How to Achieve Success and Happiness In Life

Many people go through life living far below their potential. It is amazing to me to see so many people fall short of who they might be. In contrast, we all know people that have achieved great success and joy in life. But what do successful people know and do that others do not? In this blog post, I will share the four fundamental skills for success and happiness. These are very general in nature, and they must be individually applied be an individual to be of full effect.

My Experience With These Principles
Over the last 15 years, I have devoted thousands of hours of study to the topics of learning, goal-setting, and personal success. I have attended dozens of workshops, seminars, and trainings, speeches and presentations. I have read scores of books, listened to hundreds of hours of audio books and programs, have earned four college degrees in various disciplines, and have spent many hours researching how people learn and change.

During these studies, I have also worked and volunteered in multiple organizations, states, and countries. I have worked to apply the principles of success and happiness in my life, and I have concluded that there are a few very fundamental skills for achieving success, happiness, and fulfillment in life. In this post, I will describe what I believe these skills are and will give some strategies for developing these skills.

You Can Change
Before I share these skills and abilities, I want to discuss the most fundamental truth of success and happiness: you can change. You are endowed by your creator with the capacity to change, adapt, improve and grow. Every human being has the capacity to change habits, to gain knowledge, to live with purpose, and to grow toward the good and the pure.

Some subscribe to false ideas of predestination or determinism, believing that their choices have already been made for them. Others adhere to behaviorism, believing that our environment directs our behavior, and we only live in passive response to external stimuli. I fully reject these notions and state emphatically that every human being has the power to change their life and circumstances through exertion of thought and action. YOU CAN CHANGE. You can find direction in your life. You can grow. You can develop habits and take actions of your own free will and choice. You are not fully controlled by unseen powers or the environment you live in - you have GREAT power to live outside these influences and move toward excellence.

The Four Fundamental Skills for Success and Happiness 
Here are what I currently believe to be the most fundamental skills for success and happiness. I'll outline them here and then describe them in detail below.

1. Live with Purpose and Passion
2. Believe in Yourself
3. Develop Habits for Success
4. Keep Learning and Think Smart

Read Only if You Are Serious About Creating Change
I must be candid - it will take effort to achieve success and happiness in life. You must apply yourself and work toward your goals. And it can take a long time to make the changes you want to see in yourself.  However, if you begin down the path to your desired achievements, then you will eventually reach it. I can promise through my own personal experience that if you seriously study and apply these principles, you will find rich rewards, and the reward is always worth the required effort.

One of the most important ways you can start to build these fundamental skills is through learning. I strongly urge you to undertake a serious study of the principles of success and happiness. If you are willing to spend time reading the books and listening to the audio programs below, I can promise that you will begin to see success in these areas. I will discuss each of these fundamental skills for success and happiness in detail below, including resources for learning more.

1. Live With Purpose and Passion.
The most foundational skill for success and happiness is the ability to to find a sense of purpose in life. What are you passionate about? What do you love to think about and do? How are you uniquely positioned to make a positive impact on the world and on the people around you? Answering these questions can help you identify and move toward your purpose. For some people this can be difficult, but you must "begin with the end in mind" (Stephen Covey).

You must set goals that will help you achieve your purpose, specific objectives that will move you toward success. If you can discover your purpose and develop goals that will help you achieve that purpose, you will be among the empowered few who have a mission in life, a vision of how they can change the world. I believe that having purpose and goals will move you forward in life faster than any other thing.

Your task is to discover your purpose and set goals that will help you achieve it. I recommend that you study seriously these principles. It will take time to develop a deep knowledge and skill in these principles, but the following books, audio programs, and links can help you do this.

Books on Goal Setting and Purpose:
7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey
How to Get What You Want (audio) - Zig Ziglar
Goals - How to Get Everything You Want - Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible - Brian Tracy
Happy for No Reason (book) Marci Shimoff

My Own Blog Posts on Goal Setting and Purpose:
A Challenge to the Slacker: Live Your Potential
How to Become an Expert at Anything
To Reach Career Goals, Be Deliberate
To Reach Your Goals, Avoid Distractions
How to Set and Reach Career Goals
Setting Professional Goals

2. Believe in Yourself.
The famous quote states, "Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right." What you believe about yourself and about life directs how you behave in life. If you believe that you are unlucky, then you will behave like an unlucky person, constantly expecting bad things to happen to you. If you believe that you are not worthy of finding a companion, then your internal and external actions will likely fulfill that belief. What you believe about life and yourself becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, directly influencing and predicting the results you get in life.

