Secret to Success

The biggest secret to both success, and a truly rewarding life, is to be as “you” as possible.
Combine what you love to do with what you can give to the world.
Now, whether the world is everyone, or just one person is totally your decision.
If it’s what you really want, it’s always the right one.
~Doe Zantamata

What if Oprah's a lousy chef? Or if Emerill can't sing? What if Celine Dion couldn't rebuild a motorcycle no matter how much you paid or encouraged her, or if Elvis was a terrible figure skater?

It doesn't matter.

They're all people who followed their dreams and their dreams came true.

They're famous examples, and glamourous careers, but that's not all that dreams and success are made of.

To some, success means to have a tight-knit family, and to raise a child with all the love, encouragement, and attention that he or she can handle. A glamourous 24/7 worldwide singing career to a person who had that dream would be a giant failure, no matter how many times their album went multi-platinum.

Your dreams and what you consider success do not have to be what your parents, or your siblings, or friends, or even society would agree with. In fact, they're usually not.

We tend to get nudged, or pushed, or shoved into believing what dreams and success mean. People usually associate success with piles of money and fancy stuff. But not everyone wants that. Not everyone would enjoy that. Not to knock money, "enough" is necessary to anyone. But what amount is "enough" varies to each person. For some, enough would be enough to feed, clothe, and house themselves and their family without having to stress about any bills. For others, enough would mean enough for themselves, luxury items, and big donations to all sorts of charities. The point, is, just because a person has more or less money than another person, it doesn't by itself gauge how successful each of them are. It is only one of several factors; the most important one being -- happiness.

So what's your dream? Really. Some of us barely give a passing thought to our dreams or goals, and spend more time deciding what we want on our pizza than how we're going to move toward our dreams within the next year...or month, or tomorrow.

Once you know what your dream is, or even think you are allowed to change it if you move far enough in that direction and decide it's really not all it was cracked up to be...but once you know, it's time to plan and act.

Planning is kind of looking around and seeing what you've got in your life inventory right now that you can use more to get toward where you want to be. Let's say you want to sing. You've also got a computer, which has a webcam. Do you have videos of you singing on a YouTube Channel yet? It may be a long shot, but it's happened quite a few times that those home recorded videos were seen by a few, then a lot, then one really important person who could not have seen it if it didn't exist. So make it exist. Just in case.

Acting, or taking action toward your dreams is part of living the dream. When you have the end goal off in space somewhere and you're living today, doing something that is in that direction, it feels good. It actually feels great. In most ways, it feels like you're already there.

So make time, every day if you can, or at least every week, to physically do something that is in the direction of your dream. If your dream is to learn to do something, enroll in a local class. You'll not only get to do what you love, but meet others who do, too. If it's painting, or anything creative, your local community center or college probably has a low cost night class available.

Your imagination will be what keeps you going.

If you try one thing, or a dozen things, and they all don't seem to work, then use your imagination to think up a dozen more. As long as you have it in your mind that your dream is going to come true, you will stay determined and keep thinking up really unique things in the direction of that dream...things that others may have done as well, or maybe no one has done, and that's why it will work easily for you.

How important is a dream? Well, if you want to feel fulfilled, if you want to always know 100% for sure what your purpose is on this planet, if you want to be happy, and if you want to inspire others, then it's very important.

Can you be happy without a dream? What about people who are content with very little and seem happy? Well, maybe they've already realized their dream. Maybe their dream was for their life to turn out exactly as it has. You just never know. You can only see into your heart and know if you're feeling like you wish you could do something else or something more, but haven't yet given yourself permission to believe it's possible. If that's what it looks like inside your heart, then it's time to make it happen.

By Doe Zantamata

Author of Happiness in Your Life, Book One: Karma

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  1. I have no way to be happy without my dreams. It is impossible, but there are days when I am even too tired to dream. Days where dreams are impossible.

    1. Keep believing, dear. With all your heart.

  2. Dear Mr. Doe,
    Thank you very much for your wonderful inspiring work. I love what you write and the way you write it.
    Thank you.


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