How to be Successful




"No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated and disciplined." ~Harry E. Fosdick

Self-discipline and self-motivation are joined at the hip.

Why is that? When you practice self-discipline you feel like you are in control of your life. You feel content and motivated because you're moving toward your goals. The Power of Discipline


Brian Tracy is one of America's leading authors on the development of human potential. He said this..."If I had to pick the #1 key to success, it would be...self-discipline. It is the difference in winning or losing; between greatness and mediocrity."

Today, I'd like to share Brian's introduction in The Power of Discipline...7 Ways It Can Change Your Life. Enjoy!
An excerpt from The Power of Discipline by Brian Tracy Why are some people more successful than others? Why do some people make more money, live happier lives and accomplish much more in the same number of years than the great majority?

I started out in life with few advantages. I did not graduate from high school. I worked at menial jobs. I had limited education, limited skills and a limited future.

And then I began asking, "Why are some people more successful than others?" This question changed my life.

Over the years, I have read thousands of books and articles on the subjects of success and achievement. It seems that the reasons for these accomplishments have been discussed and written about for more than two thousand years, in every conceivable way. One quality that most philosophers, teachers and experts agree on is the importance of self-discipline. As Al Tomsik summarized it years ago, "Success is tons of discipline."

Some years ago, I attended a conference in Washington. It was the lunch break and I was eating at a nearby food fair. The area was crowded and I sat down at the last open table by myself, even though it was a table for four.

A few minutes later, an older gentleman and a younger woman who was his assistant came along carrying trays of food, obviously looking for a place to sit.

With plenty of room at my table, I immediately arose and invited the older gentleman to join me. He was hesitant, but I insisted. Finally, thanking me as he sat down, we began to chat over lunch.

It turned out that his name was Kop Kopmeyer. As it happened, I immediately knew who he was. He was a legend in the field of success and achievement. Kop Kopmeyer had written four large books, each of which contained 250 success principles that he had derived from more than fifty years of research and study. I had read all four books from cover to cover, more than once.

After we had chatted for awhile, I asked him the question that many people in this situation would ask, "Of all the one thousand success principles that you have discovered, which do you think is the most important?"

He smiled at me with a twinkle in his eye, as if he had been asked this question many times, and replied, without hesitating, "The most important success principle of all was stated by Thomas Huxley many years ago. He said, "Do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not."

He went on to say, "There are 999 other success principles that I have found in my reading and experience, but without self-discipline, none of them work."

Self-discipline is the key to personal greatness. It is the magic quality that opens all doors for you, and makes everything else possible. With self-discipline, the average person can rise as far and as fast as his talents and intelligence can take him. But without self-discipline, a person with every blessing of background, education and opportunity will seldom rise above mediocrity.

In the pages ahead I will describe seven areas of your life where the practice of self-discipline will be key to your success. These areas include goals, character, time management, personal health, money, courage and responsibility. It is my hope that you'll find a few "nuggets" that will help make your dreams come true.


The Power of Discipline

from: Simple Truths



Quotations about Success
Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value. ~Albert Einstein

Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it won't taste good. ~Joe Paterno

If at first you don't succeed, do it like your mother told you. ~Author Unknown

Eighty percent of success is showing up. ~Woody Allen

As you climb the ladder of success, be sure it's leaning against the right building. ~Quoted in P.S. I Love You, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

If at first you don't succeed, you're running about average. ~M.H. Alderson

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. ~Winston Churchill

What is success? It is a toy balloon among children armed with pins. ~Gene Fowler

We never know, believe me, when we have succeeded best. ~Miguel de Unamuno, Essays and Soliloquies, 1925

Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world. ~Lily Tomlin

I couldn't wait for success... so I went ahead without it. ~Jonathan Winters

There is no point at which you can say, "Well, I'm successful now. I might as well take a nap." ~Carrie Fisher

Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally. ~David Frost

Some people dream of success... while others wake up and work hard at it. ~Author Unknown

Success: To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded! ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Try to discover The road to success And you'll seek but never find, But blaze your own path And the road to success Will trail right behind. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

In order to succeed you must fail, so that you know what not to do the next time. ~Anthony J. D'Angelo, The College Blue Book

I dread success. To have succeeded is to have finished one's business on earth, like the male spider, who is killed by the female the moment he has succeeded in courtship. I like a state of continual becoming, with a goal in front and not behind. ~George Bernard Shaw, 28 August 1896

Those who have succeeded at anything and don't mention luck are kidding themselves. ~Larry King

Success has made failures of many men. ~Cindy Adams

Some aspects of success seem rather silly as death approaches. ~Donald A. Miller

Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it. ~Author Unknown

That man is successful who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much, who has gained the respect of the intelligent men and the love of children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who leaves the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it; who looked for the best in others and gave the best he had. ~Robert Louis Stevenson

Success is more permanent when you achieve it without destroying your principles. ~Walter Cronkite

The two hardest things to handle in life are failure and success. ~Author Unknown

Pray that success will not come any faster than you are able to endure it. ~Elbert Hubbard

The moral flabbiness born of the bitch-goddess SUCCESS. That - with the squalid interpretation put on the word success - is our national disease. ~William James, 11 September 1906

The closer one gets to the top, the more one finds there is no "top." ~Nancy Barcus

Something in human nature causes us to start slacking off at our moment of greatest accomplishment. As you become successful, you will need a great deal of self-discipline not to lose your sense of balance, humility, and commitment. ~Ross Perot

Smarts and action are on the same side of the equation where the sum is success. ~Garrett Hazel

Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it.... Success is shy - it won't come out while you're watching. ~Tennessee Williams

Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go. ~William Feather

There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way. ~Christopher Morley

How do you achieve success? Well, for one thing, you don't define it before you achieve it. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success. ~Irving Berlin

Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure. ~Earl Wilson

Success will never be a big step in the future, success is a small step taken just now. ~Jonatan MÃ¥rtensson

Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success. ~Dale Carnegie

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing. ~Abraham Lincoln

Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get. ~Dale Carnegie

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. ~Booker T. Washington

Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom. ~George Smith Patton

It is wise to keep in mind that no success or failure is necessarily final. ~Author Unknown

How can they say my life is not a success? Have I not for more than sixty years got enough to eat and escaped being eaten? ~Logan Smith

Success and failure. We think of them as opposites, but they're really not. They're companions - the hero and the sidekick. ~Laurence Shames

The man who has done his level best, and who is conscious that he has done his best, is a success, even though the world may write him down as a failure. ~B.C. Forbes

The road to success is wherever people need another road. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you. ~Arthur McAuliff (Thanks, Fernanda)

If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style. ~Quentin Crisp

If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried. ~Author Unknown

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then give up. There's no use in being a damn fool about it. ~W.C. Fields

If at first you do succeed - try to hide your astonishment. ~Author Unknown


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