A lot of people ask me how I am so successful in life. Many people tell me I have the midas touch and the key to success. Everything I do is successful. Everything I touch becomes like gold, awesome in nature. I chuckle to myself because I know they only see half the picture. They don’t see how many times I’ve fallen flat on my face. But, I refuse to stay down. I refuse to give up and stop trying. I refuse to not take a hold of my dreams and goals and make them happen.
How to Succeed At Whatever You Do – Best Practices
1) Refuse to stay down
You will fall down. You will. I promise. But, it’s WHEN you are down, that makes all the difference. Do you stop trying, throw in the towel, and give up? If I gave up, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I’d probably still be in that homeless shelter, or worse, working and not being able to be home with my kids!
Right after my husband left, I was pretty devastated. My whole world came crashing down. All I could think about was whether or not I’d be able to stay home with my kids. I cried out to the Lord night and day in desperate prayer, ‘Lord, if I have but one prayer, please let me continue to be able to stay home with my kids.’
One day, I felt so convicted in my heart. It was like a resounding YES. I will allow you to stay home with them. Although I do not believe God talks to us in an audible voice, I do believe that He leads, guides, and convicts us.
So, when I shared that belief with even my closest of friends at the time, no one believed me. My own mother told me to stop fooling myself and get a REAL job. Not one person on Earth believed me. Maybe I was crazy, but in my heart, I had peace. I knew what I was convicted of, and so, I took the steps God laid out for me. I obeyed and followed and happy to say, I proved, literally everyone, wrong!
I heard this saying once. It’s not a Biblical saying, but it was one of the quotes that resonated with me and stuck with me ever since I heard it.
“Don’t doubt in the dark what He told you in the light.”
When I am fully walking with the Lord, super close with Him, and He leads me to do something, I tend to think I obey. But then opposition comes, doubt sets in, and I can easily find myself spiring downward in disbelief and fear. That is the dark. In those times, I hold on so tightly to what I believe God leads me to. Right now, even again, I am told that I won’t do something God has revealed to me. I know with my whole heart God will make it come to pass and to all those that don’t believe me, I say with boldness, they are a hindrance in my walk and I don’t spend a lot of time with them. It’s hard, since a few of them are some of the most important people to me on Earth. It does not matter. What matters is that I follow my God, even when He calls me to do something that seems impossible, like being a single SAHM. I hold on tightly, refusing to stay down.
2) Obey God and do not sin
You can’t live your life in an habitual pattern of sin and expect to be blessed. An example, I used to live my life in a very frivolous way, spending money left and right on whatever I fancied all the time. I didn’t care. It was all about instant gratification. Even though I made a boatload of money at the time, I didn’t have much and I was struggling financially. Now that I obey God with my money, even if I am convicted of something for $5, I do it, knowing that He will multiply it. When we are faithful in little, He will give us more to be faithful in. It’s a staircase scenario. Little by little, step by step, until you can take a good look around, and know you have more than many living on $60k/year and do it all on only $18k/year! Whatever it is you want to change, you can’t do it without Christ!
3) Believe in yourself
There will be doubters; there will be haters. There will be people whose life goal seems to be to make you fall. I have several of them in my life. When you fall, they will laugh. They will take comfort in your failures. Those people: stay far away from. There are some you can’t, but the ones you have a choice, trust me, they are not worth your time. Surround yourself with people who believe in you. Sometimes, there may be no one, like in my case several times, even now. It doesn’t matter. I know what I know. I don’t need anyone else to believe in me…not when the God of the universe is leading me, showing me what He wants for me. He is the source of strength in times like this.
4) Work hard
There is no point in me leaving out this one, though, this is where I lose most people. They want the easy road to success. They want it on a silver platter. The truth is that I’m where I’m at because I have worked harder than most. I’m incredibly driven, and have been working 80+ hours a week for the past 2 years.
A movie I watched as an unsaved child was “Working Girl” with Melanie Griffith and Harrison Ford. I’ll never forget the part where she is told, “You’ve got a real fire in your belly, or was this just a one-time stunt that you pulled?”
She had a fire in her belly. She wouldn’t let anything stop her from getting where she wanted to be and she was willing to work hard to get there. That passion, that drive, that self-induced motivation. You have to have that. If you’re not passionate about your dream, somewhere someone will squash it. I am passionate about staying home with my kids, even as a single mom. As a single mom I work HARDER than if I had a ‘real’ job, but I won’t always have to do that, and it is worth it to me. My kids are worth it.
5) Educate yourself
Ignorance is foolish. I know so many people who do all of the above 4 steps, yet stop at #5. They don’t invest in themselves. They try to be cheap. They don’t buy programs or books to help them get better. They don’t invest in things that are as little as $10 to help them grow. I don’t understand those people. They sit back and say, “why am I not more successful?” Yet, I tell them, and they don’t do it. They are being foolish.
You HAVE TO invest in yourself. YOU HAVE TO educate yourself. If you don’t know something, find someone who does. Pay them to teach you. Get a coach, buy a program. Whatever it takes. The internet is a fantastic tool for learning, but the places you will learn the most, are the places you have to pay to get in. I pay for knowledge all the time. I paid a friend to teach me some blogging business stuff. I bought a picture program. I pay more for a better blogging host. Blogging is important to me. I will invest $1k/month to be able to do it right and do it well. Many people won’t invest $25. Then they wonder why they are not growing.
Now, I’m not saying throw your money around. You have to be wise, but if you want to be successful, you have to invest in yourself and in the people you serve.
Well, how are you doing? If you read all that and I haven’t lost you by now, I can honestly say I’m very proud of you. You are one of the few, and if you truly apply those tips, you can make your dreams come true. I have no doubt. Do you have any tips on how to excel in life?
