Today I want to talk about seven important success lessons.  If you’re going to succeed you must first master the lessons of success.  You must pass the test and qualify for success.  Marva Collins said, “Success doesn’t come to you, you go to it.”  With that, here are seven lessons to help you “go to” success.

7 Critical Success Lessons:

1. Work

“The most practical, beautiful, workable philosophy in the world won’t work – if you won’t.” – Zig Ziglar

You can listen to and read all of the self-development in the world, but if you don’t put what you’re learning into action, things won’t change.  There’s a Swedish proverb that goes, “God gives every bird a worm, but he does not throw it into the nest.”  You have the potential to succeed, but you’re going to have to work the principles that you know.

2. Change

“Unless you change how you are, you will always have what you’ve got.” – Jim Rohn

In order for your life to change, you must change.  To the degree that you change your thoughts, will be to the degree that your life changes.  Don’t expect anything to change if you’re not changing.  Don’t expect your marriage to get any better, if you’re not changing.  Don’t expect your health to get any better if you’re not changing.  If you want massive change, you must make massive change.

3. Stumble

“A stumble may prevent a fall.”  –English Proverb

It’s okay to stumble.  When you reach for great things you will stumble; just be sure to learn from the stumble.  A stumble could be the best thing that ever happened to you.  A stumble may prevent total chaos in your life, if you learn from it.  Learn to value stumbles and to learn from the stumbles.

4. Become

“Success is not so much what we have as it is what we are.” – Jim Rohn

Success does not come from what you attain, but from who you become.  Success is not a big car; success is you being big on the inside.  When you’re big on the inside, you can attract a big car, but the car does not make you, you make the car.  If you decide to grow up, you will succeed.  Jim Rohn said, “We can have more than we’ve got because we can become more than we are.”

5. Take Charge

“Possession of the ball is the key to winning in football, basketball, and the game of life.” –Laing Burns, Jr.

The good news is you always have possession of the ball in the game of life.  Unfortunately, most people don’t realize that they have possession of the ball.  They’re waiting around for someone to pass them the ball, and they already have it.  Take charge of your life, you got the ball, it’s in your court, what are you going to do?

6. Push

It is easy to get to the top after you get through the crowd at the bottom. – Zig Ziglar

The hard part is always the beginning, the push through the crowd.  But if you make it through the crowd, you can make it to the top.  I said, “If you can make it through the crowd, you can make it to the top.”  Commit today, to push through the crowd.

7. Vision

“Success often comes to those who have the aptitude to see way down the road.”  –Laing Burns, Jr.

Vision is your ability to see down the road.  Use your imagination to see all the way down the road.  I like what Robert Collier said, he said, “The great successful men of the world have used their imagination, they think ahead and create their mental picture in all its details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this a bit and that a bit, but steadily building – steadily building.”

Keep on building, and your vision will become your reality.  Keep on building and success will be yours.