If you plan to become successful, people are going to try to pull you down. It's a fact. All successful people were at one time ridiculed and many of them are still in that position. If you want to be successful you have to be so motivated that no amount of disapproval will stop you.

These thoughts were inspired by the book Thick Face Black Heart. The book has some of the most novel ideas I have ever encountered. In fact the original text was once banned in China because of it's potent ideas which the officials feared may have lead to the common people overthrowing the government. I found this book very empowering. It was one of the first self-help books I read and I still refer to it. I recommend this book and you can buy it at a discount here.

The Feeling of Success

Have you ever contemplated the wisdom of flipping a pancake? If you think of what could go wrong (pancake sticking on the ceiling, not catching the pancake, pancake not landing flat, to name a few), then those very things are likely to happen. However if you have a feeling of perfection and poise inside you, then you are likely to flip the pancake successfully. You may have experienced this in other endeavors of your life, for example, when you are playing sport. You must clear your mind and only think of perfection to be able to apply physical technique successfully in sport.

It is true that success breeds success. The more success you have experience in life, the more success you'll be expecting, and the more success you will get. Have you ever noticed that people who are successful in one field tend to be successful in many others? You can utilise your success in one field to catapult yourself to success in another field. The good thing is your original success can be as simple as, say, winning a game of golf against your friend.

If you don't have any recent successes, then dig up your memory for past successes. Past successes may have lost their significance in your life but you can rejuvenate these memories simply by reliving it. Every night before you go to sleep, visualise your past successes and see it like a movie. Make the picture so clear and the sounds and smells so sharp that you truly think it is reality. This is what I mean by reliving a memory.

Anytime you need to accomplish a daunting task or have doubts as to your own abilities, just draw on your memory of successful moments. You will be surprised at how much this will help you attain your goals.

A story

This is a story of a man. He failed in business at the age of twenty-one. He failed again in politics at twenty-two. He failed again in business at twenty-four. His sweetheart died when he was twenty-six, making him very depressed. Subsequently he had a nervous breakdown at twenty-seven. He failed in politics again at thirty-four and failed again two years later. He failed yet again at forty-five. He failed becoming vice president after another two years. He failed in politics again at the age of forty-nine. At the age of fifty-two he became the president of the United States. He was Abraham Lincoln.

During all those hardships Lincoln said, "Well, I feel just like the boy who stubbed his toe - too damned badly hurt to laugh and too damned proud to cry."