Success
13 Reasons to Stop Drinking Alcohol for Good
Whenever I was travelling, I would drink a lot of alcohol. Although there were a lot of great nights involved, it wasn’t healthy, and I soon noticed that I could have just the same amount of fun without it.
Also, travelling on a budget and being a big fan of alcohol doesn’t really bode well for your bank balance.
If you’re someone who loves alcohol, and even might go as far to say you’re addicted to it, this article might help.
13 Reasons to Stop Drinking Alcohol
Below is a list of all the detailed reasons as to why your life would be much better without alcohol. And if you stick around until the end of the article, there’s also some advice as to how you can begin to cut down your consumption.
Here are 13 reasons to stop drinking alcohol for good:
1. Your Damaged Liver Will Begin to Heal
The regular consumption of alcohol can cause your liver cells to die. Eventually, enough cells can die to cause permanent damage, like scars that never heal.
Although, if you stop drinking, your liver can quickly repair itself to a certain extent. Just like any other small cut on your body would do.
Healing can normally begin within a few days after you stop drinking, and for more severe cases it could take up to several months.
2. You’ll Start Saving Ridiculous Amounts of Money
Depending on where you live, alcohol can be incredibly expensive. If you live in a country like Vietnam, you can literally buy a beer for $0.40. But in western countries, you will be spending a lot of money if you love to drink.
Stop drinking, and you’ll immediately start to see an increase in your savings like never before. Why don’t you workout how much money you’d spend on alcohol in a typical week; then every week put however much you don’t spend on alcohol of that into a jar or a separate account.
That way, you’ll really see how much money you’re saving after reducing your consumption.
3. Your Sex Life Will Improve
When you give up alcohol, the quality of your sleep improves drastically. Which in turn, increase your testosterone production. T-levels are linked to sex drive, and the higher they are, the better your sex drive will be.
Plus we all know that alcohol can cause impotence, Ie. Ruining your ability to perform.
4. Your Skin Will Clean Up
Because of all the toxins contained within alcohol, drinking it regularly will cause breakouts of acne, and signs of premature ageing. In other words, drinking alcohol excessively will lower the appearance of your skin.
Luckily, this is easily cured within a short period of time, but you have to stop drinking the stuff!
Do you really want to sacrifice your health for a quick buzz?
5. You’ll Lose Weight More Easily
On average, a pint of lager contains 180 calories. Those calories are empty calories. They contain no benefit to you whatsoever. Since the average daily calorie intake for men is 2640, several pints of beer can make a big impact.
If you quit drinking beer, or alcohol entirely, it’ll make a huge difference to your health. You’ll be much more likely to lose weight when you’re not consuming these empty calories.
6. You’ll No Longer Be Reliant on Something Else
Being reliant on another substance is not healthy in any aspect. If you’re someone who needs alcohol to get through your day, then you need to fix that.
Once you stop drinking alcohol, you’ll feel much happier, and your mood won’t depreciate if for some reason you’re unable to have a drink one day.
This is the same for any addiction, regardless of whether it’s with alcohol, drugs, video games, or anything else.
7. No More Hangovers
For some, the worst part of drinking alcohol always seems to be waking up with an enormous hangover. Quite frankly, there comes a point in time where you have to ask yourself if it’s really worth it.
Whenever you get drunk, you know that the next day is pretty much going to be ruined. You won’t want to do anything. Your productivity will be shot to bits.
So why not stop drinking alcohol and completely eliminate hangovers from your life?
8. Say Hello to More Free Time
How often are you spending time in the pub, getting drunk, talking about unproductive and unimportant things, when you could be using that time more productively.
In fact, if you’re at the point where you’re regularly going on your own to have a drink, then that is just completely wasted time, because you’re not even socializing with anyone else.
9. You’ll Be Reducing Your Risk of Disease
Kidney disease, liver disease, heart disease; all caused through lethal quantities of alcohol being consumed.
If you quit drinking before you manage to do permanent damage to your body, it will heal itself. However, if you push it past it limits, you’ll do lasting damage, and end up with serious illnesses.
Needless to say, if you want to reduce the risk of disease, quitting alcohol should be your number #1 priority.
10. You’ll Sleep Much Better
Interestingly, a lot of people use alcohol to help them get to sleep. You’ve probably heard your friends say that whenever they drink alcohol it ends up sending them to sleep, right?
