What is Success?

Tiny little stacks of Success

The recipe for disaster is knowing you need to do something, being able to do it, but neglecting to do it.

— Jim Rohn

I really don’t remember now, where I heard it from. Perhaps it was from one of the several books I have read, or am reading at the moment, or from a podcast I listened to, or from someone I spoke to, anyway, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that I heard it, and I got it.

In the past week, this definition has been playing in my head, and it has pushed me beyond what would naturally have limited me. And oftentimes, or even all the time, the one main factor that limits us is ourselves.

For more than I can remember now, I have read about success, growth, and development, I have even written and spoken about them, but I am not sure I have been so overwhelmed and worked by an idea than I have been by this idea in the past week and even until this morning.

“Success is saying you will do something, and then going ahead to do it.”

It doesn’t look like much, even to me, but it has been ringing in my head over and again and I have been applying it literally. It is in its literal application that I understood the powerful effect it has.

You mean if I say I am going to wake up by 5:00 AM today, and I wake up, that is success? YES!

If I say I am going to call my team members by 10:00 AM this morning and I do, that is success? YES!

If I say I will send that email first thing in the morning and I do, that is success? YES!

If I write a few things on my to-do list and I go ahead and do them, that is success? YES!

Success is not at all complicated! It doesn’t have to be all the biggest things that blow the life out of you. Success is saying you will make your bed when you wake up in the morning and you actually do it. Success is saying you will work out in the morning, and you wake up and work out, no matter how you’re feeling, no matter what is in the way. That is success!

Recording success in the very little, seemingly insignificant things you do every day, and before you know it, you are living a successful life.

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Success is not at all measured by what other people say it is, or what other people expect of you. Success is not you getting the best of someone else or being better than someone else (unless you say that’s what you want to do and then do it, that is success then, but will you stop there? What does it say of you if your idea of success is being better than someone else whose idea of success is doing what he says he will do? Anyway, that’s a different topic). Success is saying you will be there at 10:00 AM, and you are there on or before the time.

What then is a successful life? It is a life that consists of these little, tiny successes. This is because these actions, becoming successful at the little things, build up like a muscle and become a habit that is translated into other, more prominent areas in your life.

At work, when you say you’ll get the task done by EOD (End of Day), the task gets done, success.

At home, when you tell your kid that you will show up for their sports day, you show up, success.

If you know you want to lead a successful life, and you know success is simply achieving whatever it is you say you will achieve, no matter the hindrances, you will let nothing stop you.

A big part of this realization is knowing now, in no unclear terms, with no ambiguity, that it all lies in my hands! Nobody else’s! It all depends on me! Success is what I say it is. I am the one who sets the goals, I am the one who makes sure I achieve them. Nobody else has anything to do with my success! God forbid I say I wasn’t successful because of someone else that is not me! Nobody has imposed on me. If I say I want to do something, it is because I want to do it and I know I can do it, and if I do it no matter what, that is success!

Doing all the things you say you will do, every day, is what makes a successful life. No matter how little or of little impact what you say you want to do is. If you don’t neglect to do the little things, that discipline will be translated into you not neglecting to do the big things.

Jim Rohn said some time ago, that the recipe for disaster is knowing you need to do something, being able to do it, but neglecting to do it. To build a life of success, you’ve got to know what you need to do and do it.

Now, your type of goals, whether small, medium, or large, fully depends on you. If you set small goals and you achieve them, that is Success! If you keep setting small goals all your life, that’s your cup of tea. You will certainly be a success — but in small, mediocre things. I’m sure that’s not the life you want to lead, but if it is, that’s fine too! As long as you’re a success in what you say you will do!

If you set a goal to go back to the village and start subsistent farming at the back of your house to feed your family and three neighbors (there’s nobility in that), and you go ahead and do it, that’s Success!

If you are like me who likes big, vain goals and glory, and you set a goal to build the largest cathedral in the whole of Africa, and you go ahead and do it, that’s Success!

Regardless of what your end goal is, start with the little successes in your daily life and stack them up. It is these tiny little stacks of success that compound and ‘musculate’ (from the word ‘muscle‘, don’t mind me, it’s my new non-existent word) into a life of success.

It is ultimately in your hands, and I sincerely hope that’s the life you want to live. A life of success.

To your growth,

Your Coach,

Abiola Okunsanya,

Handzinspired.