People Offer Their Personal Keys To Success

Define success for yourself.

"Knowing what you define as success. Most projects go better if you avoid debt, live under your means, and get lucky in health."

- gladeyes

"Realizing that success is your version and not what some old white man in the 20s said."

- OmNomShivan

Set goals.

"I think the key to success is having a clear and achievable goal, and working hard to achieve it."

- Organ_Stripe93

"That definitely matters. Someone should have a clear vision of the future and what [they] want to be and that's not enough [they] should work hard towards achieving that goal too."

- Sexxxt_Me

A great tool for setting achievable goals is using the acronym SMART. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time bound.

Do what makes you happy.

"Finding whatever it is that makes you happy and getting it. Finding it can be hard. Getting it might or might not be depending on what it is."

- Patterner52

"Genuinely enjoying the things you do."

- melgapataki

Richard Branson, who made his first million dollars at age 23, had this to say about success and happiness:

“Most people would assume my business success, and the wealth that comes with it, have brought me happiness."

"But I know I am successful, wealthy and connected because I am happy.”

Or maybe just being content.

"I honestly think being content is the key."

"I can see some people thinking happiness is the key, but I can't help shake the fact that happiness is an emotion, like sadness and are the byproduct of something else."

"Being content with what you have reduces the amount of un-satisfactoriness of life. Humans try to accumulate more and more, this is why we have words like 'Greed' and 'Selfishness.' But if we could end our own greed and our own selfishness, we would be content with the things that are currently present in our lives."

"If we are content with what we have, we are successful as we know we need nothing else than what we currently have."

- gfunkadunkalus

True grit.

"Grit."

- TurbulentSurprise292

"Dedication and consistency."

- NothingSea3665

"Motivation and natural curiosity."

- Styrofo

More of the same but better.

"More of the same but better."

"It’s a note I was given in jest about a bit of work that the person I was doing it for was happy with, but it’s such a beautifully succinct concept that I try to keep it as a mantra."

- markedmo

Don't let fear stop you.

"We fear what we do not know, but you don’t know unless you try. Get out of your comfort zone and take chances that push you out of your comfort zone more often. If you don’t try you already secured yourself as a failure. Success isn’t guaranteed the first time around so expect to fail."

"It's what you do after you’ve failed. Give up? Your not perfect the first time around and you’ll of course learn from your mistakes. Where did it go wrong? What can I do better at next time? Don’t let your emotions or anxiety scare you off."

"Start off with small wins if you have to. Success is what you make it."

- OddRumskie

"This is actually one of the things I want to get better at. I know that success comes after many retries and that there's nothing wrong with failure but even so I don't like to fail...at least in front of others."

- Sexxxt_Me

"Always like riding a bike, you’ll be comfortable with your training wheels on but the second you take those off expect to fall. That’s where practice will come in, practice makes perfect. It’s definitely embarrassing to fail but overcome it and it’ll be a thing in the past."

- OddRumskie

Some people are just privileged.

"Mostly luck and very rarely it’s persistence to perpetuate chances of luck assuming you’re not born into it. Bad luck if you’re not attractive, smart, or in the right race, class, or social order that makes it mostly insurmountable in a generation."

- Traffic_Great

A mixture of many things.

"Knowing that everything you worked hard for ended up something favorable."

- aprotinin

"Being financially successful in a job or field doing something you are really good at and love. You are respected by your peers and have glowing references or reviews."

- YEGMusic43

Defining your own version of success is a huge step. If you don't know what you're working towards, it's hard to take steps forward.

Find a direction, motivate yourself, and stay consistent.