Dear Destiny Friends,

It is a widely held claim that success is a journey and not a destination. In truth, only complacent persons relax when they get to the promised land (success). When we talk of success, most people see the end product as opposed to the process and journey. Did you know that it is the process that makes success admirable? To understand how a journey works, imagine solving a complex mathematical problem; it is the formula that enables you to arrive at the right answer.

Success is a journey, and is associated with many twists. One must navigate the storms and challenges that come with it. To understand success better, imagine the time and different ingredients a cook must have invested to prepare a delicious meal. When you wrongly add an ingredient, you are likely to get a different taste. That’s simply how success works. Again, imagine driving a car with “GPS” and you miss your route, your GPS is likely to take another route, that’s how success works. It takes a lot of twits.

The focus of this article is to encourage us to be strong in our pursuit of success. There will definitely be setbacks and challenges, but then, every traveller on the success route must know there is a price to pay. Personally, I always focus on the big picture, and by  doing so, draws a lot of inspiration and energy to follow it through and win.

It should be noted that there is no single way to success. Your success might come from your network, strangers, family, academics, government, mentor, mentee, or even your enemy trying to pull you down. What is required is for you to recognize the opportunity that is presented to you and capitalize on it.

To navigate the terrain of success, you must first build and develop the success mindset. This enables you to learn and develop your talents and gifts as opposed to limiting your thought process through a fixed mindset.

A growth mindset enables you to have emotional intelligence which helps you to understand and reason with emotions without allowing sentiments to cloud your reasoning and understanding. Emotional intelligence makes you focus on other people by practicing empathy. It also enables you to explore other variables.

To navigate the terrain of success, first believe in yourself, then believe in your project/vision. This is the only way others can believe in you and your vision. Remove every doubt, and negative energy, and focus on the work at hand. Even when the journey is rough and seems impossible, always think about the big picture.

Another component one must bear in mind in the journey to success is courage. Not everyone will believe in your work, and that’s okay. You don’t need everyone to believe in your project, just the right people. It is like thinking everyone will like you. All you need is the right people to love you and you’ll be fine.

Curiosity is another great attribute for great minds to navigate the train of success. When you are curious to know why something is working and why it is not working, you are bound to explore other opportunities. When you are curious, you are likely to experiment new things by taking strategic and reasonable risks.

When you are curious, you will brainstorm on what is needed to generate ideas, engage in creative problem solving and learn through inquiry. When brainstorming is used for problem-solving in a team environment, it incorporates team members’ diverse experiences to increase the depth of the ideas being explored,

Brainstorming enables you to practice inquiry form of learning. It enables you to through the process of exploring the targeted issue by asking questions, making new discoveries, gaining a new sense of understanding, and fulfilling your own curiosities.

Other attributes needed to navigate the path of success are:

Competitiveness

Successful people are always competing with themselves as opposed to competing with other people. To navigate the terrain of success, you must nurture your project by focusing on how you can improvise your work when you face opposition.

Seek Out Mentors

To navigate the terrain of success you must ride with people who are more experienced than you. These people must have certain traits that have distinguished them. Study them to know what makes them tick. Ask them questions. Even if it means paying, please do. Read as much as you can about them. Research a lot about them to understand their thought process especially if they are relevant in your industry or what you’ll like to do.

Be Optimistic

This is one of the biggest qualities you will have as an individual.  You just must be optimistic. If you lose all options never lose hope. Your optimism is capable of drawing people close to you. You can choose to be optimistic by practicing gratitude, patience, humility, and kindness and you also choose to be pessimistic; the choice is truly yours.

Check-In With Yourself Regularly

To increase your chances of success in life, you need to consistently monitor, evaluate, and adjust your approach, methods, and work on craft. This helps you to adjust to the realities of life.

Act

This is one of the most interesting aspects of navigating the terrain of success. Execution is very important in life. This is where most people fail, complain, and give excuses. One attribute that often separates successful people from unsuccessful people is simply taking action. Those who achieve success may not be smarter than those who don’t, but they make plan to act. Let me tell you, done is better than perfect when perfect is not done. Do you know that the value that you get from that first action will inspire you to continue on to the next project?

In summary, your success ultimately comes down to your actions, perceptions, and attitudes. There are a lot of tips out there on how to be successful in life, but unless you are proactive in doing the work that is required, you will find yourself settling for a life that wasn’t what you dreamed it to be. Having read this life-changing article, are you willing to take action? Are you confused? Do you need help in taking action? If yes, I can assist you, kindly reach out with the email below.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He’s a Human Capacity & mindset coach. He’s also a public speaker, youth advocate and creative writer. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success and President of gloemi.com. He can be reached via info@gloemi.com