Success is creating what you want the way you want it to be.

It is, in fact, a journey. And, like all journeys, your ship will sail through calm waters and buck in storms. If you stay on course, continually upgrading your navigational instruments and adjusting to feedback, you will reach your port of dreams.

Everyone has had the experience of shipwreck. Their most cherished dreams collapsed despite their best efforts.

The difference between those who succeed in life and those who fail are neither the number of shipwrecks nor the severity of the storms. The difference is in their persistence. It takes persistence to complete the journey. Some people choose to build one ship after another until they reach their port of call. Others abandon the journey as soon as they run into a reef.

Success, then, is a process. It is an incessant refinement of strategy until something finally works.

Success starts with goal setting, and then goal setting is followed by action. Neither your goal setting theory nor your actions have to be perfect. A key to success is to start anywhere; over time, your vision will clear and your actions improve.

Here is a simple but effective strategy. 1. Begin where you are with what you have right now. 2. Notice what is working and what is not working. 3. Keep trying out new things until you have better results. 4. Keep on adding what works and discarding what does not work. 5. Arrive at your goal.

Another name for success is mastery. When you attain mastery over something you know what to do to get the results that you want. And you can repeat this method over and over again to ensure a stream of rewards.

Mastery is persistence over time. Those who profit from persistence appreciate ongoing self improvement and motivation. In fact, intrinsic motivation will allow you to do anything, overcome any obstacle, and surmount any hesitation. Furthermore, the more intense your motivation, the better your chances of success when you embark on any new enterprise.

In the Middle Ages, mastery of a profession was done through a guild. A person learned directly under a master. At first, he was an apprentice. Then, he became a journeyman. At last, he became a master in his own right.

Success is a continuous learning of strategy. This learning is both theoretical and practical. Eventually, when you do something long enough, you become very good at it. This process is accelerated when you follow someone who can guide you past common mistakes.

After you find a mentor, you have to stay consistent, refusing to get discouraged by challenges that will arise because of your lack of knowledge or resources.

Ideally, a mentor can be a person who is an expert. However, you can also attain mentorship through multimedia materials and educational associations. Every business success story is due to the presence of a mentor. And every other type of success can benefit from one too.

Wherever you are, begin the journey. We human beings are teleological. We need goals, a lofty ideal, and a compelling raison d'etre. Deny us meaning and we vegetate, feel empty, and even become self-destructive.

Success, ultimately, is about being fully YOU!

You are here on this planet to express your potential.

You are here to discover a life worth living and a purpose worth fulfilling. The entire universe will benefit from your success-because everything is interlinked. A goal oriented person is an evolutionary force in motion.

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Saleem Rana got his masters in psychotherapy from California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, Ca., 15 years ago and now resides in Denver, Colorado. His articles on the internet have inspired over ten thousand people from around the world. Discover how to create a remarkable life

Copyright 2005 Saleem Rana. Please feel free to pass this article on to your friends, or use it in your ezine or newsletter. It's a shareware article.