Three Ways to Achieve Success by Doing One Thing

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There are millions of people in the world that have extraordinary talent.  Millions of those extraordinarily talented people are complete failures.  Why are they not able to accomplish the extraordinary?  It’s simple, they don’t use their talents!  The hardest part about achieving anything worthwhile is actually doing it.  You don’t have to be a genius to live your dreams, anyone can be who they want to be if they have the will to fight for it.

Photo by Nattu

Doing the Possible

Sometimes the first step in achieving a dream is to do the possible.  What I mean by the “the possible” are the things that we can do now to build the foundation of our dreams.  For example, say you want to earn more income, the first actions that you can do in the realm of the possible are things like update your resume, develop a time-line of when you’d like to get a new job or promotion, devise alternate ways of earning income, and so on.  The possible are things that you and I don’t find scary to do, but are the guidelines that we need to visualize a goal. They must be done, but they are not the catalyst for success.

Next, Do the Impossible

Once you have developed your strategy, it is time to do the impossible.  This is fun part of success, because it is the hardest and often the scariest.  In reality, the impossible is a misnomer.  We view tasks that fall under the category as impossible because we fear the outcome that results from doing them.  Things that would be considered impossible include:

• Submitting your resume to a job that you don’t feel qualified for, but dream of having.

• Asking your boss for a raise.

• Calling/Emailing a hero or star with a question, idea, or business proposal.

• Asking a publisher to publish your book.

These are the things that get your adrenaline pumping.  They are the actions that elicit self-criticism and criticism from others, precisely because they are scared to do the impossible too.  I am able to own a home in California, have a loving family, and have a great job despite having less than a 2.0 GPA when I graduated high school simply because I did what others thought to be impossible.

Do the impossible now!  Don’t wait until tomorrow.  If you want to learn Spanish, call a Mexican restaurant and order take out, then when you go to pick up it up force yourself to speak as much Spanish as you can.  If you want that dream job, call the business or the recruiting company and ask them if you can give your resume to the hiring manager in person (or at least get the hiring managers name so you can write a great cover letter). You can do it!  It is not as hard as you think!

Do it Again!

I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed. – Michael Jordan

Don’t let failure be a roadblock.  Eventually you will succeed.  Keep doing the impossible.  Keep asking your boss for a raise (be tactful about it, of course), send your resume to more hiring managers, and email your hero again.  Be persistent and you will be successful.

I emailed Scott Hahn, a world renowned Catholic apologist and hero of mine, about a personal decision that I needed to make in my life.  I had sent that email to him about a month ago and figured that he was too busy to respond or that he wouldn’t care about my situation, especially since he gets a boat load of emails from fans.  You know what, I was wrong.  Just yesterday I received a response from him, and an answer to my question.  Proof that just because things don’t to go the way you expect, doesn’t mean that they can’t happen (even the impossible).

Conclusion

Ultimately, the three ways to achieve success is to do one thing: Do it!  Unless you actually do anything, you will always fail.  It doesn’t matter how talented you are, you will crash and burn.  Nobody can succeed unless they get out there and try to succeed.

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