Actually, it’s the opposite. Alcohol reduces both the quantity and quality of sleep.
A lot of people probably don’t realize that fact. And you don’t need to drink a lot to see these results. Even light, or moderate drinkers will see a massive improvement in the quality of their sleep if they stop drinking alcohol altogether.
11. Your Natural Confidence Will Begin to Grow
The amount of people who use alcohol to help them have higher levels of confidence is social situations, is staggering. You know who I’m talking about. The guys who drink alcohol purely to try and pluck up the courage to talk to girls on nights out.
It’s never a good thing. You come off like a douche.
Once you stop drinking alcohol altogether, you’ll start to gain that confidence naturally, and not just through getting intoxicated.
12. You’ll Become Healthier in Other Areas of Life
Once you start to see the results from giving up alcohol, you’ll probably be motivated enough to make changes in other areas of your life.
You’ll also be feeling happier and healthier, which can easily improve relationships, your career, etc.
You’ll definitely feel a lot better when doing your workout at the gym, that’s for sure.
13. No More Stupid Decisions
How many stupid decisions have you made while under the influence of alcohol? How many of them do you remember?
What if you stopped drinking alcohol?
Would you thank yourself for not making an enormously large number of those decisions on a regular basis?
The reality is that if you stop getting drunk, you’ll stop making stupid decisions, and that really can’t be a bad thing.
How to Stop Drinking Alcohol
Now that you know just how many reasons there are to stop drinking alcohol, we can look at how you can give it up cold turkey!
Here’s some simple steps you can take:
1. Avoid Temptation
I spoke to a friend of mine earlier on this year, who managed to give up alcohol and lose 50lbs! He said that he would try and re-write his day, so that he wouldn’t find himself in situations near alcohol.
For example, if his drive to work involved passing multiple liquor stores, he’d simply drive a different route to work. Doing small things like this, so that you don’t come into contact with alcohol as much throughout your day, can make a huge difference.
2. Let Everyone Know
Whenever you state a goal to others, it becomes real. Not only that, but once you let all your friends and family, they won’t accidentally surround you with alcohol. They’ll be able to help you, rather than enabling you.
3. Reward Yourself!
Rewarding yourself for “x amount of days” without alcohol is another great way to stay on track. Similarly to the way in that bodybuilders reward themselves for eating clean for long periods of time.
You’ve got to have a cheat day once in a while, otherwise you’ll end up falling off the wagon, and you’ll fall hard.
4. Enjoy the Benefits
Once you see a benefits of a life without alcohol, you’ll be addicted to them. And that’s a very good thing, because it stops you from wanting to start drinking again.
Being addicted to the benefits of not drinking alcohol, means your interest in drinking it again is absolutely ZERO.
Are there any withdrawal symptoms from quitting alcohol?
The only downside to quitting alcohol cold turkey is that there can be a number of withdrawal symptoms, depending on whether you were previously a big drinker or not.
Here are a few common withdrawal symptoms:
- Shaking
- Poor concentration
- Difficulty sleeping
- Lack of energy
Summary
You don’t have to completely give up alcohol to be healthy. Having a pint now and again isn’t going to make a huge difference to your overall health.
However, if you’re an excessive drinker, hopefully these reasons we’ve discussed within the article will tempt you to cut down on your consumption.
Here’s a quick recap on the list of benefits of not drinking alcohol:
- Your Damaged Liver Will Begin to Heal
- You’ll Start Saving Ridiculous Amounts of Money
- Your Sex Life Will Improve
- Your Skin Will Clean Up
- You’ll Lose Weight More Easily
- You’ll No Longer Be Reliant on Something Else
- No More Hangovers
- Say Hello to More Free Time
- You’ll Be Reducing Your Risk of Disease
- You’ll Sleep Much Better
- Your Natural Confidence Will Begin to Grow
- You’ll Become Healthier in Other Areas of Life
- No More Stupid Decisions
Got any other reasons as to why people should stop drinking alcohol for good? Share them in the comments section.
Success
The 30 Major Causes of Failure By Napoleon Hill
Have you ever read the book ‘Think & Grow Rich’?
If you’re a regular visitor to Wealthy Gorilla, then you definitely should have read the book by now!
Think & Grow Rich was written by Napoleon Hill and is considered to be one of the best self-development books of all time.
