"CHART your Journey" Blog Series || Chapter 6: Go on and "T"

Hey, we're now at the last topic on this blog series! Thank you so much for tuning in!

In the previous blog, we've talked about the factors to consider when realizing your way to success. That is when we started to take action to reach our goals. We've learned that in order to be successful, we need to take accurate and consistent actions. This leads us to the fifth and final topic on the "CHART your journey" series.

The last and probably the most essential part of the journey. "T" stands for "Thrive". Wikipedia's definition of "thrive" is "to grow vigorously; flourish; to be successful or make steady progress; prosper."

So, how do we thrive? To give you more context, "thriving" involves the following activities:

1. Be optimistic.

We all know how powerful our mind is. Our actions are being dictated by what we think, therefore it's crucial that we always feed our mind with positive thoughts if we want to get positive results. A great quote I found online says "if you expect the worst, the worst will happen. You are your own stress, your own anger, your own sadness, and frustration. If you let things bother you, they will. So don't let them. Nothing in life is easy; so make the best of it all. Don't dwell on the negatives. Optimism is key!"

2. Don’t rely on pure luck.

I remember mentioning this in one of my previous blogs. Our lives should not be based and relied on pure luck. We should be the captain of our own ships, we should take control of our lives and direct it to where we want it to be. If we want to be successful, we have to have faith and always give our 100% in everything that we do. An anonymous person once said, "luck is not in your hands, but the decision is in your hands. Your decision can make luck, but luck can never make your decision. So always trust yourself."

3. Continue to make yourself better.

A key to being successful is making consistent actions towards making ourselves better every day. We should focus on making ourselves better, rather than thinking too much that we are better. We need to constantly look inside of us and see what we can still improve on ourselves. As Jim Harbaugh (an American football coach) once said, "realistic expectations for life are that we are going to be better today than we were yesterday, be better tomorrow than we were today. That's a plan for success. So [the key is] simple: just work."

4. Track your milestones.

I often stumble upon a saying that goes "success is a journey, not a destination", and I believe this is true. Robert Collier (an American author) says "success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out." Milestones are part of the journey, so to appreciate what we've accomplished and to sustain our the motivation to move forward, we should keep track of our milestones. As Nelson Mandela (Former President of South Africa) says " remember to celebrate milestones as you prepare for the road ahead."

5. Build your own brand.

This is one of the valuable lessons I've learned from one of my mentors. Every successful person in the world has their own brand - not their own brand of product, but their personal branding. Personal branding is important as this creates your sense of credibility and reputation. Funny but true, Jeff Bezos of Amazon defines it as, "your brand is what other people say about you when you are not in  the room." A great advice from famous celebrity Oprah Winfrey says "let excellence be your brand. When you are excellent, you become unforgettable. Doing the right thing, even when nobody knows you're doing the right thing will always bring the right thing to you."

6. Be grateful.

One valuable trait that we should all have is a sense of gratitude. In every good and bad that we have in our lives, we should always find something to be thankful for. As Melody Beattie (an American author) says, "Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend." Similarly, William Arthur Ward (one of America's most quoted writers) said: "Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgiving, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings."

7. Love what you do.

One of my favorite quotes from Steve Jobs is "the only way to do great work is to love what you do." This applies to every aspect of our lives. If we want to succeed in anything, we should first learn to love what we're doing. This would create happiness and would make our lives easier and fulfilling. A popular saying goes "success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."

8. Find value in what you do.

This is one of the great pieces of advice I got from one of my mentors. Finding value in what we do is very critical as this dictates our outcomes and also sustain our motivation in reaching our goals. We should not just go out there and do our thing, instead, we should step back and think of the value of the thing that we're doing. If we believe that what we're doing does not add any value, then we're just wasting our time and efforts. As Albert Einstein once said, "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results."

9. Keep your feet on the ground.

Humility is one of the virtues we've learned since we are young, yet many people struggled with it. The successes we will achieve in our lives should not be a reason for us to neglect this virtue. It's alright to be proud of what we've accomplished but not to the point of bragging it too much and having too much pride in ourselves, bordering to boastfulness. We should always keep our feet on the ground. As Gordon Hinckley (an American religious leader) once said, "being humble means recognizing that we are not on earth to see how important we can become but to see how much difference we can make in the lives of others."

10. Find ways to give back.

"It's better to give than to receive." This is one of the lessons we've learned from grade school. Very basic, yet very valuable. If we reached the point of being successful, one of the things we should not neglect doing is finding ways to give back. Giving back means sharing our success with other people. There's a lot of ways we can do this, either by teaching other people what we know, inspiring people to be successful, providing coaching and support to people throughout their journey or simply donating money to charitable institutions. As the famous American actor Denzel Washington once said, "at the end of the day, it's not about what you have or even what you've accomplished. It's about who you've lifted up, who you've made better. It's about what you've given back."

There you have it, folks. That's the fifth and final step in the "Success Roadmap". I hope this gives you valuable insights on some of the factors to consider when thriving your way to success.

Since this is the last topic in this blog series, I would like to thank you for spending your precious time in reading my blogs. Truly appreciate it! I hope this series gave you valuable lessons and bits of inspiration on how to chart your journey and work your way up to success. Please put what you've learned into action and share those learnings with the people you love the most. Most importantly, always believe in yourself, have faith, have fun and enjoy the journey! :)

All the best for you,
Enz

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