Proven Success Principles

Simple and Powerful Rules for Success

If you are stuck and need a push in the right direction, this summary of great success principles will inspire you and get you on the track to your personal success.

These success principles apply to all definitions of success. Everyone needs to work out what success means to him or her. There is financial success, physical success, social success, emotional success and so on. When I speak about success here, it is in a general sense which you can apply to your definition of success.

The truth is that there are indeed proven principles of success. We all want to learn them. We all usually crave to become more than what we are right now. You see hugely successful people like Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Oprah Winfrey sharing their ideas about how to reach success, simply because other people want to know; "How did you do it?" and "What is your recipe for success?"

So when we study the giants, we learn certain strategies for success. And the great thing is that we can all apply the general success principles to any area of our lives that needs improvement!

Just take a moment to study this summary and let it sink in.

Then come back here from time to time to remind you of the simplicity of these success principles.

Simple and powerful success principles

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying, I’ve done something wonderful. That’s what matters.” (Steve Jobs)

1. Choose your passion

Whatever you want to accomplish or achieve, it is so much easier to do if you choose something you really like doing. If you want to build a business, choose an area you love. If you want to build a website, choose a topic you are familiar with and love talking about. If you want to start taking exercise, choose something you enjoy. If you want to make any change, start by finding what you are passionate about! Life is too short to be wasted on things, people and situations you are not comfortable with.

Dr. Wayne Dyer, one of my main inspirational teachers, puts this success principle like this: "You have to do what you love - or love what you do." Consequently, if you do something you do not really love, it is possible to change your attitude towards that particular thing too. If changing your attitude seems impossible, you are better off doing something you really like instead.

That is what Steve Jobs talks about in his quote above; the passion! If you want to do something really well and get something out of it, choose an area you love.

Part of this success principle, is also the art of goal setting. Because once you have figured out what you want, you need a personal development plan.

All in all, take your dream, plan and prepare, but not for too long because you need to move on to the next level, the next principle of success.


2. Do it!

Get started. Now. Do not procrastinate. It is not better to start tomorrow, next week, when you are healthier, happier, more successful, beautiful or wealthier.

Our mind likes to come up with excuses to keep us in the present situation. The ego fears change and would like you to suffer instead of prosper. Eckhart Tolle speaks very interestingly on this topic. So do not plan and prepare for ages, just enough and then throw yourself into the challenge!

You want a change, but things do not change unless YOU change. If you experience any trouble with this success principle, you could get inspired by the "goal setting success" section on this site.

It is better to start and learn the necessary things along the way, than to prepare for ever and never take any action at all. Unless you are moving - you cannot change direction.


3. Continue


Do not quit when the first inspiration has faded or you feel a bit tired. Self improvement and motivation go together. But if you lack motivation from time to time, get inspired by using motivational affirmations, remind yourself of your goal and apply a lot of positive thinking. It is a combination of many methods that will keep you on track and lead you to your success in life.

Keep on moving - don´t stop.


4. Visualize your outcome

Seeing is believing. But believing is also seeing. When you visualize your desired outcome, you create an image in your mind.

That image is what your subconscious mind acts upon. First a mental picture and then a physical picture. Both are "real". Do not underestimate the power of visualization. Most top sportsmen and sportwomen engage in visualization to create an inner reality before it manifests in the physical world. I could mention a big number of people who have applied this in combination with many other success principles and achieved outstandingly!

Visualization is often called "attracting success with mind power". Of course, the definition of success is individual and has different meanings to everybody.

Visualization is also one of the success principles that you can apply right away. If you have a tendency of day dreaming, you will be really good at visualization! Check out the link to "goal setting theory" for more information about visualization.

5. It´s possible!

"Your attitude determines your altitude."

Remind yourself that whatever you want to achieve is within reach. People who have quit smoking for instance often reinforce their will power by meeting other people who have succeeded to stop smoking. The same thing could be said about weight loss, financial freedom, spiritual growth or any number of material, spiritual, mental or emotional success.

One of the success principles that for instance Tony Robbins speaks about is the art of modelling someone else´s success. Try to learn from others and copy what they have done to reach their level of success. It is very inspiring to interact with people who have succeeded in any chosen area. They often think out of the box and they can teach you great lessons on their specific success principles.

