When you know you have fulfilled your potential in life is when you have achieved happiness. There is no point in becoming rich, successful or famous if it makes you unhappy. You will feel like a failure if you are unhappy at something that you are a true success in. That is not the feeling you want if you want to fulfil your potential.
I love to write my articles for leadership, but I also want to help you understand what it means to build and leave a legacy, and what success is and how you can become successful first. To help someone else become successful, you must know what success is and you must have experienced it.
1. Becoming Successful
Otherwise, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to help another person become highly successful too. The most successful people in the world are the ones who help others to become successful, and they can because they had been there and done that.
There is absolutely no question that to become highly successful is very difficult. The most successful people know this because they accept that life is very difficult.
However, they can achieve what they want in life because they take responsibility for themselves, and work on themselves every day to become who they want to be.
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Highly successful people develop habits, they develop the habit of deliberately investing their money and time into developing themselves. From doing this they make being successful a habit.
2. Growing Your Confidence
As you work on yourself every day, pursue your purpose your every day, and grow your passion every day, you will become more confident and believe in yourself more every day. You will start to feel and see yourself separating from those around you who are drifting in their own lives, and not really living.
This will all happen when deliberately growing and developing yourself becomes a habit to you. Always remember that for you to be successful and happy, you need that confidence in your abilities, but you must have humility. That is when you will 100% believe in yourself and what you are pursuing in life.
If you lead yourself well and you are on the path to where you want to go in your life, your confidence and belief in yourself will grow every day. It doesn’t matter how much another person believes in you, for you to get to where you want to go, you must ultimately believe in yourself.
You can use the belief of another person in you to help you develop your own belief, but as I have said you must 100% believe in what you are doing, where you are going, and your abilities to get there.
3. Discipline
To become successful in life you need discipline. With discipline you can start working on yourself where you are right now and move towards your life goal. With discipline you can do this every day with persistence, and eventually you will become successful.
By growing yourself every day with discipline, your confidence and belief will automatically grow. By doing this you will automatically become successful. So, start doing what is needed now, then do what is possible and you will yourself be doing what you once thought was impossible.
When I was a graduate engineer working in Liverpool for their train operating company in 2008, I had a mentor called Ron. He was assigned to me by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers otherwise known as the IMECHE.
Ron had been in many director positions throughout the UK and had been in the rail industry for around 30-40 years.
In one of our first mentoring sessions, I told Ron that the engineering director I worked for asked me, “where do you want to get to in your career Tom?” I replied to Kevin’s question with, “I want to become an engineering director just like you.”
When I told Ron that short story, he replied with, “that’s very good Tom, so what are you going to do to get there?”
I replied to Ron with, “I don’t know yet, what do you think?” So, Ron responded to my question back with, “You work your hardest every day. Keep studying what you’re studying, and study even more. Listen to your line manager, listen to your team, and help out in any way you can. Go the extra mile for your team and for your organisation. That’s it.”
My first reaction was, “really? That’s all I have to do to become an engineering director?”
Ron’s answer to that was, “No, this is what you must do to achieve your first role in a leadership position. Whether that be supervisor, team leader or production manager. You need to keep doing these things, and show people who you are, show people that you care.”
To be honest, I was a bit down heartened because I thought to become an engineering director sounded easy.
4. Serving People
What Ron was really saying to me was that if I was to grow into a leadership position, then I needed to start serving people now while I was a graduate engineer.
Ron was telling me that I needed to start working on myself now to become the most valuable person/leader I could be before I could start helping others to grow and develop. He told me that I needed to think of the sacrifices I was willing to make for my team and organisation if it was necessary.
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That’s what Ron had to do to get to where he was, that is what Kevin had to do to become engineering director, and that is what we all need to do to get to where we want to go in life.
When you feel you are ready to start moving from where you are right now in your life to getting closer to the life you want to create for yourself, you will be on the right path. But you must understand that success is difficult for all of us.
Comparing yourself against others who have been successful is wrong. To become the most successful you can be in life, you need to compare yourself to who you were yesterday and be better today, and then be even better tomorrow. That’s when you know you are turning your life vision into a reality.
As you keep getting better every day, comparing yourself to who you were yesterday, you will be creating momentum. As your momentum grows, so too will your success.
As you move towards your success, you are going to come across challenges. If you meet those challenges with an equal response, then you will continue towards success. But when a new challenge rises, your previous response won’t be any good. So, you need to meet the new challenge with a greater response if you want to keep continuing towards your success.
I welcome hearing how this post has influenced the way you think, the way you lead, or the results you have achieved because of what you’ve learned in it. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me by commenting below.
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All the best,
I used to hit on every one of these marks, but since my nervous breakdown, I have had issues with discipline. If any of these elements are out of place, you will under-deliver. I love the fact that you put self-interest first, telling people to be happy in what they are doing or that they have basically accomplished nothing. A Bit of self-care is needed, or you become a slave to your projects and burn out like I did.
Hi Andy,
I appreciate your comment and I’m glad that my article resonated with you.
I’m sorry to hear about your nervous breakdown. Putting yourself first sometimes and taking care of yourself is very important, especially when we want to add value to others. You cannot add value if you don’t first become valuable.
I’m glad you are doing better and are working on yourself to become the most valuable you can be for others.
All the best,
Tom
Many good insights in this article. Yes, in order to help others we must be competent and successful in that area. Success is not measured in money earned but competency in doing what one is aligned with in terms of interests and abilities. The definition changes for every person, but we are most valuable to others when we are sharing what we know and are competent in. Heart-driven accomplishments are the key to success, and offer much value to others. Thanks for sharing this vital information, Tom Best, Joseph
Hi Joseph,
Thank you for another insightful comment my friend.
Success is definitely measured in how competent you become in your area, and if you can inspire others to follow you.
Keep working on yourself every day in your area of desire and helping others to do the same.
All the best,
Tom
Hey Tom, this is truly a great article. It’s like finding your worth and your value and know when you are ready to help others.
I have often wondered why ‘money goes to money’ is it all about being successful, lucky or born into money? but to get there, you have to strive to stay there and keep on going!
I suppose the moral to all of this, is never to give up, and find ways to achieve all your goals, learning from others taking on their advice and in-hand teach others to follow suit! Hope this makes sense.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and wiseness, it will help your readers move on in the right way.
Julia. 😊
Hi Julia,
I appreciate you sharing your comment, means the world to me.
Your kind words are inspirational and it is things like this that helps me keep going too.
You are right, never give up. Winners never quit, quitters never win. We will get there if we don’t give up, and we will help others to do the same too.
Keep going my friend.
All the best,
Tom