Seven Ways to Succeed in Life

1. Successful People Take Care of Themselves

Success in life begins in the mind and then the body. A person who wishes to succeed in life must take care of his or her mind and body. Successful people eat right and stay fit. They also maintain mental health as well as physical health.

2. Successful People Practice Gratitude

Stresses and challenges are realities of life. A person can mitigate the severity of these challenges by practicing a life of gratitude. Successful people make a decision to focus on the positive and express gratitude for the many things for which they can be thankful.

3. Successful People Guard Against Assumptions

Be careful making too many assumptions about life. Be thorough. Pay attention to detail. Successful people practice this attentiveness with respect to tasks and also people.

4. Successful People Refrain from Absolute Generalizations

People often say things like: "You're ALWAYS late!" or "You NEVER say 'thank you'." Be careful making these types of sweeping declarations. Successful people pay attention to the words they use, and don't throw accusations or generalizations around carelessly.

5. Successful People Don't Follow Their Feelings

It's easy to make decisions out of emotion. The results are rarely productive or beneficial. Successful people understand that feelings are real and, most of the time, relevant. Feelings, however, should never drive decisions. On the contrary, decisions should drive feelings.

6. Successful People Have Learned to be Constructively Social

It's not true that successful people are naturally sociable. What is true is that successful people understand the importance of interpersonal relations and communication. Successful people therefore practice positive social interaction.

In addition, successful people understand the critical value of time. They don't waste time in social situations that will bring them down. Instead, they invest their time in people they can help and in people who can help them.

7. Successful People are Servants

Truly successful people are not infatuated with themselves. They are primarily givers and not takers. They make decisions and cultivate habits designed to bring value to others. They are servants.

While there are certainly situations that people seem to catch "lucky breaks" or inherit large sums of money or great health, these kinds of things don't constitute success. True, meaningful success -- something that permeates a person in every area of his or her life - comes not by accident, but my deliberate choices and constructive habits.

Those who wish to have success in life must choose to succeed in life -- and live that way each and every day.