How to Create a Successful Life | Success Tips From Magic Johnson

We all want a successful life. No matter your age or background, you possess the power to create a successful life. Magic Johnson knows a thing or two about how to create a successful life. Magic Johnson didn’t grow up rich but throughout his years he has risen to envious heights both on and off the basketball court. Notably, dominating the basketball world and translating his basketball dominance into the business world. In an era, where so many professional sports players go broke after retirement, Magic Johnson has proven that he is indeed a unicorn in creating lasting success. You too, can create a successful life!

What is a Successful Life?

Have you ever wondered what qualifies as a successful life. A successful life is not being the CEO of a fortune 500 company nor having 3 masters and 2 doctorate degrees. While money and degrees are used to measure financial and educational success, a successful life is not about how much you have in the bank or the number of prestigious degrees you accumulate. You will have to dig deeper than the metrics of the society.

Basically, a successful life is a life worth living. A successful life is a life that fulfills the purpose for which it was created. And the only person who defines how successful your life will be is you. A superstar athlete is not anymore successful than an extraordinary high school teacher.

A successful life possesses the will to keep moving forward even in the midst of adversity. Interestingly, there are people who think success is a straight path in the upwards direction. The truth is that success is never a straight line upwards. A successful life comes with scars, sacrifices, discomfort, good times and bad times.

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How to Create a Successful Life

1. Always be Willing to Adapt and Adjust

How resistant are you to change? The one thing you are guaranteed in life is change. And the reason a lot of people dislike change is because change will always cost you time, effort or money. Also, the greater the change, the more it will cost you. That being said, if you are not willing to adapt and adjust you will never create a successful life.

One of the things Magic Johnson mentions about his success in life is his ability to adapt and adjust to change. These changes range from the basketball court to his health and business. To create a successful life, you must be willing to break away from your normal routine and adopt new ways of doing things.

As long as the change will be beneficial or rewarding in the future, you should always be willing to adapt and adjust. Likewise, you need to be willing to adapt and adjust if the change will be detrimental to your success now or in the future. Avoid getting caught up in your feelings and letting the wave of change submerge you. No matter how uncomfortable you may be, always take proactive steps towards change. Don’t be the one left out or the who is found scrambling when change hits.

Since you cannot always control all the events that occur in your life, it is necessary to be willing to adapt and adjust at all times.

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“Every success story is a tale of constant adaption, revision and change.” – Richard Branson

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2. Always Over-deliver

Unfortunately, most people over-promise and under-deliver. To create a successful life, endeavor to be the person that always over-delivers on your promises. It’s hard enough to find people who get the job done in a society where majority of people under-deliver on their promises. Therefore, for you to standout and create success you have to be willing to over-deliver at all times.

Let’s say you work at a grocery store and your job is to bag groceries. When you bag a customers groceries well, you are delivering as required. But you over-deliver at your job when you greet the customer well, bag the groceries as required, put a smile on your face, volunteer to answer any questions the customer may have and thank the customer for shopping at your store. You may be wondering if that is all it takes. Yes, that is all it takes if you can do the little extra things regardless of how you may be feeling on any given day.

Over-delivering is not just for the task your boss gives you at work. You can also over-deliver on the promises you make to yourself. For instance, if your personal goal is to eat healthier and you make a healthy meal plan for 5 days a week. Rather than just sticking to 5 days a week, how about challenging yourself to eat healthy 6 days a week? Even more, at least a gallon of water a day. This is how you over-deliver on promises you make to yourself.

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“If better is possible, then good is not enough.” – Benjamin Franklin

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Above all, over-delivering is doing more than that which is required or expected of you. Instead of doing a good job, do a great job all the time to create a successful life.

3. Always Believe in You

You may be asking: ‘why should I believe in myself?‘ Honestly speaking, no one believes in a person who doubts themselves. With the exception of your parents maybe. But you get the point. For you to create a successful life you must have a strong believe in yourself at all times. And you must resist the voice in your head that whispers self-doubt to you. Self-doubt damages yourself image, no matter how small the doubt may be.

When speaking about yourself, refrain from using negative connotations or words. Even when you are just joking around. Words like “I’m so stupid, I’m such an idiot, I’m not good enough” are powerful even when used slightly to make others feel good or downplay your achievements. These words get programmed in your subconscious mind.

