This is an encouraging brain dump to read. I think that although many of us have grown beyond high school we forget that the potential influences in that environment follow us for the rest of our lives. Even in our adult lives there are cliques, groups, and other gatherings of people that influence us more than we care to recognize.
Consistent environment has a lot to do with how we act and what we think. People influence other people. It’s not just presentations, keynotes, and blog articles. It’s coworkers, friends, family, and everyone we spend time with outside of work as well.
We’re all individuals. We have aspirations, goals, and things we want to get done. It’s sometimes tough to recognize but if you’re not actively pursuing something, it’s not going to fall in your lap. Even with these grandiose stories of massive success we’re not getting the full story. We don’t read about the years upon years of failed attempts, hard work, and persistence that went into some form of success. The definition of that success is another discussion entirely, but things don’t simply fall in your lap. Yes there are stories of just that happening but they’re just stories, even those have more context than that.
I’ve learned something over the past few years by observing what goes on around me. There are no secrets to success, it comes down to the individual’s definition of success and the simple act of taking steps toward that success. It’s not a cliff-jumping, life-changing experience that happens all at once over the course of a week. When you’re neck deep in “making progress” you’re likely making small, calculated decisions on a day-to-day basis with just enough strategy so as to not disturb things too much. That’s what makes the most sense to me.
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One particular thought that has always interested me was how others see the “end result” of any accomplishment. They don’t see the time & effort it takes to produce that result but a successful person does. You can’t hit a target you can’t see…