Nothing happens when you want it to happen. Everything is difficult before is gets easier. Worthwhile endeavors take an enormous amount of time, effort, dedication and patience. I have a Rule of 3 that helps me manage my expectations in pursuing goals and my life dreams:

Everything you want to accomplish in life takes 3 times as long as you expect, costs 3 times as much as you expect and requires 3 times as much effort as you expect.

When blaming others for your circumstances becomes accepted doctrine you’re resting your butt on a broken stool. That stool will eventually collapse, dragging you to the ground. Accepting individual responsibility for your life, your habits, your behaviors, your choices and your thinking gives you a ladder to help you climb out of your current circumstances. Blaming others for your life circumstances does you absolutely no good and, in fact, relegates you and your children to a life of financial misery.

Nothing gets accomplished without passion and desire. What generates passion and desire is finding your main purpose in life. Main purpose is like a light switch. When it’s turned on the electricity begins to flow. That electricity is passion and desire. You need to find your main purpose first. That is the single most important factor in creating success in your life. Go out and find your main purpose in life. It sets everything in motion.

“Experience is always the hardest teacher because the test is given first and the lesson is given afterwards.” John Maxwell

Making mistakes and failing helps us learn what works and what doesn’t. It’s like scar tissue on the brain. We never forget our mistakes and failures. Experience is always the hardest teacher because the test is given first and the lesson is given afterwards.

Mistakes and failure are the price we pay for growth. The more mistakes you make and the more you fail in life, the more you learn and the faster you grow.

Successful people have a growth mindset. They pursue goals, which forces them to acquire new knowledge by engaging in daily self-education, the development of new skills, overcoming obstacles and making mistakes. This new knowledge transforms them from ordinary to extraordinary. In effect, they transform themselves into the individuals they need to become in order to realize success in life.

Successful people make a habit of processing success into their daily lives. Each day ask yourself: “What are the five most productive things I can do today?” Then write them down; include them on your to do list. No matter what happens during the day, make it your goal to accomplish those five things. To turn this into a habit, begin with five simple, easy to accomplish tasks. Do this for 30 days and after 30 days it will begin to transform into a daily habit. Once it becomes a habit, those five simple, important tasks will become easier and easier. This Daily 5 strategy will help move you forward, little by little, every day toward accomplishing your big goal or life dream.

You cannot achieve any goal without intense, uninterrupted focus. Human beings, however, spend most of their time multi-tasking, which distracts them from performing important tasks. Important tasks represent those things you should be doing every day that move you forward in achieving some big goal or life dream. Distractions are things like email, phone calls, meetings, paperwork, conversations with colleagues etc., which pull you away from your important tasks. Successful people understand that in order to accomplish the important tasks, you need to isolate set blocks of uninterrupted time during your day to deal with life’s distractions. You also need to isolate set blocks of uninterrupted time to focus on the important tasks related to your big goal or life dream. This two-step process will allow you to deal with the unavoidable distractions we all face, and also enable you to focus on doing the important things that will move you forward in life in achieving a big goal or life dream.

7% of the uber-wealthy love their job. 97% of the poor do not even like their job. You’ve got one life and about 29,000 days to live that life to the fullest. Find just a few hours, one day out of each week, to try something different; something you never attempted before. You will only have a chance to find that thing you love to do if you push yourself out of your comfort zone and experiment with new activities. When you find the thing you love to do you will know it – passion will bubble up inside you. Passion is the fuel of all successful people. Passion is your brain’s way of screaming to you – This is what will make you happy and successful in life! If you’re not doing what you love to do, you will not be happy and you will not become successful in life.