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Introduction

One of the questions that people often have when they start becoming serious about striving for success is how they can measure if they are successful enough or if they are doing enough to achieve their goals.

This question comes because of the propensity that people have to compare themselves to others.

But you never seem to measure up when you do that, particularly with those who have already achieved success.

So, what do you measure against?

Each person is different, and each success story is different.

It is impossible to compare your journey to anyone else’s, so you have to do something else entirely.

You have to compare yourself to yourself.

The best way to accomplish this is by comparing your current self to your past self.

The thing that many people do is live as their past selves instead of forgetting about that person and living in the present.

Your past self may have made mistakes, but your current self, going forward from this moment on, has not made any mistakes.

You have a fresh, clean slate, and luckily, you have the benefit of all of the experience of your past self to rely upon.

But even more important than living in the moment is tracking your progress.

No Ducer what goal you are pursuing, or what end you are looking for, tracking your progress will allow you to see how different you are today from where you have been.

If you are trying to lose weight, tracking each pound lost will give you the motivation to continue even through the hardest times.

If you feel like giving up because the income stream that you have been working on isn’t nearly as large as you thought it would be, checking out where you were a year ago can put the present in perspective.

The bottom line is that when you want to measure your success, don’t measure it against other people.

Other people may have had different opportunities, different skills, and different circumstances that affected their progress.

Instead, compare yourself to your past self.

If you have improved, then you are on the right track.

If you have improved more than you ever thought possible when you started, then you can call that a huge success, If you are better off now and are well on your way to reaching your goals, then you are successful.

How Distractions Prevent You from Success

You probably get distracted by something a thousand times a day.

Most people get distracted every few minutes and have to return to the task that they were working on.

People with ADHD can get distracted for an hour or more without even realizing that they were off task.

But these kinds of distractions are not the ones that are keeping you from success.

There are other distractions in your life, and you are probably going to have to get rid of them to achieve your goals.

In this section of the book, we are going to discuss four distractions that are preventing you from achieving the success you want.

Online Socializing

The first distraction that we will be discussing is online socializing.

If you are like most people, you waste an incredible amount of time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and various other social networks that do nothing for you except tell you what your friends had for lunch.

Social media can be important to your success.

If you are using social platforms to build a group of people that could buy something from you later, then it is fair to spend some time on social media.

Otherwise, limit yourself.

Friends and Family

Your friends and family may be distracting you from success.

It is perfectly fine to spend time with friends and family, but if you are constantly committed to helping them out, going places with them, or putting off your work for other people, then you need to pull back and realize that your success is just as important as your relationships.

Power Lunches

In Corporate America, power lunches are definitely one of the ways that work relationships are built and deals are brokered.

But if your power lunches and other functions are not contributing to your personal success, then you need to stop worrying about them and focus on what is really important.

The Siren Song of Possessions

Finally, you want to avoid the siren song of things.

This is the urge to spend money on the things that you think you need in order to be successful.

Maybe you think that if you had a faster computer you could get more done.

In most cases, that simply isn’t true.

You don’t need to spend money on things to become successful and you may need to make some short-term sacrifices in order to achieve your goals.

Prioritize to Be Successful

When you want to be successful, you have to prioritize.

This often means that some things get overlooked and unfortunately, sometimes they are things that you don’t want to overlook.

But you have to make sacrifices if you want to achieve your goals and that means deciding what is most important and working on it first and foremost.

The reason for this is simple: we want too many things.

Human beings are famous for wanting too much.

It’s like our motto, especially here in America.

More, more, more.

This is true in the food that we eat, it is true of the things that we buy, and it is true of the money that we make.

Of course, it is also true of the things that drive us and the goals that we have, and that’s not a bad thing.

The problem is when you have too many things that you want to accomplish, you aren’t going to have time for them all, and unless you prioritize, you are probably going to end up doing the things that are the most fun rather than the things that are the most important.

