Believe it or not, the difference between being successful and being a failure is very small. You might believe that success magically happens to somebody one day. A day that they long have been waiting for.

However, no such day usually exists.

In fact, success often happens in such small chunks for people that they barely even notice it when it arrives.

An interesting question arises from all of this. Why is it that so many people become failures in life? After all, if you ask a hundred people if they would rather be a success or a failure, all of them will tell you that they would like to be a success.

If success is wished upon by everyone, why is it that failure is so common? How can we learn from the mistakes of others so that we can prevent the same thing from happening to ourselves?

The answer to these questions is what I would like to discuss with you right now. You see, being unable to understand why failure is so common will be sure to lead you down a similar, unsuccessful path.

The Secret To Failure And Success

Here’s the secret to failure…

“Negative actions, repeated every day.”

Likewise, here is the secret to success…

“Positive actions, repeated every day.”

You may be thinking to yourself, “I know it has to be more complicated than that!” But the truth is, it isn’t. That’s all there is to it. And the more you believe that, the more successful you are going to be. Let’s give an example…

Suppose we decide to eat our favorite candy bar today. This doesn’t seem like such a big deal right? Sure, we’ll have a little sugar rush. But other then that, we will still be a completely healthy person if we were already.

Now, let’s say our candy bar becomes a little routine for us after lunch. Every day we eat one as a little mid-day snack. What do you think will happen over the course of a week or a month? Probably not much either right? We may start to notice a little decrease in energy. Perhaps we will start to feel a little more tired. We might even start to gain a couple of pounds. But all in all, there won’t be too much difference.

Now what happens if we continue this routine for a year? We will have probably gained about ten pounds. We’re not quite as productive as we once were. But we probably wouldn’t blame the candy bar. After all, ten extra pounds and low energy could be caused from a number of things.

OK, what is going to happen after five years, or even ten years? Now, we have gained about 50-100 pounds!

The thing is though, we barely even notice it. The reason why is because it slowly and gradually happened to us over this long period of time. We don’t realize it until one day our doctor tells us we are at a serious health risk. When we do finally realize it, it hits us like a ton of bricks. We never understand that it all started with a simple candy bar for dessert after lunch. After all, a candy bar today isn’t such a big deal is it?

Here the thing about this example, the candy bar is really only a metaphor. You probably have all sorts of candy bar habits in your life. With these habits, you probably don’t even notice or realize you are doing them! For example…

• Are you setting aside a fixed portion of your income each week for retirement?
• Are you exercising your brain on a daily basis by reading at least 30-60 minutes a day?
• Are you doing physical exercise at least every other day targeting every muscle so that they don’t become weak and useless?

If you answered no to any one of these three questions, you have a habit that is very similar to eating a candy bar every day. And it’s these habits that could have you headed for disaster!

How To Prevent Failure

You see, failure creeps up on us very slowly. So slowly that we might not even know it is coming! It’s our repeated negative actions, and inactions, that add up and compound over time.

The question still remains, how can we prevent all of this from happening to us? The answer to this is simple. We need to take a good, hard look at what we are doing today. Then decide if these actions are leading us towards failure or success.

Take the candy bar for example. We know that if we eat a candy bar every day for 20 years it’s going to be extremely unhealthy for us. The problem is, most of us only think about today. We say to ourselves, “Today it’s not going to kill me if I eat this. So it must be fine.”

But we as individuals need to be smarter than that!

We need to realize what our habits are. Then decide whether or not they are moving us in a positive or negative direction.

This right here is what separates the successful from the unsuccessful. The successful will put aside five or ten dollars each and every day for retirement. They then will wisely invest it and have millions of dollars.

The unsuccessful on the other hand will make spending their habit. Every dollar they make, they spend. Sure, spending five dollars on a cappuccino instead of your retirement today won’t make much difference. But making this mistake day in and day out for several years will be the difference between having zero or millions of dollars when you retire.

Always keep the long term in mind when it comes to your decisions.

You can start today by making small changes. Do the easy stuff first. If you eat a candy bar every day, stop doing so! Eat an apple or a banana instead. The differences won’t seem important today, but they will add up tremendously over time.

Start each morning with a ten minute jog. If that sounds too difficult for you, start with a ten minute walk instead. Once you get in the habit of walking every morning, you can start to quicken the pace into a light jog. Make it as simple for you as possible when you first start. Just make sure it is something you can do consistently and improve upon at a later time. Remember, it’s the little things that are repeated daily that make the difference.

Don’t feel overwhelmed. Set a goal and then take baby steps towards reaching it. I promise that with enough time, you’ll get there.

Eliminate the candy bar habits you currently have and your whole life will start to change!

Related Success Articles

The Strangest Secret In The World
Giving Advice You Shouldn't Live Without
13 Easy Ways To Become A Failure
8 Ways To Develop Persistence
How To Persuade Someone To Do Something
The #1 Reason Failure Is So Common
The Difference Between Being Self-Employed And Being A Business Owner
Flipping The 80 20 Rule
What Is The Carnegie Secret?

---

Like what you read? You can receive updated and exclusive information about the site in my Ultimate Personal Development Newsletter. It's free to join and you can unsubscribe at any time...

Email Name Then Don't worry -- your e-mail address is totally secure. I promise to use it only to send you Ultimate Personal Development Newsletter.

---

Return to Everything You Need To Be A Success In Life

Return from The #1 Reason Failure Is So Common to Ryan Whiteside: Your Ultimate Guide To Personal Development home