In this Episode, we're going to discuss the 3 concepts that I think make people successful. Is this the magic recipe for success?

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but there is no magic recipe for success. These traits however are common among people I admire and people who have attained success.

These concepts originate from my observations and research from books, articles, podcasts, interviews and networking.

The "3 P's of Success" are:

1. Patience
2. Persistence
3. Positive Thinking

In this episode, I also dive into my struggles with each of these. After all, it wouldn't be a personal development podcast if I wasn't sharing my personal development.

1. Patience

If only success could happen overnight. If only could happen to us sooner than we have planned. Wouldn't that be fantastic?

I think that's why we celebrate overnight successes. Because we expect success to take time. Inherently, we know that things worth having are worth working for.

However, when we learn someone speeds up the process, we must know how they achieved success. We dissect their success with the hopes that we'll hints, secrets, tips or strategies that we can apply to our own journey.

I can promise you that one of the ingredients to success is TIME. I blame the media for playing into our desire into instant gratification.

However, I implore you to look at all of your favorite products, your favorite pieces of art, your most admired heroes. I'd bet my life on the fact that all of their success took time.

It took time time to research and develop, time to test, time to iterate and adapt, time to fail, time to learn, all leading up to the point of success.

We live in a world where faster is better. We have so many conveniences in everyday life that perpetuate the idea of instant gratification.

You may think that the Chick-fil-A app used to cut the line (sponsor me Chick-fil-A) is a harmless activity, but think about what other ways you're trying to make things happen quicker?

These seemingly harmless activities designed to save you time can impact your mentality and your behavior. You start to want results in other areas of your to come more quickly.

I struggle with this. I had the incorrect motivation to monetize Secondhand Success in 6 months after I launched the blog. So I quit. I took me a 8 months, a new mentor and a new mentality to present my thoughts to you all.

I'm constantly working to build patience, and here are some of my favorite ways:

• Meditation and Journaling - I'm sure your mind races at 1 million thoughts every second. For me, meditation and journaling help me recognize my thoughts, pause, and then act. I'm not reacting as much to everything that's happening. This practice of pausing helps me remind myself of my overall goal and keeps me grounded. I'm able to pause to help keep me focused. I'm not perfect, and I can become unfocused or get off on a tangent with my time. Being able to reflect on what I'm doing helps re-position my actions.
• Tracking my progress - Tracking my progress has two benefits. It shows me how far I've come since starting on my journey towards success. It also shows me how far I have to go. It inspires me to see how much progress I've made and allows me to reflect on what's working versus what's not working. With my progress tracked, I'm able to adapt and reorient myself to better utilize my energy.
• Saying "NO" to my impulses - Everything is vying for my attention, and I battle my impulses everyday. It's so much easier to eat bad food or be lazy and binge watch Netflix, than it is to build Secondhand Success or work towards retiring in 5 years. I understand how easy and temporarily satisfying it is to open up my phone and mindlessly scroll through Reddit or Instagram. However, by pausing, thinking and denying myself of those impulses, I prove to myself that I while I can't control my impulse, I can control how I react to them. It helps me recognize that I am becoming more patient.

 

1. Persistence

I think persistence is the easiest concept on this trifecta to grasp, yet the hardest to execute. Opportunities and success don't just happen. There's work to manifest the opportunities and even more to work to execute through to the success.

Persistence is two-fold:

1. Being disciplined enough to show up everyday and putting in the work.
2. Not quitting.

I think we're presented a choice for each number. We make the choice to put in the work, and we make a choice to quit.

Remember the first "P" we talked about (Hint: It's patience)... your success will take time. The caveat to that is that your success will take time if you constantly work towards it and you don't give up until you succeed.

Every person you and I admire is relentless in their pursuit of a vision, dream or goal. They do not give up, even when everyone else has lost hope.

It's honestly draining to show up and follow your process or schedule every single day, There will be days where you won't have the drive to do anything. Sometimes life happens and zaps the vigor out of you, and you're feeling like it's useless to work towards your dream.

However, I want you to think about it this way...Even if you worked on your goal for 5 minutes, that's 5 minutes closer to achieving your success. Sometimes the results of your work may be trash, and now those results are future lessons for what no to do or produce.

I promise that if you persist long enough, you'll make things happen.

1. Positive Thinking

If you turn on the news, you'll quickly see how much negative stuff is happening in the world. Which is partly why I don't watch too much news. It's unfortunate that we naturally gravitate towards that negativity, which is why it gets so much media time.

Additionally, if you've ever been around a negative person, it's absolutely draining. They have the power to drain your energy, your willpower and your time.

If you're to achieve something you never have before and you're striving to be successful, I can guarantee that it's going to be difficult. You'll be faced with challenges that seem impossible, problems that appear to not have any solutions and sometimes end up with more questions than answers.

When the times get tough, you will become impatient with your success and want to give up. If you're anything like me, you'll begin berating yourself when things go awry.

You might find yourself saying things like…"How could you be such a dumbass?" "What kind of an idiot would make that move?"

Then you'll spiral down the path of "You're not good enough to accomplish this!" or "You don't deserve to be successful."

I struggle with these thoughts every now and then. While I cannot ever control my thoughts, I can control how I react to them. If I give those negative sentiments weight, then I'm going to lose the battle at an alarming rate.

You're going to have to create that mental shift with your inner voice. As you're facing obstacles, the self-doubt and negativity puts limitations on your abilities.

One way to train yourself to start thinking positively is to track how often you insult yourself. Find a way to track it. Write it down or use coin jar and drop a coin into it every time you say something negative about yourself.

This will help draw awareness to the words you use towards yourself. Once you understand the problem it will become easier to recognize what happened and what triggered that negative thought.

Since everyone will be critique you already, you might as well be your biggest supporter and cheerleader.

Conclusion

There's no magic recipe for success, but there are qualities that we can apply what will help us be more successful in anything we try and do.

So...

• Be patient with your success, as much as you want it to happen yesterday, it does take time
• Be persistent - be relentless with your own pursuit. Choose not to quit
• Think positive thoughts - whatever you're trying to attain is difficult enough, so be your own biggest supporter

Connect with Kevin:

The Blog - www.secondhandsuccess.com/blog

Secondhand Success Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/secondhandsuccess

Kevin's personal Facebook: www.facebook.com/kevin.galang

Kevin's Instagram: @_kguapo

Kevin's Twitter: @2ndhandsuccess

Kevin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmathewgalang/

To get on Kevin's Calendar go to www.secondhandsuccess.com/contact

To sign up for "The Sunday Six," go to www.secondhandsuccess.com/sundaysix