How to Get Ahead in Life and Live Well

The rules on how to get ahead in life are simple and clear cut. The most important ones revolve around how much effort you are willing to put in. Are you willing to actually take action to improve your life? If you live in a developed world, you hit the birth lottery and can easily make it happen.

I’ve been there before. I drove around the neighborhood, marveling at how someone could afford big houses and live the good life. I desperately wanted to live the good life, without any worries or stress. The rat race is not a fun race to be on for the rest of your life.

After being in the game, I now realize that there are tangible steps that you can take to better your life. I amassed a quarter million dollar net worth by the time I was 25 and I didn’t get there by accident. There were purposeful steps that I took to get to where I am today.

I truly believe that if I can do it, anybody else can as well. The steps to getting ahead in life isn’t complicated, but it is difficult. There were a ton of sacrifices I made. A lot of declined invitations to social events and opportunities to travel abroad. Knowing what I know now, I would still sacrifice those things in a second in exchange for freedom.

If you’re wondering how to get ahead in life, you came to the right place. These are steps that I personally took to become wealthier and improve my overall position in life. You don’t have to try to go as fast as I did and take your time with it. After all, I’m surprised that I successfully avoided burnout even when it was so stressful.

How to Get Ahead in Life

One way to know how to get ahead in life is to SMASH that social share button and post to your favorite social media! Your friends might be struggling and want to know how to propel themselves forward as well. Or they might already be on their way to the top but need a little boost to get there.

Whichever the case it may be, sharing articles is completely free to do. it just may help your friends’ life for the better. A tiny gesture like sharing information can have big helpful impacts to your friends’ life.

So with that, let’s go into the tangible steps you can take to day to find out how to get ahead in life.

1) Have the Right Mindset to Get Ahead

The NUMBER ONE most important thing you need is the right mindset. The ability to get ahead in life first starts with you. There’s no point in knowing how to get ahead in life if you actually don’t have the motivation or the want. There are people out there who would gladly give up their right arm to be in your position right now.

If you are complacent and feel that you don’t really want to put in additional effort, that’s not helpful. The motivation and the will to get ahead has to start with your thinking, mindset, and psychology. Know what your biggest goal in life is. Mine is self-actualization. That is why I toiled in college and continued to toil away after college.

The right mindset to get ahead is the acceptance that there are things you might have to sacrifice today. In order to have a better tomorrow. Few people can have their cake and eat it too. These are the wealthy, rich people who already started off so far ahead starting from birth.

If that isn’t one of you, you are the underdog. Understand that you might have to put in more effort in order to get the same thing as someone who was born in privilege.

2) Actually Put in the Effort to Get Ahead in Life

Now that you have the right mindset to know how to get ahead in life, it’s time to actually put in the effort. Showing up is half the battle. Few people are willing to save 50%+ of their income after college. Why? They already spent like they were poor in college. They want to let loose and reap the rewards of their labor.

Unfortunately, that is not the time to reap the fruits of their labor. It’s just the beginning of the game. However, most people don’t want to practice delayed gratification. They want things and they want it now. Therefore, they don’t put in the effort to save and invest their paycheck.

That’s why they lag behind others who are diligently saving and investing. At the end of a decade or two, they don’t have anything to show for it. These are the people who don’t want to put in the effort. The ones tho don’t want to give up eating out once or twice a week. That’s where you can swoop in.

While they’re eating out, you can enjoy a nice home cooked meal. You can get ahead while they enjoy themselves.

3) Be Apathetic to Failure

There are a lot of articles out there encouraging you to embrace failure. I don’t like that saying. Failure isn’t your friend. Failure stings and it can cause you permanent pain at times. There’s no need to embrace a concept like that. However, while you don’t have to embrace failure you have to learn to accept it.

The next time you fail, don’t care about it. Be immune to the feelings that come with failure. I’ve been there before. I remember the day that I lost $10,000 in a single day in the casino. It felt like I lost a billion dollars. At the hotel room, all I could think was about how I was up $5,000. Then I gave it all away plus another $5,000.

If you want to know how to get ahead in life, understand that failure is a part of life. You have to learn to co-exist with its existence. It stings and is painful. However, learn to control your emotions. Learn to not care about failure so that it doesn’t bother you. You can still learn from it but you don’t have to let it bother you.

4) Avoid Bad Advice

It’s not just about knowing how to get ahead in life, it’s also about knowing how not to get ahead in life. You have to know what not to do as well. One of my friends’ mom told me that “you have no excuses not to spend money now, you make six figures+”.

I ignored her and still saved as much money as I can. I don’t mind giving up gratification today in exchange for 2x+ gratification in the future. You have to understand the other person’s incentive to figure out if an advice is bad or not. Don’t get into a situation with the blind leading the blind.

