Understanding success is not all that complicated. The mechanics of failure come down to taking only the present moment into account; the mechanics of success, to realising how much what happens now weighs on what comes next. Once you see that the rewards of the present can be fleeting, turning your behaviour into a discipline for life aimed at succeeding gets easier.
By acting today, by working on the way you think, by swapping bad habits for healthier ones little by little, you end up with results worth having — breaking the vicious circles and putting virtuous ones in their place.
How do you make good habits stick?
Start by building simple disciplines you can practise day to day: go easy on yourself, without letting yourself off the hook. Drastic change does not work for everyone — put things in place gradually, with patience and perseverance. Replace bad habits, in food and in the way you live, with healthier ones, step by step:
- Cut down on fatty food by eating more vegetables.
- Do your shopping on foot or by bike rather than by car.
- Think about your spiritual life — a little meditation, or simply looking at a starry sky, helps release the tensions of the day.
- Call someone you love, even for five minutes.
- Say “I love you” more often: it is no sign of weakness.
- Give concrete proof of your attachment and your love.
- Don't fix on the difficulties of the present; think instead about what the future promises.
- Set yourself easy goals — walking regularly, for instance — so you feel the pride of keeping up the rhythm.
- Savour your small wins without resting on your laurels.
These small suggestions give you the confidence to take on bigger problems afterwards. Eat better, stop smoking, and health improves noticeably — the benefits of this new way of doing things show up fast. Whatever the new discipline, what counts is watching things change and living that change, which in the end feeds the appetite to get better.
Four questions to put everything in perspective
Here are four questions the American coach, writer and entrepreneur Jim Rohn liked to ask:
1. Why?
Why me? Why go to school, why earn a diploma that will be of no use? Why work for someone else, for that salary? Frustrating as it is, this question pushes you to give your life a meaning.
2. Why not?
Why not go to school, read, play sport, eat well, become a better person? This question opens the way to a third.
3. Why not you?
What is stopping you from improving your knowledge, your skills, your self-esteem? Other people have managed it. So why not you?
4. Why not now?
There is untapped potential in every person. Why not take charge of the change you want to see, and start getting better right now?
