3 Things About Success That Can’t Be Truly Understood Without Experiencing Them

Patience is the key to success

Over the course of my life, way too many people have said that phrase to me in one form or another. But during the early stages of my pursuit… I never truly could understand what patience really meant.

I mean, I always thought it was about associating patience with time. That success came to those who weren’t in a hurry for it. So just wait 5, 10, or 20 years and it will begin to come to you… naturally.

Unfortunately, there is a flaw to this logic. Because there are people that have died struggling to succeed with nothing to show for it. Spending their entire lives pursuing something they kept telling themselves that they would eventually attain… without specifying how.

I mean, really, how much time is required to pass till one is worthy of attaining success?

The truth is that time has nothing to do with success directly.

Transformation is what really leads to success.

When you and the world around you begin to change (for the better), then you get closer to success. It doesn’t matter whether that takes 5 or 65 years… it is your ability to change and influence change in your environment that draws success closer to you.

This idea makes more sense to me. Considering the fact that there is proof from those that did succeed.

They needed one idea or plan that would change the lives they had been living till that point. Such ideas and plans are a result of developed thinking or exposure.

Exposure to what?

Any stimulus related to such plans. An example is people who are like-minded (i.e. success-focused) or have specific knowledge + experience.

This is why it is encouraged that you seek success-focused people if you are determined to succeed. And do the opposite if you wish to not succeed.

Now the reason why patience is key is that developing this kind of thinking or having this specific kind of exposure cannot happen overnight.

Pursuing a life of success is going to be hard

No one ever said that getting the life you truly want was going to be easy, right? But do you know why?

Most people would say it is because of the obstacles you have to face. There is probably a standard setback starter kit for dreamers :)

But that is vague. It’s not specific enough.

The real reason why many of us find following our dreams hard is that it is DIFFERENT.

Success is foreign to us when we begin.

The thing that’s really happening when we are pursuing success, is that we are teaching ourselves to adapt to it. We are shaping our minds and habits to align with it.

Think about that for a moment… aligning to success.

Have you noticed that successful people tend to look, talk and act the same?

And is this a good thing?

Of course, it is.

Are they uncontrollable drunks? Do they spend more than they earn? Would they turn down the opportunity to earn more for a chance to just party all day and night?

And that’s just a broad analysis. The world-view of a successful person is very different from that of one that isn’t.

Have you noticed something else about them… that attaining even more success is easier for them?

Success seems “transferable” to those that have already attained it. By winning at one goal, many of those people seem to often win at other goals just as well.

You are probably thinking, “Nope, that can’t be true. The only reason they can start one venture, succeed, and start another venture and still succeed, is because they got rich. They use their money to invest in other ventures.”

You don’t win at investments just because you are rich. You win at investments because you make good investments. If you don’t know how to make good investments, you will not have riches for very long.

But that is not a topic for this post.

The main point I’m trying to bring across is that the difficulty of pursuing a dream or achieving a goal is strongly related to your ability to transform into the type of person that succeeds.

The best way to do that is to expose yourself to the pursuit and learn from it. Don’t oppose it. Obstacles exist for a reason. They often have a way of showing you what you lack. And if you don’t take it as a sign that you aren’t worthy to win but instead grow… you take yourself one step closer to the life you seek.

You can never truly fail… until you quit.

This last one is a bit different. This isn’t as common in our everyday discussions about success, but still… it’s something that can’t be understood without being experienced.

And you know what… almost every single one of us knows what this is. Maybe some have never tried to find a deeper meaning to it but they most definitely have experienced it.

Have you ever ridden a bicycle before? What stopped you from pursuing a life as a pro cyclist?

Did you ever do Math in college? What stopped you from pursuing a life as a Mathematician?

No matter what reason you give… the answer is fundamentally the same…

You.

When you stopped… that was it. That was the end of your journey in Mathematics.

If you can really understand what I have just said… then let see if you can understand what I’m about to say.

Have you ever wanted to pursue something that you felt was truly meaningful to you but just couldn’t see yourself through to the end? A goal or a dream?

What stopped you from continuing the pursuit?

If you think it was NOT you… I want you to describe this puppet master that held you back against your will… physically holding you down and preventing you from taking one more step towards your goal.

Understand this one truth always… no one can tell you to do or not do anything… without your approval. No one.

You have free will. Everything you do is your choice. Conscious or unconscious. Your actions come from no other place than your own mind. If your mind wasn’t responsible for your actions, you wouldn’t be human.

It might seem as though I’m being somewhat harsh about this point, but I find no reason to sugarcoat this fact. Especially when it comes to pursuing success where you often have no choice but to go through the process of confronting your fears before you even get a taste of victory.

Your mind is both the tool that will help you thrive AND the anchor that will hold you back from discovering the truth behind the goals you want to achieve.

And again, that’s what I think success is fundamentally about… knowing the truth. If you knew exactly what to do to take a business from start-up to mega success in under 2 years, wouldn’t you use that TRUTH to do just that?

Alas, our struggle is all about navigating the seas of false ideas about success. But if we are willing to keep searching in our fields, we bring ourselves ever so close to the real ideas and sound plans that will work. As long as we are willing to learn and basically transform… we shall definitely get closer to that truth.

#makeProgressNotExcuses