[Liara Covert]

Hello all.

I absorbed Craig's article and think it offers great merit. My own sense of personal success is ever-evolving because I set goals, achieve them and raise the bar to stretch myself. When I speak with other people, they have diverse views on the subject. I offer extensions to Craigs points and would welcome feedback.

1. Craig initially remarks on consistency. I agree that success often hinges on having an ability to finish projects. I would expand to add that defining a clear vision is necessary beforehand. Without it, a person could consistently exert effort ad infinitem without a sense of progress or achieving any goals.

2. In my mind, dealing with discomfort also implies a willingess to embrace and learn from challenges and to appreciate the energy generated by turbulence. High achievers are known to explore feelings of fearlessness. The resulting exhilaration can propel them forward at an incredible rate!

3. For me acknowledging talent suggests a degree of self-confidence which a self-directed person would consciously seek to apply, develop and improve.

4. Passion and drive cause me to think of desire to exert control over aspects of time, the direction of life paths and speed of achieving new heights. Routines enable people to accomplish tasks without much thought whereas passion enables you to connect, see patterns and move ahead no matter what. A worthy proverb reads: “Living without faith is like driving in a fog.”

5. Creativity and vision. For me , successful people are not discouraged by mistakes. Vision enables them to imagine what others don't. This foresight breeds resilience which resists being discouraged. I think of Thomas Edison. He had only 3 months of formal schooling, yet earned over 1000 patents and also spent almost 10,000 hours developing the incandescent lightbulb. He said, "Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."

6. Rather than simply people of action, I would expand by saying successful people are discerning in that they sense when, where and how to make prudent decisions. Russell Page said, "A discerning eye needs only a hint, and understatement leaves the imagination free to build its own elaborations."

7. Some successful people evolve into roles as decision-makers. Yet, its important to remind yourself that some people rise to their level of incomptence and other people erode their decision-making reputations when they become victims of their own success. On this topic, I like Woody Allen's quote, "In my house I'm the boss, my wife is just the decision maker.”

8. Attitude (to me) can nurture competence, commitment, focus and other traits which enable people to feed themselves a regualr diet of motivational material, through literature, relationships and other uplifting experiences. To this end, Elbert Hubbard stated, "Leadership character is the result of two things: mental attitude and the way we spend our time.”

9. Practical and Logical--my interpretation is the ability of an individual to break down goals into incremental, achieveable steps. We each have our own logic of how and why we can achive what we set out ot do. Motivator Napoleon Hill reminds us that, "There is always plenty of capital available for those who can create practical plans for using it.”

10. Self Control implies emotional maturity and emotional intelligence. These traits are developed most often through meaningful life experience. Dale Carnegie is one of my inspirations who notes that "Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.”