Your task is to develop a deep reservoir of empowering, positive, true thoughts about yourself and life. You must flood your mind with positive, empowering beliefs, ideas and thoughts. These beliefs will act as the fuel of success, propelling you toward the fulfillment of your dreams. The resources below will get you started on doing this.

Books for Improving Your Beliefs:
Awaken the Giant Within (audio) - Anthony Robbins
Unleash the Power Within (audio) - Anthony Robbins
Happy for No Reason (book) - Marci Shimoff
A Healthy Dose of Motivation (audio) - Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen
The Psychology of Achievement - Brian Tracy

My Own Blog Posts on Improving Your Beliefs:
Using the Power of Positive Affirmations

Using Your Thoughts to Create Personal Power
The Analogy of the Fleas: Self Beliefs, Learning and Success
Creating Results in Life

3. Develop Habits for Success.
Successful people develop habits that help them fulfill their goals and purpose. It is true that most of what we do each day is a result of our habitual behavior, so you must develop habits that will aid you in achieving your goals. You must also eliminate those habits which are unhealthy and which do not help you achieve your worthy goals and desires. 

To put it clearly, successful people have discovered (a) what positive habits are, (b) how they can change or eliminate old habits and (c) how they can adopt the new positive habits. If you would like to begin to identify and cultivate positive, empowering habits, begin with the resources below. These resources will give you an excellent foundation for changing your behavior for the better.

Books on Habit Development:
7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey
The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg
The Now Habit at Work - Neil Fiore

My Own Blog Posts on Habits of Success:
7 Fundamental Skills for Success
The Power of Habit (a book review and reflection)
Book Review - Instant Influence
The Importance of Humility

4. Keep Learning and Think Smart.
The world is increasingly complex, and the rate of knowledge creation is constantly expanding and changing. I attended a workshop the other day in which the speaker (a medical doctor) stated that 50% of the medical knowledge learned in medical school is obsolete before the individual graduates. The same is true in other fields, and to be successful in life, you must continuously learn and improve your knowledge so that you can maintain and improve your relevance and your ability to contribute meaningfully.

Not only must you continue learning, but you must develop and expand your capacity to use that information effectively. We live in a constant flood of information, so we must develop the ability to draw conclusions and make decisions that are effective and will bring the outcomes we desire. The resources below will give you a great start on effective thinking and decision-making.

Books on Thinking and Learning:

Outliers: The Story of Success - Malcolm Gladwell
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking - Malcolm Gladwell

My Blog Posts on Thinking and Learning
How to Become a Successful Lifelong Learner
The Tendency to Jump to Conclusions
Become an Active Learning: Here's How!
Skills for Success in the Knowledge Society
6 Principles for Using Data to Make Decisions
Effective Strategies for Making Decisions
Leadership and Effective Decision Making

A Note on Spirituality and Success
I would like to emphasize that I believe in God and believe that He wishes the very best for each of us.  I believe that He has given us the power to choose good in our lives, and my personal belief is that exercising the habits described above can also be used to bring us closer to God. I have found that a more spiritually-focused life will build a deep foundation of happiness. There are books that can bring a deeper layer of happiness in life, and I have personally gained a great deal of spiritual strength from reading the Holy Bible and the Book of Mormon. I also gain a great deal of insight and strength in speaking with my friends of other faiths.

What Will You Do?
So, what will you do? Are you willing to take the challenge and begin to develop these skills and habits in your life? Are you willing to take the journey to higher levels of happiness and success? I know through my own experience that gaining and applying these skills has helped me to grow in my life, and I hope to continue to increase my knowledge and skill in these areas. Are you willing to change?

A 30 Day Challenge
Here is my challenge to those who are willing to work toward success and happiness. I challenge you to do the following for the next 30 days:

• Read two of the books from the resources described above.
• Listen to two of the audio programs described above. (I check them out from the library).
• Apply at least two of the strategies I discuss in the linked blog posts.

If you are willing to do these things, you will almost certainly find yourself in a state of increased happiness. You will also find yourself beginning to see the path forward to the accomplishment of your own goals and desires. So, will you do it?

A Challenge to the Slacker: Live Your Potential

I am often amazed and saddened by the number of people that go through life living far beneath their God-given potential. I have learned through many years working with students and coworkers that everyone has the ability to achieve incredible success in their own lives and profoundly impact the people around them. And yet so rarely do people achieve what is within their potential.

