We are all trying to be successful in our lives – especially our
professional lives. But not everyone will be successful. So that
has to lead to the question: What is it that makes people
successful? And really, while we’re at it we could also ask: What
is it that makes people happy?

Though success doesn’t automatically lead to happiness and
happiness certainly doesn’t automatically lead to success, the two
are very closely related. And there’s one thing that you need in
order to achieve both, that one thing is to know yourself.

But what does it mean to know yourself? Of course we all know
ourselves to some extent. But not all of us truly know ourselves.

Getting to truly know yourself starts with being honest with
yourself. That means you have to take a good look at who and what
you are and be honest with what you find. Discover what your
strengths and weaknesses are. Know your likes and dislikes. Know
what you do well and what you don’t do quite so well.

Once you’re honest with yourself and once you truly know yourself,
then you can begin to act accordingly. You can make sure you are
always playing toward your strengths and away from your weaknesses.
You can try to always be working at something you enjoy or at least
something that is related to what you enjoy. And you can also make
solid decisions that you won’t regret and you’ll always be able to
live with.

Too often people don’t truly know themselves and then they end-up
making decisions and trying to do things that they’re either
horrible at or that they hate. This ultimately leads to their
failure and unhappiness.

And too often the person can know themselves well if he or she
would just be honest with themselves. But people try to lie to
themselves and they try to talk themselves into thinking and
feeling certain ways. It just doesn’t work.

For example, a person may want to make a lot of money so they go
into a profession that will make them a lot of money. They start
making good money but they just aren’t happy. Then before they know
it, their performance at work is beginning to go downhill. The
person can’t understand what’s going wrong. Well, if that person
would stop and think about it be honest with themselves then that
person would realize that they hate what they’re doing and they’ll
never be happy or truly successful doing what it is they foolishly
chose to do.

So make sure you’re always honest with yourself and make sure you
take the time to really get to know yourself. Then from there you
can make solid decisions that will positively influence your
future. Take the time to know yourself and you will be both
successful and happy.

If you are trying to achieve success at anything, the first thing
you must commit to is that no matter what, you won’t give up. You
have to tell yourself that there’s no way you’re going to let
yourself fail, no matter what happens. You have to believe that you
will never give up.

The path to success is a long and winding road. There will be ups
and downs. It will be somewhat easy for some people and it will be
very difficult for others. And then for everyone else achieving
success will be somewhere in between. But on thing that’s certain
is if you’re going to be successful then you can’t give-up.

It takes all different kinds of people to achieve success.

Some people went to college and studied hard for many years. These
people got their Bachelor’s, and their Master’s, and some even got
their Doctorate Degree. And then they finally ventured out on their
own and now they are very successful.

Other people begin their journey to success much sooner. Some
people drop out of college and some even drop out of high school.
They know what they want and they go for it with unwavering passion
and dedication. And without a solid education, these people become
successful.

So you have people who are very well-educated and people who aren’t
educated hardly at all who both become successful. These people
have very little in common. But they do have something in common
that is the most important ingredient to being successful. They are
all very successful because they didn’t give up.

When every thing else is stripped away, that’s what’s truly
important. If you want to be successful, you can never give up.
This sounds simple and it can be, but often it’s much easier said
than done.

It can be a daily struggle to always stay committed to success and
not to allow yourself to give into thoughts of doubt. Sometimes
things will get so bad that you think there’s no possible way
you’ll be successful with what you’re trying to do. You’ll curse
yourself for even trying to do what it is you’re doing. You’ll
begin to think of ways to stop trying and to move onto something
else.

Don’t let this happen to you. Know that the number one thing that
it takes to be successful is perseverance. You can’t give up. You
have to keep striving and believing. You have to keep yourself on
the right path and have faith in what you’re doing.

Because in the end, if you don’t believe in yourself, no one else
will either. But if you do believe in yourself, and if you refuse
to ever give up, then others will start believing in you too. And
before you know it, you’ll be truly successful. So make sure you
don’t ever give up.

I hope you are having a great week. The first full week of 2008 is
coming to a close, and I hope you have set some goals for yourself.
I used to get overwhelmed with the amount of projects I was working
on, until I heard one simple phrase. KISS…. Keep It So Simple.

Owning your own business is a dream for many people. Being able to
call your own shots and set your own hours is certainly an
appealing idea. However, often people realize their dream only to
discover that working on their own and running their own business
is much more difficult than they ever expected.

There is a lot more to running your own business than simply
working day by day. There are distractions at every turn and often
people find it difficult to actually get anything accomplished. For
all these people who are struggling, what they need to do is focus.

