Life is like a game of chess...think, decide, and take action on each move

When we’re pursuing a goal, it’s very easy to get side-tracked without us noticing.  Therefore, once we’ve decided on a goal worth pursuing, make up your mind and stick to it.  Don’t let yourself fall into the downward spiral on autopilot because you haven’t made up your mind!

I hope you realize by now that all the things that happen to you in your life are very much related to what you have done or even what you haven’t done.  You should take ownership and personal responsibility for everything that is happening in your life.

Next time when you know you want a positive change in life, and you know it is important and worthwhile to do, make up your mind about what you want to do and then just do it!  Do it until you succeed.  I know, this simple method of how to achieve success might seem oversimplified for a lot of people.  Some of you are going to ask: How do I know whether my decision is the right one?  My answer is: It doesn’t matter!  It really doesn’t matter, as long as you decide on a path that rings true to your heart at that time, and take action.  Nothing will happen and you won’t achieve goals if you don’t take action, and you can’t really take action if you don’t make up your mind about what you want to act on.

What if you find out later that your decision is wrong?  I’m going to let you in on a secret: There is really no absolute right or wrong.  It all depends on how you look at it.  When your heart tells you to question what you’re doing, then you know it’s time to examine your action and do a check-up of your status or progress towards your goal.  This is the time to revisit your goal setting process and make up your mind again!  Even when the new decision is totally opposite of your initial decision, be brave enough to make up your mind and do what is right (true to your heart and soul).  Remember, different time and different circumstances do call for different actions if necessary, therefore please release all judgment to prove or defend your initial decision.  Take ownership, be courageous, and readjust your course towards your goal.

Only when you take action do you allow the possibilities to manifest and realities to be created.  Start small and take minor actions first.  Just get the ball rolling, and you can readjust as necessary.  Don’t try to be perfect and try to get all the details figured out first before you take action.  Nothing is perfect, and nothing is absolute.  Use your heart as your internal GPS to navigate towards your success.

Try it.  Make up your mind.  Don’t wait for others to guide you.  In your life, only you know what is best for yourself.  Trust me, everybody else has enough on their plate already to manage their own life.  Even if they have the best of intentions to provide advice for you, they are still not you.  You have to take their advice into your inner self, contemplate, meditate, and then make up your own mind.  Spend the time to set your mind on your path to success, and you can save yourself a lot of trouble.

Follow your heart, do what is right, learn how to achieve success and live a life without regrets.  It is absolutely possible.  This is a simple idea, but it is not an easy one to do.  Like many things in life, you learn along the way and get better at it while you do it.  Believe it and do it, and it will become a reality for you.

In our previous post, we talked about the common situation we all face in which we let potential success slip us by.  Nobody wants things to turn out this way.  But when you look around, people behave in ways that are allowing things to happen like this.  If we really think about it, the main reason we don’t achieve goals and get what we want is because we are very confused about what we truly want.  We don’t know what we want, where we are headed, and we also don’t believe enough that we can achieve our goal.  The real issue starts with the mindset for goal setting.

When you wonder how come success seems to elude you, try to ask yourself this question: “Have I really made up my mind and be clear about what I want?”  This is the key to the puzzle.  For example, when you’re taking a taxi, first thing the taxi driver is going to ask you is your destination.  If you have not made up your mind where you want to go, you can either get off the taxi or you can of course tell the taxi driver to just keep driving until you make the decision.  Until you make up your mind, you won’t reach your destination, and that will be a costly and time consuming taxi ride.

Learning how to achieve success starts with having the effective and right mindset, which begins with being crystal clear about your goal.  When we are not clear  about our goal, there is no focus of energy to pursue what we want.  Any minor distraction can give us reason enough to deviate from our path.  If we’re not clear about our goal, any path can seem like the right path.  We will waste a lot of energy and time trying out different paths.  We’ll be lucky if we finally reach our destination.  Many people get lost on the way and never make it to the end.  Isn’t this sad?

Therefore, when you’re doing your goal setting, make up your mind and ask yourself these questions: What is my goal and my path to achieve my goal?  Why do I want to achieve this goal?  Do I allow my path or goal to be shaped and determined by other people’s opinions, distractions, and so called well-meaning advice?

For more tips on how to achieve success in life, stay tuned for our next post in this three-part success series, which tells you more about making up your mind and sticking to it until you succeed…

Life is like this beautiful rose...let's not get distracted by the fly

Have you ever marveled at how time flies?  It only seemed like yesterday when you wanted to do something, make a change, etc…but things still remain just the same old.  And it’s been two years, three years, or even more!!!

Yes, many things happened over the course of these years.  You know you’ve been trying your best to make the changes and achieve the goals you set a few years back, but somehow you got caught up with life.  We tend to convince ourselves that “It’s just life…it happens to everyone“.

This is very common, and also very human.  After all, we have many responsibilities in life, and we need to take care of this, and take care of that….even though the very thing we want to change is one of the most important things in our life.  We surely know it is important.  We know it is precious and it will be gone when we don’t treasure it while we can.  We know…we know…BUT we have a life to live, and we just can’t tend to it right now.

The question is: When do we have the time to do the important things we know we should do? 

Sadly, for most of us, we will only drop whatever’s on our hands and tend to that important thing when it is too late…when the consequences of us not tending to it shout at our face…when the regret and remorse start to engulf us.

Some of us make major changes in life, turn over a new leaf, or experience a sudden shift in paradigm from life-changing events like this.  Some carry the regret and emotional scar throughout the rest of their life.

Why do we behave like this?  Can we avoid it?

Yes, of course we can.  For more details, stay tuned for our next post in this three-part success series…”Clarity and Focus.”