Walk down the aisles of any bookstore and you’ll find many books purporting to explain the secrets of succeeding in life. Really, you only need to remember 3 keys to success, and you can get them for free here. Whether it’s business, marriage, or personal goals, constant learning, persistence, and a sense of humor are the key ingredients for success. Yes, talent and luck are also important, but there is no point of thinking about them because they are out of your control. Learning, persistence, and humor are definitely within your control.

Learning
Many people shut their brains down when they leave school; don’t let this be you. There is so much to learn from every person you meet and every experience, good or bad. From bad examples or experiences, you learn what not to do, and from the good, you learn what works and can be emulated. The theories you learn in school are nice, but many of them don’t hold up in the real world laboratory. That’s why real life experiences and learning are invaluable to success.

Persistence
Persistence can be defined in 3 words: patiently working hard. One thing I always get a kick out of is watching those late night fitness infomercials. A cynic would say that these products are a waste of money because they don’t work, but I believe that most of them actually do. As unrealistic as ‘5 minute abs’ sounds, if you actually used the device every day, you would probably see results. The thing is that most people lack the willpower to do this. Persistence is also a feature of successful relationships. Guys would never get girls if they gave up too early, and marriages wouldn’t last if people stopped working through rough patches. Entrepreneurs would also never succeed if they gave up after the first few failures. Study enough success stories, and you’ll realize it’s not necessarily talent or luck that carries the day; it’s persistence.

Humor
A sense of humor does wonders for both your well-being and your chances of success. Having a sense of humor actually makes it easier to be persistent. You’re going suffer setbacks and experience hardships; that’s the nature of life. If you take them too hard, eventually it’ll get so difficult to bounce back that you may just give up. Humor also keeps you from getting disillusioned and becoming a cynic. Cynicism destroys; it never creates anything of positive value. If you have a dream, don’t sabotage it by being cynical.

That’s really all there is to it. The challenge of course is to apply these 3 keys in your daily life. If you can do that, then success in life may be within your grasp.