Where Does Success Come From?

Below is a small excerpt from something I wrote for a client. I think it fits in pretty well here. Hope you enjoy it.

Recognizing Your Potential

One of the most common mistakes people make when they decide to make a major change in their lives is confusing the tool they are using as the thing that will make them successful.

Where Success Comes From
To help you understand this bit of mistaken thinking, imagine a musician who has decided he wants to compose the next chart-topping song.

Do you think that the musician believes that the hit song will only exist if he has a certain guitar, or the right drum kit or an expensive piano?

Of course not. What the successful musician understands is that the potential for a #1 song is not held within his instruments, but within himself. He knows that even if his guitar disappeared, he would still be able to write the song.

He may need the guitar to finally play and record it, but whether the song is good or not depends on him and him alone. (With possibly the help of his bandmates, family, or other supporters.)

YOU make Success
So how does this relate to you? Ask yourself if you’ve confused the tools—or “instruments”—in your life with your potential for success.

Maybe you’ve read a book or heard a friend talking about how to create change and build a successful business or career, but then nothing seemed to happen for you, so you searched for the next book that would have better ideas, or talked to another person that could give you more advice.

If only you had the right information, the right tools, you too could be successful.

If you recognize yourself in this example, right now you should be asking one question: Why? Why haven’t I succeeded if I’ve been trying?

Invest the Power in Yourself
The answer may be that you’ve invested too much power in the tools you’re using, and not enough in yourself.

You are the only one who can succeed for you. No one else can do it for you, and nothing else—no tool, no advice—can make you succeed. They may help you succeed, but that’s a very important difference.

Take a moment to really think about this. It seems simple on the surface, but it is a distinction that makes a profound difference in the way you understand your role in creating and sustaining positive change:

· One way makes you think the power is external, coming from a source outside you.

· The other way makes you think the power is internal, meaning that the source is you.

Each is a mindset. Which one do you think enables more success?

Define What is In Your Power
When starting out, you have to be able to tell the difference between what you can change using your own mindset, and what you can change with the help of a tool.

Once you understand this, nothing can stop you from succeeding.