The Secret of Success When You Don’t Feel Like a Success

In your success journey you are likely to run into some bad days. In fact, some days will be really rotten, when nothing works, and you feel like your efforts are wasted. When this happens you may get discouraged and start questioning the very reason for why you are doing what you are doing. Then your mind starts wondering if something is wrong with you. You start to ask: “Why can’t I have the same success as many other people that I know?”

Let me tell you straight up - there is going to be some bad days. You are not always going to feel like a success. It happens to everyone, including the most successful people in the world. The secret of success is to keep ongoing, even when you don’t feel like a success. The feeling will pass, but your ability to stay the course, and reach success, will depend on how you react to this feeling.

Yaro Starak from Entrepreneur’s Journey wrote a related article called “How to Remain Productive When You Feel Like Giving Up” The article talks about the importance of creating some sort of positive output that will get you closer to your goals, even when you don’t feel like it. Even if you take just one very small step that will get you just a little bit closer to where you want to be - instead of just laying around and not taking any action - will positively impact your mood and put you back on track.

Yaro also touches on a very important subject, which is how you react to other people’s success. Do you find it motivating? – “If he could do it, so can I!”. Or do you find it resentful? – “Why can’t I have his success?” If you ever find yourself letting your mind wonder towards the latter, snap out of it. Get your mind busy with something else and don’t let those negative thoughts foster around your head. Listen to what Yaro has to say from an entrepreneur's perspective:

“Your mind is your greatest asset for success in business, but it can be just as strong a force of hindrance, sabotaging your efforts, destroying your work ethic and leaving you with no option but to return to the soul destroying job you promised yourself that you would never go back to.”

When you don’t feel like a success, here are few things you can do to get yourself back on track in your success journey:

Take a Break

If you need a break, take it. Go do something fun and get your minds off your problems for a little while. Once you are refreshed get right back to it. Don’t confuse taking a break with what Yaro was telling you not to do, which is to lay around resenting your situation. Also don’t confuse it with procrastination, which is putting off a problem indefinitely. A break is a purposeful change in your current cycle so that you can get your mind refreshed. You must go into it with the full intention of getting right back to business when you are ready.

Work Out

Working out is a great way to get your mind and body re-energized. If you are in a bad mood or depressed, get your body moving and pretty soon your mind will snap right back into a motivated state.

Count Your Blessings

As bad as things may seem to be, it could always be worse. Take some time to think about all the good things you have going for you, many of which you may be taking for granted: your health, your family, or even the fact that you were able to feed yourself today. If you are not starving today, just realize that there are many people in this world who would be thrilled to have what you have.

Read a Good Book

There are many great books out there that can help you get back in a motivated mood. There are a few good ones listed in the book review page on this site. Look for something that will inspire you – the autobiography of someone who has done what you want to do is always a good choice.

Talk to a Friend

Find someone you like and trust and share your concerns. Sometimes just talking about your problems helps alleviate the weight on your shoulders.

If there is just one thing I want you to remember from this post, it is this:

When the day comes when you don’t feel like a success, remember that I warned you that this day would come. Then realize that this feeling is a natural part of the success process. Follow some of the suggestions above if they help, but never give up on your success journey.

Here is to your success!