Success is something that a lot of people aspire for. If you look around, it might seem easy to define what success is. But then really looking at these observations, you might find yourself asking, “Can anyone succeed?”

Let me tell you straight up that success is not the objective. Everyone has their own definition of success and the standard of success of what you hold yourself to is different from your neighbor. The real big question to as is: “Can anyone succeed?”

I will answer the big question for you….

How You Can Make Success Happen For You

Success Lies Within You

The answer to the question “Can anyone succeed?” depends, first and foremost, on who’s asking the question to themselves. If I say to myself, “Can I succeed?” Only I would know the answer to that.

I get this question a lot because people who work with me or people I’m surrounded by will ask, hey can anybody succeed doing this? It’s really determined based on who’s asking the question.

Your destiny is within you – you already know what it is. Be brave enough to follow it. pic.twitter.com/OC0XWhDQPb

— Ted McGrath (@ted_mcgrath) July 6, 2017

I know I can succeed. That’s determined based on how I think about life, this moment, and the future. It’s also how I think about the past.

Many times people look at their past and they say things like:

• “My situation is different from other people’s”
• “I wasn’t born with a silver spoon”
• “These types of opportunities were not available to me earlier”

I believe we create opportunities. If I’m asking the question I go, yes, I can succeed and I can create my future.

Somebody else asking themselves that question might think they can’t succeed which means, no, not everybody can succeed. If I’m asking the wrong question, and I’m thinking to myself I can’t succeed, then I’m not going to succeed.

I think, if you look around, the world tells us what’s happening and the truth is there’s not a lot of people in the world who are succeeding at the standards that we might call success. Then, that begs another question.

What Is Success?

I think based on the standards today of how we look at success, on how society and we collectively have defined success, its definition is dead.

I don’t even know what the exact definition of success is, but when I look around it’s the question of having the right car, house, or job.

It depends on what group you’re running in. Entrepreneurs ask themselves a very different question. They are mostly after impact, they’re after freedom. To entrepreneurs success is not money per se—I think it’s a combination of impact, freedom, and money is also a piece of that.

In today’s society (and this is a very general statement), when I look around, I think success is mostly determined by money. I personally don’t believe that.

There is only one success: to be able to spend your life in your own way. ~Christopher Morley pic.twitter.com/WSMbirHiUK

— Ted McGrath (@ted_mcgrath) December 21, 2015

But a lot of people believe that and they think:

• “If I only had money then I would get ahead in this world”
• “If I only had more money to fund my dreams, then I would get ahead in this world”

I think it’s the reverse. If you have dreams, then you have a good reason to go out and make the money, versus “If I had money my dreams would come true”.

How Does One Become Successful?

The only style I follow is my own personal style. #success pic.twitter.com/oW5G9oQs2o

— Ted McGrath (@ted_mcgrath) July 10, 2017

Success is clearly in the eye of the person who is looking at their life and saying, I can succeed—and they will succeed. They truly have to know it and they truly have to believe it.

So the question for you today is, “Can I succeed?”

I think every one of us actually believes we can. Then it comes to looking at our environment and our past. A lot of times people dictate their life by their past or their environment.

Looking at my environment I say, I’m going to change, shape, shift, bend my environment to create what I want. When I look at my past I go, it’s my past. The future is unwritten and I can write it any way I want. My past is based on what story I choose to tell, and what meaning I give to it.

Ultimately for me, success is how I’m looking at this exact moment, what I want to create, and how I want to change my environment to fit what I want to see in my dreams.

Time to listen to other people’s success stories and tips! Get inspired here: https://t.co/GbanITRYwO

— Ted McGrath (@ted_mcgrath) July 2, 2017

So can anyone succeed? The answer to that question depends on you. When you truly know and believe that you can reach your goals and succeed, then yes, you can. Your circumstances or your past won’t hinder you when you know who you want to be and believe that you can achieve it.

What hinders you from succeeding? How can you overcome it and succeed? Share your thoughts with me in the comments section below.

Up Next: How To Discover Who You Are So You Can Unleash Your Passion