The One Thing You Have To Do To Be Successful

I don’t know about you, but I’ve read at least a dozen articles lately on the habits and practices of successful people. They vary in headline – “12 things successful people do every morning” or “5 things to start doing now to be successful” – but the idea is the same: a list of imperatives that, if followed, will set the reader up for success.

Those articles are total clickbait and I can never seem to resist the temptation to follow the link. Who knows? Maybe I’ll find the ONE THING in one of those articles that will solve all my questions about how to be a successful blogger and fitness professional.

According to the most recent article I read, Three Ways To Attract Success Into Your Life With Little Effort, I can be extremely successful by doing basically nothing. All I have to do is visualize myself as successful, act as if I’m already successful, and celebrate the success of others.

That’s it?

Then – why aren’t I retired, traveling the world with my dog and sleeping until noon each day?

I’m a big believer in practicing all three of these things. I visualize what I want all the time, and have seen the results come to fruition. I can “fake it until I make it” with the best of them. And I couldn’t not celebrate the successes of those around me. But, at some point, I have to take action on those dreams I’m visualizing. I have to either admit that I have no idea what I’m doing, or accept that I’ve figured it out when I’m faking it.

I’ll always celebrate the success of others who have worked hard – like attracts like.

And that leads me to what *I* believe is the actual one and only key to success:

Hustle.

You see, I practice a lot of those “things successful people do” recommendations. I make my bed every single morning. I read all the time – professional development books, memoirs, fiction… I workout nearly every day AND in the mornings. I eat breakfast daily. I do morning pages. I drink water. I write out my schedule for the day. I even use productivity apps.

I’ve got this whole “things successful people do” thing covered, according to all of these articles. I suppose I can even consider myself successful, even if I’m not quite doing what I want to to do with my life (yet!) and I put on two different earrings this morning (true story).

Except I don’t believe making my bed each morning is going to make me a success. Sure, it makes me feel better about myself and it’s nice coming home to a tidy bedroom, but if I want to be a success, I have to HUSTLE.

I have to work.

I have to put in the time to make things happen.

No amount of visualizing or meditating is going to make the things I want fall into my lap. I’m pretty sure they will help. But that’s the part most of these articles about being successful leave out – you have to do the work to see the results.

This applies to whatever you want to be successful at. Whether it’s lifting weights, blogging, dieting, getting a promotion… You have to do the work.

As we like to say often in my gym, “you get out what you put in.”

I’m sure I’ll click the next article I see in my social media feed that tells me how to be successful – I especially enjoyed the message behind this one about being late as the only things I’m on time for are barre classes and training sessions – but at the end of the day, I’m only as successful as the effort I put in.

And, well, you know what? I still think a little bit of luck and a whole lot of prayer are pretty important components to being successful, no matter how much hustle and heart I put forth.

What do you think? What are you “keys to success”?