The book teaches the 13 principles of turning your desires into riches and contains hundreds of golden nuggets you can use to transform your life…
The 30 Major Causes of Failure
Within one of the chapters of Think & Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill lists the 30 major causes of failure. These are the reasons why 99% of people are failing in their lives.
The purpose of featuring and explaining these ‘major causes of failure’ within this article, is to show you why people fail, and how you can avoid doing the same thing in your own life.
Here are the 30 major causes of failure as described by Napoleon Hill:
1. Unfavourable Hereditary Background
The reason why this was put first on the list, was because Hill says it’s one of the toughest issues for people to overcome.
This basically means that someone is perhaps not naturally intelligent, and lack’s certain brainpower. They can take all the measures needed to improve their knowledge and become smarter, but they are still at a disadvantage.
2. Lack of a Well Defined Purpose in Life
If you don’t have a definitive goal that you’re setting out to achieve, a purpose that you’re trying to fill, you won’t become successful. You have nothing to hit, nothing to aim at. And therefore your direction is unidentified.
3. Lack of Ambition to Aim Above Mediocrity
There are many reasons why people might not have the ambition to aim above mediocrity. Whether it’s that they’re too lazy, too comfortable, too spoilt, or have no belief in “success”.
If you never have the ambition the aim higher, you never will aim higher than average. This means, you guessed it, you will never achieve more than average.
4. Insufficient Education
Another one of the major causes of failure is insufficient education. Don’t get this wrong. This does not solely mean a lack of formal education leading up to adulthood.
In many cases, and especially in various parts of the world, formal education is an issue. However, another big issue is that many individuals leave school and decide that they’ve done all the learning they needed to do.
When it comes to your career, specialized knowledge is a must, and it can only be learnt through experience on the job, and studying outside of working hours. Just turning up to work every day isn’t enough education.
5. Lack of Self-Discipline
Becoming successful isn’t easy. It takes a lot of discipline to consistently work hard at something until you finally start to achieve success from it.
There’s a lot of productive habits that need to be adopted in order to get the most out of your day, and therefore your week, month, and year.
6. Ill Health
Nobody can enjoy their success without good health, and in fact poor health can still hold you back from achieving it in the first place.
Here’s what causes ill health:
- Lack of exercise
- Over-eating junk foods
- Poor daily habits
- Over-indulgence in sex
7. Unfavourable Environmental Influences During Childhood
This essentially means that many people fail due to the environment they grew up in. Poor parenting, bad neighbourhoods, born into poor families etc.
It’s not a death sentence, but more people than not let these circumstances dictate their future. Something can be done, no matter what.
8. Procrastination
Everybody has a dream, but when it comes to taking action, most procrastinate. They wait until they’re ‘ready’, or until the ‘perfect time’.
Time goes by, but they’ve gone nowhere. Truth is, that they’ll never be a perfect time to start working on your dreams. You have to stop procrastinating and create a sense of urgency within your life.
9. Lack of Persistence
You won’t get anywhere without persistence. And persistence can be tough when you’re not seeing immediate results from all the hard work you’re putting in.
The truth is. Persistence is the key to everything. Every successful individual has had their own failures during their lifetime, but persistence meant that they got back up, and didn’t have to remain a failure.
10. Negative Personality
You know those people that always seem to complain about things, but never change them? How about the people who always tell you that they can’t do something?
Thinking negatively will only ever bring you a negative life. This is one of the biggest causes of failure, and changing your mindset from negative to positive should be a very high priority.
11. Lack of Controlled Sexual Urge
Most people will deny that this one affects them, but it does. The sexual stimulus has the power to influence people into action more than any other type of energy.
This means you’re likely to be spending a lot of your time chasing this, becoming distracted, and losing sight of your goals.
12. Uncontrolled Desire for ‘Something for Nothing’
Ever come across people who want something for nothing?
They believe that they can try and get what they want without helping anyone else get what they want. And that’s a big mistake.
You see, you only start to get the things you want in life when you’re able to help other people. Every business that succeeds, does so because it is helping enough people to be profitable.
13. Lack of a Well Defined Power of Decision
Napoleon talks about how good decision-makers are able to make quick decisions and then change them slowly, as opposed to the other way around. The ability to make quick decisions is incredibly important for success.
After all, if you’re unable to make decisions, then you’re not going to be able to build a business, that’s for sure. We make thousands of decisions every day, so this ability is key.
