Daily Times

“I am convinced that life is just a game, here on Earth, a game where no one need to be a loser, no matter what his plight or condition may be. I believe that everyone can enjoy the fruits of victory but I am equally as certain that, like all other games, one cannot participate in this mysterious act of living with any hope of satisfaction unless one understands a few simple rules”. OgMandino

It is universal fact that everybody wants the good life, but not everybody gets the good life. Imagine how much successful would you be if you just started a company 50:50 with Bill Gates and Warren Buffet was teaching you how to invest in the stock market, showing you what he used to build Berkshire Hathaway into a $140 billion company. Imagine the change you’d be making in the world if Abdul Sattar Edhi and you were running a charity together and he was showing you what he learned on the streets of Karachi, helping the poor, the sick, and the dying. Imagine how much happier you’d be today if John Maxwell was your personal guide, showing you how to lead Fortune 500 Companies through his 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. Imagine how healthy you’d be today you went down to your gym, and Arnold Schwarzenegger was waiting there as your personal trainer, showing you how he built his body, the most fit body maybe ever. Realistically speaking, all these successes stories and our individual goals are not going to happen just by imagining while “Waiting for Godot” like Vladimir and Estragon, and spending the precious time in talking about turnips and carrots.I am a firm believer the universe applauds action, not thought. There is no coincidence and short cut for success in human life. It is all what you give in, the Universe gives you back as Tony Robinson says “We all have a story why we are where we are”.

Live your life with passion, with some drive. Be persistent; improve your inner circle with people who talk about growth, future, ideas and be ready to face challenges. Start working in developing yourself and prepare yourself for what it is that you want to become

I have realized through my study of the biggest and successful people in this world (athletes, businessmen, politicians, multibillions) that if you want something out of life, if there is some goal that you want to reach, that is really not easy as some people will make us feel. Living your dream, changing your behaviors, overcoming negative habits, everything is challenging. It is strictly hard. And, living alone is just very difficult but it is not IMPOSSIBLE. We can make a breakthrough and achieve our goals if we change our existing patterns of thinking and living by following certain principles of success that the world’s greatest people have left for you to adopt. The first thing to follow is to “Work on You”.You got to engage in an ongoing process of self-reflection to develop yourself. Spend more time on yourself than what you’ve been spending. Many of us never realize our greatness because we become sidetracked by secondary activities and remain failure to get freedom from the distractions.We are always working from dawn to dusk to secure job, get promotion, rise in salary, pleasing the Boss and never ever have time to do those things that we need to do to work on ourselves and then becomes too late.Michael Todd said you are the star of your show, you are the player, you are the director, you’re writing the script and you will determine whether your life is a smash office hit or flop.

Secondly important rue of success is overcoming the negative conversation in your mind. The way we talk to ourselves. The thoughts we allow to enter our mind and how we heal and clean our mind affects the course of our life. Though you can’t stop yourselffrom thinking negative but you must keep learning how to empower and standing up to yourself. You’ve got to stand up inside yourself sometimes and say shut up;I have got to do it.We all have around 60, 000 thoughts everyday passing through our mind and if we aren’t careful about which thought we allow in, it makes difference.

Thirdly it is worth knowing that you get scared sometimes, unleash yourself. Fears are uncertainty, don’t groom them. Try to face life. You have two options, either to “Live” with it or “Leave” it. Believe me; you can learn all the techniques in the world to do anything but if you don’t believe in yourself and you remain a hostage to uncertainty, it won’t happen for you. We need to remember that life is not just that simple. It’s not that cut and dry. This is why most of us never realize our personal greatness. We are casual about life and when you are casual about life, you will end up a casualty. Life is a serious business folks.

Another significant rule of success is having courage to start over again after continuous defeats. John Milton said in Paradise Lost, “what though the field be lost? All is not lost; the unconquerable will”.Failure is the part of life andit takes courage to start over again towards your goals. Winston Churchill said that “courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm”. When you step into your fears and continue to push yourself to go on, something happens for you. When you have something you want to do, if you don’t develop the courage to do and you spend a lot of time going around trying to convince other people to get their approval, what will happen is that you will lose your nerves. People will convince you that what you are doing doesn’t have any value and you give up on your dream. Les Brown the famous motivational speaker said “if you don’t have the courage to act, sometimes and particularly if you have something special to do, life will move on you”. Therefore, develop the habit of setting standards that others will be measured by. Do not go where the path may lead but go where there is no path and leave a trail.

Fifth rule of success is “STOP” wasting valuable time and asking yourself a question every day: how much time do you have left? Grammy Award winner Hollywood actor Robin Williams, Paul Walker and Junaid Jamshedare significant examples how death can surprise us. Most of us don’t use the talent and abilities that we have brought into the world. If we begin to live our lives as if each day were our last, our lives will take on a whole new meaning, a new expression, valuing each moment that we are blessed with.

Live your life with passion, with some drive. Be persistent; improve your inner circle with people who talk about growth, future, ideas and be ready to face challenges. Whitney Young said”it’s better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared. Start working in developing yourself and prepare yourself for what it is that you want to become.

Last but not the least;I don’t know what your dreams are. I don’t know what your goals are but let me leave this with you. Mine is to be the best son that I can to my parents. Mine is to be the best father that I can to my children and to be the best servant that I can to the humanity. Whatever your goals are, I know that you can achieve them by developing an attitude of a high achiever with self-esteem and perseverance.

The writer is Chairman PARAS Education Services, Writer, Educationist, PGLS Fellow Russia, 35th Event Wise Alumni Netherlands