simple steps to success.

Success means different things to different people. What does success mean to you? Is it leading a happy life doing the things you enjoy? Or is it, serving humanity with your gifts and abilities? Having millions of dollars in the bank? Or maybe it is having all you want in life?

Whatever success means to you, the simple steps to success apply equally, to the little things and the big things in life. The first step to success is, conquering your fears

Conquer your fears

Fear paralyzes the mind and slowly robs it of energy. Nothing useful comes from fear, except that it stifles the mind’s creativity. Learn to face your fears.

What do you fear? Do you fear rejection, or maybe you fear failure? Overcoming your fears is the first simple step to success. Freedom from fear empowers you, by freeing up useful energy for the mind. This energy the mind uses to become creative. The creative process requires energy; fear drains you of this energy. Conquering your fear makes this energy available to your mind once again.

To conquer your fear you need to boldly face it. So, you fear failure, as a result you make no attempt to do anything in which you might fail. As a freshman in college, I was afraid of failing my first semester exams. When the time for the exams came, and I wrote the exams, I failed, real bad. Then the most amazing thing happened. I wasn’t afraid of failing any more. I had been afraid of failing, well now I have failed. What is there to fear? There is nothing to fear anymore. Conquer your fears, face them squarely.

Know what you want  

Know what you really want. What do you want, is it clear in your mind? Do you really want it or you think you do? Maybe it is just a wish, nothing more. After overcoming my fear of failure as a freshman, I really wanted to graduate with a second class upper. My burning desire was to pass every other exam from then onward, and to graduate with a 2:1. That desire became so strong, as I continued to say it to myself over and over again. I told myself I was graduating with a 2:1, it was mine already and nothing can take it from me. You see in knowing what you want, you need to go a step further by accepting and believing you have it.  So, what do you really want? Is it clear in your mind, do you believe it is yours?

Go for it

Now that you have conquered your fears and have a clear picture of what you want in your mind, what is stopping you? Go for it, think it out, there is nothing hindering you. Remember use you mind to get what you desire, or to become what you want to be.

As I continued to focus my thoughts on graduating with a 2:1, I got excited. I studied my courses in much the same way I did before. The only difference, I wasn’t studying with fear in my mind. And because there was no fear I studied and had understanding of what I studied. You know what, at the end of four years, I graduated from college with a second class upper. And it was the result of following these simple steps to success.

So, go for that dream, that passion let nothing stop you. Just do it, go for it. Even if you fail, try again, say to yourself, “I am at the bottom of a pit; there is nowhere to go, but up”. Go for it; try again and again and again. It is what you want, and there is nothing to fear; so, go for it. It is yours.