In the past few months, I have had opportunities to observe some people making their break-through in life. I also observe myself gaining certain self-awareness level and understanding better my ‘Why’ — why I do/achieve the things I do. I condensed what I learned into the following 3 personal principles for success.

1. The power of NOW

People who are successful do things with urgency. They don’t procrastinate and they remove all the opportunities to be in such situation. That means every quick items will happen right away. Not in 5’ nor 10’, not tomorrow or next week. It is NOW. If an email needs to be sent, send it now, if a decision needs to be made, do it now, if a meeting needs set up, set it now. You will thank yourself later that you complete that item then, freeing your brain power now and free yourself from the anxiety of things not done. People who successful protect their todo list and don’t just pile things on top of each other.

Time is such an expensive commodity especially during the pandemic time, where we are just like hamster on wheels, rolling from one Zoom call to another, nonstop, no break. The more reason to be super thoughtful and precise on what you will spend your time on. Because any time you can save, you would use it for the quality time with your family, for self-care or sleep!

Recently I had the opportunity to observe a set of people making their decision based on the same set of information. Of course based on how they experience the provided information, based on their current personal and professional circumstances, the outcomes or what they decide are much different. People tend to fall into one of the three following groups:

• The one who are already very successful are usually the one with the most self-awareness. They know what they want and they know where they are. When there is an opportunity to grow and even though it’s challenging, they will go in with growth mindset and jump on the opportunity. They do it no matter what it takes because their intention is clear. They are so clear on what they want to achieve that they go for the opportunity despite the unknown.
• Then there is a group of people who are in complacency. They are pretty successful though not the most successful. They achieve certain milestone in life, very pleased with the life they have created, have certain struggles they are dealing with but compared to other people, they thought those struggles are acceptable right now. They have a vague idea of a new level of success or something they want to do more of, but it is not urgent. It is not a problem if it is not done today. On the contrary, they are so comfortable with where they are, they will avoid anything that sounds challenging that would shuffle their current comfort place. They will come up with a lot of excuses and stories for why this is not a good time. These excuses and stories are perfect shield protecting themselves and make them feel good about their procrastination. I want success but … I don’t have enough time, money or just have too many things to get done right now or I am just too exhausted.
• Then there is a third group who are in the extreme. They either shy away immediately from the opportunity/challenge or they think they are too good for it and their life is perfect right now. They are either in a deep place of confusion and lost (some without even knowing it), have some extreme life circumstances that occupy their body and mind or they are too afraid to accept their greatness. Like a friend of mine recently quotes “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.”

Guess which group of people will achieve the success they define for themselves and get closer to that life freedom they always want? The one that chase it NOW.

2. Consistency

They said it takes 21 days to create a new habit that sticks. Remember that post from your friend who run that marathon or complete that iron men/women? Remember that daily stories from an old coworker who now shows off her six packs and toned arms? Remember that 50 year old lady who decided to go back to school to get her degree in writing two years ago? She just graduated and about to publish her first book. The common denominator among these people are they pick a routine and stick with it consistently. They do it everyday. They have discipline. They don’t steer off track. And they do it no matter what it takes. Consistency creates results. If you have a puppy and start potty training at home. You know that you start with putting them in a enclosed space with pee pads, then each day you remove a pad. You consistently do it until you are left with one pad. Now your puppy only pees in that single pad and not anywhere else in the house. Same with kids. You teach them how to roll over, crawl, walk the same way. By consistently practice everyday, they slowly build the muscle and start doing it. But it takes a lot of repetition every day to create that. Same with training them to eat certain solid food like funny tasting vegetables. They may not like it the first time and you stick with it. Over and over again it becomes part of them and they will eat it like drinking water.

The answer to everything seems to lay right in front of us. It is just the matter of whether we listen to it. Consistency also creates mastery. If you do something everyday, you will become good at it. You may even fine tune the mechanism and optimize it in a way that is even better for you. So want that six pack? Well start doing the workout everyday and measure your food. You don’t need to work out a lot. You just need to do enough but consistency is key.

3. JFDI

Last but not least — Just Fucking Do It! This is currently my favorite mojo, thanks to my coach Kathy. We all want something and we all have a mountain of excuses to justify why we can’t get to that thing that we always dream of. You will often hear “I really want to be but … I can’t do that right now”

• Because I don’t have time
• Because it doesn’t seem like the right time
• Because I have so much going on right now and have to handle
• Because I am in a good enough place and I should feel content
• Because my family needs me right now and I wouldn’t be a good if I [selfishly] pursue what I always want even though doing so will make me a better

There are many reasons I could list. They are always the PERFECT story and excuse that stand between you and what you want/to become. Like Dr. Seuss’s best selling children book “Oh the places you’ll go”, he calls out ‘The waiting place’ … Waiting for the train to come, for the bus to go, for the phone to ring, for the fish to bite, for the wind to fly the kite, waiting for a yes or a no… It is not a great place to be in if what you are seeking is growth!

Young kids are so much better at doing things in the NOW than adults. They don’t spend much time contemplating about things and it is a blessing. If they want to play, they play, if they want to eat chocolate, they eat, if they want to sleep, they can do so in the middle of a public elevator floor without afraid of what anyone would think. They are sleepy and that is enough reason to pass out on that floor. And no one would ever judge them for it. In fact most people would find them cute because, damn, they fearlessly do what they need to do without feeling judged. Sometimes, I wish I could have the mind of a kiddo all over again so I could be more fearless. As we grow up we cultivate certain beliefs that prevent us from executing in the NOW.

This weekend I observed my three years old with such an Aha moment. I am doing this YouTube workout video daily with some friends. While my friends (including myself) have so many excuses each day for why we are not completing it. On the contrary, my little guy saw me doing it over a weekend and found the exercise so fun. Every single weekend and weekday now, guess what he is doing? He follows the YouTube workout video the entire 30’. Yup, you heard me right. Even I am out of breath following the exercise. He is three and he completes all the steps. Zero excuses! He doesn’t think much about whether it is difficult or not, whether he has time or not, whether it fits his age or not, whether he is in the right outfit or not, whether he has the right equipment or not. He JFDI because he likes it. And for me, I admire the little kiddo and can’t imagine what else he could be if he is already doing this exercise at the age of three 😂

So what are you waiting for?

Everyone can create an extraordinary life. Not everyone will create an extraordinary life. Only the one that choose to, NOW, WILL! So who do you choose to be, today?

Author Linh Tran writes for Medium.com. © 2021 Linh Tran; reprinted by permission.