1. Accept where you are. By accepting your own abilities and working within your limitations, you can use valuable energy to create positive life changes. Someone once said, "Your circumstances don't control you, they define you!" The way you are reflects the sum total of your choices to date.
2. Dare to think in awesome dimensions. When you think about what you want to achieve, do you think of your self-proclaimed limits? Why stop where you stop? Try thinking in unusual or outrageous terms.
3. Don't dwell on defeat. When you give up in your mind, your mind gives up on you. Once this happens, the rest is downhill. Remember, there is no such thing as failure; there are only outcomes. If you don't like your outcome, try changing your activity.
4. Tap motivational resources. To counteract negative memories and thoughts, flood your mind with positive input every day by listening to motivational recordings – a podcast or audio book – while working out, on the drive home, on the road, or first thing when you wake up.
5. Stay committed to your career goals. People have a tendency to be on the lookout for a better deal. Lack of personal career commitment is the greatest source of dissatisfaction with one's profession. Get committed and learn to just say no to anything that doesn't support your career purpose.
6. Do not allow setbacks to control you. If you do, then your supporters may think that you don't have the resolve to stick to your plans for success. When you face an inevitable disappointment, accept it as a learning experience and find creative ways to work through it. You can choose to react to a disappointment by seeking solace and quitting, thus weakening your ability to do something positive about it. Or, instead of shrinking from challenges, you can choose to learn, resolve to handle a similar situation differently the next time around, and grow.
7. Never be intimidated. Most success is more perceived than real. It does no good to envy the possessions of others. There is a teaching in Buddhism: "People are not their stuff." This means that if you take all of your elements, such as your pride, body, friends, money, status, position, job, and anything else you can think of that you normally use to define another, and remove them from yourself, the real you is left. You are as important as anyone else on the planet.
Remember this saying: "If it is to be, it is up to me." You have to accept responsibility for getting what you want in your life. When you don't like a situation, take action to change it. Waiting for someone else to make the changes you want decreases your motivation and ability to act. By waiting, you diminish yourself and your cause.