In fact, I sometimes get tired of seeing people floating through life, consuming without contributing, failing to see and do the many incredible things that are available. What wasted potential! What a sad thing to watch people of such potential wallowing in their own apathy, falling short of their incredible potential to live a full life and share their rich blessings with the people around them.

What do You Want?
I write this blog post as a sort of challenge to everyone that reads it. What do you want out of life? Is there something that you wish you could do, something that you've wanted to achieve in life but haven't yet done it? Is there something you would like to see, some place you would like to go? What do you want out of life? How do you want to bless and help the people around you? How can you more fully fulfill your own destiny and divinity? When you die, how do you want to be remembered by the people you love?

I am sure that you do have answers to these questions, I believe everyone does. Everyone has the desire for something better. If you do want something different in your life, keep reading. However, if you don't want to accept these challenges, don't waste your time by reading the questions below.

What it Takes to Set and Reach Goals

• Figure out what you want! Discover what you really want to change in your life. Read and answer the questions at the beginning of this post. Think deeply and seriously about where you want your life to head so that you find true clarity on what you really want in life.
• Do it. If you want something meaningful in life, then go for it. Do what it takes to make it happen. Don't spend your entire life thinking about it, worrying about it, and discussing how things aren't quite ideal for you to be able to do it. Get out there and start doing!
• Focus. Minimize and eliminate distractions from your life. Cleanse yourself of mindless television and internet surfing. Consistently increase activities that contribute to personal growth, health, learning, and success. Be sure that you do not get distracted by what you can't do in your own circumstances. Focus on what you can do and do it!
• Plan. Figure out exactly what you need to do to reach your goal. Research what it takes. Talk to people who have done it. Figure out what you need to do. If you can't figure out all of the steps right now, that is totally fine. Just do what you know you can do right now. If you step toward the thing which you desire, you will find yourself closer with the pathway clearer.
• Learn. To succeed, you must fill your mind with positive, true knowledge. If you want to change who you are, you have to drastically change what you allow others to teach you about life. You must acquire and trust knowledge that gives you personal power. Read scripture to heighten your understanding of your divine nature. Listen constantly to motivational speeches and talks to build confidence in yourself and in your abilities. You must flood your mind with good, pure, motivating, useful knowledge so that you have the power to sustain success. And you must eliminate that which lowers your view of yourself and your destiny.
• Get used to discomfort. Working toward new goals and dreams is difficult because it takes you out of your routine. Humans naturally like things to be comfortable and even predictable. Human beings like safety. But if you want to change and improve your life, you have to become friends with the pain of learning, action, and setbacks. After a time, however, you will learn to enjoy these difficulties as personal challenges and will welcome them as a way to improve yourself.
• Get help. If you do not have the knowledge, skills, or resources you need to reach your goals, get help from the people around you. Your spouse, friends, children, clergy members, teachers, managers, and even strangers are very often willing to give you support and guidance in your goals. Seek out the people who will teach you everything you need to do be successful.
• Persist. Keep working toward your goal. If you do not give up, then you cannot fail at reaching your goal. Think about it - as long as you continue to move forward toward your goals, you will succeed! I have seen many of my students overcome incredible obstacles to complete their studies because they kept moving forward and reached their goals. Be persistent - get back up when you fall down. Learn from your mistakes and adjust your approach. Just keep moving toward your ideal life and you will quickly find yourself living it.
• Find joy in the struggle. Working toward a goal is often as satisfying as reaching the goal. Training to run a race can be as exhilarating and beautiful as running the race. Learning so that you can pass as class or earn a degree can be as enriching as earning the degree. Consciously and consistently placing yourself on the path to success is success itself, so learn to love the process and path of success.
• Celebrate success. Set short-term goals for yourself and when you reach them, rejoice! If you run 3 miles for the first time, celebrate! If you complete a difficult course, or lose X number of pounds, celebrate! You are moving along the path to a more fulfilling, successful life.

So, what are you going to do? If you are not satisfied with your life, will you get up and begin to shape and create the life you desire? Or will you continue to meander through life living below your potential for happiness and success? Are you willing to accept the responsibility to make the changes you wish to see in your life? Are you willing to sacrifice the comfort of the apathetic slacker? It is never too early or late to learn, grow, change and achieve.

Are you willing to pay the price?