6. Keep building a better you!


Whatever success you want to achieve in life will depend on you and your attitude and willingness to change yourself. Accordingly, one of the success principles is the fact that we cannot and should not try to change other people, all we can do is change ourselves, our attitude and our role in any given situation.

"For things to change, YOU have to change" summarizes what personal development is about. Personal development is about building a better you: how to keep growing as a person, how to develop yourselves in every sense; emotionally, spiritually, physically, socially and financially. Personal development is very much about taking full responsibility for your life, your thoughts, your relationships and your own personal growth.

Never blame others for your situation. Instead of judging others, try to direct your focus to yourself and your role in any situation. When you take 100% responsibility for your life, big changes usually occur.

7. Keep your focus

Many say that failure is not an option. But there are great and invaluable lessons to learn from so called failures. Failures teach us how to develop and keep growing. Take a minute to read my article "Is failure really the opposite of success" here. In my opinion, one of the success principles is daring to fail. Because if you never fail, you will never develop. You will not develop any out of the box thinking.

However, once you have decided what you want to achieve, you need to stay determined and focused in order to be successful. Avoid distractions, avoid toxic people who drag you down and avoid thinking as you have always thought.

If you want to reach success in any given area, you need to apply the success principle of "thinking out of the box". If you want new and improved results, you need to think differently from what you are used to. Your old thinking led to your old results. Your new ways of thinking will lead to new results. And you are the only one who decides what to think. Nobody else can get inside your head and take over. You own your thinking! This is one of the central success principles.

8. Keep developing


When you begin to see and experience the results of your dreams, you must not stop developing! Keep dreaming. Keep active. Stay passionate about learning and developing. Therefore, another important success principle is to always engage in self improvement. You never reach a goal, settle and say "that´s it". No, that is not "that´s it"! Your personal development is a lifelong journey - not a sprint.

Tony Robbins speaks about his early success and how he made a lot of money at a relatively young age. As his financial success grew, he began questioning this and subconciously started sabotaging his own success. Robbins speaks about an inner thermostat that is set on the things we are used to and will drag you back to your comfort zone again if you are not aware of your personal growth and personal success.

That is one of the reasons you have to set your mental thermostat and be sure about your desired outcome before you set out. If not, you will very easily be dragged back to what you were and what you did and what you had before you set out to succeed in any given area.


9. Take 100% personal responsibility for your life


Do not blame others for failures in the past or in the present. Get over it. You are totally responsible for what goes on in your life right now. At some level you have chosen your present situation. Taking full personal responsibility for your thoughts and actions is one of the greatest success principles.

There is always a price to pay for being brave enough to follow your passion or dream. People, parents, spouses, children and collegues etc will question you. That is because they are usually afraid of change themselves. But you are not them. You are you and you own your life.

Your mission is to stay positive about your dream. If people prevent you from developing yourself, consider cutting them off. Perhaps they are energy thieves who feed on your valuable energy. There is something called toxic people, and you´d better stay clear from them.

Instead: create relationships with those who celebrate you - not those who tolerate you!! I think that is one of the really important success principles and sums up this paragraph, because life is too short to be spent on pleasing others.

10. Be grateful!


Gratitude is an attitude you have to develop. Think about everthing you already are, do and have! There is so much to appreciate in life!

One of the proven success principles is practicing a thought of gratitude as often as possible. Get into the habit of reflecting on "the obvious". Repeat to yourself things like:
Today I am grateful for my life,
I am grateful for my freedom,
I am grateful for my family,
I am grateful for my health,
I am grateful for my income,
I am grateful for my abilities to breathe, to see, to hear, to feel, to taste, to move, to walk, to talk, to eat, to sleep, to drink. And so on.

Focus on everything you perhaps take for granted. Appreciate all those things and people! Focus on the positive. Success principles need not be complicated at all, because if you appreciate everything around you, you will feel and be naturally successful already. Just learn to see what is already there.

Many of us have lost touch with the important things in life. Therefore, one of the success principles is the simple task of displaying, feeling and expressing gratitude.

It would be really interesting to get some comments and feedback on this from you, the reader of this page. Please submit your statements of gratitude on the "Contact us form", so we can publish them here. Welcome!

11. Share your success!

Naturally, this is not the complete list of universal success principles. Readers are welcome to submit their success principles, and we will add them on the site. It would be great to hear what success principles that you used to reach a certain goal. Feel free to share with us! Please use the "Contact Us Form".

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