Chapter Pages 129-136
Chapter 11 Title: The Success Habit
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I believe that most people are more successful than what they give themselves credit for. I also believe that people are definitely more successful than what society gives them credit for. Because most of us have unrealistic definitions of success, or we consider having lots of money to be a success we struggle to acknowledge our own everyday accomplishments.
Success by definition means to accomplish an aim or purpose. This would mean that when we accomplish something that we set out to do then we’re successful, right?
For example, if we set a goal to work out at the gym for 5 days in a row and then do it, would you consider this a success? How about if we did it for 6 days in a row, would you consider that to be very successful?
For me it’s not a big deal to workout 5 days in a row, but for some this would be a HUGE accomplishment which they should be very proud of. The problem is that the world can be pretty cruel sometimes and many people won’t recognize your personal accomplishment as being successful.
A short story on success
Last year we helped someone buy a home on Land Contract. She saved up about $8,000 and was determined to use it to become a homeowner. Her original goal was to buy a home outright with cash, but we ran into a lot of problems where she was outbid or the properties needed too much work. Although tempted to stop looking, this woman never gave up on her search and neither did I.
We eventually found her an ideal Land Contract property that she liked and we moved forward. However, what should have been a simple transaction turned out to be a nightmare. Everything that could go wrong went wrong...at no fault of the buyer I might add. She was great, she did everything that I requested of her to make it happen.
Eventually we closed on the deal and she got her home. Success! One detail that I failed to add was the fact that the home was located on a street with less than two houses on the block. She bought in an area considered to be “The Hood”. It was definitely not an area that I would want to live in.
Does buying a home in “The Hood” make the buyer less of a success? Of course not! I don’t have to live there, she does, and if she’s happy with her purchase then more power to her! But we all know that some people will downplay her SUCCESS by judging her for where she bought the home. And if she’s not a strong minded person then she’ll start to second guess herself. I see it happen all the time.
Not only can this world be very cruel, it can also be very judgemental. So if we don’t have a clear and realistic definition of what success means to us, we’ll always be trying to live up to someone else’s unrealistic expectations. We shouldn’t allow others to define what success means to us because living someone else’s dream is not truly living.
Make it a great day and don’t forget to “count your wins” regardless of how small others might consider them to be!
~Matthew