Amanda Dewinter - The Success Code

For

Sam, James and Rosie

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First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2021

Copyright Janice Nix 2021

Janice Nix asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

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This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authors imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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Ebook Edition January 2021 ISBN: 9780008375997

Version 2020-12-31

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You deserve success

Success is not a selfish aspiration. Its when were successful that we are most able to give to others: our family, friends, community and wider society. Its when were successful that we are most empowered to be innovative, creative and compassionate. Each and every one of us deserves success! Each and every one of us is capable of achieving it.

We have evolved to become the most powerful and successful species to walk the planet. How has this happened? After all, were not the strongest nor the fastest. This extraordinary success has been driven by our unparalleled capacity to learn. We have an innate curiosity to seek out the unknown, which has driven massive exploration, expansion and growth. Learning is the key to our success as a species and now more than ever, learning is the key to our own individual, personal success. Learning not just when we are young but across our entire lifetime. And learning is at the heart and centre of The Success Code. You will learn how to succeed and, at the same time, you will learn the best way to learn.

This is your opportunity to plan for your success, rather than leave it to chance or the decisions of others. You dont need to wait to be selected for an opportunity whether thats a course, a promotion, or a new career. Our default position is not to make big plans for the overall direction of our lives; we tend to live more day-to-day, troubleshooting problems as they come along. Any highly successful person or organisation wouldnt dream of taking on a big project, setting up a new business, planning a big event or changing direction without a fully thought-out plan and the strategies to help them get there. So why dont we plan for the most important thing we have: the way we choose to live our life? Much of the time we settle for whatever comes along, even complaining that its not fair if things dont go our way.

Not so anymore. With The Success Code as your guide, take time out. Step back from the detail of your life, gain a broader perspective and devote time to planning for what you want and how you are going to get there. Then take purposeful and constructive steps towards it.

Life can be tough, full of challenges and obstacles. Whatever your current situation or difficulties if youre stuck in a rut, overwhelmed with stress, or struggling to develop your career, navigate relationships, deal with finances, bring up children its learning that will empower you to find solutions and bring about the change you want every time.

You can take charge, even change direction and determine where you want to go. You can continue as you are, or you can choose to skilfully manoeuvre yourself to a position where you can grow, develop and thrive.

Learning gives you the tools to take on these challenges, both big and small. The point is not that you will always learn how to solve your specific problems, but that learning builds your knowledge and skills, confidence and self-esteem, strength and resilience, enabling you to deal with whatever life throws your way.

Whatever your dreams whether its to land your perfect job, change career, set up a new business, go to university, live a life free from financial worries, pursue your interests, enjoy your family and friends you can take steps to create a life full of opportunities and choices. If you do nothing, you risk letting life pass you by. But with learning you become the narrator of your own story, your ambitions and goals.

Why now?

We stand out for the extraordinary progress we have made. In the last century alone we have invented flying machines to take us wherever we want to go, vaccines that save billions of lives, and the internet, which connects billions of people. We have put a man on the Moon and mapped the human genome.

Who knows what the world will look like in 50 or 100 years from now? As a child, I remember vividly hearing that one day wed all be driving around in cars in the sky and that traffic jams would be a thing of the past. I couldnt wait to see how that would work. How wrong was that? Meanwhile, we had one big, bulky phone which wed all fight over at home, with a cord that wasnt quite long enough to take anywhere to get any privacy, yet no one predicted mobile devices that would let us run our lives from the palm of our hands, connect us to anyone, anywhere in the world, and provide us with unlimited information and entertainment.

Were entering a new age. It is always difficult to predict the future with any certainty, but now more so than at any other time in our history. Scientific, technological and digital advances mean that we are living in times of unprecedented progress and with this comes greater uncertainty.

The only thing we know for sure is that change is inevitable a prospect that is both exciting and daunting. Our working lives will undoubtedly change, with certain jobs likely to disappear. When I began my career, the job for life was a common phenomenon, even an aspiration, now it is rarely an option. I was not expecting to have a portfolio career and change careers several times, but now this is common. And looking further into the future, for those just starting out, we have to ask: will we be working at all? Will our economic structures become so different that we spend less time working and more on other things? And what will these other things be? Leisure, helping others, being creative and innovative, developing ourselves?

We are now more likely to witness huge, unrecognisable changes in our own lifetimes, given the fact that we are more likely to live significantly longer than ever before. In the year 1800, global life expectancy was only 29 years of age; now it stands at over age 71 and rising. This makes it impossible to say what the world will look like in our lifetime, whether 20, 40, 60 or even 80 years from now.