6 Reasons You're Not Successful

How can they say my life is not a success? Have I not for more than sixty years got enough to eat and escaped being eaten?  --Logan P. Smith

Whenever  I bemoan the fact that I’m not successful, someone always starts listing my accomplishments: avoided falling into potholes today, set alarm for a.m. and not p.m., ate a meal without spilling anything on my white shirt.

You think these things are easy to do? Heck no! They took effort, diligence, vigilance, and discipline. However you define success—whether it’s watching an entire season of Mad Men in one weekend, climbing Mt Everest, or forming your own rock band—there are certain factors you have to keep in mind.

Check out these six simple reasons why success may be eluding you:

1. You're a writer/actor/filmmaker/singer/lawyer but you don't write/act/direct/sing/argue. Period. Do I even need to list the next five reasons? You’re afraid? So what? Do it anyway. You’re not disciplined? So what? Do it anyway. You’re a big procrastinator? SO WHAT? DO IT ANYWAY! Clearly I belong in the military and not in the fuzzy, hand-holding therapeutic world. My point is simply this: if your passion is what really makes you feel alive, then you’re slowly killing yourself with all these excuses.
2. You're waiting for inspiration. That’s like Waiting for Godot. If you have no idea what that means, just go back to reason number one. Who was it that said he writes when inspired, and thank god that's every morning at 9? You’ve got to do it every day, or at least on a regular basis. As Aristotle put it: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.” 
3. You're not marketing yourself/your work. This is anything from cold calls to social media to networking. Nobody knows what a fabulous person with a fabulous product or service you are unless you tell them (and no, telling your granny doesn’t count – unless she’s CEO of a PR firm). Don’t know the first thing about marketing yourself? Bull. What do you think you’re doing on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest?* When you tell everyone you just had a rockin’ burger at your favorite joint (complete with instagram, of course) – you just engaged in marketing. Now do it for something that’s actually important.
4. Real-life distractions keep getting in the way. Like paying the rent. Yeah, I know, real-life stuff sucks ass because it has to be taken care of. But did you ever play Dodge Ball in school? The idea of the game (if you can call being pelted with really hard balls by angry adolescents a game) was to dodge all incoming missiles at any cost. That’s like life. Just because something comes your way that you have to deal with, doesn’t mean you have to sit down and give up. Find a way to take care of it, leap over it, or ignore it—but don’t stop writing/acting/directing/singing/juggling, etc.
5. You don't believe you can. In other words, you don't believe in yourself. Whew! This is more than I can help you with. Maybe Louise Hay can help you out with a few tips on transforming old beliefs. Basically a belief is just a thought that got lodged in the cracks in your brain. Unearth them, shed them, and replace them with new beliefs that YOU CAN DO IT!
6. You spend too much time writing lists entitled 6 Reasons You’re….

Simple? Yes. Easy? Hell no. But if achieving your dream seems like too much work, then take to heart what W. C. Fields once said: If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it.


*Did you see what I did there? I oh-so-slyly marketed myself!