If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.
Joseph Addison
Looking at my life, there are many life lessons I’ve learned. Some of them are the fruits of difficult experiences. Some others are the advice I got from wise people. They came from different sources but they all have something in common: they are all useful to guide my life into the future.
Here I’d like to share with you eight life lessons that have significantly affected my life. Apply them and you will achieve true success in life. Here they are:
1. Be grateful
Being grateful is perhaps the most important attitude you must have to live a happy life. No matter how bad the situations around you are, you can always choose to respond positively. Being grateful makes you look at the world through positive lens and energizes your life. Don’t take things for granted. Be grateful even for simple things.
2. Follow your heart
Nothing can replace following your heart. People may tell you about the right thing to do or what they expect from you, but at the end, it’s your life. If you don’t live your own life, who will?
So slow down and listen to your heart. What does it tell you about your career? What does it tell you about your relationships? Listen to your heart and find the courage to follow it.
3. Dream big
How far you go is very much determined by how big your dream is. Having a small dream is like putting yourself inside a small box. You might end up living far below your fullest potential.
Of course, it’s not easy to dream big. Perhaps your failures in the past scare you. Perhaps you don’t think you have what it takes to achieve your dream. But don’t let negativity push you down. Be dare to dream big.
If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse.
Walt Disney
4. Good is the worst enemy of best
When you reach a position that is good enough, you may become comfortable and think that it’s no longer worth it to continue fighting for the best. That’s why good is the worst enemy of best: it makes you stop before you achieve your fullest potential. It distracts you from pursuing your best life. Be grateful for what you have but understand that you still have a lot more in front of you.
5. Run your own race
Your race is different from other people’s races. Realizing this is liberating because it frees you from envy. When you hear that other people are successful, you can sincerely be grateful since you are not in competition with them. At the same time, it also pushes you to live your best life. Why? Because you are competing against yourself.
I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
6. Focus on what you can control
Sometimes you might have bad experiences that you can’t do anything about. If that happened, don’t dwell on it. You are wasting a lot of mental energy if you do. Move on and focus instead on things you can control. Applying this frees you from a lot of stress and worries.
One application of this principle is on changing people. Which one do you think you can change: yourself or other people? You can’t change other people but you can change yourself. So focus on changing yourself.
7. Failure is your friend
Befriending failure makes you dare to try new things. It puts you on the path of inventions, breakthroughs, and innovations. Failure is often the price of progress.
Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure.
Thomas J. Watson
8. Relationships are your greatest treasures
At the end, what do you want to achieve in life? Will it be meaningful to have a lot of money if you have broken relationships? Will it be meaningful to be famous if you lose love? I don’t think so. Your relationships are your greatest treasures. Understand it before it’s too late.
Photo by pshutterbug
Comment by mike walzman
#1 23. January 2009, 3:41 pm o'clock |
Those are great lessons. From reading all the success books out there and talking to successful people I have found perseverance to be key. But sometimes that’s not enough, because I need something to keep me going when times are tough and that for me is courage. I need courage to keep me going. Courage for when I don’t want to go on. When I think I have nothing left in me, courage is what allows me to keep going.
By the way, great quote by Joseph Addison, I’m putting that in my quote of the day.
Comment by Simona Rich
#2 24. January 2009, 7:02 am o'clock |
I also agree that it is very easy to become average, and really hard to get out of such state.
Comment by Donald Latumahina
#3 25. January 2009, 2:33 am o'clock |
Mike,
Thanks for reminding us about courage. Courage is essential for success because in many cases the biggest enemy we face is fear.
Simona,
I experience that myself. I need to remind myself again and again about it.
Comment by Saju Joseph
#4 26. January 2009, 4:50 am o'clock |
Thanks Donald ..
Comment by Donald Latumahina
#5 26. January 2009, 10:35 am o'clock |
My pleasure, Saju :)
Comment by Chrissy
#6 26. January 2009, 11:20 pm o'clock |
I think you have some great lessons. I’m into reading books about Life Lessons, I guess you can say i learn through other peoples mistakes!!
Many books can tell you how to manage your money, few tell you how to manage your life. I’ve read a book called Elijah’s Coin that is a fun read and an indispensable guide on how to achieve true success in today’s world.
Comment by wilt
#7 2. May 2009, 9:31 am o'clock |
Thank you for this beautiful post u wrote. It’s like a simple summary of the many books about life lessons
Comment by Blas
#8 7. September 2009, 12:33 pm o'clock |
Each one have a race marked out individually. Thanks for putting it on.
It matters how we run the race, but it matters most to finish it!
Comment by keij alolosan
#9 29. January 2010, 2:19 am o'clock |
life’s lessons are everywhere. the moment you open your eyes and start mingling with people and things in this world, you pick up something that could make you a better person. failures are as important as success for it makes us real persons. we are never perfect and it is alright to fail as long as you recognize your errors and try not to fall in it again. try to learn your lessons everyday and be a better person!
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