Writing Your Own Success Story – Part 1

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So far in this course, you’ve learned about overcoming setbacks, maintaining your motivation for your goals, and developed a habit of persevering. In this module, you’ll get to put it all together to create your own unique success story. This first lesson helps you prepare for writing your story.

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Preparing to Write Your Own Success Story

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Everyone wants to be a success in both their personal and professional lives. Unfortunately, not everyone will take the steps necessary to become a success. What about you? Are you ready to step out of your comfort zone and write your own success story? Only you can do it!

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What does success look like to you?

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To some people being successful means they have their own business, a large house, and enough extra money to spend on anything they want. Others see success as raising children to be productive members of society.

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There are many ways to view success and many ways to reach it.

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Before embarking on this exercise of writing your own success story, do you know what form you would like to see your success story take? In what ways do you want to be successful?

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Do you know where you’re going?

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Before you head out on a journey across the country there are some steps you probably take:

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It’s much the same for becoming a success except that your journey will start with writing your own success story and determining the goals to get you there (the route you need to take). The final destination is your success.

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How do you see yourself now?

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Currently, where are you in relation to your final goal of success? The answer will depend on the goal you’ve chosen.

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Your success story begins when you know where you are and have a plan on how to reach your ultimate goal. To help determine where you are, and what you may want to include in your new plan, look around you.

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Are you currently doing things that may be sabotaging your chances of success? This may have been part of the reason you haven’t been successful in the past. Are there habits that hold you back? Do you need to go back to school to reach your goal?

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Decide now that you’re willing to do whatever is necessary to become a success, and include the necessary steps in your plan.

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How do you see past failures?

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Do you see your past failures as reasons why you can’t start over? Do you see them as obstacles to success? That’s one way to look at your failures, but it may not be the best way to view them. From another viewpoint, you probably learned something from them, and that’s a good thing!

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Perhaps, instead, you see the times you failed as stepping stones that took you to another level? You may also see them as lessons you needed to learn in order to spur you into further action. If nothing else, they gave you experience in what NOT to do in the same situation!

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Thomas Edison, when creating the light bulb, was asked about the failures of his first attempts. He replied, “I haven’t failed, I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” He also said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

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It may be a case of looking at the same glass and seeing it half full or half empty. It’s all in the way you perceive things.

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What may seem like a failure when you’re in the midst of it may actually be a great learning experience that gives you the knowledge you need to succeed in the future.

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Perhaps failing will allow you to see a need that no one has considered in the past. Because of your need, you end up coming up with a great solution!

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You can start now to view future failures differently than the way you’ve viewed them in the past. There’s no reason why you can’t make changes to move forward rather than falling backward.

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What changes do you need to make?

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Do you see yourself as a failure or a success? What type of self-talk do you use? Amazingly people don’t really think about these things when they begin to search for success. The answers you give to these questions can determine whether or not you’re successful.

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Henry Ford once said, “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” In other words, how you think can have a large impact on your reality and how well things work out for you.

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See yourself as a success or see yourself as a failure, the choice is yours.

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If you realize that you’ve always seen yourself nearly making your goals but never actually obtaining them, you can change that in your mind. Writing your success story can help.

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In the next lesson, you’ll get to finish the course by writing your success story.

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Here’s what you need to do today:

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