Realize what you already do

Success is grounded in your own understanding of your perception and values. As you evolve to willingly give up or change many values you thought you had, you will grow to acknowledge some of your beliefs were misguided. You slowly remove your own smokescreen. You come to realize you hinder success, you create it, you are it.

For example, you may be a person who always thought you were an individual of principle and that your views would guide the evolution of your whole life. What you said here isn't entirely wrong. However, to admit assumptions about what you see as 'right and wrong,' 'acceptable or unacceptable' or 'desirable and undesirable' don't change, is a way of postponing your own sense of success.  Did you know that?

Consider that somewhere in your past, you might have adamantly said that you wouldn't do something you knew someone else did. Your position was a judgement, based on how you saw yourself and the world at that time. Years later, you may have decided to do precisely what that person did, because you saw your life differently and you felt ready to evolve and change. That change of heart wouldn't mean your original view was wrong.  In fact, it was appropriate for you at that period. Its unfair to judge your lack of a sense of success today on yesterday's decisions. Everything we do is part of a process to shape our own attitude.

I know a farmer's daughter convinced from childhood she would grow up to become a farmer's wife. She felt happy in the country and chose to learn as much as she could about farms. When her neighbour's daughter grew and moved to the city, the girl sensed she could never do such a thing to her parents, or abandon her country life. Yet, over time, as her self-awareness grew, she decided to attend university away. She became a large animal veternarian and now works on farms throughout her home state. Her view of a desirable life evolved and her decisions caught up.

We each experience different kinds of success exactly where we are. As we choose to grow and change our minds about things, we acknowledge that somewhere deep inside what we knew what we were doing before wasn't quite right. Yet, our past is necessary to understand who we are in the present. In your heart, you recognize that change is inevitable, but your choices in life may initially resist what you seek because you desire to learn in body, mind and soul. All parts of you do not perceive and understand success in the same ways.

Success for the physical body may be defined by doing what it takes to survive where you are, to get enough food, water, shelter and to experience pleasure.  Success for the soul may involve taking steps to learn and helping you come to better know your deepest self. The soul doesn't require what the physical body requires. Your mind defines success by its own experience, sense of time and space. Each part of you abides in the realm of the relative. You may sense a disconnect between achieving success in different parts of you. Success is also achieved in just being here now.

5 precepts to enrich your life

1) Avoid regrets. This life is too short to waste energy on what can't be changed. Choose instead to learn and apply your new wisdom to "next time." Your life experiences will forever be enriched by your ability to refer back to lessons learned by yourself and other inspirations.

2) Remain open to learning and changing your beliefs. If you change your beliefs, you influence the root cause of your behavior. Who you were yesterday will not necessarily be who you have evolved into today. Embrace change as a facit of personal growth with joy and gratitude.

3) Teach yourself to be happy in the moment. Remind yourself no 'right or wrong' decision exists, only your perception of what matters at a given time and phase of your life. Savour every feeling, from love to pain. Every feeling offers you a message. How do you learn to intuit?

4) Take every opportunity to get-to-know yourself better . As you learn to listen closely to your inner voice, you'll make choices according to who you really are, not who people lead you to think you are. This soul-searching can also encourage you to develop and deepen a spiritual side.

5) Commit to people and causes.  As you do this, it will enable you to believe more in yourself. Distance yourself from perceived needs of "enough" of anything, from thinking you may never get enough money, attention or reciprocity. Choose instead to give unconditionally of yourself in all that you do, from relationships and work to spritual pursuits. You will find unexpected sources of appreciation will bless you by the truckload. You will attract what resonates from within you.

Rethink the power of giving

Whatever you have or have not achieved, you can find someone who has less than you.  You can find someone who is worse off, who isn't as healthy, who isn't as informed or as equipped to deal with life as you are.  How often do you reach out to find someone like that? What would compel you to give more of yourself, even if you didn't really feel you could afford to give anything? It's not simply a question of money or material things you could offer a stranger or someone you know. Consider the value of time, food, a gesture, advice or mentoring.  The sky is the limit.

