Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. Earl Nightingale gave this definition of success when he recorded the Strangest Secret in 1956. This definition has stood the test of time and many other extremely successful people have given this same or very similar definition of success. My definition of success taken from Earl Nightingale and with a couple of word changes that I have heard from many other successful people is that success is the progressive realization of a worthwhile Dream/Goal.

Most people spend more time planning for a vacation than they spend planning their life. When you plan your vacation you spend time thinking and researching all of the many places that you would like to go. You first think of the few main areas: tropical, cruise, ski vacation, camping trip, etc. Then you narrow the list down to the top destinations and finally you choose one of them, like Hawaii. You still have some thinking to do because now you need to choose what island will you go to, then what resort on the island will you stay at, and when will you go and what activities will you do. Then there are all of the other details that you need to consider: who will you bring, what will you pack, how long will you stay, what flight will you take, and how much sun screen will you need? After all that thought and planning you definitely have a great vacation, and after your vacation is over you start to plan your next vacation.

Contrast that to how most people plan their life. As a child you think of all the things that you can be, do and have. The older you get you start to narrow your list of dreams to be more "practical". All the "crazy" dreams fall by the wayside because you don't "need" them. You start to live a settle for lifestyle where everything is just good enough, but nothing is inspiring you to chase your dreams. Most people choose a major in college based on what subject was easy for them in high school. After graduating from college a high percentage of people don't even get a job in the field that they studied. Find a job, buy a house, have kids and go on a couple of vacations and that's it.

If we would all just take the time to plan our life the way we plan our vacation, there would be a big difference in the way we live our life. Spend the time to write down everything you want to do, have and be in life, without thinking how possible it is for you to accomplish. This hard for most people to do, because they think they would like to have a nicer car and then realize that they can't afford it. You might want to do something that seems totally impossible so you won't write it down. Remember to write Everything down, don't think about how possible it is to achieve. Just because you write it down doesn't mean you have to do it, but at least you have a starting point. After you have a list choose the most important things for you to accomplish and then narrow it down to the single most important and then set a date for when you want to accomplish it. You have now turned a wish into a dream and by placing a date on it, you now have a goal.

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