The Secret to Success

The Secret to Success

• Posted by Jun Prila 

Hello everyone! Welcome to another great training day!

Our company is now crossing the last quarter of our sales calendar for the year with undeniable apprehension and concern about the result of our sales performance. With sales output that is way, way below our target, one can’t help but ask: Why is it that sales targets are set but most of the time not met? Sounds silly, isn’t it? Quite simple but true.

One can come up with an endless list of reasons and justifications why sales targets fail. The same applies in setting and working with personal goals. Why is it that we still come up with nothing even though we work so hard? We are always struggling to get by in life but we end up feeling frustrated and empty handed.

But a more positive and interesting thought to explore is how to make success possible. Is there really an ultimate and doable success formula that can guarantee attainment of goals? Quite tough a subject matter. Don’t you think so? But as the theme suggests, the answer should be positive. Yes! That’s the good news. There’s a way to achieve practically anything you desire in life. The bad news (or challenge) is, if you are really damn serious about attaining all your goals, you also have to take seriously the foregoing lessons I will share with you and be able to apply them. Are you ready? Here we go...

Since I was introduced to the movie ‘The Secret’1, my perception of reality and how one can create it has marvellously changed. I took seriously the lessons shared by personal success and prosperity gurus who were part of the movie like Jack Canfield, Bob Proctor, James Arthur Ray, among others. They all talked about a process of focusing on the things you want in life and following universal laws that govern the process of attaining everything that the human mind can conceive. This can be made possible through a creative power that lies within every human being. Awareness of this power is the key that will unlock the unlimited potential of man which will eventually lead him to a life of great abundance and become the person he ultimately desires.

LAW OF ATTRACTION

The first step is to apply the law of attraction. This law states that whatever you have in your mind you can attract, whatever you focus on grows. This law is based on the reality that the mind works like a magnet so whatever thought or image you impress on it, it attracts vibrations or circumstances of same kind that will help turn the thoughts into actual reality consciously or unconsciously. The key here is to constantly feed your mind with positive thoughts about what you want and create the feelings as if you already have them. This will result to actual realization of the thing that is desired. By imploring the law of attraction, universal providence becomes a natural creative process. A biblical phrase that implies similar thought would very well suffice for this: “Ask and it shall be given unto you, knock and the door shall be opened.”

Other writers call it the law of focus. Whatever you dwell upon grows in your reality. This process of focusing on the things you want in life goes all the way back to Napoleon Hill. Even earlier than ‘The Secret’, Napoleon Hill wrote a very powerful book, ‘Think and Grow Rich’, considered by many as the Bible of Great Achievers. How it works is a mystery. Napoleon Hill says you're activating your subconscious mind, 'The Secret' says you're sending a signal out into the universe. I don't think anyone knows for sure, but like Dr. Hill said, "I don't have to know how it works. I just know that it works, and I use it."

This principle was also the central theme of NLP2 lessons during the 80’s. One of its proponents, Brian Tracy said: "All improvement in your life begins with an improvement in your mental pictures. Your mental pictures act as a guidance mechanism that causes you to act in ways that make your mental pictures come true in your life."

For the sceptical mind, however, would this be enough to guarantee attainment of everything that one desires?

Some followers of the ‘The Secret’ got flawed by their fatalistic interpretation of the book and movie by leaving everything to the universe what they want to accomplish after they have declared their goals. For instance, some salespeople now believe they can just sit back and wish for the things they want, a big commission check, for example, without having to do any work to get them. Napoleon Hill addressed this issue as well, explaining that everyone has hopes and wishes, and that everyone dreams of becoming rich, but almost no one does anything about it.

Deciding what it is that you really want is just the first step of the success creation process. A more important step is deciding what to do and committing to get it done. Real success happens when you decide to get into ACTION and actually DO something to make your future happen for you. We have to acknowledge that nothing will happen unless something moves. Speaker and preacher Bo Sanches points to this in his latest best-selling book as one of the secrets of the truly rich – to have a bias for action. It’s like saying you can’t cross a river by merely staring at it. In sales and in personal life what separates successful people and the truly rich from the rest who wish to be the same but fall short of their targets is action. Successful people are driven because they act on their ideas. They believe on the potential of their thoughts and work on them until they become concrete realities. They trust that the future belongs to them.

UNIVERSAL LAWS

My appreciation of the Law of attraction fired up my desire to learn more about universal laws and their impact to personal success. I read several books and ebooks, listened to instructional media, searched the web for blogs and articles that expose the underpinnings of the laws of the universe that most personal success coaches and best-selling authors talk about. I came across classic literatures written by infamous authors including the likes of Charles Haanel, Earl Nightingale, Norman Vincent Peale, James Allen, Wallace Wattles, and a lot more. Their works have served as reference materials and inspiration to modern day speakers, personal success motivators and coaches like Jim Rohn, Rick Warren, Mark Victor Hansen, Dennis Waitley and the creator of The Secret herself, Rhonda Byrne.

Here’s one of my most exciting discoveries on universal laws. The Universe operates by a set of laws where success is just as certain as gravity. You don't have to become an expert to make gravity work for you, and you don't have to be an expert to make the laws of success work for you. But you do have to know how to put them into action and you of course must do that.

