Although defining success can be difficult, it is possible to narrow down how to achieve success into five key categories. There are:
Determination: If you aren’t determined to succeed, you won’t. It really is that simple.
Skill: Although you’ll read many motivational quotes about how you can “achieve anything you put your mind to,” it’s a little more complicated than that. You will almost definitely need some sort of skill, talent, or knowledge in your chosen area to succeed. Sure, you can learn new things along the way and practice aspects that you need to improve on, but you will need at least some related skills before you can achieve your goals.
Passion: Steve Jobs really got this one right – “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, don’t settle.” As important as it is to have skills and discipline on your journey to success, you also need passion and love for the tasks. This passion is what could make the difference between a learning opportunity and failure. Remember, there will always be moments when you don’t believe you can do it. But if you have passion, you can work through your fear and succeed.
Discipline: Some days, you simply won’t want to learn or work towards your goals. No amount of money or family pressure will motivate you. On these days, a positive mindset won’t be enough to get you through, and you’ll need plenty of discipline to work through the disillusionment and keep striving towards your goals.
Luck: We’re not going to lie to you. The most successful people definitely have plenty of determination, skill, passion, and discipline, but they were also helped along the way by a fair bit of luck. But while this may dishearten some of you, others will be excited to realize that not every failure is due to a mistake. And that one lucky moment could be the very thing that ensures you succeed.
As you’ll see, you can only achieve success when you have all five key components. Once you’ve got the correct levels of determination, skill, passion, discipline, and a little luck, you’ll be able to develop the habits and practice that will ensure you succeed.