14. One or More of the Six Basic Fears
In Think & Grow Rich, Hill also describes the basic fears that all humans have in life. The basic fears are:
- Fear of poverty
- Fear of criticism
- Fear of ill health
- Fear of loss of love
- Fear of old age
- Fear of death
Possessing one of these six basic fears may also be one of the major causes of failure. It’s important to remember in this circumstance, that we all eventually die. Therefore we have nothing to lose, and the fear above should not keep us from living our dream life.
15. Wrong Selection of a Mate in Marriage
Your marriage is going to affect your career. That’s a given. If you’re in a marriage where your partner supports you, and you are both happy, then it’ll be beneficial to your career.
If however, you’re always arguing, then it’s going to affect your performance during work. Choose your life partner wisely.
16. Over-Caution
In order to get far in life, you have to take risks. You’ll only get so far by playing it safe. Risks are often necessary, and they don’t always work out. But eventually, they do.
Those who are too cautious, and afraid to venture into the unknown, will often fail.
17. Wrong Selection of Associates in Business
Who you choose to do business with can often be another huge cause of failure. Choosing someone who lacks the right qualities can often end up in them making the wrong decisions, and ruining all your hard work in business.
Another choice you need to make wisely.
18. Superstition & Prejudice
Superstition is a big issue people face with their mindset. In fact, if you follow Tai Lopez, you’ll know that he likes to give away free cars every so often.
Many of the people who have won the free cars, did not believe they’d really won. They thought it was fake. So guess what? Tai gave the car to someone else.
19. Wrong Selection of a Vocation
So many people make this common error. Picking the wrong line of work. Unless it’s something you can’t go a day without thinking about, then you shouldn’t be doing it.
However, 95% of people hate waking up on Monday because they have to travel to jobs they do not like. They are only there to get that paycheck. Why?
I’ll never understand. Find something you love.
20. Lack of Concentration of Effort
Do you know how long the human attention span is?
It’s not very long at all. This means concentrating on something for a long period of time is ridiculously hard. And it’s even harder if you’re trying to concentrate on something you don’t like.
21. The Habit of Indiscriminate Spending
Do you often buy things you don’t really need?
How much money has that new T.V made you recently? $0? That’s strange…
Wasting money instead of investing it in yourself, is what separates the rich from the poor. Think about that the next time you want to buy a whole new wardrobe.
22. Lack of Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm is a key to achieving success with anything you do. Without enthusiasm or a real passion for your work, you will be unable to go the distance.
This is the same reason why people who chase money will never find it. When money is a driving force, instead of passion, you will give up on the activity long before you become successful at it.
Passion for something means you want to do it every single day, regardless of how much money you’re earning, or the number of setbacks you’re experiencing.
23. Intolerance
Being open-minded is something every good businessman should be. Open to new ideas, new ways of thinking, new types of people.
Intolerance of others, and their ideas, is going to hurt your reputation. Especially when the people you’re intolerant of are people you work with or do business with.
24. Intemperance
Intemperance, similar to intolerance in many ways, is another one of the major causes of failure. If you’re someone who has a tendency to get angry, you’re going to end up annoying a lot of people. You’re also going to end up ruining your productivity.
25. Inability to Cooperate With Others
Collaboration with others is inevitable. After all, every business is in the business of people. If you are unable to cooperate with other people, then you won’t get very far at all.
The only way to get what you want is to help other people get what they want; and that won’t happen for anybody who refuses to cooperate with others.
26. Possession of Power Not Acquired Through Self-Effort
People who have been given power, and not earned it themselves, are destined to fail.
They are destined to fail because in most cases they will not have adopted and mastered the essential habits and skills required to earn this power in the first place.
They also most likely lack the experience and knowledge required to use their power properly.
People who acquire power without this effort will not be able to control it, use it efficiently, nor should they be trusted with it.
27. Intentional Dishonesty
It doesn’t matter whether you’re lying to yourself or to other people. A lack of honesty will come back to haunt you in the end. People won’t want to work with you. They won’t trust you. You won’t be true to yourself.
The whole thing’s a house of cards.
28. Egotism & Vanity
Ego often gets in the way of people improving their knowledge and education. It also gets in the way of collaboration.
I’ve come across many people who are either too stubborn to understand why they’re wrong or collaborate with other people because they think they’re bigger than everyone else.
