Some ABC’s for Success

Accountability is performing to an external standard, reporting to other people who are objective insofar as they are outside of our own subjective sphere. Most of us do not like being accountable, but we rarely become the best that we can be without it.

Attitude is the single most important ingredient to success at work. It is also the only thing you or I can definitely change, since it depends only on what is inside of us. A positive attitude in almost all circumstances will bring lasting success. A poor attitude will guarantee failure.

Bad attitudes (how to get past them). Sometimes we find ourselves in a very negative mind space where we are dissatisfied and irritable beyond any rational explanation. My sister told me a humorous way she found to get past a bad mood. A friend told her: “just get over it”. My sister asked how. The friend took a piece of paper and wrote "bad attitude" on it and placed it on the floor. My sister stepped over it, and surprisingly it worked. She got over it!

You must decide, somehow, to change your negative mind space if you want things to turn out right. It is far easier to change your own mind then to change other people, or to change difficult circumstances. Your attitude makes all the difference.

Balancing order and chaos is a lifetime struggle. Chaos brings creativity, growth and change. Order brings stability, logic and predictability. If either of these gains total supremacy so that the other is lost, you will loose a critical dimension of your abilities. Learn the joy of balance, and live joyfully in creative tension. You need some order as well as some chaos to reach your maximum potential.

Career is the succession of jobs you will have during your lifetime, whether you have planned and anticipated this progression of jobs, or you are just swept along by circumstances. Working and planning for better jobs can bring you to a much brighter future. Anyone who doesn’t take the time and effort to plan for future job training and success will need to get used to disappointment at work. It is your career – so make the most of it!


Choices are inescapable – you absolutely must decide. Not making a decision also becomes a decision quickly: you have simply decided upon inaction.

Inaction is most often the wrong decision. It pays to think carefully about important decisions and not to rush forward blindly, but doing nothing is like hiding your head in the sand – it leaves your entire body exposed to danger.

Deciding on some form of action requires boldness and courage. It is scary to face up to the tough issues in your life. But it is even more dangerous to ignore them through endless procrastination.


Constant improvement, not perfectionism. It is important to set a high standard for yourself and to constantly improve, but don’t become a perfectionist. Perfectionism tends to focus obsessively on only one or two dimensions of success, e.g. neatness, academic achievement, or body image. In truth, there are many aspects of our personality, health, attitude, knowledge and skills which need improvement. If we try to become perfect in a single dimension, we will fail due to our inadequacy in all the other dimensions.