Dear Destiny Friends,

It is no longer news that every living being desires success. This is because nothing gladdens the heart like success. This success is seen in the form of a solid financial background, sound health, harmonious family, impeccable academic achievement, constant personal development, and vocational triumphs.

However, success has become a word often used, but poorly defined. This is because it can mean one thing to someone and mean a different thing to another. It is therefore sad to note that many people don’t understand the true meaning of success.

Uniformed minds think that success entails just money. They fail to understand that if the only thing one has is money, that person is poor.

Some schools of thought opine that there’s no magic for success; you can apply hard work, confidence, persistence, consistency, great organizational skill, emotional intelligence and resistance, growth mindset, courage, gratitude, risk, responsibility, smart work, and many more, and still not succeed.  You can even apply the SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Measurable and Timely) and still not succeed. In fact, you might even have everything in place, yet someone with luck will outshine you.

Sometimes, you need luck to succeed. This is without prejudice to your right connections, right information, right resources, opportunities and facilitating factors.  However, for this luck to work, you must be prepared. The trick is you must organize and surround your life around goals for the things you need, want or enjoy.

There are many ways to achieve success. One of the simplest strategies is to align your success with your natural talents, abilities, and mental faculties. Everyone is wired differently and as such we are unique in our ways. It’s your responsibility to discover what makes you unique and special.

Here’s the strategy of smart work: First, you must know your strengths and weaknesses, and what you are good at. Focus on using it and transforming it into success and prosperity. It can be an ability, talent, or skill, with which you can help others or prove your excellence and value.

It is instructive to note that once you attain a certain level of success, other people will begin to associate with you, brands will begin to identify with you. There are principles and strategies that are necessary for success. The truth is that success comes to you to the extent you want it, and to the extent you are willing to work for it. You get what you invest in it.

To fully understand what success is, one must define what he/she wants.  According to Dr. Yomi Garnett, “Success has a master plan” and this plan includes questions like: “What do I want? When do I want it? Why do I want it? Where am I starting from? What obstacles must I overcome? What information will I require? Who are the people whose help I will need”.

Let’s elaborate on this master plan. There’s no success without clarity. No successful man or woman who has attained genuine success achieved it without being clear and focused. They were all clear on what they wanted. They didn’t allow distraction to confuse them.

When you are sure of what you want, challenges will come, with betrayals and disappointments. You might even doubt yourself if it’s not adding up, especially as it relates to finance, but if you are determined, you will overcome. All the setbacks and challenges are there to serve as a test and inspiration to the vision one has.

The next step is to map out a strategy. Apart from the God-factor and hard work, strategy is the most important ingredient to success. Even if you do the hard work, if you are not strategic, or have a plan, you will fail. Strategy involves knowing the right people who will buy your products or services; networking with the right people, sacrificing for the project and most importantly, knowing how to execute the project.

Another dynamic way of understanding success is understanding the concept of relationship. This ‘relationship’ might be your business partner, spouse, friend or manager. Once you are properly aligned, all the minds, energy and spirit must be at peace, otherwise it will be difficult. It’s widely stated that the best thing that can happen to anyone is to have the right partner whether in business or marriage.

Understanding success also works with finding the right job that aligns with your natural skills, talents and gifts. When you focus on the money as opposed to fulfillment, success might erode you because you might earn money, but lose joy.

In conclusion, to succeed, the first step is knowing yourself and this entails practising self-discovery and meditation. Take time to know what’s unique about yourself and  ask yourself, what’s the one thing I can do with relatively easy steps which is devoid of stress which ultimately gives me the most result. Once you find it, swing into action to groom it by developing yourself in theory and practice.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator.  He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate and creative writer Design Your Destiny and Unleash Your Destiny.  He can be reached via info@gloemi.com