I wanted to talk about success today after my Rich Dad Poor Dad Book review.
I always wanted to be successful and that is the goal for many, but what are the keys to success. What is success? What came in mind for what success was for me wasn’t the same for my friends which left me a bit confused. So,I began exploring what exactly success meant for me.
One thing I knew immediately was that I wanted to be good at what I did. Whatever job/industry/career I had, I wanted to be good at it and confident in what I did.
A loose definition of success for me was achieving all my goals. I am a firm believer that you are more likely to achieve your goals by just writing them down and a study by Dr Gail Matthews said that you are 62% more likely to do so. Therefore, I created a vision board (below) vaguely writing down what success means to me.
- The top left outlines my streams of income. Alongside my future job, something I would love to do is to invest in Real Estate and stocks to have multiple incomes.
- Going onto the top right, I would like to work toward having a comfortable family home and be able to do things I enjoy such as travelling
- Bottom right, I believe you must give 10% of your income to charity, the church or other. I would also like to do things for my parents like help them travel the word which they love.
- In the centre, is my passion project. I want to do things like donate balls and help schools in parts of Africa like Zimbabwe. I am currently trying to take a coding project to Zimbabwe to kids which I hope can happen.
- The bottom left summarises a work life balance.
The vision board answers two important questions: What does success mean for me and what would bring happiness in my life. However, it leaves one question unanswered: What can I do to motivate myself to reach my goals?
I read this recently and thought I would share:
•Motivation is unpredictable, unreliable and temporary.
•We must learn to cultivate discipline. Doing things whether we want to do them or not. Choosing long term gratification over short term.
•There are so many times in our day to day lives where we can do this. Whether it be going for a run when we don’t want to, or it be sitting down and having a plan of action for what you want to achieve in 5 years time.
•‘Discipline can only be created through practise, so you’ve got to catch yourself in the moment’
I have always been naturally motivated to work for things I wanted so I can achieve them, however these are very important points to remember for me.
I like looking into the future and seeing where I want to be however, I think its important to think about what you, today, can do to reach that point. I ask myself 3 questions: ‘Where do I want to be?’, ‘ Where am I Now?’ and ‘What can I do to get there’.
However, I always remember that things may not go as planned. I have registered that and that is okay.
My definition of success may change as I grow older, however today this is what success means to me.
Mutsa Pearl 