All of us want to live a happy and successful life. We’ve asked a lot of people, and none of them say they want to live a sad, unfulfilling, and unsuccessful life. So, what stops us from reaching our goals?
For most of us, it’s much easier to ask for something than it is to go out and earn it. Having goals and plans are great, but plans without actions are just dreams. I don’t want to dream about happiness and success, I want to live it every day.
In order to do that, we all have to develop actions and habits that push us forward towards our objectives. These habits will enable us to reach our goals, but also give us the lifestyle we’ll need to continue evolving our actions to accommodate our evolving goals.
Happiness is not a feeling. It’s a perspective. Similarly, success is not an event. It’s a mindset. Neither happiness nor success are destinations that we reach. They’re journeys that we’re on as our lives unfold.
I’m often asked about getting in shape and my reaction is usually the same. The hardest part of getting into shape is creating the lifestyle of exercise. In fact, if you go to the gym for three weeks at the same time, you don’t even need to work out to see the benefits. That’s because in three weeks you’ll create the exercise routine, and eventually, you’ll start working out. The hard part isn’t working out. It’s habitually getting to the gym.
Once you’re in the gym every day at the same time, eventually, you’ll get bored enough to work out and then fitness will find you. It’s about removing the decision of whether or not to go to the gym. And this is often rooted in how we see ourselves.
If you see yourself as committed to living an active lifestyle, then you’ll identify with regular exercising. That self-identity makes going to the gym less of a decision. It’s part of who you are, so you remove the hardest part of staying in shape—deciding that you’re going to stay fit.
Creating the habit of going to the gym inevitably results in fitness, and creating healthy professional habits inevitably results in success. What habits for success are you living today? What actions do you take to improve your happiness and your success? Dreamers want to succeed. Doers inevitably succeed.
