Success can be elusive. I’ve “won” in some aspects of life and failed badly in others. At times in my youth and adult life, I thought I had it all figured out, but I was missing some key ingredients. I continue striving to be a better version of myself and see things in a different light. I’ve learned some lessons the hard way, and I am happy to share them with you.
1. You Don’t Want to Win the Lottery
I’ve spent more time than I’d like to admit, hoping to find the easy way to success. But I’ve learned that success isn’t built that way. So, my advice, stop wasting your time wishing and hoping for success to knock on your door. If it did, you wouldn’t want it anyway. Why? Because you wouldn’t know what to do with it once you had it.
Joe Rogan started his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, in 2009, but the podcast started off slow. It moved to YouTube in 2013, where Joe then increased the frequency of shows, and where we currently stand, Joe Rogan’s podcast is #1 in the country. Real success is only built through consistent effort. It can be slow, and it can be fast, but you must be consistent to get meaningful, lasting results.
“You have to be willing to put in the hard work if you want to succeed in life.” — Joe Rogan
Don’t count on luck. Welcome the reps that make a man hard. The experience not only makes you appreciate what you have, but it also gives you the roadmap for future endeavors.
2. Don’t Waste Your Time Finding Yourself
I wish someone would’ve given me this advice years ago. Many of us waste years searching for an identity and wondering who we are; it’s mental masturbation. You aren’t any of the things you think you are. I’ll repeat that so it sinks in. You aren’t any of the things you think you are. The only thing you are is the sum of the actions you take.
“You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.” ― Carl Jung
It’s a fairly simple concept: what you do is all that counts. Don’t get me wrong, thinking is great when creating a plan. The problem is that many of us never get past the planning stage. We steep in it, fantasizing about the person we’ll become, but that person doesn’t exist anywhere but in our head!
It’s time to switch gears from the ones in your head to the ones that put you into action. This means wherever you are in life, it’s about getting out there and trying! It’s about effort and persistence.
Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. — George Bernard Shaw
3. Eat the Failures & Digest Them
I’ve spent years trying to avoid failure. I disguised it with practicality and perfectionism, but I knew what it was; I was scared to death of not being good enough. It was the wrong mindset. There’s no failure; there’s trials & tribulations. Failure is when you quit or never start out of fear. Everything else is an opportunity to show yourself how badly you really want it.
“It’s not about money or connections — it’s the willingness to outwork and out-learn everyone… And if it fails, you learn from what happened and do a better job next time.” ― Mark Cuban
The experiential learning method is all about eating and digesting those failures so that you can be better the next time. It’s a simple method, but keeping this in mind changes the value of your mistakes. Failure is actually a tool that guides us to the lives we want.
“Goals are for people who care about winning once. Systems are for people who care about winning repeatedly.” — James Clear
My mistakes and failures have helped me better define true success. You need to place value on the journey because what you learn about yourself and the process will sustain your success. Action is king. Don’t let that voice in your head distract you from what’s most important, which is doing! What you do creates the person you’re to become on this journey. Failure is something, but it’s not as definitive as you think. Be a student of failure so you can methodically discover what creates your success.