Wed 28 Jan 2009
What are the most important elements of finding success in life?
Posted by echan76 under Sociology
greengirl asked:
In a persons quest for success in life, what do you feel are the most important things they need to practice or focus on to get there? What do you feel are the biggest road blocks or hurdles that people have to overcome in their lives in order to achieve personal success and which of these trouble spots do you feel are the most under-emphasized? What do you feel are the most helpful resources people can turn to? Personal success stories would also be appreciated.
I’m trying to get a feel for other peoples ideas of success…want to compile a list of the most popular & most obscure answers, for research.
In a persons quest for success in life, what do you feel are the most important things they need to practice or focus on to get there? What do you feel are the biggest road blocks or hurdles that people have to overcome in their lives in order to achieve personal success and which of these trouble spots do you feel are the most under-emphasized? What do you feel are the most helpful resources people can turn to? Personal success stories would also be appreciated.
I’m trying to get a feel for other peoples ideas of success…want to compile a list of the most popular & most obscure answers, for research.
My own idea is success in making ones way through life, achieving personal growth & reaching ones full potential, and finding ways to achieve ones dreams, goals and desires, whatever they may be.
Example: Hard work, good comunication skills, good interpersonal relationship skills, persistence, etc.
depends on how you define success. one persons idea of success is anothers idea of failure.
faith in God. thats really the only thing that has meaning in life, because, when u die, u cant take anything from this life with you. all you essentially have in the end is your faith. thats the only way into heaven.
It depends on how you define success. If you view success as having tons of money….then maybe cut back on dating etc. and work tons of overtime. If you view success as having a large and happy family, then don’t spend so much time at work. take time off to spend with the kids. Most importantly though I think you should measure your success by your happiness.
belief in oneself. : I can do it..
Success comes from within; it is determined by what your heart desires and requires. Those who chase success determined by outside influences will end up on a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs.
As a man that is 56 years old, a Licensed and Ordained Preacher and an accredited Christian Counselor I have found that there are certain keys to success.
As long as I am being fulfilled by what I do;
As long as what I do gives my life purpose and reason;
As long as I treat others in the correct way:
As long as I am honest with myself;
I’m a success, because I have found my purpose and reason for living.
It boils down to one thing: making good choices!
iniative, pereverance, hard work, faith, patience, ambition and assertiveness.
depends on how you define success. one persons idea of success is anothers idea of failure.
Positive attitude, confidence, and persistence are the keys.
accepting and believing in JESUS
I think that not stopping because the going might get tough. Persevering through all struggles to attain one’s goal. Having someone there for you to lean on when you need encouragement.
I had to work to pay my own way through college. I got tired sometimes but my eyes never left the goal I was striving for. I also had faith in God.
Most Important Elements: A loving, supportive partner. Hard work, even at the (sometimes) sacrifice of a social life. Learning from your mistakes. Freeing your mind of hate, racism, bigotry and discrimination. Finding a balance between logic/reasoning and emotion when it comes to decision-making.
Obscure, but still important elements: STAY AWAY FROM ALCOHOL AND DRUGS!!!!!!!! Eat healthy and maintain a healthy body. Get plenty of sleep.
Under-emphasized: Give your life and brain rest periods like taking vacations, taking up hobbies and spending quality time with family and friends.
find your own way in life. dont follow others in the way you speak, act, think,dress, or religious beliefs. trust your own judgment and stick with it. what you make of your life is not at all about whether you belive in god or not or who you wish you were. it’s about how you carry yourself. true sucess is only found, in my opinion, by being the best version of yourself that you can be.
By “success” most people mean financial attainment. Apparently you mean a broader definition of success that includes spiritual elements of living and a general enjoyment of life.
Unfortunately, the requirements for those two are directly opposed to one another. The attributes required for financial success are easy to list. You must be:
a) Good looking
b) Greedy
c) Unimaginative
That is, you must be skilled in manipulating people. Good looks is important because it tends to set situations up in which people will give you the benefit of the doubt and slant things like grades and interviews in your favor.
Greed means the willingness to put money above all other things. To be willing to take advantage of anyone, lie to get your way, take credit for other people’s work and ideas, and be unconcerned about what is legal, moral, or ethical. You must be willing to renounce love for gold and power, as Albrecht does in “Ring der Neibelungen.”
And to be unimaginative means to believe that life is simple and the choices are black and white. To be willing to be unconcerned about individual people and the human race, and to be focussed on your concept of “the real world.”
Obviously these thoughts contradict the breadth of mind required to be satisfied with life on a broad basis. I think there are three keys to that satisfaction, also:
1) A passion for some aspect of your life
2) Acceptance of the fact that life is difficult and happy endings are rare
3) Willingness to outgrow superstition and false religion
Your passion can be for a person, but that is exceptionally tricky to work out. But to find satisfaction in life you must find a passionate concern for something that is needed and appreciated by others. And be willing to accept that the finer your passion and the more intensely it is shared with a few people, the more people at large will hate you for it.