Let’s look at an example of this.

Meet Richard.

Richard is trying to make a list of the things that he wants to accomplish over the next five years.

Here is what he has written down:

We’ll stop here because you probably get the idea.

Richard wants to do so many things but accomplishing them will take up far too much time.

For example, learning a new language in a year will take about 30-45 minutes each and every day.

If you added up all of his stuff just from this partial list, half the day would be gone.

That’s why prioritizing is vital.

If you cannot choose what is most important and work on it first and most often, you are going to accomplish very little.

How Your Strengths Can Lead You to Success

Imagine this scenario: A baker needs to give his wife the perfect gift.

So, he goes out shopping for something to give her.

He browses through jewelry at the jewelry store, but he doesn’t know how to tell what she would like.

He looks at some lingerie, but he doesn’t know anything about it.

In the end, he buys her a book, even though he isn’t sure what she likes to read.

All of this time, instead of trying to buy her gifts that he knows nothing about, he could have baked the perfect cake or other pastry.

Now, this isn’t a perfect analogy.

Most bakers’ wives probably eat so much cake that they would hate it as a gift. 

But the point is that many people try to be successful without using a single one of their strengths.

Writers try to make a fortune by building websites.

Website designers try to make a fortune by writing novels.

People don’t use their strengths nearly as often as they should achieve success.

Here are some things that you can do to make sure that you are using your strengths to help you achieve your goals and become successful.

If you have already chosen a route to success, then determine how your strengths might be able to help you go further.

How to Become Brilliant and Make It Work Towards Your Success

No Ducer who you are and what you want out of life, your brain is a critical component.

You are going to be using your brain in a variety of ways if you want to achieve success and just like athletes spend years building up their muscles before they go out and use them in competition, you can build up your brain and become more brilliant to help you be successful faster.

Here are some great tips on how to do that:

Stop watching television. Studies have shown that TV actually does reduce your brainpower.

It isn’t working your mind and eventually, it will atrophy.

Don’t abuse alcohol or drugs. Another thing that has been scienced a lot over the past few decades is the effect of drugs and alcohol on the brain.

Here’s a spoiler: it damages it.

Read. Reading is something that most successful people have in common.

Read lots of self-help books and anything else that holds your interest.

Actively seek out things that challenge your brain. For example, doing crossword puzzles or playing brain games online will give the old cranium a great workout.

Play board games. Believe it or not, playing board games can do a great deal to work your brain.

The more complicated the board game the better, and there are a lot of them out there to choose from these days.

Talk to a comic book nerd or visit your local gaming shop.

Eat healthy. Have you heard the term “brain food”?

It isn’t just a funny name.

Some foods really do have an effect on your mind and improve your brain cells.

Exercise. Exercising can release endorphins and increases the blood flow to your brain (and other organs) and can go a long way towards becoming more brilliant.

Be curious about stuff. If you see something that you don’t understand, take the time to look it up and figure it out.

Be curious about the world, about how things work, and learn as much as possible.

Go back to school. Take some classes at your local community center or even the college in your town.

You might be surprised how much you enjoy them as an adult.

Learn a new language. Learning a new language requires a lot of brainpower and it can train your brain for all kinds of other learning. 

Short-Term Sacrifices to Achieve Long-Term Success

No Ducer who you are, if you have any goals worth having, you are going to spend some time achieving them.

Any goal that is actually going to bring you success will almost certainly take a long time to realize.

There are no shortcuts in life.

But in order to get that long-term success, you almost always have to make short-term sacrifices.

If you want to retire with $250,000 by age 60, then you need to start saving $500 a month from the age of 20.

If you want to have cake leftover at the end of the week for you to enjoy then you aren’t going to be able to eat the entire thing in one setting.

Short-term sacrifices are a vital part of achieving your goals and most people have trouble with them.

But if you follow these tips, you may be able to make these short-term sacrifices without as much effort as you normally would have to make.