29. Guessing Instead of Thinking
If you’re guilty of this, you’re just asking for failure. Guessing instead of thinking? Come on.
There are a lot of people who start arguments because they have this type of mindset. They just assume, and then forget to actually do the research before forming their opinion.
Don’t be one of these people.
30. Lack of Capital
Lastly, lack of capital is 30th on the list of major causes of failure. Money is obviously an issue for many people who have dreams and ideas, in most cases to build the business they desire.
Often, if their business plan is good enough, they’ll be able to seek investors or be able to start smaller with lower costs.
Summary
Here’s a recap on the 30 major causes of failure from Think & Grow Rich:
- Unfavourable Hereditary Background
- Lack of a Well Defined Purpose in Life
- Lack of Ambition to Aim Above Mediocrity
- Insufficient Education
- Lack of Self-Discipline
- Ill Health
- Unfavourable Environmental Influences During Childhood
- Procrastination
- Lack of Persistence
- Negative Personality
- Lack of Controlled Sexual Urge
- Uncontrolled Desire for ‘Something for Nothing’
- Lack of a Well Defined Power of Decision
- One or More of the Six Basic Fears
- Wrong Selection of a Mate in Marriage
- Over-Caution
- Wrong Selection of Associates in Business
- Superstition & Prejudice
- Wrong Selection of a Vocation
- Lack of Concentration of Effort
- The Habit of Indiscriminate Spending
- Lack of Enthusiasm
- Intolerance
- Intemperance
- Inability to Cooperate With Others
- Possession of Power Not Acquired Through Self-Effort
- Intentional Dishonesty
- Egotism & Vanity
- Guessing Instead of Thinking
- Lack of Capital
How many major causes of failure have you been guilty of? Leave a comment below.
Famous Success Lessons
10 Success Lessons From Lionel Messi
Want to hear some of Lionel Messi’s success lessons?
One of my favorite inspirations is Lionel Messi, the world famous professional football player.
Messi is considered one of the best football players of all time. He’s won a lot of awards in the past proving just how good he is, including number #1 football player in the world.
Lionel Messi’s Success Lessons
Like most extraordinary people, Lionel Messi’s remarkable success did not come from pure luck or accident. In fact, he worked extremely hard and trained almost every single day to become who he is today.
Here’s 10 of Lionel Messi‘s success lessons:
1. Fight For What You Believe In
If you have a dream, you have to work hard to achieve it. Success will not come easy. There’s a price to pay and you must be willing to pay it.
Most people are not successful because they are not willing to do what it takes to produce the extraordinary results.
The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is the little ‘extra’. Extra means you must do more; go the extra mile, put in more effort, wake up earlier and stay later to produce more for what you truly desire to achieve in life.
“You have to fight to reach your dream. You have to sacrifice and work hard for it.” – Lionel Messi
2. Success Takes Time
This is one of my favorite quotes from Messi. It reminds me that success is a long-term process and it is not something that you can achieve overnight. So stop looking for shortcuts or get-rich-quick schemes.
Rome was not built in a day and Steve Jobs did not start Apple in just one night. It is going to take a lot of effort and consistency to produce amazing results.
Therefore, commit to working hard on your dream and never give up. The journey may not be easy, but the reward will be well worth it.
“It took me 17 years and 114 days to become an overnight success.” – Lionel Messi
3. Just Do What You Love
Does this ring a bell to you? Great people are able to produce great results because they love what they do.
And when you love what you do, you will do great work. Michael Jordan would never have excelled in basketball if he didn’t have love for the sport. Warren Buffett made billions through investing because he has an intense passion for doing just that.
Jack Ma can’t stop himself from thinking and talking about his business because it is in his blood. He sleeps, drinks, talks, walks and dreams his business at all times.
You have to be the same if you want to create something amazing in life. Love what you do and live your life with passion.
“What I do is play soccer, which is what I like.” – Lionel Messi
4. Improvement is Always Possible
You have to focus on improvement every day. If you are in business, you need to improve your business knowledge and skills. If you are a writer, you need to improve your writing skills every day.
As Tony Robbins, one of the best life coaches worldwide has coined it, commit to CANI or Constant-And-Never-Ending-Improvement.
The only way to become better in what you do is to commit to improvement every day.