Success is often associated with abundance.   What leads one person to be seen as successful and another person to be seen as unsuccessful? It has nothing to do with what each of us does per se.  It has to do with how a person sees him or herself and a particular awareness.  Each of us has the power to attract positive experiences and to learn to recognize them.  Rather than seek out something specific to do, why not decide to experience meaningful things? When you're engaged in what excites and motivates you, you're really being yourself. What are you being right now?

Think about the adjectives you use to describe yourself and what they say about how you really feel inside.  Have you ever said you feel "terribly good" or said someone is "awfully nice?"  Have you ever admitted feeling "not bad," "filthy rich" or "rather successful?" If you belittle yourself or others with your comments, then you undermine the whole concept of giving generously and push away rather than invite in your own realization of new kinds of success. 

Why is it do you think that messages about money can be negative and emotionally-charged? In order to rethink your position on money and success, it may be wise to forget many things you've ever been told about what others think is good or bad, and remind yourself energy takes varied forms.  You give or take energy from people in different forms and you're sense of value is as connected to your energy level as to your emotions.  Rather than define success via cultural myths, why not step out and redefine success on your own terms, by how happiness reverberrates back?

Appreciate where you are & why

Talking about your big dreams and all those things you work toward may cause you to overlook the success you experience already.  To this point, all of your accomplishments help define who you are.  This includes feelings, measurable and immeasurable experiences with outcomes.

Think about your current situation. Consider what you have had to learn and endure to reach this point in life. Consider people who have helped you, from friends, relatives, teachers or strangers you have met along the way. Maybe you think planets were aligned in order for you to recognize certain opportunities? Imagine you were offering feedback. What kinds of advice would you like to hear? You're proof that you've evolved from where you were to where you are.  Where to next?

Recognize how many people are contributing toward you future success. People you have likely never met made the paper on which you write, the computer on which you type, the car in which you drive, and clothing which you wear to make a lasting impression. How have people contributed to your endeavours and goals? What you learned in the past helped you shape vies of success. Elements and cooperation beyond your control enable you to do what you do now. Learn to value the invisible contributions.  This helps you rise above a sense of doing things alone.

Remind yourself that life doesn't have to be a source of frustration just because you haven't yet accomplished what you require to realize longer-term ideas of success.  Whenever you become focused on those things that seem to elude you, those things that motivate you, you often invite suffering and anticipation.  You also distract yourself from all the great things you've already done to get where you are. How easily we forget?

Of course, the next new thing is always just around the corner. You can permit yourself to focus on what you desire, a situation which simply continues so nothing really satisfies you. Learn to open your mind to possibilities outside your original notions of success.  As you permit your hopes to become more flexible, you will also have more energy to focus on making the most of what kinds of success you have already known and still experience now. 

Balance the opposites

It's often acknowledged that success begins as a state of mind.  However, having some insight into the specifics enables people to become better equipped to create the lives they choose.  People will read about drawbacks and experience their own self-defeating tendencies, so what kinds of strategies would assist a person to re-orient and align with a meaningful life direction?  Learning to balance opposites is a good rule of thumb. You could apply this to your feelings and attitude, as well as to visions around you.

1) Where someone criticizes your plan, imagine how much better off you'll be.

2) When someone refuses to forgive you, choose yourself not to hold a grudge.

3) If people around you feel discouraged, decide you'll be a source of hope.

4) In cases where people complain about no sun, sing and dance in the rain.

5) When people dwell on sadness or loss, celebrate yourself what is/ has been.

6) Where people cling and seem to desire consoling, offer your own reassurance.

7)  If people appear lost in ignorance, seek on your own to find ways to understand.

8)  When people crave some kind of compassion, provide unconditional love.

9) If people only seem to know how to revieve, teach them how to give.

10) Where people are focused on fear and death,  show them joy defines life.