You do you

Want to be successful, rich or powerful*? You don’t have to be born into wealth, have the greatest mind or to be someone influential. You just have to be yourself and do things you want to do. Now I know you’ve heard this over and over, we’re going to explain how it works and why it’s that simple. Some might not understand that sentence completely and be thinking; well I’ve just done an engineering degree, that’s me, I’ll do that. This is taking that sentence not literally enough, you aren’t your degree, you’ve done your degree. I challenge these people to go to a party and introduce themselves without stating their degree/major or what their job is.This is the wrong way of thinking about yourself. When we were young anyone could introduce themselves in a multitude of ways i.e “Hi I’m Kevin & I love finger painting”. Job was a term that widely being used from the beginning of the revolutionary era. Your work isn’t a subset of your job, a job is a subset of the work you do. The common belief for society is to finish high school, get a degree, to find a career, stay safe while building a family and slowly become wealthy. They believe this gives them the respect from society and in turn making them successful.

It’s not each target or destination that’s the goal to success, but the entire line, the journey. Success is a state of mind. The way to do it is to enjoy every moment, have a positive attitude towards life, an open mind and be grateful for everything you have. If you’re thinking my life’s terrible, it can’t be worse blah blah. After slapping you, I’d remind you if you have the option for dinner tonight, a bed to sleep on, basic first aid access, what are you reading this blog with and you can read. You have a lot to be thankful for. This also stems from an open mind, if you look at every situation openly you’ll always be grateful because you understand both sides. This will allow you to always have a positive outlook. It will also grant you the ability to learn to fail. Meaning you can never really fail. Failing just means a new lesson learnt. If you fail you’re not a failure, the failure is a separate entity. No one calls JK Rowling a failure for being rejected by publishers 12 times before Harry Potter was accepted (Or any of these other authors). Life is basically an ultimate open book exam, except you can retry any of your mistakes and ask for help.

In your life every hour, every minute, you choose how to live it. What to work on, do, spend, learn. A lot of successful people say ‘follow your passion’ and many abide by it, saying I’m passionate about computers so they get a career in IT. The one bit they leave out is that their passions are always evolving and there’s usually more than one. If you keep doing what you love to do, you’ll eventually find your purpose. Steve Jobs said, ‘you can never connect the dots looking forward only backwards’. There are few limitations in life and three of the biggest seem to be time, intellect and money. First, time; everyone has the same amount of time in a day, it’s all in how you use it and what you make time for. Intellect; everyone can learn, we have the internet now, it’s easier than ever. Money; some of the most rich people today started with nothing. They used their time combined with their passion and what knowledge they had to become successful. Every day you have a choice to control the day, to change where it’ll bring you. At the very least, you must enjoy each day as it comes because it’s going to happen anyway.

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*I separated rich and successful because some of the richest people can still be depressed and unsuccessful.

**Can you imagine if everyone kept their passion they had when they were kids. We’d have a lot more entrepreneurs, scientist and at least a few batman.