So do something that will make you better every day. Read a book to improve your knowledge, level up your skills, write more, seek help from a mentor, etc.
“The day you think there are no improvements to be made is a sad one for any player.” – Lionel Messis
5. Give Your Team the Credit they Deserve
No one can succeed alone in this world. In fact, there’s no such thing as a real ‘self-made’ millionaire or billionaire. You need your clients and customers to support you. You need your staff and your partners to help you.
Walt Disney had Roy Disney, and Steve Jobs had Steve Wozniak, to help build their business empires. What about you?
“I’m lucky to be part of a team who helps to make me look good, and they deserve as much of the credit for my success as I do for the hard work we have all put in on the training ground.” – Lionel Messi
6. Don’t Ever Chase the Money
Stop chasing the money. Money is just the score from living your dream. It is a byproduct from your achievements.
The real winning comes from your progress. As long as you are moving forward every day, you will eventually reach your goals.
And stop chasing for the next shiny object. You do not have to compare yourself with others. Just be yourself and do what you are supposed to do.
“Money is not a motivating factor. Money doesn’t thrill me or make me play better because there are benefits to being wealthy. I’m just happy with a ball at my feet. My motivation comes from playing the game I love. If I wasn’t paid to be a professional footballer I would willingly play for nothing.” – Lionel Messi
7. Don’t Forget What’s Most Important to You
Sometimes we over obsess with something, and we neglect other more important things in life. I have seen people who chase money and they start to completely ignore their family members.
Never let this happen to you. Yes, winning is important, but you cannot win all the time and winning is not the only thing you have in life.
Always be grateful for what you have and appreciate those who are around you.
“There are more important things in life than winning or losing a game.” – Lionel Messi
8. Remember That It’s Not All About You
Always focus on winning as a team, instead of it being a one man show. Elon Musk, the guy behind Tesla, said this, “I don’t create companies for the sake of creating companies, but to get things done.”
You are in a team, regardless of whether you are in business or in sports, so work as a team.
Put your main priority on your team’s objectives rather than your own personal mission. This is how your team can grow and move forward.
“When the year starts the objective is to win it all with the team, personal records are secondary.” – Lionel Messi
9. Always Give Everything You’ve Got
You have to trust yourself and believe in your dream. When you have doubts, you will never put in your 100%.
People who truly believe in their dreams are willing to do whatever it takes because they know that their dreams will come true somehow. And this makes them pour in their 100% and give it their best effort.
Are you putting in 100% and do you believe in yourself and your dreams?
“There’s no doubt. It’s certain that I will be 100 percent.” – Lionel Messi
10. Learn to Accept Your Failures
Nobody can win all the time. Sometimes you make more progress and learn more from losing and experiencing failure.
You don’t have to feel frustrated or upset when you fail. It is just part of the cycle. You cannot have the sunshine every day.
Sometimes it will rain, sometimes it will be cloudy and sometimes the sun will shine up high. Things will come and go. So appreciate what you have right now and enjoy every moment, whether you are winning or losing.
When you win, work hard and continue to move forward. When you lose, work even harder and learn from your mistakes.
“Sometimes you have to accept you can’t win all the time.” – Lionel Messi
Summary
Here’s a quick recap on Lionel Messi’s success lessons:
- Fight for what you believe in
- Success takes time
- Just do what you love
- Improvement is always possible
- Give your team the credit they deserve
- Don’t ever chase the money
- Don’t forget what’s most important to you
- Remember that it’s not all about you
- Always give everything you’ve got
- Learn to accept your failures
These are my favorite lessons from Lionel Messi that inspired me to go further in life.
How many of Lionel Messi’s success lessons do you resonate with? Leave a comment below.
Famous Success Lessons
5 Success Lessons from Kobe Bryant
Want to hear some of Kobe Bryant’s success lessons?
Kobe Bryant is a beast;
I remember reading a story where he was called up his trainer at 4am to come and help him practice, and 20 minutes later when his trainer arrived, Kobe was already drenched in sweat.
They trained for a few hours on court and in the weight room, until his trainer went back to get some practice before the team practice at 11am.
When he came back, Kobe was on the other side of court practicing jump shots. He’d only just finished his morning training, right before team practice. Kobe had been there for at least 7 hours before the team training had even begun.
Kobe Bryant’s Success Lessons
There are many success lessons we can learn from Kobe Bryant and his sickening work ethic. And I’m not just talking about within basketball, but within life itself. Here are 5 of Kobe Bryant’s success lessons.
