Choosing Success - Let's Make the CHOICE and DO IT NOW

Have you ever thought about why those successful people are always successful?  Have you ever thought why those happy smiling people always seem to be happy?  Have you always wondered why those “lucky” people always seem to be lucky? Or on the other side why some people can never have anything go their way or they always seem to be in trouble.

My entire life I have always been teased or talked about as always being able to get a killer deal, have a great connection or just always scoring.  Even though I too have had some great ups, I’ve also had some smashing downs.  However, I’ve always been pretty good about being in the right place at the right time and getting “lucky” or having success.

Today during Mike Ray’s training on MLM Time Management my mind was flooded with a whole bunch of thoughts and I just wanted to take a second to write them down.  How is it that successful people always seem to be successful and the ones that aren’t successful never seem to successful?

I have a few answers and they all begin with mindset.  Herman Cain said, “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” I have always believed this and live it.  I LOVE WHAT I DO! 

People love to be around happy people.  No one likes to hang out with someone negative, someone that sucks the life out of them or just drags them down.  People like to feel good and enjoy being around others that feel the same. 

Jim Rohn said “Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person we become.” This may be a difficult concept for people to understand but one that can only be proven by doing.  I have seen this over and over in my life for good and bad.  I’ve had some things take place in my life that have dragged me down to the pits of depression where you feel like there is absolutely no hope and only complete palpable darkness.  However you choose to rise up, if you do, it once again begins with mindset and the choice to be happy.  It begins with you deciding that you want to make it happen, that you refuse to live another day with the misery, or whatever it is you are trying to change.  The point is that it begins with YOU and YOU MUST CHANGE.  Whatever you dream to have, be or do, it begins with you making the decision to do it, to be it or to have it.  You must decide in your mind that it is something you are going to do.  You can vision board it.  You can pray about it.  You can meditate about it.  Your process is your process but it begins with your mindset and making the choice to DO IT!  Success is attracted by who you choose to be!

A simple rule of thumb that can help you on your way is what Jim Rohn said “Learn how to be happy with what you have while you pursue all that you want.” If you have read “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho, you will know that life is a journey and the treasure at the end of the journey isn’t actually the treasure.  It is the journey through life that is actually the treasure.  My point is this.  BE HAPPY NOW and don’t fear.

Many times we let fear get in our way.  Bill Cosby said, “In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.” What in the heck does that mean?  Thomas Watson was asked about his secret to success, he said the following.  “Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it.  So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.” I’m an absolute fan and believer in the book “Go for No!” written by Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz.  You need to read it.

Let me get brutally honest with you and I hope you are not offended.  I went through a divorce and totally screwed up.  I’m not sure if any of you have ever been depressed.  My entire life, I’ve never understood depression because I have always chosen to be happy despite life’s challenges.  However, during a few periods in my life over the last few years I’ve made some super stupid decisions.  One of the worst that I made was trusting certain people and believing that custody terms were as we verbally agreed and stated accordingly in the paperwork.  To get to the point, I had the old bait and switch happen to me regarding custody of my children.  I was hit in the most sensitive soft and protected part of my heart and I was nearly destroyed because the most loved and adored thing in my life was taken from me.  You want to talk about depression and pain?  I get it now.  I also get that it still was a choice.  You have a choice.  I have a choice.  We have the ability to CHOOSE.

I choose to be happy.  I choose to be successful.  There is ONE SOLID PROVEN METHOD WAY TO SUCCEED and that is to NEVER GIVE UP!  Henry Ford said, “If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can’t, you’re right.”  Success is a journey that begins with your choice to be and do.  The doing is the most important part.  I spoke with friend the other day that is suddenly having tremendous success in her business and I asked her, “Do you know why you are having success?” Her response was, “It’s because I saw this other guy having success and I realized that I can do the same thing too!”  It is mindset.  It is choice.  Once you choose, then DO IT!  As Spencer W. Kimball used to say, “DO IT NOW”

As Coach Carberry taught me, “It is your attitude, not your aptitude that determines your altitude.”  This literally changed my life and has opened so many doors that I often look back on my life and am shocked at how good life has been to me.  “Men are born to succeed, not fail,” Henry Thoreau said.  Let’s not let life or the world get us down.  Let’s refuse to fail. Let’s choose success. Overnight successes, don’t happen overnight.  Robert Collier said, “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” Theodore Roosevelt said “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are,” and I agree.

To wrap up my thoughts you, me, we need to choose what we want to be.  We then need to get off our okole and just do it and do it now.  I love this statement by Thomas Edison, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”  

So let’s choose SUCCESS and DO IT NOW!  I’m awake, are you?  WakeUpNow! Stay thirsty my friends.

Darren Olayan