Have you noticed how many people want to tell you what you need to do to be successful?
You don’t have to go far to bump into someone who has an idea or brand-new methodology that is guaranteed to make you rich, happy, and extra desirable in the bedroom. Fast methods. Quick results. Explosive impact. Finally… the answer to getting rich.
There’s a part of you that wants to believe all of it. Desperately. And why shouldn’t you? After all, you’ve been working your ass off trying to get closer to where you want to be.
But you don’t seem to be getting the results you see other people talking about.
You’re not driving a supercar or working with your toes pointed at the beach. You’ve got kids and a family, a demanding job, unfulfilled personal ambition, and a love life that seems to only work some of the time.
Some times it feels like you’re going places. Then other days you’re snapped back to reality by the monotony of the daily grind. It doesn’t feel like you’re making progress at all.
The truth about most consultants, life coaches, business gurus, “Linkedin ninjas,” and marketing experts is that they are lying to you.
Some of it is accidental. The bad guys are deliberate.
Just trying to manipulate you out of your money.
And usually, your BS detector goes off when you’re faced with the smarmy tactics of one of these experts telling you that you need to buy their product to achieve magical overnight success.
What’s a little more confusing to you, but just as damaging to your momentum, are the seemingly sincere people who promise you eventual success “if you do it their way.”
“Just do this and you’ll automatically double your revenue.”
“Meditate longer and you will attract wealth and riches.”
“Adopt a high-fat diet and you’ll add 30 years to your life.”
“I did it and so can you”– that’s the underlying persuasion to their pitch. “Let me show you the way.”
In reality, most of these experts are broke. Or close to broke.
Don’t get me wrong. There is absolutely nothing especially wrong with that. Being broke isn’t a crime. It’s what happens before you make some money.
But it’s a little disingenuous to promise you the world when they haven’t achieved it themselves.
Which is where the majority of these influencers live. Trying to make it just like you. Struggling with their bills, just like you. Hiring coaches for themselves, just like you. Trying to achieve work-life balance, just like you.
They’ve borrowed someone else’s marketing language and stock photos to try to present to you the case for investing in them.
That’s the honest-to-God truth.
But there is another side to this.
The truth about success is that it’s not one thing. There isn’t one massive skill you can learn called success. And making a lot more money doesn’t automatically make you more successful.
Success is what you need it to be at the moment. It’s the small things. In real time. Not big life plans.
It’s your ability to smile on the outside when you’re freaking out on the inside about the pain in your life. It’s your ability to get up and do something meaningful when you can’t see any evidence that everything you’ve been doing is going to work.
It’s your ability to ask for help when you’re not sure there is any.
Success is you doing the right thing. When no one is watching. When it’s hard to do.
In truth, success is really just a mindset. An attitude. It’s how you process decisions and make plans.
The last thing that happens in a race is crossing the finish line. The same thing is true with achieving wealth or finding love. The last thing that happens is the “success” that other people see.
It’s the mindset and the actions created by that mindset that lead to the outward evidence of your success.
Stop buying into other people shortcuts.
It’s natural to be tired of the daily grind. It’s natural to question why some other people seem to have it easier than you do. It’s natural to want to believe that someone else just like you has discovered an easier, faster path for you to get to where you want to be.
Maybe they have. And maybe it works like nothing else in the history of the world.
Or maybe, what you’re buying into is One Big Lie. A giant crock of marketing bullshit.
Instead, do the hard things.
- Stay disciplined despite how you feel.
- Make kindness a priority.
- Do one thing each day that gets you closer to where you want to be.
- Let go of grudges and avoid negative people.
- Read books that inspire your greatness.
- Invest more in progress than in entertainment.
- Believe what you want to achieve as possible.
- Tune out the haters, the skeptics, and the cynics.
Ignore anything that looks like a shortcut. It’s just a dead end in disguise.
You already know what you need to do. The question is if you are going to do it.