1. Reach Out to People in Different Areas
Besides the obvious ritual of reaching out and connecting with people in the same industry as you, something we can learn from Kobe Bryant is reaching out to those in different areas.
It would be foolish to narrow down the people you listen and learn from to just those on the same career path as you. Whether you’re an athlete, entrepreneur etc.
Since Kobe’s NBA career may be coming to an end within the next couple of years, he’s been reaching out to the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Arianna Huffington. In order to find out more about what they do, why they do it and how they became successful in their fields.
Kobe Bryant’s continuing his learning process and planning his future after the NBA by reaching out to others for great inspiration. Which brings me onto my next point, after his official quotes on the subject.
“I cold call people and pick their brain about stuff. Some of the questions I ask seem really really simple and some of them seem stupid, quite honestly, for them. But if I don’t know, I don’t know. I have to ask. I’ll just do that and ask questions. I want to learn more about how they build their business and how they run their companies and how they see the world.” – Kobe Bryant
2. You Can Always Learn More
It doesn’t matter how good you become at your chosen skill or craft, there is always potential for more learning and development. Many successful people might let their achievements go to their head, and make them think there’s nothing they can improve upon.
This really isn’t true; there’s always room for people to improve and learn more, which is exactly why Kobe Bryant and many other people have continued to grow year by year. It’s all about being hungry to learn more, always.
“It’s really about wanting to learn and feeling like your cup is always empty, because there’s always more that you can fill it with. That’s really the important thing and just continuing to learn, learn, learn.” – Kobe Bryant
3. Respect People Close to You
Earlier on in Kobe’s career, he was very aggressive towards his team mates, and would often give them plenty of orders that they didn’t seem to happy about, because he knew the game and knew what had to be done.
However, as he progressed through his career and got older, he realized it was more about respecting his team mates and communicating better. Not only to produce better results, but also to have happy relationships with everyone else.
“Oh, God. I was barking orders left and right. And these grown men are looking at me, like “Who the hell are you?” But I had studied the game so much. As I got older, I started understanding it’s not just about the game. People carry emotions with them. They have lives off the court. That helped me communicate better.” – Kobe Bryant
4. Where There’s Challenge, There’s Opportunity
A challenge is your opportunity to show the world what you can do, and that you can overcome any obstacles in your way. Where there’s a challenge, there’s a chance to prove people wrong.
Not only that, but it means your constantly bettering yourself and giving yourself more opportunities in the future. When you overcome challenges you grow stronger as a person, and that can only be a good thing.
In Kobe’s case, the strongest example of this was when he came back from his Achilles tendon injury, proving everybody wrong. Kobe had the confidence and belief that he could come back from the injury, and he did just that.
The fact that the chances of coming back after such an injury were low, made the challenge even more exciting, said Kobe.
“I have moments and I have days where I doubt myself. But to me, that’s the exciting part of the challenge.That’s when I realize this is a great opportunity to come out and show everybody this is how you bounce back. This is how you respond to a challenge.” – Kobe Bryant
5. Break Your Problems Down Into Smaller Pieces
If you have an incredibly big problem that looks too large to be solved, chop it down into smaller pieces. This way, it allows you to focus on specific issues individually which gives you a better chance of fixing them.
As Kobe explains below, this is what he did back in 2003, after all the endorsements he had dropped him and told him the situation couldn’t be fixed.
And this problem also relates back to the “where there’s challenge, there’s opportunity” success lesson. This was a big challenge for Kobe to overcome, but he did it and proved people wrong.
“In 2003, I was going through the Colorado situation, and it was very tough. I had to ask myself what I wanted to accomplish. I want to keep my family together. Have to focus on that. I’m a good basketball player: I want more championships. Focus on that. Every endorsement I had, they dropped me. Every marketing person said, “You can’t be fixed.” So I start chopping the problem into smaller pieces, and I focus on them. What else are you going to do?” – Kobe Bryant
Summary
Here’s a quick recap of Kobe Bryant’s success lessons:
- Reach out to people in different areas
- You can always learn more
- Respect people that are close to you
- Where there’s challenge, there’s opportunity
- Break your problems down into smaller pieces
How many of Kobe Bryant’s success lessons do you agree with? Leave a comment below.
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