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“When I’ve discovered an opportunity that sounds awesome but that I’m not qualified for (which happens often), I trust that I’ll figure it out and go for it anyway.” – James Clear

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On your journey to creating a successful life, doubt in your abilities and potential sets in. No matter how many times you get the feeling that you cannot do more, have more nor become more, counter the ill feeling by convincing yourself that you can.

Whenever you believe in yourself, you empower yourself and improve your self-worth. Ultimately, to manifest your greatness and create a successful life, you must believe that you are enough.

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4. Do Not Have Poor Dreams

What do you daydream about the most? Despite growing up poor, Magic Johnson always dreamed of becoming a successful businessman. Even when he joined the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, he didn’t just settle for being a great basketball player. Instead, Magic Johnson aspired to become a great businessman. His aspirations outside of the basketball court delineated him from some of his team mates. According to Magic Johnson, some of his team mates mocked him while others were somehow jealous of his ambitions.

Truly, if you don’t dream it, you can’t achieve it. Achieving your goals and dreams in life is what keeps you growing. Now, how are you supposed to grow and create a successful life if your dreams are impoverished? You must always think big and have a big vision for your life. Again, this is not about money or status. While money and status are very important, you should focus on the impact and influence you want your life to have.

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“If your dreams do not scare you, they aren’t big enough” – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Africa’s First Woman President)

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Undoubtedly, to have an extraordinary you must shy away from poor dreams. Almost everyone who has contributed at a higher level has had to dream big. It is important to realize that the amount of influence your life has corresponds with the size of your dreams. The same can also be said about your legacy. If you have big dreams and you are struggling with achieving them, check out this article on ‘How to Set Ambitious Goals and Achieve Them Easily.’

5. Outwork Your Competition

What amount of work are you putting in towards your goals? You may not be able to control what talents you’re born with but the one thing you can control is your work ethic. Magic Johnson made sure he outworked his competition during his days as a basketball player.

More so, when Magic was seeking to enter the business world, he cold-called 20 CEOs and offered to them lunch so he could pick their brains. At this time, Magic was still a basketball player with a busy schedule yet he carved out the time to learn about the business world.

Obviously, you do not need talent to work hard. Like the popular saying goes: hard work beats talent.  Even if your competition is more talented, you can still outwork your competition and win. If you take more steps than required to learn your craft, hone your skills and gain some knowledge then you will outshine someone with talent who does the bare minimum. While talent is the natural ability to carry out any given task, you can excel at a task that you are not talented at by sheer hard work and resiliency.

For instance, if you are a student with average mathematics skills, you can outscore your classmate who is talented in mathematics by putting in a great amount of time studying and solving problems.

Alternatively, if you are already talented in a given area, you will need to put the effort required to refine your gifts until your performance becomes extraordinary.

6. Sell Your Dreams to Those Who Matter

Get your significant other to understand and buy into your dreams. You need the ones that love you to help you through your toughest moments. You’ll get turned down at some point but keep on going. And during these painful times of rejection, those who love you will also feel the pain with you.

More importantly, getting the people who matter to you to buy into your dream does not happen overnight. It takes persistence and constant communication. Make the time to share your vision frequently with your significant other. Magic Johnson attributed his success in life to his wife Cookie buying into his dreams and aspirations. Magic also revealed that his wife showed an overwhelming support to him when he learned he was HIV positive in 1991. Despite being married to Magic for only 45 days at the time of the HIV news, Cookie believed in his dreams and decided to stay with him through the struggles and adversity.

Ultimately, you need to sell your dreams to at least one person who matters the most to you. When your significant other or the most important person in your life buys into your dream, you get additional emotional and physical support needed to achieve your goals.

Key Takeaways:

• You and you alone will define how successful you want your life to be.
• You possess the power within you to create a successful life.
• To create a successful life you must be willing to adapt and adjust at all times
• Always over-deliver on your promises
• Be the hardest and smartest worker at what you are called to do
• Believe in yourself and have ambitious dreams
• Sell your dreams and aspirations to the right people.

Over to you! Your thoughts and opinions matter. Feel free to comment or discuss anything on your mind about a successful life. Also, if you have been empowered by this article please kindly share this to empower others as well.

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