Life isn’t always fair.

Some of us just seem to have an advantage. Parents always brag when they have exceptionally bright children. That’s great and in a perfect world everybody would have a genius IQ. No one would have disabilities of any kind, and everybody would be classically beautiful. But that’s not the real world. We are not all created equal. Some people seem to be lucky and end up with all the attributes while others struggle just to feel they have an equal chance.  The playing field is not equal.  Factors play into who you are, what your values are, what your needs are and what your goals are for the future. If you took a group of kindergarten children from all walks of life and from different parts of the planet, gave them all the same education and the same outside influences, would they all succeed equally?  It is unlikely that they would all achieve the same amount of success in their life.  The question than would be, why not?

Do you know what you want from your life?

There is a mysterious and wonderful ingredient that seems to close the gap between the haves and the have-nots.  Strange as it might be, certain personality traits make all the difference. When I was in college I studied fashion illustration. I did not really love it.  I did however, work hard to get better at it . I noticed that while all the students had talent, one or two stood out. I was not one of them.  I watched these budding stars quietly and realized that  they had acquired a love and passion, almost to the point of obsession for fashion illustration.  I am an artist to my very core; creativity on any level is for me. But, did I really want to sketch a distorted elongated woman to help designers sell clothes? No. I asked myself; “why did you choose to pursue fashion illustration”? “It doesn’t make your heart jump with excitement”. The answer was simple.  I thought I would make more money being an illustrator than a fine artist. That was a good observation. However, I forgot one thing, if you don’t have the passion for what you’re doing, if you don’t have the dream, you’re on the wrong path. I didn’t have the dream and I didn’t have the passion for fashion illustration. The minute I made the decision to change my path, the future became brighter, success was more attainable, and I developed an incredible career doing what I loved and at the same time making money. What did I learn from my mistake?  The perseverance was there, but not the passion.  I needed to be accountable to my dreams and myself.

Can you describe yourself to yourself?

Here are a few questions to help define who you are and where you would like to go in life.

1. If you had to describe yourself to someone else while being completely honest, how would you do it?
2. What is important to you?
3. What do you remember most about yourself and your life?
4. When were you the happiest?

1. What activities give you the most pleasure?

1. Do you think you have talent for any one particular thing or perhaps many things?

1. How do you describe success?

1. Do you feel that you don’t have any special skills and have no clue what you need to do to feel successful?
2. What would you change about your life?

10. Do you have any regrets about decisions you’ve made in the past?

11. What do you see for yourself in the future?

12. What are you willing to sacrifice to get to where you want to be in the future?

13. Of all the people you’ve known in your life which ones made a difference to you and helped influence your opinions?

14. What would make you feel successful?

The missing ingredient

Do you have a passion to become successful? Lloyd Jones once said; “the people who tried to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed”. How true is that? Okay you may be smart, but do you have a dream and a goal?  Passion is something that exists in every single one of us. But not everyone is tuned into their inner self and is willing to go out on a limb, take a chance, and follow their passion.

Be careful, not all passion is healthy and productive. Uncontrolled passion or obsession can be destructive.  Strive to find the balance between your passion, motivation, and perseverance in attempting to achieve your goals. Remember you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to be usually successful.