The Secrets to Success

 

“Success is focusing the full power of all you are on what you desire to achieve.”

– Wilferd A. Peterson

It’s the secret that everyone wants to know: How to achieve success. But unfortunately, there’s no magic pill or miraculous answer. As Wilferd Peterson tells us in this week’s featured quote, success comes when an individual focuses 100 percent of his or her energy on achieving a single goal. In other words, success takes an extreme amount of work. Here are a few tips to help get you started and keep you going.

10 Tips for Success:

1. Give people more than they expect, and do it cheerfully.
2. Be forgiving of yourself and others.
3. Have a grateful heart.
4. Persistence, persistence, persistence.
5. Commit yourself to constant improvement.
6. Be a self-starter.
7. Be bold, courageous and live without regret.
8. Be decisive even if it means you’ll sometimes be wrong.
9. Understand that happiness isn’t based on possessions, power or prestige but on solid relationships with people you love and respect.
10. Don’t do anything that wouldn’t make your mom proud.

In athletics, success is often equated with winning although there are certainly other measurements of success as well. Regardless, it’s important to have concrete goals to work toward, such as winning one game, a string of games or an entire championship. Here are a few more tips that can help you develop a winning attitude.

Attitudes for Success:

• Accept your fears, but refuse to let them control you.
• Be flexible. Realize there are multiple ways to achieve success and be willing to try them.
• When the going gets tough, refuse to give up.
• Don’t let a fall keep you from climbing.
• Understand that your goal is only as worthy as the effort you put in to achieve it.
• Turn ordinary experiences into extraordinary ones.
• Don’t blame fate for your failures or luck for your successes.
• Believe in the path you’ve chosen even when it’s difficult and even when others can’t see it.
• Think positively and find the good in everything.
• Respect your weaknesses and capitalize on your strengths.

There you have it—the secret to success! Follow the 10 tips for success and 10 tips for winning, and you will be well on your way to being a successful person.

About the Quote:

Wilferd A. Peterson was an American writer known for his inspirational books, The Art of Living, The Art of Creative Thinking and The Art of Marriage. Many of his inspirational words were used in a series of Hallmark greeting cards in the 1970s and ‘80s. Peterson’s pieces were also frequently featured in This Week, Science of Mind and Readers Digest magazines.