Success!!!!!! - the ultimate self-help guide

Woman with very small legs

Be intense

Be utterly, totally passionate about everything you do.

Relax

Don't fret stuff. Take it easy. Stuff happens but, hey, tomorrow is another day.

Avoid timewasting people

Don't answer emails and always close your office door. If people want you, they'll find you.

Network for success

Get busy meeting and communicating with people. Everyone has their story to tell, so be a good listener.

Plan your life in detail

This is the only life we have so plan what you'll do with all that time you have. Planning means you're in control.

Be spontaneous

You can easily lose sight of your priorities if you fill your calendar with activities. Be open to the unexpected and go with the flow.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it

Don't waste your time trying to perfect processes which are perfectly adequate. Save your energies for doing new stuff.

Never accept second best

Constantly evaluate how you do what you do to see how it can be improved.

Pay yourself first

Be sure you always put aside what you need to live on, plus some savings every month.

Be a cheerful giver

Make others your priority. Be generous to life and it will be generous back to you.

Don't fret the small stuff

Too much attention to detail will mean that you lose sight of the big picture. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the adequate.

Do everything in small, manageable steps

Ambitious goals can be intimidating, so break down what you have to do into short phases and concentrate on performing those little tasks as best you can.

Keep at it

When discouragement sets in, don't walk away from the problem. Go at it with just a bit more energy and you'll come through the difficulty.

Know when to back off

If the going gets tough, take a step back, take a deep breath and do something completely different. Sleep on it and you'll come to the problem fresh the next day. Some problems just solve themselves.

Beware snake-oil in the field of self-improvement

You've listened to all the tapes, read all the books and walked on hot coals. However, there's a lot of garbage being talked out there and, in the end, what matters is what works for you.

Become a self-help guru

If you reach your mid-50s and your career's a failure, set up a hyped webpage full of contradictory aphorisms about life, and persuade people to send you money to sell them even more hogwash.