The recipe for success is simple, and you and everyone else already have all you need

You want to reach a goal of yours? Then give consistent attention to the topic and don’t give up. No brainer here.

Every accomplished person, whether in music, business, art, sports, gardening, or academia, will share stories of their grit. Grit is persistence despite any degree of inconvenience, obstacles, or rejection. Michael Jordan did not make the high school basketball team one year, only to end up as one of the greatest athletes of all time. Dominic O’Brien was diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age but started working on his memory at age 30. O’Brien became an eight-time World Memory Champion, memorizing 2,808 cards in a single sequence (imagine what it’s like to memorize 54 decks of cards).

Soichiro Honda grew up in poverty, was rejected by Toyota for an engineering position, yet he started a small company we all know today as Honda Motor Co.

Marie Curie lived at a time when universities didn’t admit women and when society discouraged women from getting involved in STEM. Curie still found ways to study math, physics, and chemistry. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, and the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two separate fields: physics and chemistry. Curie lacked financial resources during her studies—there are accounts that she would faint from hunger—yet she gave consistent attention to what she wanted to do and helped the world take a scientific and technological leap. Her research opened the door to modern oncology, nuclear power, and advanced imaging technologies.

These are just a few of many stories of great accomplishments against all odds. Suppose they had quit after their rejections or dissuasions? No problem—I would be writing about another set of people. We know of such stories because the people we hear about made decisions to keep their attention on what they wanted to do. Eventually they developed enough awareness to become masters of their craft. They got to see or do something new after persistent attention, and then they shared it with the world.

What I am telling you here is that your potential for expanding your awareness is no less or more than anyone else’s. You are uniquely positioned in this universe (that’s relativity). From your unique position, you can feel what is and give attention to what is. As you stick with it, you uncover more.

Your attention is always here, and it’s never not in use. So ask yourself, are you using your attention toward where you want your awareness to grow? Know that your attention expands your awareness, and you will close the gap between what you want to experience and what you experience.

One more suggestion: Consider what I write not only from your own point of view, but also from that of the people you interact with, and even those you don’t interact with directly. Every person you encounter has attention, awareness, and uniqueness—like you and me—that is singular in the entire universe. Each of us experiences from our relative position, but we also contribute to the collective consciousness. So it matters that we are aware of how we all contribute to this experience, which I will write more about in subsequent articles.

Thank you for reading!