1. Congruency, transparency, vulnerability and authenticity are the greatest core values.
2. Your largest weaknesses are your greatest strengths.  It’s only by being vulnerable about your weaknesses… that you can own your weaknesses and discover why they’re strengths.
3. We all want to be special, but nobody wants to be different.  You can’t have one without the other. 
4. On any one facet – brains, achievements, wealth, looks – there are others with more or “better.”  But there’s only one of us and the totality of all of our traits – genetics, interests, knowledge, experience and education – makes us unique in all the world.  Priceless.
5. The world NEEDS your gifts.  It is our differences, in fact, that make us special – and our differences including what we consider our worst weaknesses which are, in fact, our greatest strengths.  It’s to the degree that you overcome shame about our differences, including owning our real and imagined weaknesses, that you allow yourself to fully express your uniqueness in all the world and unlock our true strength.
6. Only the strong can afford to be vulnerable.  The weak cannot afford to be vulnerable for fear it will destroy them.  It is vulnerability – bringing those things we are most ashamed of into the light – that helps us cure how we’re broken, own what’s strong and share our true value with the world.
7. There is no real comparison nor competition with others.  The only comparison that might help is that you aim to do better today than you did before; that you at least try to do as well today as you did yesterday. 
8. “Now” is the only moment that matters.  I have lived my life in the past; I have measured myself by the future.  Both are unworkable, disempowering and dysfunctional.  Now is the only moment you have any power; the measurement is how well are you do with the current moment?
9. Just take the next step.  You may not know how to get there, but you always know the next step.  There are never failures, only results; and no matter the failure there is ALWAYS a next step towards the success you have chosen.  You cannot NOT reach success if you take consistent, persistent, creative steps in the direction of the success you have chosen.
10. The most important factors of success are effective action, persistence, circumstances and luck.  Success does not have to be hard.  Action trumps belief.  We only have partial control over our circumstances and luck – but even in those factors we can’t control, we can control our attitudes, our actions, our choices and beliefs.
11. Our success is a product of our environment.  We are a product of our five closest relationships.  Set up your environment and choose your relationships to evoke success.  Consciously cultivating an environment are relationships to remind you of your goals, your strength and invite you to be your best.
12. You have to take action before you can see success.  Nothing changes until you change something.
13. Action always precedes courage, most often precedes confidence and, often precedes, motivation.  Action is greater than belief.  Whether you believe you can save $10,000 or not… if you save $1000 a month you’ll have $10,000 in 10 months whether you believed you could do it or not. 
14. Dare to succeed more largely than you believe you can and far larger than you believe you deserve. 
15. Choose to believe (or act as if you believe) that you have a value greater than you feel; and act on that until you believe in your greater value.
16. You don’t know what you’re capable of until you fail.  Even then it’s possible you could have worked harder or smarter; or that you’ll develop strength or knowledge for your next attempt.  Be willing to fail and do so early so you will identify what doesn’t work.  Set a goal then work to exceed what you thought your limits were.  Some steps to success you’ll be passionate about; some you may be fearful of or bored with.  Regardless of the feeling, just take the steps you need to get to where you want.
17. Test reality.  YOU think it’s impossible?  Cool, then failure is assured.  Now that, that’s out of the way… see how far you can get before you fail.  You may just find that the imagined limitations… were all imagination.
18. Just show up.
19. Be teachable.  Stop assuming you know – stop assuming you know your limitations.  Stop assuming you know how things work.  Stop assuming you know what is possible.  Stop assuming.  Just identify the goal and take the next step.

Copyright © 2020, Mark Farmer. Life Success Engine – the Engine Driving Your Life’s Success.