What You Need To Know About Success

Success is primal.

It’s not philosophical. It’s not meta-physical. It is often unexplained and usually unexpected. It’s a sport built by cavemen. Achievable by any man.

You can’t make someone else want to be successful. They have to want it for themselves. You can’t create a process that automatically yields amazing results without the pain of trying and caring, fighting, losing, and struggling to figure it out.

Success is messy.

It demands passion — inside and out. There are no “kinda” or “sorta” or “maybe” types of success. You either are where you want to be or you’re not. It’s that simple. Along the way you can expect to lose friends, money, and your wits.

You’re going to screw up and sometimes hurt people. But you can’t be amazing and perfect all at the same time.

Success is hard work.

It’s usually more about brawn than brains. You’ve got to do the time. It’s as simple as that. There is no substitute for sweat. You can’t pay someone else to do what you need to do.

There is no one else who can care like you care. It’s you who has to be committed to doing whatever it takes for as long as it takes.

Success is possible.

It doesn’t matter what your journey looks like right now, there is always a way for you to get to where you want to be.

Stuck in debt? Work it off. Stuck in a bad job? Find a new one. Stuck feeling fat? Drop the pounds. It’s possible. You can get there.

You can’t be successful and make excuses at the same time.

Success is a choice.

You can’t pretend like you want to be amazing. You have to actually change your life. Your habits need to improve. Your daily schedule needs to improve.

What you eat, where you go, who you hang out with — that all needs to improve if you want to improve. You have to be willing to make hard choices and do hard work — even when no one is standing behind you cheering you on.

Success is worth it.

The journey to get to where you want to be is full of everything that you’re running from right now.

But on the other side of all that pain and stress and suffering is the prize you so desperately want. So get busy getting that.

Go be amazing. Start today.

Originally published at danwaldschmidt.com on January 8, 2015.