The keys to success lie within you, but do you know where they are?

I always like to include a twitter post that I like... one I saw from a week or two ago, and even though it's from more of a soccer twitter account (@soccerfocus), it contained a motivational quote that really embodies the way I've been thinking the last year or so:

"Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals" ~ Jim Rohn

We grow up trying to find success in the world, and most of the time we think success comes from how much money we make and how we are viewed in society (aka showing off how much money we have). While that seems a bit materialistic, there is a good message behind it that gets lost in translation. (Most of) the people that have a lot of money have worked extremely hard to make that money, so why not be entitled to spend it? (Don't get me wrong, I do hate it when people throw around money when they have it, and I am DEFINITELY not condoning that.) The real problem is that everyone expects success, but not many people make the sacrifices and put in the effort needed to reach that success.
I never knew who Jim Rohn was until today, and since I used his quote, I figured I'd do some research on him (aka use Wikipedia). His story is incredible. He dropped out of college after his first year, and then began working at Sears for a $57 paycheck (granted this was in the 1950s... a little bit different compared to today). A friend brought him to a motivational speaker's talk, a entrepreneur, and apparently that changed everything. He joined this big business at age 25, and was a millionaire by age 31. Not too shabby, in my opinion. Rohn then gave talks for the next 30 or so years around the world, and published a book, Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle. (I haven't read it yet, but after reading How to Win Friends and Influence People this summer, I think it'd be a good read for study breaks) Apparently, Rohn considers 5 components of success:

• Philosophy - how you think
• Attitude - how you feel
• Action - what you do
• Results - measure often to see if you are making progress
• Lifestyle - the kind of life you can make for yourself out of the first 4 pieces

The philosophy and attitude are just as much important as the action part. I always am trying to put a positive spin on things, because it's almost pointless to try to accomplish something if you're not in the state of mind or emotional state you need to be in. Obviously you have to put in some work to get out results, but checking yourself on your progress you want to achieve is a nice tool to keep you on track. Then you get to the lifestyle part, and it's smooth sailing from there.


I know for me, to be successful in the short-term is to get into the PhD program here at UC. For long term, there are so many "types" of success. Obviously we all want to be successful in our jobs, but I also want to be successful in my personal life. That includes someday a family of my own, while still showing love to those friends and family I have right now. There's success in getting my PhD, and there's success in continuing to be healthy.

We all have the tools and opportunity to be successful, but are we too afraid to fail to not even try to be successful? Or is there a point where you just take the risk and block out failure to get to where you need to be? What makes you successful? Is it all a subjective thing, or is there an overall objective definition of success? I do like Jim Rohn's definition from earlier, just helping to show that you have to put in the work to get the success; it doesn't just happen.

One more quote before I go back to chemistry land. It's a quote from one of my high school basketball shirts (my coach was really into them, though one of the quotes was: "Do or do not; there is no try." - Yoda... so take it as you will), but this quote still really speaks to me:

"The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary."

Okay, that's all for today. I know that personally I am ready to be successful and put in the work to get there... I hope you are too. Have a wonderful day blog world, there's so much to be thankful for and be happy about. :)