I remember when I was about 17 years old I used to lay awake and dream of being successful.  What I didn’t understand at the time was being successful doesn’t mean you need to make $29 Million a Year and have the biggest house in your hemisphere.  It would take years for me to discover that success is right in front of your nose and sometimes only takes a few small changes in your life to be a success.

First let’s look at what successful means according to the dictionary: Success – having attained wealth, position, honors, or the like.

Not really as informative as I would describe it.  I believe success means that you have succeeded at what you’re attempting to do in at a particular time in your life.  For instance, if your goal is to make $100,000 a year and you achieve that, I would say you’re successful.  However, if your goal is to make $1 million per year than you’ve only achieved 10% of your success that you want to obtain. In short, success can really only be measured by the individual goals and achievements of a person and not what the world sees.

If you haven’t yet achieved what you hope to achieve and you’re still laying awake at night saying “How Can I Become Successful” then pay attention.  Below I have a list that has helped students of mine succeed with what they hope to achieve.

#1.  Set Goals. No matter what you’re doing you must set goals.  The pursuit of goals will help drive you toward the prize and even if you have yet to meet your goals, other people might look at you and see you as a successful person.  Why?  Because at this point you will probably achieve goals set by other people and just aren’t to where you want to be yet.  I am an Internet Marketer and I work from home, earn a good living and have all the free time I need to spend with my family.  Because of those things some people may think I am successful.  However, I have only conquered the tip of the iceberg of what I hope to achieve with my life.  My goals have not been met yet, some have, but not all of them have.

#2.  Stay positive. I probably sound like Tony Robbins here but trust me you need to be positive in your life.  The people who always believe they are going to fail, probably will.  The people who believe they will succeed at everything they do, probably will.  Mindset is simply to important to ignore.  Have you ever taken a test that you panicked about and thought that you’d fail?  How did you do on that test?  While some might say they still did extremely well, most will say that they didn’t achieve the grade they wanted.  I know test taking might be a thing of the past for most (as it is for me) but it’s a good example of what a negative confidence can cause.

#3.  Stop playing. This one can be a bit tricky because there are so many meanings here.  What I mean is that so many things distract us from our goals and then we tend to shy away from what we need to achieve.  Have you ever had an important task that you need to accomplish get postponed because you simply had “Other things to do?”  If you have, then you probably realized that you really would have had time for that task had you prioritized it properly.  So get the distractions out of your way and take care of the most important tasks first in your day and play when the work is done.

#4.  Stay focused. An important step when learning how to become successful is to make sure you stay focused on your goals.  I am not saying to think about them every minute of the day but more so pursuing them after the weekend ends.  You probably know what I mean.  Have you ever went back to work after a long weekend and you just didn’t feel like working?  A solution to this is to remind yourself of your goals after that weekend.  Whether you are striving to hit your short term goals or long term goals, stay focused on them.  Hang on every positive step you take towards that goal and it will help you stay even more focused than before.

#5.  Just do it. Good slogan, huh?  Well it might just be the perfect slogan for you.  As humans we tend to procrastinate as long as possible.  Then the people that do not procrastinate sometimes will lean toward perfection as an excuse, saying things like ” I can’t start that yet because I’m not where I want to be in my life.”  If we are always looking for the perfect moment in our lives to get on the road to success, it’s probably going to pass us by.  I can think of a million reasons a day why I can’t start a new task yet.  Just do it.

I really hope this helps you get a start in the right direction if you’re struggling.  Am I perfect?  No.  I fall into the same traps but then looking at this list I remember who I am, what my goals are and what I hope to achieve.  Keep in mind as you achieve more goals you get closer to the prize.  One day you’ll look back and remember the time you asked yourself how to become successful.

Add your thoughts below.  What makes YOU successful or what would you add to this list.