Remember This: The Truth about Failure

Failure = Feedback. It isn't the end of the world. It's simply life telling you to take a different approach. If you learn and grow from it, a setback can be a setup for your comeback.

Actually Effective: 4 Success Quotes That Aren't Overrated

1. "Don't cry to give up, cry to keep going...You're already in pain, you're already hurt, get a reward from it!" - Eric Thomas: So many people get discouraged by struggles and walk away from their goals. If you're struggling to achieve something, why not hang in there and actually have something to show for it?
2. "Cry in training, laugh on the battlefield." - Unknown: It's better to struggle behind the scenes than to struggle when it counts. The people who make everything they do seem effortless are the ones who get themselves together when people aren't looking.
3. "People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing." - Dale Carnegie: Let's be clear here, you can't choose to only do fun things in life and expect to be successful, but you can make anything that you are doing fun, someway, somehow. Make achieving your goal a game, a competition, anything to keep it interesting.
4. "Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you ought to set up a life you don't need to escape from." - Seth Godin: If you have to run from your life, most likely it isn't successful. Build a life that is a retreat, not a prison.

Saying What Everyone Else is Afraid To: 5 Success Myths Busted

People tend to sugarcoat hard truths to make them more palatable. I'm putting a stop to that tonight:

1. Myth: "Hard work and dedication will take me to the top!" 
Truth: Do you know how hard many housekeepers work, but still have to worry about how they will be able to feed their children? Hard work isn't enough. A combination of hard work, smart work, leverage and a strategy is the way to the top.

2. Myth: "All I have to do is believe in myself and I will be successful."
Truth: Belief in yourself is essential to success, but it still is not enough to take you to the top. To be frank, sometimes our belief in ourselves can be hogwash. Haven't you seen American Idol? Some musical hopefuls go on there genuinely believing that they will be the next Mariah Carey or Justin Timberlake and end up making fools out of themselves. The journey to success is no time to look for people to tell you whatever you want to hear. Seek feedback from honest people who care about you.

3. Myth: "I can be, do and have anything that anyone else has."
Truth: The problem is that society brainwashes us into thinking that we're all on a level playing field which isn't true. It is more likely that Paris Hilton will make $5,000,000 within the next 5 years than it is for someone who just graduated college with their Bachelor's degree. That doesn't mean that you still can't be successful in your own right. We need to stop comparing our lives to people who were born into privileged circumstances and/or received unfathomable amounts of luck (and yes, luck plays a factor. You can be in the right place at the right time and get opportunities that others couldn't get with a decade of striving.). Do your best in regards to YOUR life and watch where it takes you.

4. Myth: "I can be successful in anything I put my hand to."
Truth: We all have strengths and weaknesses. The easiest formula for success is to take on situations that cater to your strengths and avoid or minimize things that cater to your weaknesses. As much as we all look up to Bill Gates as the epitome of success, he could never be a successful male model. One of the main keys to success is staying in your lane. Putting yourself in situations where your success is entirely dependent on your weaknesses will lead you to a lot of self-doubt and frustration.

5. Myth: "I'm going to move to L.A. and become a superstar." or things of this nature.
Truth: Not everyone has what it takes to shine in highly competitive situations. Your best bet may be working in niches. Sometimes it's better to be a big fish in a little pond.

4 Habits That Lead To Having A Success Rate of Zero

1. Thinking excessively about how you will go about achieving the goal. The bottom line: you need to accomplish your goal. Many people use over-dramatic, complicated goal-achieving methods and wonder why they haven't gotten results. The simpler your method is, the more effective it will be. If you have to struggle just to figure out the method, imagine how hard it will be to actually achieve your goals.

2. Underestimating the goal and giving up when it isn't in alignment with your expectations. If there is one thing that I know for sure in life, it is that in most situations what you underestimate will be much harder than you think.  In the words of John F. Kennedy, "we can secure peace only by preparing for war." The best method is to be mentally prepared for a challenge regardless of what goal you are setting out to achieve. That way if the goal ends up being easy to achieve, you can relax. If it is challenging it will not deter you from getting what you want.

3. Doing too much too soon. Don't bite off more than you can chew in the beginning. You risk future boredom and/or exhaustion. I hate to sound cliche, but slow and steady wins the race, or in this case, achieves the goal. We have all seen a race where the runner who starts off at top speed is the one who ends up losing. We live in a world where the end result is the most important thing. Forget about looking or feeling busy in the beginning and focus on the big picture. Pace yourself. 

