By Ustaz Mark Bang
Let’s face it—success is hard. It is extremely difficult. And this is why most people are not successful.
While in school and when we are young, we often hear our teachers and parents tell us that we need to work hard to be successful. And that our hard work will pay off for the most part. But is it really so?
As you grow older, you will slowly notice that working hard is not going to be the only answer to living a successful life. Working hard is simply just not enough in today’s world. You need much more than just working hard to achieve greatness in life. You can work long hours and put in more effort than most people, but if you don’t have the right mindset, the right behaviors, and if you’re not doing the right thing, you will produce little or no results. And in this article, we will talk about why some people will never succeed in life, despite working hard for their goals and the things that they desire.
First, success is about finding clarity. Do you really know what exactly you want out of your life? Most people don’t. Most people have no idea what success looks like, and they have no idea what kind of life they want to live. There is no point in working hard if you don’t know what you want. You must identify your destination before you start your journey. Many people want to start their own business. They prefer to be their own boss rather than working for someone else. But most people don’t do it. Why? The reason is that they have no idea what kind of business to build. As a result, they don’t start. When you lack clarity, you’re not giving your mind a set of clear instructions to follow.
And if your mind doesn’t know what to do, it chooses to do something that’s comfortable and what you have always done. Hence, find out what kind of success you want. Define your success. Envision the future that you want. Start with creating an empowering vision. Spend time to truly think about your future.
I believe that success is not an accident. Success is science, and it can be engineered. That means you can manufacture your own success. Once you have identified exactly what you want to achieve in life, the next step you can take is to create a vivid plan so that you can execute and move yourself to your destination. Sadly, most people don’t have a plan for the success that they want. They have plans for their vacations and weekend days off, but they don’t have a plan for their future. And this is why they can never achieve the success they desire.
When you don’t have a plan, you don’t know what to do. And if you don’t know what to do, you become reactive. You become part of the crowd, following wherever other people are moving. When you turn on social media and see your friend sharing his holiday trip photos in Bali, you tell yourself that you want to go to Bali too. When you see your friend change to a better car, you promise yourself that you’re going to work hard and change to an even better car than your friend. You become distracted, and you always compare. This is what happens when you don’t have a clear plan of where to go and what to do. Thus, stop living a reactive life and start being proactive. Create an action plan for the goals and dreams you want to achieve. And more importantly, stick to it. You can learn how to create an action plan from my Goal Setting Formula masterclass.
Success isn’t going to come to you immediately. It is not something that you do once in a while that matters; it is what you do on a daily basis that counts. A lot of people have the wrong perception and believe that success is such a big thing that it comes immediately. No, if you read the success stories of extraordinary people, you will understand that it is their consistency that contributes to their success. Rome was not built in a day. Kobe Bryant did not become a basketball superstar in days, weeks, or even months. It took him years of practice and improvement to get there. The same goes for every successful business out there. It takes time to build and grow.
Many people want to build a successful blog, but most of them fail to be consistent and stick to their blog. They started strong, writing and publishing a lot of content in the beginning. But after a few weeks or months, they stop. They get distracted. When they don’t see the results that they want, they start to doubt themselves and their goals. They started to lose interest and started looking for something new. Like fitness, you can’t work out in the gym for just one day or two and expect to have 6-pack abs. It doesn’t work that day. You have to be consistent. If you work out in the gym for just 30 minutes a day, consistently for 6 months or a year, you will slowly see the difference in your abs. Therefore, be consistent with what you do. Stop looking for another new project or opportunity until you create success in the one that you’re pursuing right now.
Another common reason people fail to get the success they want in life is because they make too many excuses and are not willing to change. Successful people don’t make excuses. When they face difficulties in pursuing their goals, they don’t give lousy excuses and tell you why they can’t do it. Instead, they take full responsibility and make it work anyhow. When you face a problem in life, do you say “why me,” or do you say “try me”? It makes a huge difference. When you’re absolutely committed, you are willing to overcome the obstacles and solve all the problems you face. But if you’re not, you will make lousy excuses by saying things like, “It’s too hard,” “The competition is too high,” or “The market is not good right now.” So, stop making excuses and start taking full responsibility for your own success and life. When you do that, you can make a change. This is because when you believe that you’re the one who created the result, you can make a change. Instead of blaming your competitor, you can work on yourself or improve your product to achieve better results. This is why it is important to choose to NOT make any excuses. Focus on yourself and where you can improve, and then make the necessary changes. Thanks for reading this article. “Public Staunchest Ally.”
The writer of this article is a human rights activist, writer, and professional teacher.