The "secret" to success

The secret to success?

Working at it every day.
Learning from your mistakes, and others mistakes.
Be curious to learn more about what it is you want to be successful in.
Ask questions.
Find a role model, someone who has been or is, where you want to be.
Talk to their role models.
Know a lot about your subject, but a little about other related (and non-related) subjects as well.

Over the last year, I have spent a lot of time "Sharpening my saw", or learning. But unlike the past, I have broadened my learning to allow me to challenge different parts of my brain, and different aspects of myself. From Anatomy and Physiology, to psychology and personal development, to new languages, it has been far more interesting, and far more educational a journey, than had I just stuck with what I "Needed" to know.

See, it's not the pursuit of excellence that leads us to be unhappy…. it's losing ourselves to the tunnel vision of success: "when I accomplish this, I will be happy", then you accomplish it, and you aren't happy, so you set your goal further ahead, rinse, and repeat.

As Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi states:

"The Paradox of rising expectations suggests that 

improving the quality of life might be an 

insurmountable task. in fact, there is no inherent 

problem in our desire to escalate our goals, as long as 

we enjoy the struggle on the way. The problem 

arises when people are so fixated on what they want to 

achieve that they cease to derive pleasure from the 

present. When that happens, they forfeit their chance of 

contentment."

So what is success?
True success is a lot of things, ingredients if you will, that allow you to see your experiences for what they are and were, learning from them, and using them to help you attain your desires.

Success is knowing what you know, applying well, and yet also knowing what you DON'T know.

Success is being true to you, your goals, aspirations, and dreams, and enjoying the journey along the way.

I'll let Mihaly explain Happiness in his own words… just remember one thing: in order to succeed you need to be happy, in whatever circumstance and place you are.

Flow: the secret to Happiness

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a HAPPY Holiday season and 2014!