This success equation starts with our mindset and controlling our thoughts. Good ideas create
positive habits which yield favorable results. Once you realize this, you will make the space
within yourself to realign harmoniously with your essential self and become the best that
you can be with the gifts that you have been given.
Welcome visionaries, creators, innovators, entrepreneurs, leaders and grow seekers of
all types to the passion struck podcast. Hi, I'm John miles a peak performance coach mollifying
industry CEO, Navy veteran and entrepreneur on a mission to make passion go viral for
millions worldwide. And each week I do so by sharing with you an inspirational message
interviewing achievers from all walks of life to unlock their secrets and lessons to becoming
action struck. The purpose of our show is to serve you the listener by giving you tips,
tasks and activities you can use to achieve peak performance and pursue a Passion Driven
Life you have always wanted to have now let's become passion stuff.
Hello everyone and welcome back to Episode 120 of passion struck. And thank you to each
and every one of you who comes back weekly to listen and learn how to live better, be
better and impact the world. And if you're new to the show on Fridays I do an inspirational
episode we call momentum Fridays for answer listener questions on Tuesday we have long
form interviews and conversations with some of the world's most inspiring people from
astronauts to authors, thinkers, creators, scientists, CEOs and athletes. This week we
had on US Air Force veteran consultant and TEDx speaker, Dr. Jannell MacAulay. And Jannell
And I spoke about how to take command of your mindset to discover your high performance
path to sustainable success and joy, which is a great lead in to our episode. Today.
We hear the term success all the time, and it carries considerable weight today in society
both and how others perceive our success and how we define it for ourselves. As I've discussed
in previous episodes, many people define success as earning a degree buying a house, a car
or yacht, it could also be determined by their career awards, accolades and recognition for
others it may mean getting married and starting a family but have you really thought about
success as giving back to the world and making a difference in other people's lives. Or perhaps
success is doing the things you love when you want to do them and with whom you want
to do them with renowned author and leadership consultant Miles Munroe once said true success
is not a project but a journey. This quote does an excellent job summarizing that success
is not determined by a single event. But through a succession of steps and actions. It shows
that we are never to conclude that a person is unsuccessful simply because of temporary
situations that do not fit into the general description of success. In today's episode,
I will be diving deep into the true meaning of success. I will discuss the Habits of Successful
people and how you can achieve great things by defining success on your own terms. First,
let's examine the unique rags to riches story of American businesswoman and Shark Tank celebrity.
Barbara Corcoran, thank you for choosing passion struck and choosing me to be your host and
guide on your journey to creating an intentional life.
It was another school day and Barbara Corcoran attended the reading class she so dreaded,
her teacher mrs. Murray wrote a sentence on the board and looked around the room to see
whom she would call on to read it. Hey Barbara. She called out pointing at her with the ruler
in her hand read this out timidly. Barbara stood up and nervously attempted to read the
sentence but she couldn't. She then stared at the sentence for what appeared to be ours,
but couldn't figure out how to read it steadily. mrs. Murray walk towards her seat and whack
she landed her ruler on the back of Barbara's neck. She leaned over close enough for Barbara
to see the black hairs twitching on her chin and she said Barbara and if you don't learn
to pay attention, you will always be stupid. Hearing this the entire classroom burst out
in laughter Barbara sucked in her breath counted to 100 and concentrated hard so that the tears
burning in her eyes wouldn't leak out after class. She cried all the way to their house
on undercliff Avenue, ran up to the woods and sat on a rock by a stream. She was convinced
she would never learn how to read every time she guessed she was wrong. And when she knew
she was right, she was still wrong. She often found herself distracted and unable to concentrate.
She couldn't understand the words unless they were read to her be always looked like d p
looked like G and he just looked plain weird. Unknown to her at that time she suffered from
dyslexia. Barbara stiffled her tears and time for dinner not wanting anyone in her family
to know that her teacher had said that she was stupid. How could she be she thought to
herself she was the family entertainer. She created the games and came up with the ideas
for the shows that she and her four siblings would often hold in their basement. She had
always thought that she was brilliant but now felt like she was the dumb kid after the
family had dinner and the table was cleared. Her mom asked her to stay with her in the
kitchen. Barbara I got a call from your teacher today. Mrs. Stella Moray. She told Barbara
while she was sweeping the floor. She said you are having trouble reading Barbara's eyes
welled with tears. Her mom put down the broom held her shoulders with both hands and looked
her straight in the eyes. Barbara she said encouragingly. Don't you worry about it. You
have a wonderful imagination and with it you can fill in any blanks with that she smiled
and picked up her broom years later Corcoran revealed I feel like my whole life I have
been insecure about looking not smart. So I feel like everything I do is in constant
attempt to prove to whoever is around me that I measure up. I am also proven to myself that
I'm always running around with insecurity. In the years that followed. She didn't let
that feeling of insecurity halt her ambitions. But her success surely didn't come overnight.
