Success is something we all look for whether it is a successful career, relationship, family, or life. You may see your success in the form of a rewarding career, a loving family, or a cottage home in the country.

We all have our own dreams and ideals, but what are the top 10 contributing factors to creating your very own success story? Let’s go through them now.

• Health: Your health (and the health of your loved ones) is the most important part of success. If money can’t buy you happiness, then it can’t buy you perfect health either. With disease, illness, and uncontrollable health concerns out there, simply living a healthy, long life is a huge success in itself!
• Healthy Relationships: Learning how to approach, attain, and maximize the different types of relationships in your life is key to success. Whether you seek to build a rock-solid foundation with your spouse, children, family, or friends, having and maintaining healthy, happy relationships will bolster your quality of life and give you renewed meaning.
• Financial Security: Financial security is one of those factors of success that is often pointed to as the only factor, but that’s not true. No matter how much money you make, success cannot be defined in dollars, after all, what value does money have if you have no one to share it with?Financial security comes when you have enough to provide for your home and family, while also being able to comfortably save for extras, such as vacations and other high-ticket items. The key understanding here is that financial security is just one part of happiness and success. There’s more to life than excessive wealth!
• Career Excellence: Financial security and an impassioned career go hand-in-hand. Since you spend a significant portion of your life working, it’s important to embrace a career path that makes you feel smart, capable, and fulfilled. When you do this, you’ll add another facet to your success story.
• Quality Time: Life success comes in the form of time as well. We all desire more time to enjoy the finer things in life. Do you spend most of your time at work? Most do, however, do you have enough time with your family and loved ones? A life with time well spent and no regrets is an important aspect to your success.
• Stress Levels: Are you constantly stressed out about your work, money, or relationships? Learning how to manage stress is an integral part of your health and life success. After all, stress may lead to chronic illnesses that may shorten your quality of life.
• Perspective: Perspective is a huge factor in determining your life success. The way you handle the little and not-so-little setbacks that come your way is very telling of how you view your quality of life. Keeping a positive mindset despite circumstances and learning from setbacks can set you far apart from someone not reaching for life success.
• Learning and Growth: Learning from every situation is central to creating and enjoying a successful life. Value everything you come in contact with, every person, every lesson, and every bit of advice.
• Understanding: Becoming a more understanding and sympathetic person in life allows you the ability to become more connected to the people around you, both the ones you know and the ones you don’t. Knowing that we all have struggles and baggage to contend with on a daily basis will help you treat others with more understanding and care.
• Living in the Present: One of the most necessary aspects of life success is being able to live in the present moment. We cannot be in constant pursuit of some future “perfect” moment when there is already so much perfection and beauty in our lives today. Being able to recognize what you have now is the key to life success above all.

Some people believe that attracting abundance is something that the rich and famous must know how to do. The rest of just aren’t privy to their secrets. Even more damaging is the belief that you must have money to make money. The belief of attracting abundance, however, flies in the face of that and says that as long as you believe it, you can have it.

Life is full of an abundance of all good things

Does that sound way too simple to work? Does it sound too good to be true? It does. And yet people who use the principles behind things like the law of attraction, conscious creation and positive thinking will tell you that it really can work for you, because it worked for them.

There can be little doubt that a person’s attitude, no matter what happens in his or her life, can make the difference between a happy person and a person who’s not happy. We’ve all known people who seem to have the worst luck, who still seem happy. No matter what happens to them, they see the bright side and somehow they turn out ok.

You can have the lifestyle of your dreams when you learn to attract abundance.

And we probably all know someone who seems to have everything going for him, but is miserable. We canít understand how he can be so unhappy when he has so many good things in his life. This is a case of attracting what you surround yourself with. Even though he might be well-off financially, he attracts sadness and despair.

Attracting abundance requires a new state of mind. Like the person with the bad luck who stays positive and happy no matter what happens, you must start to see the positive side to things. And you must believe that positive things can and will happen to you.

Even the person with horrible luck has good things happen. But that person has trained himself to see the good things even in events that most of us would dismiss as completely negative. This focus on the positive allows positive energy to flow to that person, even in less-than-great situations.

Attracting abundance works in a similar way. A person who believes that, no matter what, he will never have enough money will probably always be plagued by financial problems because that is what he believes. His thoughts will attract similar energy.

But for the person who shifts his thinking to decide that he wants abundance, and begins to believe that it’s possible will attract a different kind of energy. If you think abundant thoughts and learn to believe them, then you can attract prosperity.

A principle of the law of abundance is that the universe creates enough for every one. And that one person having enough or more than enough does not mean that another person must go without. There is enough for everyone to have more than he or she will ever need.

Believing this, and believing that your positive thoughts can ensure that you have what you need and more, are the first steps in attracting abundance and letting prosperity flow into your life.

Image credit (girl at beach): Piotr Bizior.

Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night with frantic thoughts about all you need to get done the next day? Are you ever unsure about where to start because you have so much to do and no time to get it done?

Everyone has these feelings from time to time, but you can learn to calm your mind. A calm mind is a more attentive and proactive mind, and in learning to remove anxious thoughts, you can learn to enjoy your life far more than you already do!

How to Achieve Peace Within
When you have a mind that will not stop, you usually are hard-pressed to find inner peace. The more your mind races, the more anxious and frustrated you may become, and this can lead to unproductive days, weeks, and even months. You don’t have to continue to live this way. There are many ways to calm your overactive mind and you really can learn how to live a more calm and peaceful life.

