Don't chase success, attract it!

you can win

It was his last day at work. Rajesh had been looking forward to this day all of his life. After three decades of slogging tirelessly for his company, he thought he would retire a happy man with a good reputation and heaps of wealth.

Yet, returning home from his farewell party, a dogged sense of failure engulfed him. The horizon of success that he had so earnestly chased all his life was nowhere to be seen. Amidst feelings of remorse and disappointment, he braced himself for a dull retired life.

Rajesh is not alone in his defeat. Pursuing success – and failing to achieve it – is a common thread that ties all humanity together. Look around you. The relentless buzz of activity, long hours put in working for the man and the constant drudgery of daily life, relentlessly and religiously pursued amidst hardships, point to only one thing – our persistent quest for success. And yet, the travails of all humanity reflect failed endeavours and futile attempts at accomplishing it. Despite the fact that no one wants to fail, failure has the uncanny ability to embrace a majority of the people, leaving only a few to spare.

The primary reason why success is elusive for most of us, analysts vouch, is because we are going about it the wrong way. The general belief is that success has to be chased vehemently if one has to find it. What may actually work is letting success chase us.

It’s all about energy

To attract success to ourselves is the exact way to become a success. It is based on the quantum physics concept that professes that everything in the universe is made of energy and we attract into our lives events, things and people based on our attitude and actions.

In other words, to attract success into our lives, we need to become people who can be credited with success. It is as simple as growing tomatoes and lettuce for those who know how to do it. But for the common man who knows not how, here is the blueprint as suggested by success gurus.

Successful people are those who command attention, enjoy an ostentatious lifestyle, have a ton of money, own snazzy gadgets and amass a lot of wealth within their lifetime, or so the world makes us believe. By falling prey to this false assumption, we misunderstand success and end up running after money, fame and wealth, forgetting our true purpose in life. While each of us is endowed with unique talents and abilities, we fail to recognise them while trying to adapt our personalities to fit a certain image.

If we could dig deep within ourselves instead and discover our core values and engage each day in honing our skills, sooner or later we will become success-worthy. When we becoming success-worthy, we naturally attract success.

Become all that you can be

Joanne Kathleen Rowling, the celebrated author of the Harry Potter series and one of the richest women in the world, stands as a classic illustration of how success comes to those who do the best they can irrespective of their circumstances.

As a single mother who could barely support herself and her daughter with a meagre income, Joanne started writing her first novel on paper towels from the restaurant where she worked as a waitress. She believed she had a story in her and persisted despite the initial rejections. Eventually, her first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone made $ 4,000 in 1997. 

By 2000, the first three Harry Potter books had grossed $480 million, with over 35 million copies printed in 35 languages. Today, J K Rowling is an international celebrity and her books and movies are enjoyed by millions of people – not just children – across the world.

Undivided focus, resilience and refusal to accept defeat brought her where she is today. Money or fame was not what she had in mind. All she wanted was to tell a story, and the rest came to her naturally as she grew to her full potential.

No doubt, not many among us can rise to the heights that J K Rowling did, but mastering our craft, polishing our skills, working on our special endowments with a relentless need for improvement and excellence, whether you’re a janitor or a judge, is a surefire – and perhaps the only worthy – way to attract success.

Integrity, a supreme virtue

In the operating room of a large hospital, a young nurse was winding up her first day of work following a surgery. “You’ve only removed 11 sponges, doctor,” she said to the surgeon. “We used 12.”

“I removed them all,” the doctor declared. “We’ll close the incision now.”
“No,” the nurse objected. “We used 12 sponges. We need to find the missing one!”
“I’ll take full responsibility if there has been a goof-up,” the surgeon said grimly. “Suture!”
“You can’t do that!” blazed the nurse. “Think of the patient.”

The surgeon smiled, lifted his foot, and showed the nurse the 12th sponge. “You’ll do,” he said merrily. He had been testing her integrity – and she had this supreme virtue in every fibre of her being. She was indeed in possession of that wonderful quality required to attract success into her life and work.

Integrity – whether imbibed or inborn, and practised at all times – is that plus-factor to our ingenuity and energy without which success can never be attracted. It is only with integrity that we can put our brains and best efforts to any purposeful action. Lack of integrity may not be a deterrent to get some instant rewards, but for lasting success to be attracted to us, integrity is all but an essential element to possess and practise.

Be zealous & kind

Yet another remarkable add-on to your personality that will make you success-worthy is the fine quality of enthusiasm. With enthusiasm, we can engage in life; it is a significant factor in the process of growing to our best selves. Enthusiasm instills excitement in us. Enthusiastic people are eager to improve; they observe and learn; they are optimistic and open; they are purposeful and patient; they are, in short, a sum total of involvement, efficiency and empathy rolled into their dispositions. With such a disposition, sooner than later they will attract success into their lives.

Finally, the one quality that is sure to make success bound and rebound into our lives is the willingness to elevate others in the same proportion as life lifts us up from our predicaments. Hoarding for ourselves the fruits of our success will deflect success away from us. However when we share, give away and let others into our circle of prosperity, success gets anchored deep into our lives, multiplying and growing manifold.

So, building these three qualities through a daily regimen of self-improvement is a sure formula for letting success come after us rather than us going after it in vain. By growing to be the person we are capable of becoming, we are sure to be successful. Believe the gurus as they say, “Success is something you attract by the person you become.”