How to Guarantee Your Own Success This Year
If you decide today to give your life – and by “life,” I mean your time, your attention, your resources – to making the lives of other people better, you’ll be successful.
Guaranteed success? Seems impossible.
If your goal is to make a certain amount of money, get promoted to a certain level in your company, or build a public audience of a certain size, good luck!
There’s nothing wrong with those kinds of goals, but your success in reaching them is at least partially beyond your own control.
I remember having a goal as a pastor on New Year’s Day of 2020 to increase the size of our congregation. Then a pandemic hit, political division intensified, and our surrounding culture shifted significantly.
I do believe that there is a way to approach life in the upcoming year that will give you full control over the results and virtually guarantee your success. Here it is:
Give your life, this year, to making life better for other people.
That’s it.
If you decide today to give your life – and by “life,” I mean your time, your attention, your resources – to making the lives of other people better, you’ll be successful.
The people you probably admire most are people who have devoted their lives to the betterment of life for peopel around them.
This is what Jesus did, teaching, feeding, healing, and serving others to the point of laying down his life as a ransom for all. He came not to condemn the world but to save it, and he succeeded.
It’s what the Apostle Paul did, which he explained this way,
“We are not preaching about ourselves. Our message is that Jesus Christ is Lord. He also sent us to be your servants.”
(2 Corinthians 4:5 CEV)
It’s what King David did, which is summed up in Psalm 78:72,
“With unselfish devotion David became their shepherd. With skill he guided them.”
(GWORD)
History has been shaped by the better by people who gave their greatest energy to making the lives of other people better.
That doesn’t mean you have to quit your job and do humanitarian volunteer work for the rest of your life.
It simply means that you build relationships, show love to people, and always be looking for ways to add value to the lives of others.
The late Zig Ziglar, successful salesman and trainer, said, “You’ll have everything in life you ever want if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want.”
It isn’t that “success” only happens for people in certain professions, or with certain personalities, or with certain advantages and privileges.
It’s that success comes to those who see their job, their neighborhood, their church, or their community as a realm in which to serve people.
If your only pursuit in life is your happiness, you’ll miss out on success because you’ll bypass opportunities to bear pain with and for others.
If your only pursuit is financial gain, you can get rich and still miss success because you’ll sell stuff without serving people’s deeper needs.
If your only pursuit is power and authority, you’ll miss out on success because you’ll see people as a means to fulfill your own agenda.
But if you give your life to helping people,
serving people,
loving people,
meeting needs,
being a friend,
providing resources,
answering questions,
fixing problems,
educating minds,
and encouraging hearts,
you’ll have all that you ever really want and need.
The more you forget about yourself, the more fulfilled you’ll become.
I’m convinced about this! I would even challenge you to an experiment.
For the next week of your life, think relationally in as many situations as possible.
How can I encourage this grocery store clerk? How can I give a little hope to someone at the end of their rope? How can I show grace where someone is fully expecting judgment? How can I speak positively about someone’s future when they don’t have very high aspirations for themselves?
Charisma is great, but it’s subject to too many changing variables.
Talent is helpful, but talent alone is never enough.
Skills are useful, but they’re really a small part of the equation.
The one big key to real success in life is living the rest of your life to make the lives of other people better.
Also…
Why This Email Feels Different
I’ve been blogging and publishing online content for over twenty years now. And while I’ve always done so on my own websites, this year I’m taking a leap and moving my writing and podcasting over to Substack.
If you’re already subscribed to my emails (if this is in your email inbox, you are), you don’t have to change anything unless you’d like to take a break and unsubscribe (which you can do at the very bottom).
As 2025 unfolds, I’m going to be writing much more frequently about life, faith, leadership, and ministry. I’m also going to be recording new Walk Humble podcast episodes, and you’ll get them all in your inbox.
I’m also going to be offering some bonus content along the way - deeper dives, insider discussions, coaching content, etc. - to anyone who wants to become a paid subscriber. But I’ll be totally happy if people just read for free.
In the meantime, thanks for reading and may 2025 be a year of real success for you as you find ways to help make life better for other people!