There is a lot of nonsense thrown around when it comes to achieving success. It’s very difficult to distinguish from what’s true or false, especially if it’s something we’re raised from childhood to believe.

You really have to begin to question the validity of these claims. If you find yourself repeating a “fact” and you have no answer when asked why that is, you need to re-evaluate your views. You will also find that you make a lot of enemies if you open your mouth to speak about the issues, but hey, that just comes with the expanded knowledge.

First, let’s define success because obviously it is different for everyone. Although this isn’t my personal definition of success – mine being about passion – many dictionaries cite success as “the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.”

Many people do think of success as being about money and status, so I will address success as if that was the only definition, for the sake of this article.

Here are 6 outrageous lies you probably have been raised to believe about success (money, honor, etc.)

Have you ever had a day where you just felt absolutely miserable, alone, and insecure? Of course you have. If you said “No,” you’re a dirty liar. I’m on to you.

Everyone has these days and often times, it leads to us feeling insecure about ourselves. Then we feel like there’s no one around who cares.

These negative thoughts just keep adding up more and more. Crap, now it’s like a beehive in your head and it’s only getting worse.

I used to be terribly insecure and certain days were worse than others. Hell, I still am. But who cares? I don’t let my insecurity control my actions for more than a split second.

I still remember one day during a party in my friend’s backyard, we were talking about teeth for some reason. Maybe one of us just got braces for the first time. Who knows?

Then I had made a comment about how I needed braces too. Naturally, my friend asked me to show my teeth and I wouldn’t show them.

“Oooh… Insecure!” he said.

That made me feel terrible because I realized he was right. I was insecure and when I was reminded of these feelings, it would drag me down for the rest of the day.

Well, not anymore. The good news is that I will now share my pick-me-up tricks with you, oh lucky reader. All with an easy payment of $29.95!

Actually, I like you so much I’ll give them to you all for free! Here are my secrets on how to feel better about yourself.

Warning: This isn’t the usual cliché list you find on most other sites. No “put on a fake smile until you feel better!” preaches.

Many people spend their entire lives searching for the answer to happiness. Everyone wants to know how to be happy and yet you probably don’t know many people who actually are happy.

It is easy to buy into the idea that there are a lot of happy people just running around. Then you tell yourself that’s who you need to be too! There has to be a secret. Why am I not happy but X and Y are? What do they have that I don’t?

This makes you go on a wild chase for happiness. You want to learn how to be happy, but you’re not!

Then you start asking yourself the wrong questions.

Growing up sucks. I think everyone would tell you the same. I’m not sure why I was so excited as a kid when I thought about growing up. Maybe it’s because I thought there’d be a lot of freedom and that happiness would fall from trees. Money too.

When I was a kid, my friends and I used to love strong winds that would create chaos in our hair. We would run around and pretend we were superheroes. We tied the arm of our jackets around ourselves, pretending the jackets were capes and the wind would make us feel like we were flying at supersonic speeds.

Sometimes we’d pretend we were characters from Dragon Ball Z. Ah, how the strong winds meant a lot to us.

Fast forward to last week when Arizona was experiencing incredibly heavy winds. I couldn’t help but go “Damn it, are you serious?”, as I rushed to the nearest building. I’m an adult now and I don’t have the same sense of excitement towards the elements anymore.

How could I go from someone who flew around in the wind with his super-powered buddies to a person who absolutely hates the wind? Oh, I know! It’s because I’m afraid it’ll ruin my perfectly sculpted hairdo for the day.

When I was a kid, I didn’t care how my hair looked. In fact, I didn’t care how my hair looked until last year!

When I was a kid, all I cared about was living life and enjoying every second with those I loved. What happened to that kid? Where did this Vincent who cares about his hair or what other people think of him come from? Growing up did nothing but weaken my sense of enjoyment.

Spouting “profound” life quotes on a daily basis gets old, but you hear it everywhere. So why am I writing an article called “10 Life Quotes and Lessons to Live By?”, if I’m so anti-quote?

The issue is the fact that some people just quote all day and repeat them without internalizing the message behind it. It doesn’t feel genuine when and I’m not convinced that they really believe in it.

Instead, you need to use life quotes to internalize the ideas. Once you do that, you can move on from the quote.

To me, profound life quotes serve as a reminder when we’ve forgotten the concepts. We shouldn’t rely on quotes for repetition’s sake.

Use the amazing quotes and live by the meaning, not just the words.

With that said, here are some quotes with ideas that I’ve internalized and live by. These quotes focus on different aspects of life and I expand on them to get you pumped and excited for personal development. Focus on the message and begin to implement the life lessons.

Last week I wrote a letter to my future self with several key points. In the letter, I listed out a few traits that I’m working on in 2013 and outlined the person I would hope to be by the year 2030. It included the present struggles that I face today and it was a reminder to myself that I can look back on anytime I want.

Now I’m opening up a question to all my readers: Who do you want to be in 2030?

We often hear the advice of picturing WHERE you want to be, but rarely is the question asked of who do you want to be in the future.

Keep in mind this is a personal development question, but it can be interpreted in any other way that you feel fits.