Success Strategies I Have Learned
From watching and studying many self help gurus over the past few years, time and time again I come across the same thing. Success is a mindset and I truly believe this. You can literally bring all of your life dreams and ambitions to a halt just because you think you can’t. Or you let your fears get a grip on you. We all need to learn to live without fear.
- Success is a mindset.
You need to eat, sleep, and breathe this mindset. You have to wake up in the morning with the confidence to say I will be successful. Say it with INTENT! It means nothing, if you don’t have intent and you will fail. Constantly strive for success, whether it be in school, work, exercising, or eating healthy. Literally anything you want to do, set out to be successful at it.
2. Frustration is Important.
When you get frustrated you can get upset or even angry (everyone including myself is guilty of this). But I was lucky enough to not only be in the right mindset, but to have a strong support group of family and friends. Another thing to calm the frustration is you need to BREATHE. I’ll get more into that in the next section. You know, I have a friend and she always tells me that, “frustration Dylan, just means you are going to learn something big.” This really hit home to me and I realized she was right. You could learn something about yourself, another person, or just life in general. Just know this, try to calm down and be rational. You will make it through okay, and will be better in the end because of it.
3. You Need to BREATHE.
Breathing is so important and I cannot stress enough how well it works. I mean it keeps us all alive for one thing. But it is also a way to control yourself as well as a possible outcome in a situation. If you are feeling upset, frustrated, sad, angry, stressed or what have you, just breathe. Take a big inhale through your nose, hold your breathe for a few seconds, then exhale. It gives you time to process your thoughts as well as the situation and your own emotions. Keep control of yourself.
4. You Cannot Help Anyone Until You Help Yourself.
This is exactly as it sounds, as much as we’d like to be, we are not super heroes who can come to the rescue to save everyone from their problems. Help yourself first, learn to expand your horizons, open your mind, and take risks. It can be uncomfortable and scary at times learning about yourself and growing. But I promise you it is not that bad. Just break out of that box you put yourself in and discover the magical world of your true self. Don’t worry about what anyone thinks. Worry about you and what makes you happy. Focus on the little things, you don’t need it all to happen at once. I’ve done some things to help me shatter that box I put myself in. A friend of mine really helped me out. She would put me in the most uncomfortable positions she could, just to make me react. Anything from jumping up and down in public, to sitting on the floor in a book store. They may seem minute to you, but to me they were obstacles, trust me when I tell you that. If I can do it anyone can with some time, patience, and if you are lucky like I am, a good friend doesn’t hurt. So here is a challenge for the week. For anyone stuck in their box. I want you to find your most out going and crazy friend and go in public with them. For 2 days, like a weekend or something and just mimic them. Everything they do and have fun, this is the most important thing. I guarantee you it will not be that bad.
5. Read, Read, READ.
I know a lot of people hate reading and they think it is boring, but it truly is helpful for your mind and career. Many successful people say, knowledge is power, and if you learn you earn. I truly believe this 100%. So here is another challenge for the week. I want you to go out and pick a book that is interesting to you and read it. Whatever you want, there are so many books out there I can guarantee that you will find something you will enjoy. You don’t have to read it cover to cover the first day, but just do this. Read maybe a chapter a day, or a couple pages a day for a week straight. Then let me know what you picked, why you picked it, and how it’s going.
6. Study People.
I truly believe this is a great skill for anyone to have, it is to learn about other people. You can do this with family, friends, people in public, or even people you admire on the Internet, for example YouTube. Just watch and listen, notice how they interact with other people or the world around them. Watch body movements, facial expressions, even breathing patterns. You can literally see when someone is confident, nervous, tired, scared, in love, or any other emotion you can think of. You just need to watch them and if you are interacting with them adjust accordingly to see what works when someone does this, or that. You can eventually get good and control the outcomes in different scenarios.
7. You Don’t Need to Fit In.
Just because everyone around you acts stupid, immature, childish, egotistical or anything else you don’t claim for yourself to be. Then don’t change to fit in! I see it all the time people change and conform to fit in around them and I understand why it happens because it’s a natural thing. But try and be more self aware and take control of you and how you want to be portrayed. This can only benefit you in the long run. Maybe you have heard of the movie “Our Brand is Crisis,” well in that movie they have a saying that really fits this, “don’t change the man to fit the narrative, change the narrative to fit the man.” Basically what this means is don’t change yourself to fit the environment you are in. Change the environment you are in to fit you. So if you are a business man don’t go around art museums with your artsy friends and try to be something you are not. (Unless you are truly into art then that is a different story, but still BE YOURSELF!)
8. Network!
Once again, open up that box and rip down those walls! In order to grow and better yourself in life, you need to open up and meet new people. For the longest time I didn’t do this. I struggled with it and I still do on occasion but I am getting better. I have realized you never know when that person you just met could play a huge role and be truly helpful in your life. Even if it is just them becoming a close friend. Everyone is on the same journey in a sense that we all have goals and ambitions in mind. So why not make each others lives easier and be there for one another and possibly work together. Even if they don’t benefit you now, they very much could later. If not you made a new friend anyways.
9. Strategize, Always Have a Plan.
You should almost always have a plan or at least a general direction in which you are going, so you don’t get lost along the way. It is really hard to create your future how you want it when you have no game plan or strategy in place to guide you. It would be like a coach sending his team into a game with no plays, it would be chaos. And just as those plays are essential to whichever sport you enjoy, your strategy is just as essential to your future. The plan can always be changed because people are always changing and that’s okay. But as long as you have a foundation, it is only a matter of time until everything falls into place.
10. Own What You Say.
If you feel strongly about something or have said something that you mean, OWN IT! Take control, take responsibility for it and don’t coward down. Mean what you say, say what you mean and never backtrack. If someone confronts you, be straight up with them (in a civil way) and explain what you mean and why you believe this and OWN IT!
Don’t be afraid of anyone else, the world is yours for the taking. Just like many others have bent it at their will to make it become the life they want, you can do the same. Just change the narrative and own everything about you.
So I have challenged you with a few things to try out and I would love to hear from you about them whether it’s one or both! Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter Dylan Garner, I would love to hear about your experiences with the challenges!!
- Challenge 1: Find your most outgoing and crazy friend and mimic everything they do in public for 2 days. Have fun with this. I want to hear your experiences, what you guys did, and if it helped you break out of that box.
- Challenge 2: I want you to go and pick out a book that is interesting to you. Read a few pages, chapters, any amount you want as long as you read it every day for a week. I want to hear about what book you chose and why and how the reading is going.
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it and I truly appreciate it. I can’t wait to hear from you!