Replace Television with Books If You Want to Be Successful

Did you know that one of the things that some of the most successful people in the world share in common is that they read books – mostly books on how to improve themselves in a variety of ways?

If you want to follow in the footsteps of people like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs, then you are going to want to read books just like they did.

That means shutting off the black screen in your living room, removing the Netflix shortcut from your desktop, and getting rid of the TV or movie apps on your phone or tablet.

Then download a Kindle or an e-reader.

There are good reasons to get rid of television and replace it with reading material.

Of course, you may not want to get rid of television completely, although many people who do say that they are much happier afterward and everything they thought they would miss seems of little importance.

Television doesn’t do much in the way of education.

Most of the programs on television are fictional stories, and many are so predictable and formulaic that they do not tax your brain cells at all.

Even when the television isn’t fiction it is often the same news stories that repeat over and over or sensationalized real events that bear little resemblance to fact.

Let’s not even get started on reality TV.

The point is, it is very little on television that is going to teach you something that will allow you to better yourself.

In addition, science has shown that TV really does “rot” your brain – or at least your brainpower weakens over time from television watching.

Books, on the other hand, have a number of advantages.

For one thing, you are reading and not watching.

This simple difference means that you are using your brain in other ways.

You are reading, figuring out the definition of words, and forming pictures in your imagination.

Plus, there are so many books out there that actually help you improve yourself – hence the entire section of books called “Self-help” or “Self-improvement.”

There are books on reaching goals, achieving financial independence, starting a business, and learning everything from a new language to a musical instrument.

The bottom line is that books are better if you want to be successful.

You don’t have to give up TV entirely if you don’t want to, but you should definitely read more if you want to achieve success.

How to Boost Your Motivation to Achieve Success

When it comes to achieving your goals, you have to have motivation.

Unfortunately, many of us have experienced a lack of motivation, which has put our dreams on hold.

If you have started to feel unmotivated, there are several ways that you can boost your motivation and get back on track to achieving your goals.

Here are several tips to help increase your motivation to achieve success.

Look at the Glass Half Full

Life is full of challenges.

If you are feeling unsuccessful and need to boost your motivation, try being more optimistic and practice looking at the glass as being half full when you face challenges.

It may feel strange at first, but over time your brain’s neurons will start to focus on what inspires and motivates you.

Review the Happiness Level of Your Social Network

You need to examine whether or not the relationships you have offer support, encouragement, inspiration, and education, along with nurturing you, and if they don’t, you need to find and foster other relationships.

People are generally happier when their first-level friends are also central to a network of happy people.

To increase your happiness and motivation, surround yourself with more happy people.

Develop a Personal Development Plan for Success

Setting goals aren’t just for assisting us in attaining better cars, houses, or more income.

When you change the focus of your goals, they can shift to expand beyond physical limits.

To do this, you have to have a personal development plan for success.

Invest In Personal Development

Your personal development plan for success will provide you with strong clues as to what you should be doing.

You need to focus on the challenges that you are currently facing.

Whatever the problems are that you are now facing, you need to explore activities and educational opportunities that will help you solve them.

Invest In Experiences

If you are continually relying on external things to motivate you, you run the danger of never being satisfied with your life.

Instead, you need to consider igniting your motivation internally by investing in experiences that will allow you to feel those feelings that you will have when you are successful.

You don’t want to set your sights on the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; rather you want to practice feeling success with each step of your journey.

Focusing on the things that Ducer to you will help to boost your motivation. With an increase in motivation, you’ll be able to succeed at anything you put your mind to.

Increase Your Motivation and Achieve Success

Motivation is something that everyone wants to have, but it is something that easily evades many of us.

Everyone, at some point, has struggled with maintaining their motivation when they are working toward accomplishing their goals.

It’s human nature to want to do what is easy and achieving our goals can be difficult.

Motivation is like a muscle, and the only way to strengthen your motivation is through practice.

