The 10 Commandments of Success In Life

by Marelisa

By observing certain rules, or commandments, anyone can achieve success in life.

We all want to succeed. I’m sure the following is true for you, as it’s true for me:

You yearn to fulfill your full potential.
You want tomorrow to be better than today.
You want to be the best version of yourself.
You want to have a fulfilling and meaningful life.
At the end of your life you want to be able to say, “I succeeded” (however you define success).

While there are no guarantees in life, there are guiding principles you can follow to greatly improve your odds of succeeding. I’ve identified what I consider to be the 10 rules which should be strictly followed in order to succeed. And, of course, I’m going to share with them with you.

Below you’ll find the 10 commandments for success in life.

1. Thou Shalt Know What You Want

A person who doesn’t know what they want is like a ship lost at sea, drifting aimlessly, being tossed back and forth by the waves, and being blown here and there by every wind. This shouldn’t be you.

Instead, you need to identify what it is you want, so that there’s a specific port you’re headed to. Knowing where you want to go gives your life a guiding or motivating purpose. It also allows you to marshal your resources efficiently and effectively so that you can arrive at your chosen destination.

The following was taken from The Business of Life (1916) by Frank Crane:

“Take a day off, a few hours at least, examine yourself, look carefully over all the objects which you think would make you happy if you gained them, and select the thing most worth while.

There must be some one goal which, more than all others, you desire to reach. Find out what it is, what the one thing is which is worth sacrificing all else for, and go after it.

Only so can you give unity, purpose, and continuity to your existence. The wretched are the aimless.”

The first of the 10 commandments of success is to know what you want.

2. Thou Shalt Be Proactive

Being proactive means that you take responsibility for yourself and your life. It means that you stop playing the role of victim, and feeling captive to the actions of others and life’s circumstances.

A proactive person is self-reliant. They hold a strong belief that they have the ability to create the outcomes that they want in life. Once a proactive person knows what they want, they start looking for ways to make it happen.

3. Thou Shalt Create a Plan

Once you know where you’re going, and you’ve taken responsibility for getting there, you need to create an action plan. That is, you have to plot out your route.

Look at the following:

Having a life plan allows you to plan what you will do each year.
Planning your year will allow you to plan each of the twelve months of the year.
When you plan your month, you’ll be able to plan each week.
Planning each week will allow you to plan your days.
Having a plan for the day will allow you to plan the use of your hours.

Having a plan is vital for success.

4. Thou Shalt Be Action-Oriented

It’s not enough to have a plan. You have to work your plan. That is, you have to act. Every day take some step, however small, in the direction of your dreams. Do the following:

Stop waiting for everything to be “just right”. Accept that the planets will never align, and that the best time to get started is now.
Beware of analysis paralysis. Doing research is good, but getting stuck in the research stage is bad.
Choose an action you can take which you believe will allow you to achieve the things you want, and go for it.
Once you’ve acted, analyze the results you got, modify your approach accordingly, and then try again.

Keep moving in the direction you want to go, one step at a time. And remember: even if you take two steps forward and one step back, you’re still moving in the right direction. Act!

5. Thou Shalt Control Your Thoughts

Keep your thoughts in check. What you’re thinking will determine how you feel. How you feel, in turn, will create your attitude. Then, your attitude will determine your outcome.

In addition, keep your thoughts focused on what you want, and on how you’re going to get it. The moment you notice that your attention has wavered from the things you want, use your willpower to bring it back.

Continuously do the following:

Become aware of what you’re thinking.
Ask yourself if what you’re thinking is helping you to feel how you want to feel, and to get to where you want to go.
If not, choose a better thought.

If you have trouble controlling your thoughts, you can get started with a 7-day mental detox.

6. Thou Shalt Care for Your Health

In order to succeed you need to have a healthy mind in a healthy body. After all, your health impacts every other aspect of your life. The 6th commandment of success is to make sure that you take good care of yourself emotionally, physically, and mentally.

7. Thou Shalt Budget Your Time and Money

Your time and your money are two of your most precious resources. Therefore, you should never spend them hap-hazardly. Instead, do the following:

Budget your money so that you’ll be able to pay for what you need, and for the things you want most.
Budget your time so that you can achieve the things which are most important to you.

Having a time and a money budget will help you to get what you want in life. That is, it will help you to succeed.

8. Thou Shalt Be a Life-Long Learner

Whatever it is that you want to achieve, there are certain skills or knowledge that you’ll need to achieve it. That’s where life-long learning comes in.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t have the necessary skills and knowledge right now. What matters is that you start taking action to learn those skills and to acquire that knowledge.

9. Thou Shalt Adopt Good Habits

A foundation of good habits will allow you to put on automatic pilot the actions that you need to take to be healthy, use your time and money wisely, and acquire the skills and knowledge that you’ll need to be able to get what you want in life.

Some examples of positive habits that will help you to succeed include the following:

Exercise.
Meditate.
Eat healthy foods.
Plan your day the night before.
Do the most important things first each day.
Each Sunday, review your week.
Wake up early.
Set aside time each day to learn new things.
Take breaks.

Good habits are important for success because most of what we do is a habit.

10. Thou Shalt Follow Through

In order to succeed you need to have the grit and the gumption to keep going until you get to your chosen destination, regardless of how many obstacles and detours you come across along the way.

Look at the following:

If you fall, get back up.
If you make a mistake, learn from it, modify your approach, and try again.
If you feel discouraged, and your enthusiasm and motivation are waning, look for ways to refuel.
If you’re tired, rest. Then, get back up and continue on your journey.
If you need to go slower, slow down. But don’t stop.

If you want to succeed, you have to be able to follow through.

Conclusion

The guidelines above are the ones that I follow in my quest to live my best life. That is, to succeed. Do you agree that these are the guidelines for success? If so, how do you plan to apply them in your own life?

Live your best life by following the 10 commandments for success in life explained above.