The key to a successful life

Do you ever see people that have the kind of life that you want? They have all the things that you want in your life. You resolve to make your life just that way but how? There are so many little details that need seeing to. How can you ever possibly hope to get all your ducks in a row? When you focus on the big picture it seems impossible.

It can be done but first you need to think about things logically. Looking at the whole scene all at once obviously isn't gonna do it. How about working towards the other end of the spectrum?

To start with do you know what it is that makes a successful life? That would be a lifetime where we have more successes than failures. But that's too big of a goal to start of with, it has too many uncontrolled variables.

What makes up a lifetime of success would be a few decades of successes. That still sounds daunting. You may not be able to guarantee decades of success. How about a single decade of success? That would be ten years with more success than failures. Still a bit much.

How about a year of success? That's only 12 months. It's starting to sound reasonable but still not something we can see ourselves committing to. A single month is only thirty days. Some of us could commit to that and use it as the anchor point for our successful life. But not all of us would be confident in our ability to do so.

Let's go to a single 24 hour period. While it may just be a tiny slice out of a successful life, there is no legitimate reason why we can't commit to and follow through with having a single successful day at any point that we decide to.

Now to be realistic, nobody is going to succeed at everything they do every time they attempt to do something, especially if what you are doing is new or unfamiliar. But if you are willing to put forth a little effort, you certainly can succeed more than you fail.  And if you have more successes in a given day than failures then  that day can be considered a success.

It's why in Alcoholic's Anonymous people are asked to commit to only a single day without drinking. Just get through one day. Then when you wake up the next day recommit for that day and so on until eventually you have control of your life.

Seven days of success makes a successful week. Four weeks of success makes a successful month. Twelve months of success makes for a successful year. Ten years of success makes for a successful decade. Decades of success make for a successful life. But it all starts one day at a time.

You should pick a date in the future when you will have all of the things that you want. Say maybe 10 years into the future. Then scale your vision back to what your life will need to look like in five years so that you can make that ten year goal. Next scale it back to what your life will need to look like in 1 year to meet your five year goals. Then do the same thing for six months in the future, then three, then one. Then figure out what steps you will need to take starting two weeks from now to meet your one month goals. And last but not least decide what changes you need to make starting tomorrow to get to your two week goals.

Then starting tomorrow begin making those changes. But once you have the road map to your future in place, don't focus on the big picture. Focus on making now a success. If you consistently focus on making each now successful the future will take care of itself and your life will be a success.