How to Succeed in Life: Eight Steps to Success

Mar 1, 2024

1. Choose a definite goal.
2. Always think of yourself as a possessor of the goal—even when others see you as other things.
3. Desire the goal more than anything else.
4. Create a plan by which to attain the goal.
5. Burn all bridges behind you that can tempt you to neglect your goal. (Decide to win or perish! Give yourself no way of retreat.)
6. Start anywhere and do anything (even the most menial work) that provides an opportunity to move closer (even one step) toward the goal.
7. Devote all your energy, willpower, and effort to the goal.
8. Persist on your burning desire to attain your goal until you achieve it.
   • Persist even if you have little or no encouragement.
   • Persist even if you fail.
   • Persist even when the going gets hard, and the future looks dismal.

Note:

• Don’t hope to succeed. Desire it, definitely.
• Don’t wish to succeed. Desire it obsessionally.
• Don’t create an alternative goal. Do all it takes to get your definite goal. (Start anywhere and do anything that moves you closer to your goal.)
• Don’t look for other opportunities. Burn all bridges behind you and devote yourself entirely to getting your definite goal.

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Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat. Only by so doing can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win, essential to success.

—Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

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