Finding inner peace

If your mind starts running a million miles a minute and you’re not sure which way to turn next, try to pause and repeat a positive affirmation. When you use the power of positive self-talk, you will program your mind to work in a new and different way.

When things seem as if they are getting out of hand, you can use an affirmation such as, “I trust my ability to relax. I am calm and peaceful.” Although this may not be the case at the moment, if you repeat this constantly you will start to believe it. This will help you change your inner dialogue in those moments when you are tempted to succumb to the craziness surrounding you.

Positive affirmations are important because they give you permission to turn off the negative dialogue in your mind and replace it with positive thoughts. The negative dialogue feeds the feelings of turmoil, and when you replace them with peaceful affirmations, you change your life, one positive statement at a time.

If you have a hard time believing that this strategy will work for you, give it a try with an open heart and mind. It really does work! In no time at all, you’ll feel more peaceful and reap the benefits in every area of your life.

Many of us feel like we cannot do anything about the crazy lives we lead and the inner discontent we feel. I can assure you that this is not true! When you use positive affirmations, you can reprogram your brain so that there is only room for positive thoughts. You will be surprised to find how quickly a positive affirmation such as, “I trust that there is a plan for my life, even if it has yet to be revealed to me” can work for you.

If you feel like your life has gotten off course and you don’t think it’s possible to lead a calm life, why not give a peaceful affirmation a chance? If you repeat affirmations often enough, you’ll soon begin to believe them, and you’ll turn a seemingly simple statement into reality.

I am better prepared for anything that comes my way because my eye is on the details.

I am able to accomplish more in my day because I am organized and I stay focused on the task at hand. This helps me stay productive, regardless of what springs up in my day.

My life works smoothly because I am able to effectively prioritize everything in my life, from work to family and everything in between, including time especially carved out for me.

I am able to focus on the task at hand without worrying about what’s next or what I may be forgetting. I am able to re-arrange my schedule without losing hope or patience because I am flexible. And I know I am not forgetting anything because I choose to proactively organize and prioritize my life.

Today, I give myself the gift of an organized, yet flexible schedule. In doing so, I am able to relax and focus more than ever before. I can work more efficiently and my life becomes more productive because I am well prepared and focused.

Self-Reflection Questions:

1. Have I taken the time to organize my schedule today?
2. How have my organizational skills helped me with my focus?
3. How has prioritizing my schedule helped me in my daily activities?

Image Credit: Dani Ihtatho

What talents are hiding within you? Many people have grown up believing they didn’t have anything special or unique to add to the world. Perhaps they came from mediocre surroundings or had no encouragement for their gifts so they went unrecognized. Or maybe they repressed their talents because they felt ashamed. Whatever the reason, it’s all too easy to believe our talents and passions are not worth pursuing.

Everyone Has Talent
A great many of us are wandering around with the belief that we aren’t all that interesting when it comes to our natural gifts. But we all have more talent than we think we do.

Do you have the passion to perform on the world stage?

Very often we hear news stories about children with incredible abilities. Many of them are entertainers or child prodigies featured on daytime talk shows. While it’s incredible to see these talented young children, don’t forget about your own children’s talents, which might not be as obvious. They may not be as advanced as the kids on television but everyone’s talents are worth developing.

 Children are often inspired after watching the Olympics and parents rush out to enroll the kids in gymnastics or swimming programs. They might possibly be the next Michael Phelps or they may never make it to the Olympics, but they will learn a new skill, get exercise, and meet new friends.

 Adults may be inspired by their favorite sports hero. If you daydream about winning the Tour de France, then start small by joining a local cycling club.

Be Realistic
We shouldn’t delude ourselves and believe we can do all things. We need to be realistic about what we can accomplish but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try new things or take classes to learn something new.

 If you’ve always wanted to be a Broadway actor, audition for a local community theater group. Many people can fulfill their passion on a smaller, local level.

 You might decorate beautiful children’s birthday cakes, but should you attempt to decorate your niece’s wedding cake? Be realistic about your skills and how much time it will take but feel free to take some extra classes or find a mentor in the field who can help you.

Using Our Talents In Our Work
Many of us take jobs we don’t like and live lives we wish were a lot more exciting or fulfilling. Instead of being discouraged with our life choices, we need to choose what we wish to do in the life we have and let our instincts lead us to our passions.

Think about what you love to do the most with regards to your job:
 Maybe you love writing up detailed reports and therefore have a knack for the written word.

 Maybe you get compliments on your good communications with clients. This might indicate you would be great as a public speaker or trainer.

What Do You Like?
If you still think you don’t have much talent, start looking at what you love to do with your time.

 Maybe you love to sing along to your favorite song and your family and friends consistently tell you how good you are.

 Maybe you love to dance and whenever others see you they remark about your incredible agility.
 Maybe you find yourself doodling a masterpiece when you have some idle time.

If you think about what you really enjoy doing, you’ll find that you’ve been drawn to it over the course of many months or years. It tends to be true that the better we are at something, the more we enjoy doing it.

If this doesn’t ring any bells for you, think about what your favorite classes were in school. Once again, remember that we tend to love the things we’re good at. Thinking about these things is an excellent way to uncover your hidden talents.

Discovering these talents is a wonderful way to find a new hobby or boost your self-esteem. If you let yourself accept that you probably have undiscovered talents, enjoy this adventure of discovery. It could very well take your life to higher levels of wealth and fulfillment!

Image credit: familymwr.