“Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.” (David Frost)

Today’s increasingly savage world when it comes to competition has demanded each individual to aim for the highest pedestal possible. This competition is realized in both developed and developing nations. But in this never ending chase of success, I believe many have missed out on a fundamental aspect of being successful: how to become successful? Now a reasonable person may validly ask, “How are so many chasing success when they do not know how to become successful in the first place?” And a critical individual would validly ask me, “What makes me say, in the first place, that people do not know how to become successful?” As I write this blog, I will attempt to answer the second question, which consequently should answer the first question. And then, I would move on to discuss my main point, how to become successful?

Success, as define by Oxford Dictionaries, is: the accomplishment of an aim or purpose [1]. Seems simple and straightforward; so then how are people missing this fundamental aspect. Well, in order to achieve success, one must first establish an aim/goal/purpose and then work to accomplish this said aim/goal/purpose. But what happens if you set the wrong goal? Clearly, this would not result in success and this is where I believe many are going astray. In this fast-paced society, everyone seems to be in a hurry to achieve success, for example, making money, and they accordingly set the goal to become an investment banker. While this profession does indeed make one a wealthy individual, it also caps the person’s success. By being an investment banker, you can only make what an average investment banker makes; you’ve set a limit to your success by making your goal too defined. We must recall, the goal was not to become some banker but rather to make money. And this can be achieved in many ways other than banking (e.g. – CEO of a company, business, doctor, etc.). Secondly, once we make this goal too defined and we achieve, the goal seems to vanish which results in a person no longer looking to achieve any more milestones. And this, in the end, results in the person not being as ambitious or successful as they once were. Lastly, in this one life that we all have, we don’t want to achieve goals by means we don’t enjoy. For example, a person may not at all enjoy banking but is doing so just to earn money. This is not really being successful as you may wake up every single day hoping its a weekend; and if its not, the person may end up hating every moment till you finish work that day. This can even cause adverse effects in one’s mental health. So really, one should set an ambitious goal that is not too defined so that it allows the individual some flexibility on his/her approach towards the goal. People should follow their interests to achieve their goals; success will then automatically follow the person. Let us remember that we should not confuse the end result with the means of achieving the end result.

By identifying above where individuals may go wrong when setting the success goals, I have already stated my first step towards how to being successful: set the right goals. Now, the second step is the one that follows logically: work towards the goal. This is key to mention, regardless of how obvious it may appear, because during the journey of achieving one’s goals, many people often lose sight of what their journey is about. Once you forget what the journey was all about, you no longer go on the same path of achieving that particular goal you set initially. And to be successful, you must achieve that goal; in other words, have patience because success doesn’t greet you overnight. It takes time and you must be patient enough to embrace this time. The fact that you have not achieved your goal today only implies that your day is tomorrow.

And the last point to achieving success is to realize failure is inevitable. Failure exists not to break you but rather to rebuild you so that you can become stronger to endure the hardships that are present in the journey of success. You must never take failure as a sign to quit; instead, treat it as a reminder to keep working harder and harder so that you can achieve your goals; treat it as a reminder of the fact that success is right around the corner because failure precedes success. Yes, sometimes it is devastating to fail but if you remember what I’ve just mentioned in this paragraph, you will always know that success is bound to come when you fail. Of course, as a person who follows a religion, I always have faith in God to help me and to guide me. I always remind myself of the fact that I can achieve nothing without the help of God so I always find myself depending on God to grant me the success I desire.

I know, handling failure is not an easy job so I would like to relate the story of Abraham Lincoln (16th President of the United States), the very man who abolished slavery in the United States. Little do people know the struggles he faced prior to his presidency. At a young age, Abraham Lincoln’s mother passed away and a few years later, his sister passed away too. As he grew older and became romantically interested in Ann Rutledge, it was again an unfortunate ending to their relationship when Ann Rutledge passed away. Later in life, Abraham Lincoln married and had 4 children but, again, unfortunately 3 of his children passed away at a young age. And along with this, his professional career faced many setbacks as he failed in multiple elections. But, he never gave up and as a result, he ended up being the 16th President of the United States. One of the best presidents in the history of US. I hope his allegory serves as a reminder that failure is part of being successful; it precedes success.

I hope this piece exemplifies the keys to becoming successful and helps all the readers in their lives in their own ways. We have only one life; as a result, only one shot to become successful; so let’s have the right ingredients to become successful and, God willing, we will soon be successful. Until next time, I’m going to leave this here for your enjoyment.

[1] “Success.” Oxford Dictionaries. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 June 2016.

Image citation: The Right Ingredients. N.d. Top 10 Unique Asian Cooking Ingredients. Food Service Warehouse, 20 Aug. 2015. Web. 26 June 2016.