Usually when you’re trying to run your own business, you have more
than one project going at once. So the first thing you need to make
sure you focus on is one project at a time. Beyond the projects,
you also want to make sure you have a very clear focus of what you
want to accomplish and how much money you want to make.

Before you can even begin to get focused you first need to make
sure you’re organized. If you’re one of those people who cringes
when the word “organization” is mentioned then don’t worry. You
just need to get organized enough so that you know what needs to
get done. This means you need to make a schedule that includes both
what you need to complete long-term and what you need to do for
that day.

Once you know what you need to get done on a specific day then you
need to focus on just those tasks. So break the tasks down even
further. How long will each of them take you? When exactly will you
work on them? Once you know these things then you just need to
focus on each task when you’re supposed to be doing it. In other
words, don’t worry about anything else except what you’ve planned
to focus on.

You want to be able to focus on each project and you also want to
keep track of how long each project takes you to complete. Then you
need to keep track of how much money you make from each project.
That way you can tell how productive you’re being. You can even
chart exactly how much money you’re making each hour and each day.
This way you’ll be able to focus on the projects that are most
profitable for you.

When you go into business for yourself, you can quickly lose
yourself in the avalanche of everyday tasks and your long-term
goals. That’s why it’s so important to focus on exactly what you
want to do.

Becoming focused and staying that way will help you know exactly
what needs to be done each day so that you are productive each day.
Focus will also help you complete your long-term goals faster and
focus will allow you to know how much money you are making per day,
per week, and per project.

Focus will help you be more successful daily and with your entire
business.

How many times have you watched someone else set a goal, then
achieve it?

It’s inspiring, isn’t it? Now just think about how you
could inspire others by setting and achieving your goal.

Goal setting is something that is very easy to do. A lot of people
make a big deal about it though, and end up talking themselves out
of actually going for what they want.

Here are some simple steps you can take towards achieving your goal
and inspiring others:

STEP 1: Be reasonable. One of the biggest reasons why so many
people fail to reach their goal is because they set unreasonable
expectations for themselves. Set a reasonable goal to ensure
maximum performance capability.

STEP 2: Plan for mistakes. If you’ll be honest with yourself, you
will admit that mistakes are bound to happen. Instead of doing a
clean-up every time you mess up, plan now for those mistakes: how
they might be prevented, what to do when it happens, how to work
around it.

STEP 3: Be consistent. Have you ever noticed that “successful”
people tend to be hard workers? They hardly ever take a day off
work, and when they do it’s usually because they’re extremely ill
and are forced to take time off. There is something to be said for
consistency.

STEP 4: Help others. Reaching your own goal is highly rewarding.
Even more so, helping others get closer to their own goal can be as
equally rewarding. Lend a helping hand to others when you can.

Setting goals is an important part of climbing the ladder of
success. If you don’t have a vision for where you want to be one
day, how will you ever get there?

The actual process of setting goals for yourself is easy. Let’s take
a look at how to do it…

First, dream a little dream. Goals come from the dreams that are
deep within your heart and mind. What dreams do you have for
yourself? Can you imagine yourself in the future? What do you see?

Dreams are at the core of every goal.

Next, be precise. When you set a goal, you want to be as specific
as possible. Don’t make generalized plans. Drill down deep so your
goal will be clear and targeted. When you do this, there will be
absolutely no questions about what you want or how to get it.

Third, give yourself a deadline. A goal with no deadline is like
driving a car without a steering wheel. You’ll never get where you
want to go. When setting your deadline, make sure you give yourself
enough time to complete your goal, but not so much time that you
actually lose sight of your goal.

Finally, track your progress. One of the second biggest reasons why
so many people give up on their goals is because they don’t see
their own progress. Create a “ladder” that you can use to keep
track of where you’re going, as well as how far you’ve come. You’ll
be surprised at how motivating this can be.

Christmas is just around the corner and I am sure a lot of people
would love to know how to make some cash online in 2008.

Let me give you a very easy method I have used to create thousands
in commissions in 2007.

I create QUALITY freeware/shareware applications that are really
basic and directly market one product or affiliate program.

Then I distribute them to about 600 software directories using a
software submission program.

This has generated almost 490,000 unique visitors this year in few
different markets. I make about anywhere from $90 - $250 a day as a
result of these passive efforts.

The traffic is nearly instant and it doesn’t really stop, either.

It is very easy to hire someone on Elance.com to build you a simple
software product.

Then you can either hand submit your software or hire someone to
submit your software to the directories.

Concentrate on the more popular software directories as this will
bring you more traffic which equals more money