4. Sleeping with the enemy and expecting to be successful. Any cord that binds you to failure must be cut. If you want to lose weight, you can't eat eight slices of pizza and 5 breadsticks every other day and wonder why you aren't successful. If you allow negativity any space in your life it will eventually overtake you. Cut those cords and watch how significantly easier achieving your goal will be.

15 Obscure yet Essential Quotes to Live By

Often times, the more we've heard a quote, the less moving and powerful it seems. Here are some quotes that haven't been over-circulated that are sure to wake you up!

1. "Improve yourself by other men's writings thus attaining effortlessly what they acquired through great difficulty." - Socrates

2. "I criticize by creation, not by finding fault." - Marcus Tullius Cicero

3. "A wise prince then...should never be idle in times of peace but should industriously lay up stores of which to avail himself in times of adversity so that when fortune abandons him he may be prepared to resist her blows." - Niccolo Machiavelli

4. "It's the building of things that makes you happy. You have to enjoy the process whether you succeed or fail." - Caterina Fake

5. "You cannot sleep with the enemy and be successful...Every cord that binds you to failure, every cord that binds you to fear, you gotta cut it!" - Eric Thomas

6. "Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you ought to set up a life you don't need to escape from." - Seth Godin

7. "Nothing is difficult, only unfamiliar." - Jeff J. Lin

8. "Look for paradigm shifts, be part of a change. That's where opportunities are." - Unknown

9. "I can be approached, but never pushed; befriended but never coerced; killed, but never shamed." - Yi Sun-sin

10. "Never open the door to a lesser evil for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it." - Balthasar Gracian

11. "The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle." - Unknown

12. "Those who occupy their minds with small matters, generally become incapable of greatness." - Francois de La Rochefoucauld

13. "The amount of time people waste dwelling on failures rather than putting that energy into another project, always amazes me." - Richard Branson

14. "We should every night call ourselves to an account: what infirmity have I mastered today? What passions opposed? What temptation resisted? What virtues acquired? Our vices will abate themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift." - Seneca

15. "Change is the end result of all true learning." - Leo Buscaglia

12 Great Pieces of Advice for Success

1. Keeping yourself as diverse as possible opens you up to numerous opportunities.
2. Keep your hands in many pots to increase your chances of success.
3. Always invest your energy where you will receive the highest return.
4. Ensure that your level of preparation matches the size and scope of your vision.
5. The more you know, the more places you'll be able to go in life.
6. Weak desire brings weak results.
7. Always have a Plan A-D.
8. Play to win rather than playing not to lose. When you go into every situation in life with an intention and strategy to have a victory you will inevitably be more successful than someone who goes into situations just trying to survive.
9. Beat your own record from day to day and you will always be and feel like a success.
10. The quality of the practice determines the caliber of the performance.
11. It's not how hard you work, it's how smart you work. A speedier success comes when you are strategic and find shortcuts. There are people who have worked hard their entire lives and don't have much to show for it, most likely because they were not strategic about choosing a path that would give them a high chance of success or not utilizing shortcuts that would have made their lives easier.
12. When you stop getting better, you stop being good.

What Am I Doing Wrong?: 4 Common Mistakes Made on the Road to Success

1. Focusing on success in one area of your life rather than ALL areas: Success is a multi-faceted thing. It is not just limited to finances. Focus on your life as a whole rather than just one aspect of it.
2. Over-promising and under-delivering: Many people want to sound like they can be a success by saying that they will take on numerous, but fail miserably because they aren't able to make good on their promises. The goal is to under-promise and over-deliver. The truly successful person lets their excellent delivery make up for the fact that they promised little.
3. Being a jack of many trades and a master of none: Being able to do many things may seem like a great advantage, but achieving only adequacy in the skills you have acquired is not really going to get you anywhere. Successful people are successful because they mastered their craft. The people on the Forbes Richest List are not there because they could do a lot of things adequately. They are on that list because they mastered something that would give them the most significant results. Mastery is what guarantees success.
4. Doing the hardest work last: What is done first most likely will get the most quality attention. The hardest work usually is what gives you the most value or the most significant results. The hard work is the most deserving of your attention! The better quality attention you give the hard work, the more value you get out of it.