The post series on Success Mastery has garnered a lot of attention in the last couple of weeks, and I have been busy developing several posts that follow up on specific ideas and techniques. In the meantime, I’d like to share with you some great articles from other blogs which fit nicely with the concept of success mastery.

30 Days to Success - This is one of Steve Pavlinas most popular articles, and gives a powerful technique for experiencing success by committing to a 30 Day Challenge of daily activity geared around trialling or conditioning a new habit. An absolute must-read.

Discipline is an Illusion - Zen habits blogger Leo Babauta recommends avoiding the trap of relying on self-discipline to achieve things - His idea is to find great ways of motivating yourself instead.

Habitual Mastery - Scott Young shares a series of posts on creating, implementing and sustaining new habits of success. he touches on areas such as conditioning new habits, and experimenting with new possible habits.

The Secret Habit to Success - Leo proposes a challenge to help you create new positive habits, with the first one being the process of establishing those habits.

Turning Habits into Goals -A final post, again from Zen Habits is about changing your new habits in relation to your goals. Consistent daily habits are a great way to reach a goal you’ve set, and this post will help you start that path.

Photo by Madeira

In talking to lots of people about Personal Development over the years, I’ve found that almost everyone has different aims and dreams for what they wish to achieve from their pursuit of personal growth.

In considering our own particular desires, many of us have imagined that one perfect idea - something we want to find or discover or learn, or a change we want to bring about in our lives…

I like to think of this as a personal “Holy Grail” - that magical objective that once achieved will transform our lives.

Understanding “Holy Grails”

According to Christian mythology, the Holy Grail was the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, said to possess miraculous powers. (Source wikipedia).

After many years of research, and many conversations with fellow personal growth enthusiasts - I have come to believe that a great deal of people who pursue personal growth have some inner concept - a belief in an idea or tool - that once attained will be the catalyst for all the changes that we desire.

Productivity zealots may be seeking that one perfect technique to get everything done that they want to.

People striving to lose weight may be constantly looking for a brand new diet trick that will help them shed pounds effortlessly.

Procrastinators could be hoping for some secret motivational trick that will obliterate the tendency to put things off and will get them producing successfully every day.

When considering my own “Holy Grail”, I realized that for years I had been obsessed with finding the perfect “life management” system - Some incredibly simple paradigm that would help me work towards my goals, get things done every day and achieve massive public and financial success.

To this end, I studied Stephen Covey, Tony Robbins and GTD in all it’s forms - I created and redesigned countless different iterations of my daily workflow system - I tweaked and changed my goals every day to make sure they were written in the right way (I don’t know what my criteria were for the “perfect” goal, but I never reached them).

Eventually, I came to realize one simple truth…

Holy Grails don’t exist…

Yup. Absolutely true… They don’t exist (well, Jesus’ might). Sorry.

No matter what it is you think is out there - be it a book, an idea, a tool, a technique, or a person - There is no ultimate idea which is going to change your life completely in the way you want.

By pinning your chances for success upon some imaginary ideal solution, you are either consciously or subconsciously reinforcing the fear that you are not enough - that you and your life will only be alright when you have obtained this solution.

I don’t like being ornery and controversial (much), but there is only one thing that can revolutionize your life to that degree - a conscious willingness to change.

Whatever it is you think you need to find - stop looking, it ain’t out there. Instead, take a good look around at all the fabulous things in your life right now. The people you love, the place you live in, the things around you. Make a firm commitment to accept and value your situation as it currently is, not how you wish it to be.

Once you start to accept your life the way it is, you stop fighting against it. When you consciously acknowledge what is, rather than what you wish for, you can find peace. Then you can begin to create the changes you desire for yourself from a place of power, rather than a place of fear.