Thoughts on Success

Success is feeling good about yourself, and being happy.
Accomplishments, especially the accomplishments of being of service to others,
tend to create the feeling of success, but success is an inner state separate from accomplishments.

Have a dream. Take action toward that dream each and every day. Always love and respect yourself.
Love and respect yourself even when you fail. Then try again - in a different way.

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.
- Babe Ruth

Sometimes you get the results you wanted,
sometimes you don't.
What matters is that you did your best.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Play to win, but be a good loser.
Have a plan for your life,
but accept whatever comes your way
with grace and gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


May the world be kind to you, and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
   

The Only Two Rules For Living A Successful Life

Truly, there are only two steps to success.

1. Decide what "success" means to you. The measure of success for you may be money, or prestige, or power, but perhaps being successful just means living a happy life. Think deeply about how you choose to measure your success in life.

2. Focus. You get what you focus on. Visualize your success as already accomplished, and take positive action toward your success each day.

If you don't know what you want, you will probably never get it.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions,
perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
- Henry David Thoreau

The indispensable first step to getting
the things you want out of life is this:
Decide what you want.
- Ben Stein

I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know:
the only ones among you who will be really happy
are those who will have sought and found how to serve.
- Albert Schweitzer

A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night,
and in between he does what he wants to do.
- Bob Dylan

Money has never made man happy, nor will it,
there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness.
The more of it one has the more one wants.
- Benjamin Franklin

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Visualize your end result as having already been accomplished.
Let the image of your success play on the giant screen in full color
with surround sound - so real you can smell and taste it.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Success is not the key to happiness.
Happiness is the key to success.
If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
- Albert Schweitzer
Note that this Schweitzer quote only makes sense when using the traditional measure of success: money/prestige/power. I would be more inclined to say,
"If you love what you are doing, you ARE a success. -jlh"

Always be a first-rate version of yourself,
instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.
- Judy Garland

Find a time and place of solitude.
Look into the distance, and into the future.
Visualize the tomorrow you are going to build -
and begin to build that tomorrow, today.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Be resolute in your goals,
but flexible in your tactics.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Choose Your Life Purpose

How to Motivate Yourself

s How to be Successful in Business

Success Quotes

Life Purpose Quotes

s Happiness Quotes

Values Quotes

Is failure the key to success?

Is failure the key to success?

The keys to success are...

1. Being willing to risk failure.
2. Trying again in spite of failure.

So failure isn't itself a key to success, but it is generally found along the road to success.


Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
- Robert F. Kennedy


Success is not final, failure is not fatal.
It is the courage to continue that counts.
- Winston Churchill

Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
- Winston Churchill


In order to succeed, your desire for success should
be greater than your fear of failure.
- Bill Cosby


A little more persistence,
a little more effort, and
what seemed hopeless failure
may turn to glorious success.
- Elbert Hubbard

Is Hope Futile?

Question: I have tried goal setting and hoped for many things, but not one of them has ever happened.  In fact if I really take off after something, that is an absolute 100% guarantee it won't happen. Is hope futile?

My Answer:

There are a number of steps on the path to success - and you need all of them.

1. Believe that God wants good things for you.

Our prayers should be for blessings in general,
for God knows best what is good for us.
- Socrates

2. Believe in yourself - develop self-esteem.
(see How to Build Self Esteem)

Believe in yourself. Have faith in your abilities.
Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers
you cannot be successful or happy.
- Norman Vincent Peale

3. Take action toward your goals - every day.

You can't cross the sea merely by
standing and staring at the water.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Achievement seems to be connected with action.
Successful men and women keep moving.
They make mistakes, but they don't quit.
- Conrad Hilton

4. Accept "failure" when it comes. "Failure" may mean either that you have learned something that will enable you to "succeed" next time, or that God has chosen something better for you than what you asked for - even if it doesn't seem so at the time.

Success consists of going from failure to failure
without loss of enthusiasm.
- Winston Churchill

A wonderful gift may not be wrapped as you expect.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

(also see A wonderful gift may not be wrapped as you expect
and Maybe So, Maybe Not. - Ancient Taoist Proverb)

5. Never stop trying. Look for new paths toward your highest level goal (your life mission) - and do not get stuck in repeating old methods that didn't work.

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.
- Napoleon Hill

If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up.
Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
- Michael Jordan


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May the world be kind to you, and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie