“Success is not the absence of failure; it’s the persistence through failure.” – Aisha Tyler
Success is easy to spot when you see people at the height of it. Especially if the outcome of that success comes with high levels of rewards or recognition. When you see successful people, you might find yourself in awe of their success. You’ll have a tendency to think, how lucky they are, how talented they are, how gifted they are or whatever simple explanation for their success you can come up with.
The reality is that it takes a whole lot more than an over simplified explanation to reach any level of success. Although some of those things may be a contributing factor to their high level of success, don’t be fooled. Because there are plenty of things that you don’t or didn’t see them go through as you’re recognizing their achievements during that phase of their journey.
It Looks Easy, but Don’t Be Fooled
It’s easy to watch in amazement how great they are at what they do without considering the hard work and difficult times they endured to get them to where they are. The successful people you admire didn’t get to where they are by just being good at what they do. They became great at what they do through failures, setbacks, disappointments, self-doubt, and non-stop practice just to name a few.
You name it and they’ve been through it. The same mental, emotional and sometimes even the physical struggles that you have to go through to achieve your goals. Those are the parts of their journey you don’t see. When they reach the top, you just see them at the top of their mountain, not realizing the full extent of their climb to get there.
“Being good is making it look easy, but getting good is never easy.”
― Jeffrey Fry
Don’t think for a minute that the high levels of success you see other people have is achieved with minimal effort. They make it look so easy when they are at the top of their game reaping the rewards of their success. But no matter how easy they make it look, don’t be fooled by it! The things that they do that look like they do so easily, comes from a huge amount of preparation.
It reminds me of the illustration of the iceberg where all you see is the tip of it. It’s that part of the iceberg you see above the water surface, which represents the success. But what you don’t see is hidden beneath the water surface, the persistence, perseverance, failure, sacrifice, disappointment, good habits, discipline, consistency, hard work and dedication.
What you should notice about this list of traits, which is the foundation of all success, is that they all have to do with your mindset. It’s about what they think and how they think when they face challenges. It’s how they choose to respond and react to disappointments and setbacks. Those are the things that you don’t see when you look at successful people. The difficult parts of their journey!
You only see their success above the surface and think that their success comes so easily to them. The fact is that you have what it takes to be successful too. You just need to understand and realize that it won’t come easy. And it will take work and effort whether you want to believe it or not. If you choose to believe that achieving success will require work and effort, then you can make it happen!
“There is no substitute for hard work. There is no such thing as an overnight success or easy money.” – Henry Sy
Despite certain perceptions, success of any kind never comes easy. Successful people you admire might make their success look easy. But I assure you that it took plenty of work and effort to get them there. My reason for mentioning this is not to discourage you from attempting to become financially successful or any other form of success you strive for in life.
It’s more to help give you an understanding and realization that no one becomes successful overnight. Or easily for that matter. Even the most successful people past and present have failed more times than they’ve succeeded. You just never saw all the time, effort and failures they’ve had along the way that got them to where you recognize them today.
The journey is never an easy one, no matter who you are. But it’s how you respond to the challenges. It’s about what you learn, how you grow and who you become along the way that makes you successful. All of those things are a part of success. You can’t have success without them! The amount of effort you put in will determine how fast you get there and how much you achieve.
So, don’t be fooled by how the “pros” make it look so easy. And don’t use that as an excuse not to try to make it to the top. Success is a journey that requires plenty of action and has its fair share of challenges. You have what it takes to be successful! You just have to decide that you want to put in the time and effort that it will take to get you there!
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