By the time she turned 23. Corcoran had already had 20 jobs and was working as a waitress.
This is the point when she obtained a $1,000 loan to launch her real estate company in
New York City. 30 years later, she oversees a $5 billion real estate business is a successful
TV personality, and is the author of shark tales how I turned $1,000 into a billion-dollar
business. This story leads to a series of essential questions. Is there a wrong view
of success? What is the meaning of true success? How can we define it for ourselves is success
measurable and What can I do to achieve true success? Listen on as I discussed the answers
to these questions and help you understand how to define success in your own life.
So let's answer the first question. Is there a wrong view of success author Stephen Covey
remarks if the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take gets us
to the wrong place faster? This statement clearly indicates that it is possible to pursue
the wrong kind of perceived success, you may find it interesting to know that many people's
definitions and ideas of success are inaccurate, deceptive, and unacceptable. They often adhere
to what society tells them is important the pursuit of materialistic things or what others
might call the quantified society where we are judged by various metrics such as followers
likes, grades, types of car, we drive, salary, size of our house, etc. The higher someone
scores on those metrics, the more successful society determines them to be. If you want
to hear more about this topic, I would encourage you to listen to the episode I did number
96, where I covered materialism in an entire podcast episode. When you base your success
around fame, wealth, possessions, titles, or accolades, you find yourself unable to
enjoy and be passionate about what you're doing. Thus, success by that definition is
by definition made up and doesn't exist. Instead of following an explorative or creative mindset.
We turn life into a competition. In short, we pursue the made-up system of what society
tells us we should be doing instead of the life we were meant to be living. When this
happens, you are almost certain to suppress your natural instincts to pursue true and
lasting success. This will most certainly lead to a general sense of discontentment
with life. This is why you must define the version of success for yourself and yourself
alone before attempting to achieve it. So now that we've explored that first question,
let's delve into the second one. What is the meaning of true success? And how can I go
about defining it for myself? True success always begins with who you are as a person
and the unique abilities, talents, and gifts that you have been given on your road to becoming
successful, you need to first ask yourself, what does success mean to me success begins
in our minds set another way our thoughts become actions and actions produce outcomes.
So the success equation starts with our mindset and controlling our thoughts. Good ideas,
create positive habits, which yield favorable results. Once you realize this, you will make
the space within yourself to realign harmoniously with your essential self and become the best
that you can be with the gifts that you have been given. The goal of defining your own
success is to begin by living a life based on your own terms and expectations. This starts
by focusing your actions on activities that bring you joy, a sense of fulfillment, service
to others, and advancement in defining true success for yourself, you need to stay true
to a more profound sense of purpose and meaning you need to have the courage to pursue your
own journey when confronted by fear, uncertainty, and obstacles that life will throw at us.
You need to choose your own path, especially when those things hit you instead of merely
following the empty promise of conventional success. In doing so you must be conscious
and intentional about living to the core values that genuinely allow you to connect to a cause
or community that goes beyond yourself. Whatever success you achieve, should connect you with
others and positively impact their lives. So that begs the question is success measurable?
According to the article, the "true measure of success," which appeared in the Harvard
Business Review, there is a sequence for selecting metrics that allow a company to comprehend,
track and oversee the cause and effect relationships that determine its performance. These same
steps taken in this exact order can also be used and applied to charting one's personal
goals and the four steps go like this. First, define your governing purpose. Second, assess
the drivers of that purpose by developing a theory of cause and effect. Third, identify
the specific activities that you can execute which achieve the desired objectives. Fourth,
measure your outputs to ensure that they constantly align with your end goals. A clear governing
purpose is essential to individual success because it guides the allocation of time and
effort defining one's objective requires us to outline what success is to each of us individually
considering as I spoke about before our unique abilities in developing a theory of cause
and effect to assess presume drivers of the objectives translates to examining your reasons
for choosing that goal and what achieving them will result in identifying the specific
activities that can help achieve the governing objective translates to consciously making
actionable plans and taking steps to lead to your desired goals. Measuring your outputs
to ensure that they align with the objectives translates to consistently reviewing your
plans and ensuring they are well in line with your end destination.
