Success is not a mystery
Most people sleepwalk their way to mediocrity
“Your biggest challenge isn’t that you’ve intentionally been making bad choices. Your biggest challenge is that you’ve been sleepwalking through your choices,” Darren Hardy said.
The difference between being fabulously happy, healthy and successful, or depressed, unhealthy and broke is the choices you make throughout life.
If you want world-class success, you need to make world-class choices.
The most successful people in the world constantly make choices that make them more informed, more knowledgable, more competent, better skilled, and better prepared.
Do your choices take you in this direction? Most people’s choices don’t. Your level of success and happiness is a direct result of the choices you’ve made.
If you’re experiencing unhappiness or dissatisfaction, it’s likely you made some poor choices on the way.
If you’re experiencing fulfillment and happiness, you’ve probably made some great choices to create those feelings.
Most people aren’t that aware of the choices they make. For the most part, they sleepwalk through everyday choices like what they eat, how they treat their partner, and how they spend their free time.
The results are disastrous sometimes. Half of marriages end in divorce. Far too many people are overweight and unhealthy. Most people are at jobs they dislike, and live in constant dissatisfaction.
No one chooses to end up divorced, obese, or stuck at a terrible job. No, these realities happen because people sleepwalk through small, seemingly unimportant choices that create enormous results.
Successful people are acutely aware of all the choices they make.
Unlike most people, extremely successful people consistently make choices that expand their life.
“Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice.” -Jim Collins said.
The Little Things Derail Your Success
“As long as you’re making choices unconsciously, you can’t consciously choose to change that ineffective behavior and turn it into productive habits.” -Darren Hardy said.
It’s the little things that inevitably and predictably derail your success. Little things become big things. Always.
Over time, poor small choices become poor big results. On the other hand, small good choices over time can create enormous success.
Jim Rohn once said: “Simple things are easy to do. They’re also easy not to do.” The reason so many people make poor choices is because they’re so easy to make. Small, lazy actions like eating a little treat after every dinner or forgetting to tell your partner you love them are seemingly unimportant.
It’s just one cookie, right? No big deal. But 100 cookies in 3 months becomes a big deal. The little things derail your success.
Anthony Moore said that a few years back, he tore his ACL playing basketball. It was a major injury, and he couldn’t play sports for 10–12 months. Before the injury, he was extremely fit. He didn’t really drink alcohol, he jogged several times a week, and he ate a decent diet.
But after the injury, his lifestyle changed dramatically. He started making small choices to have 1–2 beers after work (sometimes 2–3). He ate a lot of pizza and nachos. He sat in front of the TV for several hours every day.
By the time he could play sports again, he had become overweight and unhealthy. Sure, he was making good “big” decisions again — start exercising, eat healthier — but his hundreds of poor small choices had become a powerful routine. He wouldn’t lose that weight for another 18 months.
Who you are is a result of your choices.
Smaller choices are far more powerful in the long run than big choices right now. Even if you make occasional great big choices, you won’t achieve success if you consistently make poor small choices.
“We are what we repeatedly do.” – Artistotle
“If you want to get from where you are to where you want to be, you have to start by becoming aware of the choices that lead you away from your desired destination. Become very conscious of every choice you make today so you can begin to make smarter choices moving forward.” – Darren Hardy.
Most people sleepwalk through small choices every day. As a result, their lives aren’t that successful.
The first step towards changing your life into an extraordinary life is to become aware of your choices.
The challenge isn’t to stop intentionally making bad choices. The real challenge is to become aware of the bad choices you make unconsciously.
One way to do this is tracking. Many entrepreneurs like Tim Ferriss and Tony Robbins recommend taking a notebook with you and tracking even then smallest choices you make in a particular area.
You can’t make the most of who you are — your talents and resources and capabilities — until you are aware of and accountable for your actions.
Removing bad habits is just as important as developing good habits.
“When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and repeated, the rate of improvement accelerates.” – Pearson’s Law
Most people never see the trap they’re in. They continue sabotaging themselves through unconscious poor choices, never realizing the problem is themselves.
The moment you begin realizing how your choices are affecting your life is the moment you begin to change your life entirely. Awareness is key. Once you see how powerful your small choices are over time, you take control of your entire future.
Most people are not aware of the power of their small choices. They’re on a path towards mediocrity. Once you become aware of your choices, the “possibilities” of your success become inevitable. It just requires awareness.
“The awakening to your own ignorance is the beginning of wisdom.” -Frank Crane
Enormous success is a natural result of consistently applying basic fundamentals.
“Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.” – Jim Rohn
It may be difficult, frustrating, and humbling to develop and grow. But if you stick to it, you’ll eventually reach bigger successes.
Most observers see an incredibly successful person and have no idea how to become that successful. In most people’s eyes, enormous success is a complete mystery. The truth is, success isn’t mysterious. It isn’t “magical.” Enormous success isn’t reserved solely for the lucky.
Bruce Lee once said, “What you habitually think largely determines what you will become.”
If you habitually and consistently apply basic fundamentals to your every day choices, your life will expand enormously. You’ll begin to achieve enormous success. Opportunities will become abundant.
Achieving success isn’t a secret. There’s no hidden formula that rich people aren’t telling you. It’s simply a matter of applying basic fundamentals over time. It may seem boring. But it’s extremely effective.
Darren Hardy said: “Success happens through a continuum of mundane, unexciting, and sometimes difficult daily disciplines compounded over time.”
Once You Design the Right Conditions, Desired Behavior Naturally Follows
“A structure in your life and some routines that help you every day and keep you on the right track is better than single shot at getting some things done.” – Thomas Oppong
Starting to consistently practice fundamentals isn’t easy. Most people don’t realize that willpower doesn’t work. If you rely solely on willpower to remain consistent, you’re practically guaranteed to fail.
Instead, you need to set up an environment that forces you to succeed. Someone trying to eat healthier will eventually end up opening the bag of fatty chips in their cupboard. Their willpower will run out. They shouldn’t waste precious energy on fighting the urge — they should just throw the chips away.
Famous author Frank Crane once wrote: “No man becomes noble, good, and great until he lays down the law that he is so.”
If you want to begin consistently making world-class choices that expand your life 10x, you need to create an environment where you can’t fail. Once you design the right conditions, your desired behavior naturally follows.
What are your top 2–3 biggest goals?
Successful people don’t rely on willpower anymore. Instead, they design the right conditions (commitment to a morning routine, turning down any opportunities that don’t help them achieve their top goals) so that their desired behavior naturally follows.
They consistently do what they need to do to be successful.
“When a man makes his thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure food.” James Allen
In Conclusion
“Small, seemingly inconsistent steps completed consistently over time will create a radical difference.” -Darren Hardy.
It’s not the big things that add up in the end; it’s the hundreds, thousands, or millions of little things that separate the ordinary from the extraordinary.
Expanding your life and becoming incredibly successful isn’t a secret. It’s not even complicated. It’s not easy. But it’s simple.
Enormous success simply requires consistent small good choices. Little things become big things.
In his famous book Good to Great, Jim Collins pointed out: “Good-to-great transformations never happened in one fell swoop. There is no single define action, no grand program, no one super innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment.”
Enormous success doesn’t happen by one grand, total lifestyle change. Expanding your life into an extraordinary one doesn’t happen overnight. The most successful people of the world make small, consistent choices that expand their life.
Little by little, day by day.
