We have given countless tips on how to bring about lasting changes in your life, from some decisions that can improve your life instantly to bringing about a radical change. Today we are going to look at the story of a person who one day realised he wasn’t living the life he wanted and knew he had to do something, above all about his work and his finances, and who did it by applying 5 principles.
See also: How to make consistent, lasting changes in your life
It is 7:00 in the morning on the first day of the month, and I have already earned 80% of my old monthly salary.
I receive income from four different sources, and once again this income will exceed my old salary from the full-time job I used to have. It is the last day my wife will need to go to the job she passionately hates.
This is not one of the world’s greatest success stories, but it is big enough for me, considering how I have turned my life around over the last five years.
That is how the text by Michal Stawicki begins. He is the author of Trickle Down Mindset: The Missing Element In Your Personal Success, a man who at a certain point in his life decided to leave the path he had been on and change course completely.
How to change your life over the next 5 years
Five years ago I had no business and no idea what to do with my life. I had no goals or objectives. I had a job that paid the bills, and I killed my existential emptiness with video games, TV series and reading fiction.
But I changed and achieved success in every area of my life, not just the financial one, because I followed the 5 principles we are about to list.
As Tony Robbins put it, success leaves clues, and we don’t have to find those clues, because others have already done it for us. We simply have to apply what others before us have already found works.
1. Your habits make you
“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.” – Jim Rohn
Success is not some huge thing. It is not winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games. It is not saving a billion people from hunger, or discovering a vaccine that wipes out hundreds of diseases.
See also: Changing this one phrase in your thinking can change how you see life
Success is those small disciplines applied every day that lead you to such results. It is training, study and reflection on a daily basis. Only if you have such habits, and the discipline to apply them every day, will you be able to achieve those enormous things.
In Michal Stawicki’s case, one of the disciplines that helped him achieve financial success was writing at least 1,000 words every day.
“I’m not a particularly brilliant writer, but this discipline helped me achieve my successes, publishing 15 books and selling more than 30,000 copies of them.”
2. Your habits can also “break” you
“Failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.” – Jim Rohn
Entropy is real. If you don’t cultivate good habits, bad habits will creep in, take hold of you and break you.
Your habits make you, whether they are good or bad. Your life as it is now is the result of your actions, and your actions are largely the result of your habits.
If you are overweight, it is most likely down to certain eating habits. If you have a 10,000 euro emergency fund, it is very likely down to your good habits in managing your savings. If you know a lot about something, you have probably had the habit of studying, reading and practising. If your friends live a life of excess and lack knowledge, the difference lies in their habits.
However, you have power over your habits. You can see them, break the bad ones and build the good ones.
Stawicki says that five years ago he paid no attention to his habits, and that is why he was who he was and did what he did.
“I had been wasting an enormous amount of time on video games, television and comments on news sites. I was an ordinary person because I did what most people do.”
But he knew he had to change his habits, and that new ones would not materialise in his life on their own. He had to put a great deal of effort and dedication into developing certain habits.
3. Change is a team game
“You can’t succeed on your own. It’s very hard to find a rich hermit.” – Jim Rohn
What does change have to do with success? The truth is that if you are not successful now, you need to change (if success is your aim). The only certain thing in the pursuit of success is constant change.
See also: An easy way to become smarter (and free)
“Isolation is the enemy of excellence.” – Aaron Walker
One shortcut to success is to find people who have already done what you want to do and make them your mentors. The next option that works is to find another person, or people, who want to achieve what you want to achieve and share the same passion for that goal.
Life and business are team areas. You are going to need to build relationships with other people, and for that you will have to learn social skills.
4. Know yourself
“Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves – their strengths, their values, and how they best perform.” – Peter F. Drucker
True success means serving others and offering the best of your abilities, which is why it usually comes to those who know themselves. In the past you could be “out of step” and still prosper. Today, we could say that is practically impossible.
We live in an age that rewards those who are best at whatever they do. If you don’t know yourself, it is very hard to bring that value and those abilities to others. People who know themselves know what they should do, and they also know in which fields they are mediocre, so they focus on making the most of their strengths. These people are destined to succeed and to be properly rewarded.
In Stawicki’s words:
“I studied until I graduated from university at 25. I was a young, adaptable, bright person when I started working in my career in information technology. I stayed in that field for 13 years. I took part in international projects in several roles and for different companies. I gained a lot of experience, but I was out of place.
Five years ago I discovered that I wanted to be a writer, and although I had a wife and three children, I started writing and publishing books without neglecting my main income. I am still in the process of self-discovery, even though, personally, financially and professionally, these last five years have surpassed the 25 years I spent studying and the 13 years I spent working in IT.”
5. Be grateful, be positive
Every measurable outcome is better when you are positive: health, wealth, relationships, savings, performance and so on. Scientists have not found a single exception where being positive does not help you.
But how do you make your brain positive? It seems a hard puzzle, since it is apparently very rare to see someone who thinks positively when they are short of money, friends, health, fame and so on. Let’s not fool ourselves: if life is smiling on us and we have all of the above, it is much easier to be positive, right? Well, the truth is that it is not exactly like that.
When most people get money and fame, are healthy and everything is going well for them, they start to lose their sense of purpose because they no longer have goals and objectives to reach. Counter-intuitively, a person who is fighting to improve their financial situation or to solve problems has their head busy solving problems and reaching goals. Let’s say they are in the thick of the fight, and so it is harder for them to fall into depression.
As we have said before, there are more cases of depression caused by boredom than by stress.
Even if you have been a pessimist for decades, there is one classic piece of advice that seems to work: being grateful.
Every day, as soon as you get up, write down 3 things you are grateful for, things that make it worth getting up and going out to fight. This simple morning habit is usually more than enough to rewire your brain.
So, to sum up the 5 points for changing your life and the 5 principles for success:
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Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines practised every day.
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Failure is simply a few errors of judgement repeated every day.
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You can’t succeed on your own. You need other people.
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Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves: their strengths, their values and how they perform best.
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Be grateful and be positive, and there won’t be a single area of your life that doesn’t improve.
Featured image: Marina Christensen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
