### *“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” ~Anais Nin* ### --- #
What Does Success Mean to You?
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Success to me means living a life where I’m free to make decisions out of enthusiasm, not of fear. It means living life on the offense instead of the defense. To me success means much more than material things, it means being the best version of “me” I can be. Being the optimal you is the best way I can think of to have a profoundly positive impact on both the world and those people around you. I am a work in progress and I want to remain that way until I draw my last breath here on Earth. The moment you adopt this attitude the world and each person in it becomes a potential learning experience. The great thing about this philosophy is the more hard work you do to become a better you the more you attract all of the positive (including the material) things into your life. Many people fail to achieve their dreams in life simply because they don’t have a clear definition of success. As a result, they spend their years chasing one dream after another and wake up one day wondering where all the years went. There are probably as many definitions of success as there are people on the planet. Take the time to craft your clear, concise definition of what success means to you. Write your definition of success down or type it out on your mobile phone and keep it with you always. Tape it to your bathroom mirror so it’s the very first thing you see in the morning. I’ve noticed that on this journey to becoming the best version of yourself you quickly realize a couple of things: - **The Positive.** You can make this transition to your best self happen much faster by surrounding yourself with as many positive people as you possibly can. These are people who lift us up, who inspire us. Also, actively search for individuals who possess the facets of success, skill-sets, or qualities you wish to attain. These people will be your faithful guides (or mentors) and will help you achieve your goals much faster; and - **The Not So Positive.** You need to shed the tremendous weight of those people in your life who bring nothing but habitual drama and negativity. These people drain your energy. This might sound harsh but there’s a fine line between providing support to these kinds of people and enabling them. It’s up to us to find this line and stick to it, it’s called tough love for a reason, it’s not easy. The *Not So Positive* are like a maelstrom of chaos just waiting to suck you in. If we want to continue on our path to the best versions of ourselves, we must simply say bye-bye to this kind of foolishness. #
How Bad Do You Want It?
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I really relate to that quote above by Anais Nin. It would be wise to add, “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s communication and networking skills.” *Do you really want to find success?* Are you ready for extremely hard work, risk, responsibility, the willingness to face your innermost fears. If the answer is yes and your mind is made up there is not a thing that can stop you. One way to make our journey to our best self a lot easier is finding a mentor, or several mentors, whose messages you really identify with. A particular mentor who helps me may not be the perfect fit for you. I can think of four people off of the top of my head throughout my life who have had an tremendous impact on my personal and professional development. Their personalities, specialties, and accomplishments are all completely different from one another. - My Dad. He took a skinny asthmatic child with thick glasses and molded me into a strong young man and taught me the definition of hard work. - Mr. Morgan, my seventh grade teacher. He taught me that despite coming from a poor household I wasn’t at a disadvantage and I could achieve anything I wanted. - Raj Beekie. Raj was an instructor in the Training and Development department of the company I work for. Raj pushed me to be my best self. He invited me to co-facilitate with him to teach a course on Meditation and Emotional intelligence. This infused me with great confidence and laid the groundwork for my own meditation classes; and - James Altucher. James is a goldmine of good advice. He’s taught me to “[choose myself](http://ift.tt/2byeOnE)” because you can rely on no one else in the world to take care of you, including your employer. Find your own mentor or mentors. Have the courage to reach out and ask them questions or advice. # You’re Going to Become a Mentor Yourself (Whether You Like It or Not) #
After you’ve reached a certain point in your personal and/or professional development you will automatically become a mentor…you really have no choice in the matter. You see, our human brains are wired to emulate those around us who we see as “Alphas”, those who we view as successful. Whether you are consciously mentoring or not at a certain point people will begin to follow you. No matter where you are in your journey there are always those who you will look up to and those people who look up to you. No matter how many of your goals you achieve in life never forget the great impact a moment of your time. a small deed, honest feedback, or kind word can have on someone who’s working hard to become the best version of themselves. If you're in the position to help someone please consider it. Not a single person on this path has ever done it alone. --- *I am an American novelist, poet, traveler, and Steemit enthusiast. If you’ve enjoyed my poetry, my handmade poetry chapbook, [Emancipation](http://ift.tt/2igEkOb), is for sale on Peerhub for a limited time.
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Eric Vance Walton - Media
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