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There is a difference between being a good person and a nice person. This doesn’t mean that you can’t display both attributes, but make sure that you always prioritize being good over being nice.

A good person is willing to tell others the “hard truths.” They are willing to say no to something that they know the other person wants if they feel that it is not in that person’s best interests. A good person does not indulge in an action (or inaction) that may cause harm to another individual.

A nice person is polite and can be described as a “people pleaser.” A nice person might hold back telling someone information that, while hurtful, may help them in the long run. A nice person may omit truths or tell stretched versions of the truth (“white lies”) to spare someone from temporary pain. A nice person wants to avoid conflict, even if that conflict is necessary.

An example of being good versus being nice is that a good person will cut their friends off from drinking too much, whereas a nice person will “give a drunk a drink” because they don’t want to tell them no.

Again, you can be and should try to be both a good person AND a nice person in most situations. But when you are in a position where you have to choose between being good or being nice, always choose to be good. It may rub people the wrong way, but it is for their own benefit that you say or do what is right, not just tell them what they want to hear.

“Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” – William Feathers

You’re going to hit some bumps on the road, but if you keep going, you’ll eventually get to your destination. Part of success is about perseverance – about “hanging on after others have let go.”

But you can’t just “hang on” and expect to become successful. You need to work on minimizing mistakes or making vast improvements.

If you make mistakes, it is better to make them quickly so you can learn from them and move on.

This is why reading/researching is so important. Instead of having to learn everything by experiencing, which can take a long time and cost a lot of money, your success is capped by your willingness/ability to learn from what others have already done. You don’t have to make the same mistakes that others have made. In addition to helping to minimize your mistakes, reading/researching can also help you improve your performance. It’s a shortcut to success.

So what do you need to do to achieve success?

1) Be willing to do what others won’t today so that tomorrow you can accomplish what others can’t. Most people shy away from hard work and long hours. You should run toward this.

2) Forgive yourself. You will make a lot of mistakes on the way to success. Be sure to learn from those mistakes and try not to repeat them.

3) Forgive others. Other people will make a lot of mistakes and it may feel like they are a road block to your path to success. Remember, nobody is perfect, everyone has to start somewhere, and at one point, you were the rookie making those same mistakes.

4) Hold on. Be willing to hold on long after everyone else has let go. If this is truly the right goal for you and it has meaning to you, don’t give up. You can achieve a lot in life just by sticking with something when others have given up.

Beware of dopamine hits where you feel good because someone has acknowledged you for fixing something for them. Your goal should be to teach them so that they don’t need your help anymore. It may feel good to be needed, but if that is your main goal, you are holding whoever you’re trying to “help” back from reaching their potential.

You can become addicted to always trying to earn that acknowledgment from others – essentially becoming a slave to a feeling. Eventually, if you’re not careful, you will base your self worth on gaining acknowledgement from others.

How can you put yourself in a position to reach your full potential? Start with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs…

First and foremost, you need to be able to have access to food, water, and shelter. It is impossible to reach your full potential without first having your basic physiological needs covered.

After that, we dive into your psychological/emotional needs. You need to feel safe and secure.

Also, you need to have a support system…whether you have the love of your life, a best friend, or a group of friends/colleagues that you can confide in, you need to be able to share not just your problems/issues with someone, but you need to be able to share your hopes and dreams with at least one person. You should not be afraid that they will ridicule you. You should be able to share anything and everything with them.

Third, you need to have a healthy self-esteem. You need to have confidence in yourself. If you don’t believe in yourself, you can never reach your full potential. How do you build confidence? By becoming competent. How do you become competent? By conducting purposeful research, undergoing trial and error experiments, and repeating (after you implement tweaks to what you’ve learned during the trial and error phase). Competence breeds confidence.

Once you have fulfilled the above needs, you can reach the self-actualization portion of the pyramid. It is at this point that reaching your full potential is within your grasp. You are so close, but this is not the end! Many people get to this level of the pyramid and stop. They think they’ve made it. But you never actually reach your full potential. There is always more – you’re capable of more than you think you are. But once you reach self-actualization, you begin to realize what you can be. At this point you can start working on creative pursuits and take on more risk, thus bringing you closer to reaching your full potential.

“No man ever steps in the same river twice.” – Heraclitus

The world is constantly changing around us, just as we are constantly changing as well.

Have you ever gone back and reread a book, only to discover that it has taken on new meaning to you? Or that a particular passage speaks differently to you?

It can be hard for us to tell sometimes, but we are gradually changing everyday. And by the time a year or even a decade passes, we can essentially be a completely different person in regards to how we act, feel, and think.

The same is true for our surroundings. That river, that forest, or that city that you once visited is constantly changing. It will never be the same.

It is important to not cling too much to past events or how you felt the last time you read or experienced that book or that vacation. While we crave experiencing new things, sometimes it is better to go back and revisit things that you once knew. Because you will discover that even though certain aspects will seem familiar, it won’t be the same. No man ever steps in the same river twice.