There are actually people out there saying how credit cards are so evil and should be avoided at all costs. That’s patently false. Credit cards can be a great wealth building device. Not only that, you get to build your credit score. It’s not the credit card that’s the problem, it’s how people use credit cards that’s the problem.

Be careful out there. Some people really don’t know what they’re talking about.

5) Evaluate if You’re Getting Ahead

What isn’t measured can’t be improved. Every so often, evaluate how you are doing. Don’t evaluate every day, that would be foolish. Evaluate after every month, quarter, half year, or a year. I like to evaluate monthly whether I’m progressing through my goals. I am completely on track to reach my financial goals by year-end.

However, I know how fragile the world can be and the possibility of COVID-21 certainly can’t be ruled out. Therefore, I’m cautiously happy with my progress so far. You should buy a small white board that you can hang around the house to remind you of what you’re working towards.

There’s no point in knowing how to get ahead if you don’t even know whether you’re progressing or not. It gives you a chance to see where you should improve on and also where you should continue to do what you’re doing.

6) Sacrifice Things That are Holding You Back

Give up on things today to have a better tomorrow. Ask yourself if what you’re doing is for entertainment and hobby purposes or something that will genuinely help you achieve success. I used to play a lot of video games like Starcraft. I gave that up and stopped investing so much of my time into it. Thank goodness.

I also used to drink alcohol and thank my lucky stars that I gave that up. Not only do I lose the day that I drank alcohol, I also lose the day after for my body to recover. It’s just not a good habit. I’m not telling you to give it up, I’m telling you to know your body and how it responds to it. Then you can decide which decision is better for you.

Companies are fighting for your time and attention so they could be rich themselves. They want to use your psychological tendencies for your own gain. They are quite good at it, actually. Therefore, don’t give it a second’s thought to lose those things.

How to get ahead in life? Let go of things that are holding you back.

7) Look for a Good Hero to Follow

None of us are born straight out of the womb knowing how to be successful. We need guidance or at least to know that others have done it before. That’s where following a good hero can come in handy. You don’t have to follow their exact footsteps, it’s impossible to do so anyway.

You can get a general sense and feel of how they got to where they are. One of the biggest heroes I follow is Mark Cuban. His book is the first non-school mandated book I read, ever. It fired me up and motivated me to relentlessly follow my dream.

It doesn’t have to be in areas of business, there are an infinite number of good heroes to emulate and follow. If they did it, there’s no reason you can’t do it either. They can be helpful in providing you guidance through their actions. Pay attention to what they do, instead of what they say.

8) Get Ahead by Being Great in One Thing

The final key to the how to get ahead in life puzzle is to find one thing you’re good at. Then become excellent at it. Don’t do too much things at once. Focus on one thing you can do better than the next person. Be a specialist. There’s no need to be a jack of all trades.

People who are good at everything are rarely great at one thing. They will ALWAYS lose to the one who specialized in one area. Roger Federer is excellent at tennis. However, he is awful at knowing how to code. Does he care? Does he try to complement his weaknesses and try to learn code? No.

That would take away time from what he already does best. Which is to play tennis. Forget about your weaknesses. Schools taught you incorrectly. If you’re a well-rounded person, you will never be a feared and a dangerous person. Don’t try to be the best at everything, be the best at one thing. And you’ll be ahead of 99% of people.

Now You Know How to Get Ahead in Life, It’s Your Move

There are eight steps above to know how to get ahead in life. Now that I outlined the steps, it’s all up to you. What are you going to do about it? Are you just going to read about the steps or are you actually going to use the steps? If you want some change to happen, you have to make it happen.

I personally implemented the steps above to get to where I am today. I remember the long nights I spent at the library in college. The gruesome work environment that I toiled at that allowed me to make six figures+ at the age of 24. There’s no more need for me to put in as much effort as I did so I don’t do it anymore.

All I do these days are the same things I used to do but less intensely. Saving and investing is still at the top of my agenda. However, I’m not a stranger to splurging every now and then.

However, the underlying idea stands. You have the absolute and sole power to get there. No matter where you start off in life, you can get to wherever you want to be by the end. It’s not going to be an easy road. For every one spot that’s open, there’s at least 2 people who want that spot.

Are you willing to compete? Or do you just want to stay at the couch and watch TV? You are the product of your choices you made in the past. What choices are you going to make that’s going to paint the canvas that is your life? If you’re not going to put in the work to get there, you can rest assured someone else gladly will.

How to Get Ahead in Life List:

• Have the right mindset to get ahead
• Actually put in the effort to get ahead in life
• Be apathetic to failure
• Avoid bad advice
• Evaluate if you’re getting ahead
• Sacrifice things that are holding you back
• Look for a good hero to follow
• Get ahead by being great in one thing