Willpower Muscle Strategy: The Philosophy Of Success

Philosophy of Success
There are various definitions of success. It can be defined as the as one’s accomplishment of a desired aim or goals. Subsequently, success can also be defined as the attainment of wealth, position or honors. Therefore, success varies from one person to another; it can be a personal aspect as having a pregnancy, academic success, business or political success. However, for one to attain success, whether in an academic, business, political or a private setting, one must put in place strategies that will aid him or her and act as a bridge towards the accomplishment of success. A good strategy must give an overall direction of the intended goals, it is within the sources and opportunities of the desired goal and it advances

the chances of attaining success.
One of the most acclaimed strategies of achieving success is having a plan. Success does not just happen, it is worked for, takes time to achieve according to the desired goals and needs adequate planning. For example, in an academic setting, every student’s desired goal is to pass the exams. However, for one to pass the exams, the student must have an elaborate plan on how achieve that goal. The student may decide to set up a timetable and the respective hours he or she will be studying in order to pass the exams. Subsequently, in a business setting, the entrepreneur must have a business plan. Billionaire Richard Branson the founder of Virgin Group in his blog once articulated that the best strategy to achieve success is to have the best plan strategy (Liff, 13). For someone hoping to achieve success in business, one must plan on how the business will appeal to prospective clients by having effective marketing strategies. In a political setting, for a person contesting for an elective seat, one must have an elaborate plan on how to woo people to vote for him. Subsequently, he or she would need to plan on how to raise the required campaign funds and donors to fund the campaigns. Planning is the most crucial strategy for achieving success. It acts as a guide on the road to success and aids one on how to reach that goal (Liff, 14).
Another success strategy for achieving success is to have a grit or perseverance. Grit involves the willingness to commit to one’s long term goals and persistence when faced with difficulties. Past studies show that gritty people earn higher GPA’s in colleges and often attain more education in their lifetime (Liff, 20). The level of grit varies from one person to another depending on one’s tenacity of achieving success. Grit involves the ability to have courage to combat challenges and obstacles standing in the way of one’s success. Subsequently, the ability to manage the fear of failure is imperative and a key to success. Rather than being afraid of failure, gritty people see it a part of a process towards achieving success. They in turn acknowledge that defeat has valuable lessons and that the vulnerability of perseverance is essential for high achievement. Additionally, gritty successful people are deemed to be conscientious. Developing a gritty strategy in this context means working tirelessly to complete the task at hand and always striving to do a good job. Gritty people are achievement-oriented individuals. To determine which group would predict a higher job proficiency and educational success, scholars conducted a study among achievement-oriented persons and dependable persons. Dependable persons are individuals who are deemed to be self-controlled and conventional. The study indicated that gritty people recorded far much higher job proficiency and educational success as compared to dependable persons (Liff, 24). Thus developing a gritty character is an effective success strategy a person can use to achieve success. One should not be afraid to work tirelessly or afraid of facing defeat and obstacles. One should take the defeat and the challenges as a test that one learns valuable lessons from in achieving success.
Being realistic and optimist, is another key success strategy people ought to employ to achieve success. Realistic optimism involves engaging in positive thinking towards a set goal and how one is likely to achieve it. Believing in a person’s ability to succeed, creates an atmosphere of motivation that moves that person to attaining his set goals. A realistic optimist person expects success rather than failure. He sees every opportunity and other people in a positive way and expects to use some effort to bring a positive change that will bring an improved future (Watkins, 7). Being a realistic optimist is closely intertwined with developing a gritty strategy in that, in both circumstances people see obstacles and challenges as temporary and a process towards achieving success. They both work tirelessly to complete a task and strive to do a good job. Subsequently, developing a realistic optimist strategy involves perceiving negative situations as a challenge to work harder and believing that one and will succeed if a one involves the use of an effort. This strategy can be developed by embracing a positive talk and thinking that matches the characteristic of a realistic optimist. It can also be developed by changing one’s negative belief and ways in which a person chooses to interpret the problems and challenges that he or she faces (Watkins, 11).
Building a willpower muscle is an effective success strategy that one should use in achieving success.

A willpower muscle strategy involves the will to take on challenges that requires a person to do something he or she would not have done. For example, when faced with a situation that makes one feel like giving up, instead of giving up, you find another way of tackling the problem. The willpower muscle strategy involves the ability to doing things other people would not, when faced with the same circumstances. The strategy essentially involves resisting the temptation to give in to challenges (Watkins, 22). In an academic setting, researchers found that students in American schools who resisted short term temptations and stayed focused often had exceedingly impressive grades. To determine the success rate of this strategy, researchers conducted another study where the participants were asked to suppress their feelings when watching an upsetting documentary film. The participants were thereafter to conduct a subsequent physical stamina test. The participants who showed their emotions while watching the documentary film gave up sooner as opposed to those who did not. Developing the willpower muscle strategy involves being able not to be swayed easily by emotions that hinder a person from achieving his or her set goals. In achieving success, a person should employ the use of such strategy when faced with hard challenges and difficulties. Bill Gates, one of the wealthiest men on earth when asked what his biggest success was, he said his biggest success was the ability to resist the urge of giving up (Watkins,

24).
For one to attain success, a person must use success strategies that are effective and guarantee success. One ought to develop a plan strategy that acts as a guide to success and sets out the desired goals. A person can also adopt a gritty strategy that involves conscientiousness and perseverance. Additionally, use of realistic optimism and willpower muscle strategy are deemed success strategies one ought to use to attain success.