Let’s further elevate our lesson to the next level with an awareness of two other laws of the universe that have the biggest impact in man’s venture for success.

LAW OF ABUNDANCE

The law of abundance is a positive affirmation of the great magnificence and unlimited power of the universe and its creator. If you want to become successful you must believe that the universe is abundant and there’s endless supply of resources available for all. The more success you wish for, the more abundance you need to enjoy. In order to enjoy more, you must think more abundantly. So, living abundantly must begin in your mind.

It is very important to develop abundance mentality. This is also called attitude of gratitude. Those who practice this always find reason to say thank you for everything. You see the glass as half-full, rather than half-empty. Instead of seeing but problems, you see solutions and numerous possibilities. Rather than obstacle in your path, you see the opportunities available to you.

With this attitude, you begin to realize that there’s a never ending well of abundance. If you need money for something, an opportunity for you to earn appears. You just have to be prepared when it comes so that you’ll be ready to grab it. Whatever you need, you find answers. As Wallace Wattles said, “Nature is an inexhaustible storehouse of riches; the supply will never run short.”

There really are enough resources out there for everyone. There will always be enough out there to help you achieve your ultimate goal and still leave plenty for others as well. It’s all together possible that your success could ensure the success of others you do business with, making it a win/win scenario for all parties.

LAW OF RECIPROCITY

Cause and effect is a law of nature. Bob Proctor calls it the law of reciprocity which the Bible also espouses: “Whatever you sow, so you shall reap.” This universal law simply says that for every action there’s a corresponding reaction. Whatever you give out to the world, you will receive back. In essence, it’s the Golden Rule – Do unto others what you would like others do unto you.

But how does this law come into play in man’s success creation power? Is it the ignorance of this law or our failure to apply it that blocks the course of abundance and success to take its natural flow towards us?

A better way to understand and appreciate how this law works is to consider the workings of a corn seed. When you plant a corn seed, you don't harvest a single seed but a new fruit. That is how a person earns multiple rewards out of a single deed done for the good and benefit of others. We have to believe that the harvest is always greater than what's planted. When you plant something, you don't reap less than or equal to what you've planted. It's always more than what you've planted.

Success is something you create with and for people. Anything good you do to others is like an investment during the planting season. But that’s not to say that whatever you put outwards will always come back to you immediately. Sometimes, it takes a bit longer, but that's one way to have a bountiful harvest. Like it or not, the reward will come your way. This is the essence of helping and giving. The more you give, the more you will receive. What you give out should be considered as a gift. Mother Teresa said, “Give your hands to serve and your hearts to love.”

The Law of Reciprocity is a blessing you give away and yet reward is given to you tenfold. According to Jim Rohn, we must “learn to help people with more than just their jobs; help them with their lives.” Even Albert Schweitzer said, “Every person I have known who has been truly happy, has learned how to serve others.” So, it’s true that the Law of Reciprocity or giving back to our world is an essential element of abundance.

SO WHAT’S THE SECRET?

The ultimate formula for success is actually no secret. Best-selling author and career philosopher Big Llyod Luna, who organized a live simulcast of the recently concluded John Maxwell Leadership seminar in Manila, spoke about this truth in a testimonial about his own personal success story as one of the few Filipino millionaires at the age of 25 years old: “There's no secret of success, only obvious reasons. Try to ask successful people that you know and chances are you're going to hear what you already know. The only difference was they applied the knowledge in their lives.”

It is pretty clear now that success is something that you reap out of something that you really want and desire in life after taking series of effective steps or right actions. The formula now is obvious and is doable for everyone and we can apply it right away. Everything starts with a decision, and everyone can do it for free. Whatever your situation is right now, you are free to change it. We can all start a life change if we don't want the things around us the way they are. We can make a decision right now and commit to become successful from now on. We can either move forward, go backward, or stay put—any of the three choices would equal to one decision.

And guess what a simple decision can do to us. It can build us our dream house, it can bring us to all the beautiful places of the world, it can make us the top salesperson of Mt. Zion, a multi-millionaire, the best entrepreneur, it can create miracles—all that we can imagine. Out of this decision shall come a wealth of new opportunities, some of which have already materialized. They shall reimburse us for the failures of the past.

Once the right decision has been made, we are now in for the real deal. The more challenging and arduous task for us to do is to manage that decision. According to leadership guru John Maxwell, the real guarantee of success lies not in making a good decision but in managing the decision. Decision is done once but managing decision is a daily activity. Successful people make good decisions early in their life and they manage them for the rest of their life.

My challenge to you now is to look at yourself and see where you are right now. How far off are you in achieving your dreams and your goals? What have you become in the last five years? Look at your inner circle and the people with whom you associate yourself most of the time. Are they geared to succeed? If not, then decide to make an unpopular decision to think for yourself and manage that decision everyday so that you can start pursuing your dreams.

A new world has been opened to us, a world of unlimited possibilities. The new vista, broadening into infinity, promising great abundance we rightfully deserve, a better and happier life for a more meaningful existence is now waiting for us.

"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.