Lessons That Can Help You Succeed In Life

We all want to be successful in life – be it success from our careers, our business ventures, our family life and relationships. Of course, who does not want success in everything? We all want to find ways to be successful in life and probably, we are searching here and there and looking at how people we consider successful strive their way to the top.

Although we are all unique and live different lives, have different abilities and purposes in life, we can probably agree on the ways to be successful in life. These may not be a secret but sometimes we just refuse to follow it.
Here are some lessons to learn on the journey through life
1. Be visionary: Have a clear vision of what you want to do with your life. Every successful career begins with a decision of what you want to be or to do with your life, goals that you want to achieve, short-term, mid-term, long-term. It must be your vision and not that of your parents, peers or spouse because ultimately it’s you who will have to bring it to reality. Without a vision for your life you will easily drift through life, resentful and feeling as if you are simply existing and life has short-changed you.
2. Be resourceful: Make the most of the opportunities and resources that life has given you. In a given position, take time to gather all the skills, knowledge, experience that the position offers. There is no such thing as useless skill or experience. Gathering skills and experience often entails spending several years in the same line of work. Remember that a rolling stone never gathers moss! In my experience I consider a minimum of three to five years in the same line of work absolutely necessary.
3. Be daring: Life is about taking risks, and having the faith and courage to follow your dreams through. Don’t be afraid to take risks. I particularly want to challenge you lady lawyers to start your own private practice, rather than seeking to be hired by your male colleagues. Remember they had the same opportunities and training as you. Think outside the box of looking to be employed by someone all the time!
4. Be tenacious: You need not be an intellectual genius to succeed in this life. You simply need to work hard and to diligently pursue your dream with unwavering courage, fortitude, steadfastness and tenacity. You see there is a big crowd of enemies waiting to see you fail and sometimes actively working to pull you down. If you are not tenacious you may easily give up. Let no one despise you on account of your age, gender, tribe, race or any other stereotype out there.
5. Be ambitious: In everything you do strive for excellence! If you want to leave your mark in life you cannot afford to settle for mediocrity. Do not do something simply because “everybody does it” or do it a certain way just because “that’s the way everybody does it.”
6. Be discerning: It is important in life to focus on those things that matter most. For example, in a job, money is not everything. There are other considerations such as job-satisfaction, opportunities for scholarships, exposure and experience. While we all long for well-paying jobs, you must accept that you may have to start with humble beginnings and that instead, the skills and experience you acquire from this seemingly poor-paying job are priceless! Money is good but the danger of making money your objective is that after a while, it will surely choke and overtake your dream and vision.
7. Be resilient: In life, ugly things happen. You may meet situations where you suffer racial, gender, tribal, religious or other kinds of prejudices. Believe you me, prejudice comes in as many shades as the colours of the rainbow with those who reckon themselves higher up the pecking order, lording it over those they reckon are lower down. Never allow these prejudices to stand in our way! Through sheer resilience, you can face up to such challenges and instead of wallowing in self pity you can choose to turn those mill-stones into stepping stones to success.
8. Be humble: Arrogant people tend to rub everyone the wrong way. On the other hand, there is nothing that impresses me more than people who are high achievers and yet remain humble. Humility simply means learning to keep your success in perspective. Remember you are neither the first nor the last to reach where you are!
9. Self-Critique: For one to grow in one’s career, you must learn periodically to audit your performance. Take stock of your achievements, failures, short-comings etc. with a view to identifying those areas that need improvement. We all tend to stagnate at times.
10. Worship: Honour God and honour your profession by serving your fellow man faithfully. I believe the majority of us here do believe in a power higher than ourselves. You achieve success in my not by your own strength but by God who guides your choices, blesses and rewards your efforts.
In my line of work, I never walk into a courtroom trusting in my own abilities. I pray and ask God to give me “the wisdom of Solomon” (i.e. knowing what to do in a particular situation); to grant me favour amongst my peers and to walk with me each day.

Courtesy of Career Point  Kenya