Here are some ways you can increase your motivation to accomplish your goals and achieve success:

Set Small Goals

It’s great to have big goals and big dreams, but you need first to start small.

You can achieve smaller goals over a shorter period and will help you keep your motivation.

With small, measurable goals, the end is always in sight, which means that you receive the payoff much quicker.

Along with setting small milestones, you have to make sure that the goals you set are measurable.

Develop a Mantra

A mantra is nothing more than a verbal statement that helps to reinforce a positive mindset.

Mantras can be extremely useful when it comes to keeping your spirits high and your motivation up.

You should come up with a statement that resonates with you.

Start your mornings off repeating your mantra aloud to yourself.

Commit Publicly

It’s easy to slack off and lose motivation as an individual.

We are all quick to procrastinate, let ourselves off the hook, and find justifications for giving up on our goals.

Commit publicly to your goals by sharing them with your family and friends.

Not only will this provide a support system for you, but it will also help you feel more accountable for reaching your goals.

Create Routines and Rituals

When it comes to increasing your motivation, it is essential that you create daily rituals that will help to keep you inspired and moving forward toward achieving your goals.

Since these rituals can differ from person to person, you’ll need to experiment until you find something that works for you.

Whatever daily routine that you choose, you want to make sure that it encourages peace and happiness.

Face Your Fears

Fears come in all shapes and sizes and are one of the biggest reasons why people give up on their dreams.

Facing your fears will give you a great sense of accomplishment, and it will allow you to broaden your horizons.

You can only get rid of your fears by conquering them, so you should meet them head-on.

If you want to increase your motivation and achieve success, then you should incorporate these five simple ways for improving your motivation into your daily life.

Paving The Way Toward Success by Changing Your Lifestyle

The sad fact of the Ducer is that when you want to succeed, there are often a lot of changes that you need to make before that success is able to become a reality.

Fortunately, there are many things that you can do, starting now, to prime yourself for success and begin to pave the way to a successful lifestyle!

To get on the right path, you need to begin with the fundamentals.

Without tending to the basics, you are ultimately going to be overwhelmed and consumed by the tremendous amount of work it takes to become successful at any given task.

When we aren’t taking care of ourselves properly and providing ourselves with the tools we need to succeed, we are asking for trouble.

Success is elusive enough without giving it more reasons to evade us!

To begin with, when we aren’t taking care of ourselves fundamentally, we are not giving our bodies the physical resources that they need to succeed.

Getting enough sleep at night, making sure to eat a nourishing breakfast, and exercising daily are some of the most fundamental and important ways that we can prime ourselves for success.

Add to that making sure that you are eating healthy foods that are not processed and avoiding sugar, and you will be shocked by just how well you find yourself able to focus! But that is just the beginning.

Making changes in your life to prime yourself for success also has to do with your mind as well.

Instead of spending time watching television or drowning your life in social media, replace those things with tools that will help to jump-start you on the path to success, such as reading or listening to inspirational radio shows or podcasts by people who are living the dream!

Focus on books and shows that you know are going to give you information that pertains to your goal specifically, and motivational speakers and writers who will help you to get in touch with yourself and your inspiration.

Listen to these sorts of speakers or read motivational books and articles at least once per day in order to really take advantage of their full effect.

It’s transformative!

Another important lifestyle change to make is to surround yourself with people who are actually working toward their dreams rather than complaining about how unfair the world is for leaving them behind.

These people are toxic when you are trying to get yourself on the path to success.

Humans are impressionable, and when you surround yourself with people who do not believe they can succeed, you may be more prone to doubting yourself.

Surround yourself with other motivated and inspirational people and you are bound to go far!

There are many different lifestyle changes that you can make to prime yourself for success, some of them obvious and some of them less so.

If you are dedicated to planning a life of achievement for yourself, and willing to make the changes necessary to succeed, then there is no way you will fail at making your dreams a reality!