The urge to succeed is strong within us. We seek material wealth, the approval of our peers, inner tranquility, and a myriad of other things we believe will make us happy. However, the journey to success is fraught with difficulties.

Despite our best intentions and effort, things have a habit of going awry, whether due to our own (perceived) incompetence, the meddling of others, or circumstances outside of our control. We often end up settling for less than what we hoped for, and this fact makes us feel anxious and demoralized. And once we start seeing imperfections in everything we do; we grow apprehensive about living life to its fullest.

But if we were to take a step back, and look at ourselves with an objective eye, we would find that there is less stopping us from succeeding than we think. Not everything is within our control, but plenty of things are, and with the right attitude we can come close to fulfilling most of our dreams.

What matters is that we take things one step at a time, succeed where we can, and move on to the next challenge. And to help you get started on this journey, here is a set of things you ought to keep mind.

 1. Maintain Your Passion

Passion is the driving force behind everything we do in life. Without it, we would have no reason to get up in the morning, go to work, or do anything whatsoever. However, maintaining your passion for something can be hard, especially during times of emotional distress.

If you want to get your passion back, the best thing you can do is reexamine the motivation behind it. What drove you initially to take the path you took? By focusing on the origin of your passion, you will re-experience that initial spark that pushed you to make something of your life.

2. Don’t Chastise Yourself

It’s easy to start blaming yourself once things start going south. In fact, that’s what most people do when they face a setback. They start chastising themselves by saying things like: “what did I do wrong?”, “how will I ever recover from this?”, or “I deserve what I got”.

While there is place for self-criticism in life, this kind of extreme of attitude can do more harm than good. Instead of needlessly criticizing yourself whenever you fail to accomplish something, take the time to stop and think for a moment. Understand that even the best among us fail from time to time, and punishing yourself over every failure will do nothing to mend the situation.

3. Don’t Be Afraid to Seek Help from Others

Formally speaking, you can’t accomplish anything on your own. Even the most simple things, like boiling an egg for breakfast would be impossible without other people. Someone had to feed and shelter the chickens first, someone else had to drive them to the store, and a third person had to swipe your credit card at the store.

In this sense, trying to do everything by yourself is not only infeasible, but it is downright impossible. However, if that is the case, you have every right to seek help from others when you fail to accomplish something. Whether you’re seeking funds to keep your business going or looking for company to put your mind at ease, you should never hesitate to seek help – and offer it in return.

4. Start a Business of Your Own

Our success is always tied to the fortune of others, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take the initiative and start a project of your own. For instance, you can try and start your own business from scratch.

Running a business requires a lot of dedication, so you will have to cultivate a passion for it right off the bat. You will also have to work with others like yourself to reach your business goals, which will help you learn about your own limitations.

Finally, when you run a business, there is always the prospect of failing, so you will have to learn to keep your expectations in check while doing your best.

5. Revise Your Schedule

The reason why most people fail to accomplish everything they set out to do has less to do with effort, and more with organization. The order in which you do things matters, and so does the way you think about time in general.

For example, if you tend to multitask a lot, you will have a lot of half-finished projects lying around. What you should do instead is adopt a schedule that allows you to complete one project at a time. The satisfaction of bringing something to a close will keep you motivated throughout the day, which will in turn improve your overall productivity.

6. Challenge Yourself as Many Times as it Takes

Ultimately, success is all about facing and overcoming challenges. However, we don’t succeed every time we face one, and a lot of us react by simply giving up. If a challenge is insurmountable, giving up might be the right thing to do, but for the most things we face in life, there is usually a way to overcome them.

The way to tackle this issue is to realize the following: success is incremental. You can beat a challenge half-way, and then falter at the end, but there is nothing saying you won’t do better next time. In this sense, failure is not the absence of success, but a proportion between things you did right, and thing you did wrong. And as longer the former keep growing in number, you are justified in taking the challenge as many times as required.

The Road to Perfection

Perfection is a topic that has puzzled philosopher, theologians, and scientists for centuries. Some have claimed that it is achievable within this life, while others speculated that we are doomed to imperfection.

However, sensible people have argued that while perfection is probably not attainable as such, we can get pretty close if we try hard enough. Whether you’re trying to run a business, improve your mental health, or design a website you will be proud of, you should embrace imperfection as a way to constantly keep improving yourself.