Life is suffering. A noble truth that we all must enter into sooner or later. How sad are they who do not grasp that life is suffering until the final minutes of their lives. The great error in the American Dream is that it assumes that somewhere, life is easy.
To find satisfaction in life, you must fully accept the fact that life is difficult. Because the moment in which you truly and fully accept the fact that life is difficult, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.
And you must set aside theism and superstition. The god of the Great World Religions is imaginary, and if there is a god, it is so completely apart from us and different from what we imagine that we cannot conceive of what god is like. The religious tendency to use “god” to force other people to behave as we think they should is the greatest cause of unhappiness, suffering, and mental illness in the world today. To find Peace, you must wean yourself from all things of that kind.
Study up on the Historical Deists, beginning with Voltaire and Thomas Jefferson.
Oh, and good luck.
For me success means finding your purpose in life (why you were put here on planet earth) and fulfilling it. To be content with who I am, where I’m at, what I’m doing, what I have (or have not), and who is (or isn’t) in my life is my idea of true success.
“…and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make”.
Here is part of what you asked:
“What do you feel are the biggest road blocks or hurdles that people have to overcome in their lives in order to achieve personal success and which of these trouble spots do you feel are the most under-emphasized.”
The biggest road blocks or hurdles that people need to overcome is the belief that their lives are a cross between a soap opera and a beer commercial. How does someone even begin to know what their full potential is when most people walk around with an over-inflated self image and self worth is determined by an unrealistic scale? There are far too many people walking around with the same speech you display here who are extremely unhappy and unfulfilled.
Really there can only be one goal: happiness at all costs. When happiness becomes the goal, people tend to see the real value of life and drop their “act.”
Being happy with yourself is the first step,everything else will fall into place.
In order to pursue ultimate success in all areas (work, home,relationships), I think it’s important that you’re, 1st. happy in your personal life; find things/hobbies/people that fulfill you; limit negativity; next step is to find a job you LOVE! I was lucky enough to have 18 years working for one fabulous company before it was bought out and I was weeded out; Always remember that honor, integrity, good character, still stand for something and above all, be ethical; with yourself, your co-workers and your family.
NICKELS
Success is making decisions and living with them and accepting the consequences of those decisions.
I think the first thing is an analysis of your values, so you know what success means: is it money, recognition in your profession, a happy marriage and beautiful children, or some balance of all of these things? I spent a long, long time deciding what my values really are, so I never considered myself a success until recently. Then I came to recognize that (a) I liked my job, (b) my bosses thought I was good at it, and (c) none of that interfered with or contradicted my ethical values or standards outside of the office. (Still, I got laid off from that job after 16 years, so . . .)
I have come to accept that in order for me to make a lot of money, I would have had to consider that goal more important than my other, more subtle values, and I’m just not going to bother. Perhaps if I had decided to pursue money earlier, and had been successful at that, I would have found other ways. But we never do get to know about the paths we don’t take, do we?
I think learning not to follow the beaten path is important and highly underrated. So many people focus on how others are doing things, they forget that innovation and new ideas come from ignoring the status quo and approaching something from another direction.
PERSONAL HAPPINESS
Don’t know but I “(Hope) you find what you are looking for”.
People feel they lack this or that and chase their desires. But my success is discovering you lack nothing….. to be rid of desires and live a simple life.
Inner peace, health, smart work, intelligence, perseverance and humble treatment.
Are you happy? Do you sleep well at night? Do you look at events in your life as obstacles or challenges? Does success mean how much money and material items you can collect or how much you enjoy the things you do have? Success means different things to different people. Are you always looking forward or backwards in your life? I think personal success starts and ends in the heart, everything else is just the icing on the cake.
honesty, hard work, confidence, respect and a willing to learn
To create more usefulness for the future of the universe than I consume in resources.
Each person has thier own desires, but all things must be in moderation, including hard work, planning, and production. To try and fit yourself into the Production Model of the modern world is to turn yourself into a slave to a System of systems which puts no value on your life, only what you can produce.
When I say my desire is to create more than I consume, it doesn’t mean I want to work myself to death in a production scheme. By minimizing my impact, I can reduce the effort it takes for me and the universe to come out ahead.
I guess we are not here just to exist but to find the strenght to coexist and for this to happen, one must be in peace with all the options taken in life, know they were never random.
My idea of success was, some years ago, all about achieving professional goals, and because of the area I work in - cinema - I thought success derived from professional growth and social communication skills.. but I think that in the end, I was wrong. Success is something much more profound and it starts when you Stop to apreciate little things of life - your children laughter, the way the light changes your skin, the glow surrounding every human being and how everyone is so close connected in the same web of energy - success is knowing and feeling these little things by heart and being grateful to be part of it All.
Success is in giving and not necessarily waiting something in return and loving all things, because that is our true nature.
Maybe it will sound cliché, because Im just stating the obvious for so many - but for those still blind in a wild/cold world of objectiveness, I hope this might help you to stop and ponderate for a moment? Success - be true to yourself, always.
Thank you for your question.
Focus. Never ever lose it.