How to Succeed

A whole bunch of related experiences and sources landed in my lap over the past not-even-24 hours – too many to not put together and share. They all tie into the last several days’ posts about showing up, showing up fully, and having it all. These nuggets on their own are powerful, but together they are adding up to a synergistic stew of how to succeed at anything.

1. Mindset

First and foremost is mindset. Nothing can happen without the mindset of belief. Belief in ourselves and our abilities, and belief in our capability to learn and grow.

Carol Dweck illustrated the two mindsets with her classic work on mindset and brain plasticity. The brain does indeed reshape itself based on the not only the experiences we have, but our perception and belief about them. This is a good source for exploring further.

Watch Carol Dweck’s TED talk, PAUSE and watch this right now:

2. Begin

This landed in my inbox this morning, my daily dose of Seth Godin:

YES, YES, YES! I nearly hit the ceiling with my level of agreement! Simply write! Begin! SHOW UP! Do the thing, whatever it is, over and over and over. The quality will come. Be the baby learning to walk.

It is impossible to get better and look good at the same time. Give yourself permission to be a beginner. By being willing to be a bad artist, you have a chance to be an artist, and perhaps, over time, a very good one.

– Julia Cameron

3. Persist

The reason most people fail is that they stop too soon. They lose their belief and quit. The reason many people succeed is simply because those around them quit.

Do you want to be the quitter that not only does not succeed, but also creates space for the competition to succeed by default?

Or, do you want to be the person that persists and succeeds?

It never occurred to me that I couldn’t live the life I wanted to lead. It never occurred to me that I could be stopped…I had this very simple view: that the reason people who start out with ideals or aspirations don’t do what they dream of doing when they’re young is because they quit. I thought, well, I won’t quit.

– Susan Sontag

Yesterday I showed up for posing class and for the second week in a row it was canceled at the last minute. I had called ahead to confirm, yet by the time I arrived it was canceled. It takes courage for me to show up each time, knowing I’m the worst/least experienced/greenest/stumbliest, and that is EXACTLY why I go. But because I chose to show up, I could go home both times knowing that I didn’t miss anything and take that energy into my own practice at home. If I had chosen to skip the class out of fear, never knowing it was canceled, I would have spent the day/week beating myself up for giving into the fear. My practice would have been filled with doubt and fading confidence. SHOWING UP matters! This is persistence in action.

4. Find the Joy

Investor Graham Duncan on how to excel:

“[Tennis champion] Novak Djokovic said in an interview with the Financial Times that “I can carry on playing at this level because I like hitting the tennis ball.” The interviewer replied in surprise: “Are there really players who don’t like hitting the ball?” Djokovic answered, “Oh yes. There are people out there who don’t have the right motivation. You don’t need to talk to them. I can see it.” If you can find the thing you do for its own sake, the compulsive piece of your process, and dial that up and up, beyond the imaginary ceiling for that activity you may be creating, my experience is the world comes to you for that thing and you massively outperform the others who don’t actually like hitting that particular ball. I think the rest of career advice is commentary on this essential truth.”

In other words, like the thing you are pursuing. Find the joy. Create the joy. Have fun with it. If not, maybe it is the wrong thing.

If the thing is not by choice and is unavoidable (for example, recovering from surgery) get creative with it and flip it into a personal challenge. Season it heavily in belief, begin, persist, and find joy in your success. It is all yours to make of it what you will.

This is how to succeed.

It may seem overly simplified but I task you to apply this to everything in life and see if it doesn’t fit and work.

1. Mindset
2. Begin
3. Persist
4. Find the Joy

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