So now that I've given you a technique to measure your success, let's talk about what
you can do to achieve true success in achieving true and lasting success. You need to actively
pursue what you aim for. Let's go back to our story about Barbara Corcoran. Because
of her dyslexia, Corcoran was labeled the dumb kid by her teachers and classmates. However,
she later said that bullying drove her to work harder and learn the skills she needed
to succeed in like manner to Barbara you can use the rejections and obstacles that you
face in your own life to fuel your desired future realize that success is a continuous
process and not a fixed destination. It's not just a state of being but an evolving
journey of achieving your goals by taking actions step by step. Most importantly, it
would be impossible to achieve your goals without having the full faith in yourself
and your own capabilities. No matter how hard you try. Even though Barbara Corcoran had
a learning disability. She learned that her past did not define her future and she could
rise above that and believe in her ability to be successful. Corcoran made significant
personal strides without recognizing the extent of the odds that were stacked against her.
Her success alone is confirmation that looking good on paper is being at the top of your
class. The best athlete or even progressing at the same rate as your peers does not equate
to the success that you can have in the future in your life without belief in yourself. The
hard work sleepless nights and effort that you put in along the way simply goes down
the drain. Do not permit yourself to have self-defeating thoughts and don't give in
to excuses and reasons why you cannot achieve a successful and fulfilling life. As we heard
a few weeks ago from New York Times bestselling author Jen Bricker Bower in Episode 107 Everything
is possible when you believe you can achieve it begin where you are. Study the daily routine
of other successful people and adjust your routine accordingly. Follow your plan strictly
and with focus and dedication, you can achieve the seemingly impossible and become the genuine
access that you hope to be. So I've given you a lot of information today
to digest. So let me wrap this up for you, American chef and author Marcella vai to lead
said true success will come when you have the courage to be yourself. When you start
focusing on yourself and stop trying to be like everyone else, you will be able to recognize
and put to practical use all your unique potential and abilities that you've been given. And
doing so you will realize that true success is not found merely in materialistic things,
but in maximizing your potential for the benefit of yourself and the others who you impact
in your life. I'll leave you with this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, where he says what
is success to laugh often and much to win the respect of intelligent people and the
affection of children to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal
of false friends to appreciate the beauty to find the best and others to leave the world
a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition.
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived this is to have succeeded.
And I've learned throughout my life that I and I alone determine my own version of success.
Therefore, my parting words to you are that you have to define success for yourself and
no one knows the end result better than you. I wish you all the success in your life. And
if you're new to this show, or you want to introduce it to a friend or family member,
we now have episodes starter packs, both on Spotify and our website, which are collections
of your favorite episodes that we organize by topic. And these will give any new listener
a great way to understand and appreciate everything that we do here on the show. They're in different
categories such as overcoming adversity, being intentional in your life, physical, mental
and spiritual health, relationship health, entrepreneurship, and many many others and
if you would prefer to watch these or watch them in addition to listening to them we also
have a YouTube channel at John R miles with well over 250 different videos to give you
tons of inspiration to fill your life and if there's a question you would like to ask
me or a topic like today's you would like to hear me discuss you can email me at momentum
Friday at Passionstruck.com or hit me up on Instagram at John R Miles or LinkedIn at John
miles and the same goes with a guest that you would like to see me interview and speaking
of guests, we have some truly fabulous ones coming up including New York Times bestselling
authors Susan Cain, Gretchen Rubin, and Admiral James Stavridis. Astronaut Nicole Stott podcast
hosts Cathy Heller And Jordan Harbinger. Robert Greenlee, who was one of the first people
ever indoctrinated into the podcast Hall of Fame, and so many others incredible guests.
Now go out there and live life passion struck. Thank you so much for joining us. The purpose
of our show is to make passion go viral. And we do that by sharing with you the knowledge
and skills that you need to unlock your hidden potential. If you want to hear more, please
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Even more inspiring, fun. And remember, make a choice, work hard and step into your sharp
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