How to achieve LIFELONG SUCCESS?

“Conquer yourself and the whole Universe is yours”- Swami Vivekananda, this was the realization that he attained through his spiritual learning, experience and reflection in his life. Achieving lifelong success, requires one to learn every day, consistently, continually with commitment to self-development in the journey of life. The Lifelong Success Framework illustrated above, will help you navigate through the transformative process, just as, Mother Nature metamorphosizes the caterpillar into a butterfly, giving it wings to fly free and untethered. It is a 3-stage self-actualization process: i) Create Your Core ii) Create Your Influence iii) Create Your Impact. Here is how you can achieve lifelong success as a human being:

Create Your Core: the first step, awaken to the self-awareness within you. Nature bestowed human beings with awareness. To be awake and aware is to be alive. This is the key to building a strong CORE that will, with sustained practice, help you become: mindful, creative and skillful as you align yourself with Nature. An effective technique to trigger this process of self-awareness is to take note of your emotions on a daily basis. Do write down your observations of your experiences in life. For example, you may have experienced an intense ‘feeling of joy’ in a particular moment. Articulate this experience in your personal time with yourself in a diary. Ask yourself, what ‘factors’ contribute to that feeling? How much of it was because of actions that you performed in the past? Did the ‘moment of joy’ arrive unexpected? How much of it was created because of the contribution made by others in your life including strangers, to making that moment happen for you? As you, begin to learn about yourself, over time and with persistence, your awareness will grow from within and you will become more observant of yourself, effortlessly engaging with everyone around you with ease, empathy and effectiveness in your inter-personal relationships. You will soon receive positive feedback from the people you interact and engage, as being ‘thoughtful, kind and understanding’ in your actions. This is the marker, that you have begun to blossom. Persist on this path and Nature will show you the way, day by day and you will always be guided by your wisdom in every thought and action. You have now created your CORE. Keep on nurturing and it will help you to live in the present moment, fully engaging with it and making the most of it; open to all possibilities, spontaneously acting with the right knowledge and skillful actions. This practice maybe intangible, however, the results are visible and will manifest in your life as peace, accompanied by success in all endeavours.

Create Your Influence: when your CORE is mature, you will live by a code of ‘progressive beliefs’ such as honesty and equality. Furthermore, these beliefs will uncover ‘universal values’ within you such as ‘compassion and selflessness’. A combination of these beliefs and values will create infinite ‘positive attitude’ within you. As a result, you will become highly energetic and develop endurance to tide over pain and difficulties created by crisis and challenges in life’s journey. Its Nature’s way of ensuring that you evolve stronger and refined in every aspect of your being, akin to a chunk of coal first transforming into an uncut diamond through intense heat and pressure sustained over millions of years in natural environment, and thereafter, a master craftsperson works on it to a cut and finish that produces sparkling diamonds that are most precious. If you look up to great leaders: Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, APJ Abdul Kalam and others who dedicated their life to transforming the world and building a legacy that influences and inspires people to act beyond their current circumstances, you will find a certain common characteristic in their CORE. They were able to transcend time and space though their work in life, thereby establishing a perpetual influence over future generations to come.

Create Your Impact: a strong CORE produces a calm and wise person with positive INFLUENCE over people and one who transforms with ease, complex challenges into opportunities of growth. As you continue growing in influence you will begin to imagine a better world and articulate that in the form of a VISION and work towards integrating your family to achieve that VISION over your lifetime. Your greatest asset will be the IMPACT you will create through the execution of your action plan to achieve your VISION. You will be able to overcome barriers and obstacles that emerge, through wise actions that are effortless and timely. You will be able to inspire like-minded people to collaborate, synergize and integrate their energies to actualize your VISION to create the right IMPACT.

Here’s wishing you the very best to conquer yourself and create a legacy that lives on.